Melody Jade Allen - Dead Breath

“Tom…” Mireya appreciated his gaze, being still not sure she could trust him. But she decided. “Can you at least just guess who could have done it to her?”

Tom spread his hands. “No, unfortunately. I wasn’t even close to her, Mireya. By the way, what do you think about that? You are her friend, are not you?”

“Well, I’m some kind of.” Mireya lowered her eyes. “We stopped talking soon after she moved to Las Vegas. And actually, I was one of the last one who saw her alive and because of that, the police didn’t find other people, who could see her before her murder… Tom, I’m the main suspect right now. I need to prove my innocence, even though the police don’t have enough evidence to arrest me. I just want all of that to end, and her killer be punished… at least for the sake of what we had before.”

“I see.” Tom smiled sympathetically.

“You know, here is the detective who is leading this case. You could…”

“No!” Tom stopped her. “I will not talk to the cops. You know, I told you everything I knew. I’m sorry, I have to go now.”

Mireya didn’t have time to say something else as Tom left the room, closing the door behind him.

Mireya spent the rest of the night in her own thoughts, trying to create a complete chain of events. Dressing up in jeans and a gothic t-shirt, she sat down at the table in front of the window, took a notebook and a pen. So, Leandra “hits the wheel” in Las Vegas, she probably needs help, or she just tried to escape from the one, who became her killer, so she flies to Los Angeles. All her friends from Los Angeles also stopped communicating with her sometime after her move, but somehow Mireya was the closest so-called friend, she called her, but she didn’t say anything important, just gave her a glass of water… And she just closed the door. Everything could have ended on this, but Mireya lost the whole night of memories, probably because of something that Leandra mixed into her glass with water. Everything ended with her murder.

Mireya took a deep breath. “What the hell happened to you?” She uttered in a half-voiced voice and her cell made her distracted. She took it and looked at the display – Leandra. “Oh no…” Mireya didn’t want to receive another call from the phone of the murdered girl, but she did not seem to have a choice and she pressed the green button, taking the call. “Hello?”

Silence…

“Hello? Who is it? Listen, no matter, who you are, it's not funny, okay? Leandra is dead! If you killed her, at least have the honour and do not call from her name, damn it!” Mireya swore and calmed down again. “And what are you trying to get from this?”

“Mireya!” Leandra’s voice said on the other side.

Mireya froze. No, it was Leandra’s voice, and it was not recorded on a Dictaphone or something else – it was her.

“Mireya, oh God… This way was originally wrong. Look! Where are we now?” Leandra spoke. “Oh, we’re between the two cities, right? We are already approaching the gas station; I can see it right now! You good, girl!”

Mireya got up. She recognized this speech and remembered that day. It was a summer vacation, and she and Leandra decided to spend a couple of weeks traveling in California, taking a capacious Mireya’s car in case they were lucky and they would have to spend the night somewhere on the side-lines. They rode without a map and any navigators, and at one point, they thought they were lost – for several hours they rode along an asphalt road through some desert, hour by hour and did not see a change on the horizon as if they were traveling in a circle. Leandra insisted it was due to a wrong turn, where Mireya turned the steering wheel, being between two roads. Gasoline was almost exhausted, but a miracle happened – they saw the same gas station and finally found out where they were. Undoubtedly, it was unforgettable, but something strange happened in Leandra’s behaviour… she constantly looked back as if fearing someone was watching them, two days later she just threw away her old mobile phone, saying, “It bothered me, and I have long been looking for a reason to change it. But do we need reasons to change something?” At that moment, Mireya didn’t attach importance to all of this, knowing that the essence of Leandra was full of surprises or even jokingly thought that she was suffering from bipolar disorder, but perhaps it was something more personal. Who could record this conversation? Maybe someone got this by connecting to her mobile phone? What did you do, Leandra?

“This way was originally wrong. Look! Where are we now?” She repeated it again.

Mireya listened.

“This way was originally wrong. Look! Where are we now? Where are we now? Where are we now? Where…?”

Mireya’s trembling hands dropped the call, unable to listen to her friend’s dead voice anymore and hear her dead breath. If it’s a murderer, why does he or she do it? Is not it like a way to let the police find themselves? Or maybe killing was not enough and he or she decided to start this “Find me” game then it probably could some psychopath with mental disorders? So many options, questions… in the end, the initial path must be completed.

***

“I’m telling you! It must be her killer!” Mireya waved her arms vigorously, telling Adrianna about her conversation with Tom, about his words and, of course, a call from Leandra’s number. “You understand someone could be watching her, even behind us when we were together and all of this is in front of me now!”

“Okay!” Adrianna raised her hands as if surrendering. “I understand, but calm down, okay? Let’s start from the beginning, who is that Tom? Do you know his surname?”

“Tom Walt. But he does not want to talk to the police, besides he said he shared with me everything he knew about her. Do you want to find him?”

“I think it would not be superfluous. And by the way, our Los Angeles police have already worked with her phone number – her phone, Mireya, has a built-in tracking protection program.”

“That means you can’t find where it is?”

Adrianna shook her head. “Our Captain agrees that it’s probably the one who is her killer, so insists that his programmers work hard with this. We need time.”

“Time is the thing that is always not enough.” Mireya looked at her arms.

“By the way, if Tom said he worked in the so-called IT sphere, he could know and deliberately protect her phone from unwanted persecution.”

“Agree.” Mireya snapped her fingers. “Do we have anything to begin with?”

“We checked her credit card – Leandra often bought drinks in the same cafe daily. Let’s go there, Mireya. Perhaps there we will find something that will help us find the first answer.”

After a couple of minutes, Adrianna stopped the rented red car in front of a small cafe, which was located between the next casino and some sort of night club. Sitting next to Adrianna, Mireya noticed a guy, who was smoking a cigarette; he looked up into her eyes… He put out a cigarette and threw it into the urn, still looking at Mireya he went to the club as if he saw a ghost. Mireya blinked. He recognized her. No doubt.

“You’re going?” Adrianna brought her out of her thoughts.

Mireya nodded and got out of the car. The cafe with the name Ice Tea was a one-story building, from which the smell of fresh food coffee and baking came; Mireya looked at the signboard the Hot Moon club, where that guy had fled from her field of vision.

“I don’t know what she could do here so often.” Adrianna said looking around.

On the way here, she and Mireya found her profile on Facebook, where Leandra posted her photos of her everyday life – expensive cars, elite areas of the city, expensive clothes and a decent environment was put on a public display, but now, they were in the place that was a few miles from the “crowded zone” closer to the suburbs, there could only be local residents and local workers who worked at the construction site that was actively raised only half a mile away from here.

“You know, I want to look around if you don’t mind?” Mireya said. “I don’t think I will be carried away by your police interrogation.”

Adrianna shrugged her shoulders. “Okay if you want so. But be where I could find you.”

“Of course I will.”

When Adrianna disappeared into the Ice Tea, Mireya confidently headed for the Hot Moon. She came in. The Hot Moon was a game club – billiard tables, tables for card games, a stand with the game “Happy Rabbit”, several other machines, and three computers for the tournament for some online game filled the entire room, the interior of the establishment was decorated in a space theme and the expected bright Moon, The shrouded in flames lit up the whole room in the company of the stars and the Solar System. “It’s original,” Mireya thought and took a few steps forward, but someone stopped her, taking her hand, she turned around – a young guy in a business black suit was standing behind her, reproachfully looking into her eyes.

“You can’t be here right now.” He said. “Hot Moon will be open after 9 pm.”

“Oh…” Mireya hesitated, looking at his badge with the inscription “Brandon. Security”. “Excuse me, just my friend works here and I thought…”

“It’s okay, Brandon!” The same guy that ran away from Mireya approached them. He wore a white T-shirt and classic jeans; his brown short hair was slightly dishevelled. “She is my friend, I asked her to come here. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you.”

“All right.” Brandon let go of Mireya hand. “I hope the Boss doesn’t know.”

“Don’t worry.” The guy waved his hand.

Brandon nodded satisfactorily and left them, heading for some distance.

“Who are you?” Mireya finally asked. “How do you know me?”

“Where is Leandra?” The Stranger asked in a low voice.

“She was killed.” Mireya blurted out. “Now tell me, who are you?”

“Come with me.”

They entered a small room, where there were many monitors that shot every inch of the Hot Moon. The Stranger sat down in front of them and after taking a walkie-talkie, he said something to the unknown into it and offered Mireya to take a seat beside him; he leaned back.

“You will keep silent, right?” Mireya said irritably. “Who are you?”

“My name is Dennis.” He said. “Leandra showed me your photos together. You know, I liked you.” He grinned. “I even asked her when I could see you in the flesh, and she answered, “Only when I leave the world of the living.” I did not think she was speaking literally.”

“Dennis, here is the detective who is investigating Leandra’s case, she is from Los Angeles. Leandra was killed there at the hotel.” Mireya told him everything that had happened.

Dennis ran a hand over his chin. “I would not like to deal with the police.”

Mireya rolled her eyes. “I already heard that from another guy… What are you guys doing in this city?”

“Hey, take it easy!” Dennis giggled. “We don’t need to suspect us of… something bad, in the sense that our activities are like amateur espionage behind the Boss who only visits us just once every few weeks. Leandra worked with us, but her profile was tracking phones and bank cards, but more phones.”

Mireya was animated. “Listen, if the phone has built-in anti-tracking system, are there ways to find it?”

Dennis shrugged his shoulders. “If you really want to…”

“Someone is calling me from her phone and…” Mireya stopped, but continued to tell Dennis about the calls on behalf of Leandra.