Page 35 of Best Served Cold
Diana followed suit, taking a seat opposite Lee within the booth. It quickly came to Lee’s attention that the worst thing about being alone with Diana is that Diana had nowhere else to look besides Lee and Lee had nowhere else to look besides Diana. With their eyes latched onto one another, Lee was grateful for having ignored etiquette, ordering a coffee prior to Diana’s arrival, taking a sip of her distraction. “I need to know the truth,” Diana said, taking Lee’s distraction instantaneously and crushing it underneath her incredibly worn-looking loafers. “Has Morgan been getting into any more fights lately that I should know about?”
The question took Lee by surprise, placing her coffee down as she shifted within the booth. “Not that I know of. As a matter of fact, I’ve never known her to get into any fights besides the one that she had with Dylan in the five years that we’ve been together.”
Morgan’s mother nodded and offered a simple “mm,”, her eyes diverting to the table for just a moment as her mind wandered elsewhere. “I’m glad to hear it. I just want you to know that there are things in her past that she might have failed to tell you, and I say that not to cause a wedge between you both. I tell you because I’m sure she would want you to know, but doesn’t quite know how to tell you.”
Lee Holmes leaned forward now, as if inviting the conversation with her entire body. After wishing to be anywhere else besides in this booth, she had now come to the swift conclusion that there was nowhere else she would rather be. If Morgan wouldn’t be forthcoming herself about who she was, perhaps her mother would be.
Diana’s eyes looked glassy, her attention diverting towards the waiting staff as opposed to Lee’s own eyes. She exhaled, centered herself, and glanced back over towards Lee. “I’m sure you know that she lost her father, my husband, when she was fifteen, in quite possibly the worst way imaginable, at the hands of someone else. It’s why I became a detective in the first place. Most kids they…” she paused, finding the right words. “They cry about it, they talk to their friends, their family, you know? Loved ones.”
Lee nodded, urging her to continue, swallowing down the empathy she felt for Diana at that moment in time. She had never seen Diana cry, and perhaps she wouldn’t see her cry today, either. But as the words fell out of her, it appeared that this was just about the closest she had ever come to being vulnerable in front of her.
Diana huffed, leaning over the table in order to take a sip of Lee’s coffee, which was much unlike herself. “Morgan didn’t mourn in the conventional way, some might say. Truth be told she got angry. She shut down. We barely spoke for weeks at a time,” she said, shaking her head as if she could expel the bad memories, a characteristic not unlike Lee’s own.
“She’d come home,” she continued. “Knuckles bruised, sporting a new black eye every other day. I think the worst part is that part of her might have invited it, chased it even. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I haven’t seen her knuckles bruised like that for a long time. Not until last week, when she was charged for assault, and last night, at least. She’s lucky that’s the first time she’s been charged. I worry that she is going back to her old ways again.”
Morgan currently sporting bruised knuckles was news in itself to Lee, having not seen her since their break-up. Of course, Diana seemingly didn’t know that, and as a result, she attempted to push the thoughts of panic aside, adopting her best poker face in the process. “She doesn’t talk about him much,” Lee commented, latching onto the opportunity that had unfolded before her, desperate to discover more. “Her father, I mean.”
Suddenly the room had gotten smaller around her, and the gravity of the situation made itself known. Perhaps it wasn’tforDiana Finch to unveil the mysteries of her daughter. Digging away at the truth felt like digging up graves, and Lee Holmes had done enough of that already. “I think it’s best if I allow her to tell me more about him herself,” she continued, letting go of the opportunity to find out more only seconds after latching on. “Not only about him, but her past, as well. I know you mean well, Diana, I really do, but it’s her experiences to share, when, and if she desires to.”
Morgan’s mother didn’t know it yet, but perhaps Lee Holmes may never discover such truths now that things had endedbetween them. It was a strange feeling, she thought. Their relationship may have ended, but their lives would forever be interlinked, for better, or for worse.
Diana stared directly into Lee’s eyes as if she may just swallow her whole. The room only returned to normal when she chuckled ever so slightly and took another sip of Lee’s coffee. “I always knew I liked you, Lee.”
Chapter Thirty
Lee Holmes appreciated the irony of attempting to escape her past by using leftover boxes from their body disposal to currently hold some of her books and old tapes from her childhood. She had yet to speak to her landlord about breaking her contract, and yet, despite that, packing away the parts of her that were yet to be tainted felt oddly therapeutic.
She had decided only just last night that perhaps it was time for a change of scenery, and whilst most individuals would reflect upon a decision such as moving house, Lee elected to ignore anything that might resemble doubt, and instead, started the process that following morning.
After all, she had always wanted to live in a smaller town, only opting to stay in New York if only to keep Morgan happy. What she didn’t realize at the time, however, was why Morgan had wanted to stay wrapped up together in a large city in the first place.
Sealing the first box shut reminded her of the coffin that should have remained closed; the coffin that had only been opened in the first place because of her own recklessness.Moving home wouldn’t give her the fresh start that she wanted, or rather, that she believed she needed, but perhaps it would alleviate the emotional burden that she was ill-equipped to carry for much longer.
Her phone rang just as she had finished sealing the first box, using her teeth to cut the tape from the rest of the roll. This was something that Morgan Finch would do, and Lee would normally scold her for, but the longer she went without Morgan, the longer she found herself adopting some of her personality traits. It was, however, something she was able to come to terms with, so long as she didn’t adopt any of Morgan’s murderous traits simultaneously.
Diana Finch’s name popped up on her caller ID as she shifted the phone from her pocket. Having just spent yesterday afternoon with her, Lee deemed this to be unusual, and yet despite this, for the first time in a long time she felt able to answer the phone with a nonchalant greeting, acknowledging that the call was likely trivial.
“Hey Diana,” she said, plainly.
“Lee,” Diana responded back instantly, practically saying Lee’s own name before Lee had even said Diana’s. “I’m terribly sorry to bother you, but this can’t wait.”
It was only then that Lee’s heart began to race, only then that she was beginning to feel stupid, embarrassed even, for thinking that she would ever be able to do something as simple as answering a phone call again without sweating out anxiety and nerves.
“You aren’t bothering me at all,” Lee said, almost timidly, as if the act of speaking quieter would make her feel smaller. Perhaps if she spoke softly enough, she would disappear entirely, or, at the very least, convince the world that she wasn’t a threat. “Is everything alright?”
There was a pause on the line that felt like minutes to Lee, only, she knew it could have only been a few seconds. It wasn’t fair to Diana, but at that moment she wanted to reach through the phone and shake her for making her wait even another second longer to find out what was going on.
“Not really, no,” Diana sighed, finally, sounding exhausted. “Given the rising circumstances of the case with Arthur’s recent disappearance, and the body of Oscar Tippits being discovered, we’re interviewing everyone on your floor again who might have come into contact with Edward Beckett,” Diana said, pausing for a moment as the line went silent. “It’s just a formality,” Diana continued. “There’s nothing to worry about, and we won’t be searching your apartment. The department only wants to engage in further questioning.”
Retracting the phone from her ear for just a moment, Lee allowed the air inside her to come out gradually in a naive attempt at slowing her heartrate down. “I understand,” Lee said, placing the phone back beside her ear. “Will you be conducting the interview yourself?”
“I wish I could,” Diana said, sounding more like herself as the call progressed. “It would be considered a conflict of interest given the fact that I’m Morgan’s mother.”
“Morgan isn’t here,” Lee blurted out, sighing herself, this time, into the phone. “We broke up a couple of days ago. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I just didn’t know how to.”
“I know,” Diana said, calmly. “Morgan told me. A detective stopped by her hotel this morning and conducted an interview with her. That same detective will be with you in approximately thirty minutes or so.”
Lee Holmes placed a hand against her now boiling hot forehead, acknowledging a bead of sweat that had begun to form there. She wanted to laugh into the phone as soon as Diana had told her how long she had to prepare herself. She wanted tolaugh and then she wanted to cry. Alas, she didn’t have much time for either. “Excellent,” she said, a little too enthusiastically than was required for such a request. “I’ll be ready. Talk soon.”
