A Cold Case On High by J. L. Collins

Author:J. L. Collins [Collins, J. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

13

The Note

As if I hadn’t had enough trouble sleeping, I spent most of the night digesting the story of Julian’s past. I couldn’t blame him for doing what he had to in order to survive, to an extent. At least he didn’t try to shirk the blame. Julian readily admitted his role in the death, accepted it and seemed to want to beat himself up for it even.

The thing that stuck in my craw was that Julian was perfectly willing to keep his secret. For how long? Would he have told me on his own eventually, had I not discovered his pot of truth?

It was troubling. A little voice whispered to me that I was right to put on the brakes with Julian, that my instincts must have been spot-on all along. Though normally that little voice gave crummy advice, so I took it all with a grain of salt.

Work the next day at the Gazette was pure torture. The office was not exactly what you’d call sprawling, with most of the space taken up by the printing press itself. It proved very, very difficult to avoid Julian at work, but I gave it my best shot. Have to keep up the professionalism, after all.

I ducked out of the office intending on refilling my coffee cup, only to see Julian striding along the corridor, staring down at the camera in his hands. I ducked back into my office in the nick of time, but not before Drusilla witnessed the act.

She came up to me later and leaned against my office’s doorframe, the silvery bangles on her thin wrists twinkling even under the fluorescent lighting. The look on her face was enough to make me want to hide under my desk.

“Seeing as we’re friends and coworkers, I’d like to extend some friendly advice on the whole Julian front. But first I’d like to know what’s up with you today. Usually you’re walking around like a confident, ah, mildly confident woman on the job. Today you’re avoiding our cute photographer with whom I found you canoodling just last week.”

I slumped back in my chair, wanting nothing more than to keep sliding down until I disappeared into the floor.

Drusilla put her hands on her hips. “Come on, Indie. Tell me what’s going on. It’s obvious something’s happened between the two of you.” Her mouth fell open in a gasp, revealing her fangs. “Wait, did you two finally knock boots? Oh my god, Indie! Henny and I have been waiting on that bet for months now.”

“What?” My cheeks burned red. “Dru, no! That’s not what happened at all.” The chair squeaked under me as I righted myself, trying to sit up straight and more put-together.

“Oh, so you two were going to do the deed but someone chickened out and—”

“That is not what I… there isn’t, we haven’t…” I groaned and threw my hands in the air. “There was no bedroom stuff!”

“Right, well, I mean it didn’t have to happen in a bedroom, per se…”

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