anyone send the police to my house? ’ Rose mused.
‘Don’t worry about that I’ll look into it, I promise, ’ he said then continued: 'Would you be able to come to the office tomorrow to meet my boss? By then I might have an answer to your question about the search, ’ James said promising to look out for her.
‘More questions? ’ Rose said with a low voice but she had no intention to put up some argument. She hoped that eventually she would see justice done.
James just kissed her hand and said: ‘I’ll be there, ’ then he left. He admired her strength and courage and was very taken with her. He wanted to see her out of the woods.
Developing Coping Skills
Another day, thought Rose, not entirely sure what to do with herself. It was 05. 58am and her alarm clock was about to burst with joy. Not something that her neighbor would have appreciated, at least not after the recent rumors, she mused. She felt a deep sadness about her, something that was new to her. Or maybe not, she thought with a shudder recalling how she felt after the death of her friend Mubeena, years earlier. She had to stay positive. Rose recalled the advice of the shrink she saw at that time, then she thought about her coffee and she smiled automatically.
The thought of her coffee, her little guilty pleasure, helped her crawl out of bed. Whatever works, Rose thought.
Ten minutes later she was out of the shower and applying her moisturizer and daily makeup. She grabbed the first clothes she could find; it happened to be a pair of faded blue jeans and a short sleeve white cotton T shirt. Then she reached for her wrist watch and earrings already waiting for her by her bedside. Daily routine, nothing more. It was done automatically. No danger to put on the previous days’ shabby clothes on as they have been already dumped in the dirty basket from the night before. Despite her low mood Rose consciously made the effort not to look like something the cat dragged in.
‘What’s the matter with me? ’ Rose asked herself aloud while sipping her coffee. Her gaze was taking in the beautiful view her garden was offering through the closed large windows. The door towards her garden was still closed this morning and Rose realized she was unconsciously avoiding another meeting with Adele. I should be mad as a hornet about all this nonsense, a storm in a teacup, and instead here I am feeling sorry for myself, she continued her self-talk. ‘Someone is trying very hard to send you in the local pokey girl and it’s about time to show off a bit of backbone, ’ Rose said while whirling herself out of her chair with renewed energy. The phone rang while she was cleaning her cup and she was suddenly filled with relief to recognize the sound of her grandma’s voice.
‘I’ve missed you a great deal grandma, ’ Rose said almost in tears and Letitia immediately picked up on the sadness in Rose’s voice.
It was late at night in Transylvania but Letitia had a premonition that Rose needed her so before going to bed she decided to make a late night call to Rose. It was just a hunch but now Letitia was discovering that she was right and was pleased with her decision. Rose succinctly and without any drama gave Letitia a summary of the recent events, of course not letting it out her relationship with James. However Letitia, a dandy woman herself, put two and two together and saw through that but for the moment she said nothing. Letitia was a good listener and had very fine problem solving skills, as many of her clients would have vouched for it, but the close emotional ties she had with her granddaughter, her duty to look out for her were getting the better of her. She ran back and forth in her mind over the main points of the story provided by her granddaughter trying to find a solution. In normal circumstances she would have asked more questions, dug dipper but she realized that Rose was barely holding herself together and Lucretia, with her fast as lightning thinking, knew that she struck gold when she moved into the caring role.
Half an hour later, after holding their own counsel, the two women separated by such a long geographical distance, reached an agreement on the steps that Rose should take over the next 24 hours and called it a day. Rose just had the time to eat something before the phone rang again and she was summoned to the local intelligence services headquarters downtown. Although she was expecting this call and realized that her problem was small potatoes compared with other matters this department dealt with, she could not entirely push away a feeling of foreboding and found herself shaking a bit. It crossed her mind that she might have had too much coffee that morning when she saw her flushed face in the mirror and decided to drink more water. It would give her an excuse to go to the bathroom if the interview turned up to be too drilling, she thought with a smile of embarrassment as she caught herself thinking negatively again.
It’ll give her a taste of what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law, she thought without much enthusiasm. She enjoyed the easy life and didn’t have a masochistic streak in her bones. She’d drown her sorrows later, she said to herself with some determination when finally she left the house. Preoccupied with her thoughts Rose paid no attention to the large black four wheel car that suddenly appeared behind her. They were everywhere these days as people here used them to escape the city life and travelled far away outdoors over the weekend periods. Some hated them with passion but others, like Rose, just ignored them.
Driving out of her street Rose decided at the last minute to take the highway. It was much quicker and not as busy. Five minutes later while entering the highway she found herself propelled in front of a giant truck by a bump from the car behind her. It happened so fast that Rose almost lost control of the wheel and for a few seconds she saw her life flashing in front of her eyes. She was about to die, was her last thought but she continued to hang onto her wheel. A speeding camera, badly placed, found that moment to send a light flush into Rose’s eyes and the only thing that saved her was the young’s driver reflexes and his teetotaler attitude. He was not under the influence of any substance. Later on he realized that probably it was the only thing that saved him that day, besides fate.
The horrible event was caught on camera but none of the cars totally stopped and the traffic soon resumed its usual monotony. Although Rose was for a moment in the middle of it she wasn’t really sure what happened and continued her journey now shaking visibly. There wasn’t much point stopping anywhere as she was very close to her chosen destination and after another five minutes she was parking her car with a big sigh. She was still in shock but she was happy to be alive. What a day, she thought, and it had just started. If I was a mole I would probably expect such a thing regularly, but I’m not, she reminded herself more than ever determined to keep her low profile life.
Despite the recent incident Rose arrived for her appointment in good time. She always ensured that she gave herself an extra half hour for any important meetings she was booked for, to allow for any traffic disturbance or any other difficult to foresee circumstances. I almost ended up in hospital today or in a morgue, she told herself with another sigh of relief while walking to the main entrance.
She was about to see James and grasping that she was early she thought about finding the powder room first. She had some time left to pull herself back together. As she walked into the stunning front hall she raised her eyes to admire the place and noticed the recording video camera and for a brief second she had a vivid recollection of the light flush on the highway. Was she speeding? Unlikely, she was just reaching the motorway at the time. Maybe someone else was speeding on the four one-way lines, or was it the impact of the brief collision that triggered the camera. In that case she would need to discuss it with James, she thought. Maybe they could retrieve some information that would shed some light on the matter.
A few minutes later, refreshed and with a cup of coffee in front of her, Rose forgot about the whole shebang. James arrived five minutes earlier than arranged and took her to his office determined to prepare her for the meeting with his boss. He wanted to save as much as possible from their personal relationship and realized that he needed to be very diplomatic about the way he was going to bring some facts
to her attention. He had even considered the easiest option of not mentioning them at all but he had to admit to himself that it wouldn’t have been fair to her. He noticed that she was a bit pale today but any person coming into their building was a bit nervous initially. As a matter of fact he was a bit nervous himself about this meeting and was waiting for her to give him some idea on how to proceed.
By the time his boss, Charles, joined them they were barely breaking the ice in their conversation. Charles was in his late sixties and about to retire. He had seen many things in his life but most of all he was good with people; he was able to read easily someone’s character. James was one of his favorites. James kept him up to date with the bits and pieces of his cases. Charles thought that this particular case had some potential to develop further and was not in a rush to close it down. It was his suggestion to have an informal meeting in James’s office as he realized the stress that Rose had been put through recently.
‘How is your dandy girl today? ’ Charles had asked James earlier today. ‘Has she changed her mind about joining our scout? ’ he wanted to know