The Cinema Files s1 p6

The Cinema Files
page 6, chapter 6

Sun-dried Slapstick

Rudolph seemed oblivious to the fact he was the center of everything, as the hostess returned a few times to chat it up with him, as well as one male waiter. I wasn't completely sure if he was so used to that sort of thing happening that it didn't phase him anymore, or if he was just really that blind to the situation. I finished my glass of wine, and decided it was time to call it a night. It was already almost 1am by this point. Rudolph tilted his head to the side as if puzzled by my decision to end the evening already.

"You stay. Finish your drink, your order hasn't even come yet." I motioned to him, slapping down a few dollars for the drink. "I'm just..." I gazed at the hostess who seemed to be waiting on tip toes for me to leave. "...exhausted." I sighed closing my eyes.

"So, we get the order to go." his words were quick with zero hesitation as he stood just as quick, grabbing up his glass downing half the contents. He scooped up the money I'd just left on the tabletop, dropping it back into my hands. "This is all on me." he smiled with a hint of drunkenness already. "I mean, we are going to the same apartment anyways...er um apartment building. We are both..." his not so subtle comment was interrupted by a loud scream. Half the restaurant turned as a woman came stumbling out of the ladies room. Both myself and Rudolph went running in the direction of the woman.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! There's...there's..." she was pointing a very shaky hand towards the ladies' room. I ran ahead, Rudolph a half step behind me as we flung open the door to the bathroom. A pair of knee high black boots were sticking out of the farthest stall. Opening the door to the stall, we found a woman bent over the toilet, her face wet from having been shoved into it.

"Um..." I pointed towards her. "I think she drowned." Turning, I saw Rudolph reaching for his phone. "You calling the emergency number?"  He gazed up at me from the corner of his eye a slight guilty look on his face.

"I am now." he dialed.

"I know it's your job to be all like live the news it bleeds it leads, but if  Detective Whitechapel finds you here, you're going to be having your takeaway order in the police station." I shoved him towards the door of the bathroom and into the main lobby.

Twenty minutes later...

"Of course I would find you at another of my crime scenes?" Detective Whitechapel rolled his eyes at me. "Please tell me I should be flattered that you are actually secretly in love with me, and this has nothing to do with your family's extracurricular habits." he shook the pencil and notepad at me.

"If I say both how much crap will I be in?" I shrugged smirking at him.

"Only about half as much as the deceased here is in." Whitechapel remarked with a smirk of his own. Scratching at his temple, he let his eyes go blank for a few seconds as he was clearly deep in his own mind.

"So what are you calling him?" I asked as I began tapping my clutch purse against my thigh.

"The deceased was a woman and we haven't gotten an ID yet."

"No, I mean the killer. That's two murders in under three days both having drowned in small amounts of water."  I gestured towards the dead body.

"Now now; don't be jumping to things. There is nothing that doesn't prove this one died on her own." he moved towards the body, his turn to gesture wildly.

"Other than the bruising at her neck." I walked a few steps closer pointing out the odd colouring near the edge of her collar. "Someone held her under."

"Aw for the love of Odin." the Detective's flirting went cold as he grabbed me by the shoulders turning me around, guiding me towards the door of the ladies' room in the same manner I had with Rudolph earlier. "Out of my crime scene. Go home."


Tune in again for another installment of the Cinema Files starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Well I guess someone has sprung a leak.)