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The car ride to the hotel was, for lack of a better word, deathly silent. For two people who usually didn't know how to be quiet, this seemed incredibly unnerving. At least for April, who looked over at her boss, who really didn't seem bothered at all. Redd’s expression had looked the same for the whole time he had been driving. She couldn’t grasp why he was so calm about this. Maybe because he was so experienced in indirectly killing people, he was completely unbothered by the fact that he was ending lives. Whenever she remembered this, she tried to change the subject to a happier one.
6PM. That was the time the two of them checked into their hotel room, and 9PM would be the time he would go into that office and kill that woman. April wondered how long those three hours would feel like. Every time a politician or lawyer or CEO or cop had committed suicide because of his blackmail and manipulation she tried to ignore it. To not think of it at all. It was a lot easier that way, she liked ignoring these things which made her life difficult, but there was only a certain amount of time she could do that for, and now he’s going to murder some innocent woman. That was all she could think about the entire time he was checking into the hotel. There was no way she could think about anything else, she'd looked the woman up a few days ago when White was talking to her about it to try to get some more information on her. Her name was Mia Fey, she was a defending lawyer (or whatever they were called. April couldn’t remember that well, she wasn’t focusing on it that day.), and she was only 27 years old, and soon, she wouldn't be alive.
The fact that the two of them hadn't said a word to each other all day was strange, but expected. Redd knew exactly what he was going to do. April did too. When she opened the door to the hotel, it suddenly hit her how tired she was. She just wanted to lie in bed in her pink pyjamas and sleep, without a care in the world about murder or wiretapping or threats or blackmail or Redd White or Mia Fey. Being in April’s position was an exhausting job..
April May didn’t know what she was signing up for. She didn’t know what she was doing when she saw the Bluecorp commercial on TV for the first time, with the hopes she could work for this ‘Detective Agency’. She didn’t know that handing in that resume and going into the interview would end up like this. It was her biggest mistake, and she would never be able to reverse it, not with the type of man he is.
But still, she could try.
Or at least, she thought she could try. whenever she attempted to, a sense of fear filled her, she knew that he was able to kill her. Knowing him and working for him did not give her protection from being killed if she was to get in his way. It didn't matter how many phones she'd answered or tapped, or how many things she'd done at work with a smile as she pretended not to know that it would end with somebody in extreme misery or, in a more likely situation, dead.
She could easily be in the position of that woman in the Fey & co. law offices, the only difference being that she was fully aware what would happen to her months before it came to her.
"Mr White." April began, terrified, and staring at the soft hotel carpet, she was trying her best to compose herself and not let him see that she was shaking. Her voice was a lot more troubled-sounding than she intended, so she attempted to raise her voice into her usual persona.
"Umm, is there, like, any other way you could do this? It's just!-" she played with her hair innocently "I haven't really helped with something like this before?"
He started his sentence the same way she started hers. "Miss May."
But his voice was different. It was much deeper, and it sounded a lot more sinister. It was the voice he used when he was going to do something bad, and she knew that she was in for it.
"You knew what this job entailified when you signed the contract." Both of them knew well that she didn't. 'Assisting-in-murder-or-dying' was actually not in the job description of a secretary.
"But...but surely there must be another way?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Killing an innocent woman? That's, like, really bad, right?" She had a layer of hope on her voice, hiding the fact that she knew that there was no way out of this. He was going to kill her.
He stared at her, and she could feel his eyes almost burning holes into her soul.
"Miss May." He said slowly, his voice as cold as ice. "If you continue to question me, you will end up exactly like Miss Mia."
April felt dizzy and nauseous. "I...I get it, Mr White. I won't say anything else."
The room felt like it was spinning, and April felt like she was going to faint. She had never been this close to death before, and the prospect of it was terrifying. She wanted to run away and hide, but she knew that there was nowhere to go. This was her life now, whether she liked it or not. There was nowhere to go and no one to go to. She made a horrible mistake.
The next few hours felt like a blur. She couldn't focus on anything, she was just going through the motions. She thought for a bit. If she tried to save Mia, both her and Mia would be dead. If she did nothing, Mia would die. April thought more about if there was anything, anything she could do to try to help the situation. She checked the time.
8 PM. She had almost forgotten to create her alibi. April attempted to push down the fear, discomfort, and disgust, and tried to get herself in the mood to flirt with that bellboy who was cleaning the hotel. She went over to the mirror and put on some extra lip gloss, looked at Redd, who had already told her before they came to do this, and left.
After April returned, Redd was still there. Being her true self, or pretending to be her, (which was confusing, the point that somebody had made her true self be something she had to perform), had at least lifted her mood a little, but seeing his face suddenly made her feel heavy with dread. April quickly realised that however happy she might be, however much she tried to make herself feel better, seeing him for even a split second would prove all her efforts futile. She didn’t bother saying anything, she just walked in. The minutes seemed to go by too quickly. 60, then 50, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10, then 5.
At 8:55 PM, Redd stood up from his seat next to the window and her stomach dropped. The time that she had been dreading, the time she had wished wouldn’t come. He didn’t look at her as he left, and she walked to the window. She had to witness the murder, and then scream and call the cops when those two people came in. It would take about five minutes to walk there, so that would give her five minutes completely alone, thinking about how this man who she had wanted to work with so much, the man that she had tried to see the good in, at least at first, was going to kill somebody.Her situation was to either be an accomplice to a murder or be killed.
April looked down at the busy street and saw a girl getting out of the car. The girl looked a lot like Mia, but about 10 years younger and wearing the same kind-of necklace as her sister. It was when she saw that girl, who looked so happy and excited to see her sister, sent a chill down her spine. She couldn’t do this. April knew that if she tried to stop him now it would be a suicide mission, but there was always the chance that she could prevent this. Without thinking, she rushed into the hallway, which was incredibly difficult in her stilettos, and silently followed him into the Fey & Co. law office. How he managed to not catch her was a miracle. She stood outside her office as he entered. She could hear his muffled voice from inside.
“Miss Fey, I'll take what's mine... the papers.” His voice gave her chills.
“I'm sorry, but I can't give you what I don't have.”
“Miss Fey, you are a poor liar. Why, I see it right over there... That must b-”
April couldn’t bear to just listen to this woman die. That’s not what she came down here to do. With her trembling hand, she pushed the door open, catching the attention of both of them, who looked at her with confusion. Well, Mia looked at her with confusion. Redd’s expression captured something more of…anger. He was scared of his plans getting ruined, she was scared of getting murdered. There really wasn’t anything to do just standing there, so she ran to the desk as fast as she possibly could and grabbed the statue, which was a little heavier than she expected.
White walked up to her calmly. “Miss May.” he smiled sinisterly. “Hand me the clock.” he says through gritted teeth.
She doesn’t. She looks up at him with fear in her eyes, unable to say a single word. She holds the clock up in a threatening position with one hand and puts her other hand up to shield herself, the exact moment she attempts this, he grips her wrist as hard as he could, making her snap her eyes shut in pain. Any attempts at trying to move her arms would be pointless. She thought quickly and moved her foot up to kick him in the stomach as hard as she could. He recoiled and staggered backwards, saying something under his
breath. What he was saying wasn’t April’s concern right now. All she cared about was, one way or another, putting an end to this. After a moment of silence and stillness, she stopped thinking and just ran at him, swinging the clock as hard as she could, making a large snapping sound as she hit him on the head. As soon as his body hit the ground, so did the clock as she brought her hands to her mouth in shock.
She silently turned around to look at Mia, who was frozen in shock. The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds before Mia regained her composure and walked over to the phone and started calling the police. April tried to look at him but instantly twisted her head away upon getting one glimpse of him. She was still so in disbelief, she felt like she was about to pass out. After the police had arrived and took his body away, April and Mia were both sitting in the office, waiting to be interviewed by the police. April’s mind was racing a million miles a minute. She was so petrified that she couldn’t focus on anything that was happening around her. All she could think about was what would happen to her now. She knew that she was going to prison. Even if Mia didn’t press charges, which she probably wouldn’t because April saved her life, the police would find something. They always do. She was going to go to prison for a long time, and there was no way out of it. All because she wanted to work for Redd White around half a decade ago.
Mia was planning to have two people come to her office that day, her mentee, a rising defence attorney, and Mia’s younger sister. April thought about how if she had just let him murder her, they would have walked in on her dead body. She’d have to frame the sister and that girl would have to go to jail and even be executed for something she didn’t do.
After a while of sitting there, Mia finally said something. “I have to thank you.”
April nodded her head numbly, half-putting on the voice she always did. “Yeah, totally! I just couldn’t let him go murder an innocent girl like that, y’know?”
“I should defend you in court.”
“I don’t really see the point though…” She brought the tip of her index finger to her chin in thought. “I mean, you totally saw me kill him, didn’t you?”
“That much is true, Miss May, however, defence attorneys can also defend those who are guilty to work out a sentence they deserve.
April half smiled at her. “Oh, well in that case, thank you so much! Wait a minute, how did you know what my name was?”
Mia looked at her seriously. “The reason White almost murdered me was because I had too much information on him and his company.” she explained. “I managed to figure that out while I was researching. I was going to bring him justice but…” Mia trailed off.
“Yeahh, that seems a lot better than what I did. I mean, I would’ve done that if I could’ve, but I knew he was capable of murdering me, and being his secretary meant it would be a lot easier to find out what I was doing, y’know?”
“Yeah, I understand that. My partner is in a similar situation to you. She’s the chief prosecutor, and-” Mia stops herself. “Actually, I shouldn’t reveal too much about it.”
April nodded understandingly. “That sucks heaps, hopefully she’ll be able to get out of that situation soon.”
“Mm.”
The door opened and some detective in a long, sage coat came out. “Uh, Miss Mia Fey, pal? We have to question you now.” He said, causing Mia to stand up and exit the room, shooting April a quick, but genuine and friendly smile before she left.