Читать книгу Dead Breath - Melody Jade Allen - Страница 1

What does friendship mean to people? Absolute trust, support, dedication… But, as you know, there is nothing perfect in the world. Friendship also means accepting the dark side of your friend, and sometimes you switch to that side on your own… Will your friend be able to save you?

Another day in June in Los Angeles monotonously counted down the hours until Midnight under the scorching Sun. This city has hardly changed, andr its people have not changed. Many of them had a vanity, although unlike many others they didn’t have a habit of hiding or having it – for them, the mask was a sign that you accepted yourself and your essence. Here everyone could be who he really is – no judgments, just one of many faces…

Mireya Rothe, a 26-year-old blonde with big eyes and a fragile figure was a graphic editor in the company of her long-time friend Rick O’Connell. Sitting in the office in front of her computer, she looked at her colleague through a sip of latte. Her colleague George was standing in front of the shelves of documents; his voice always annoyed Mireya – George was a guy with squeaky, overly bright shirts with flowers and funny bright trousers that were painfully combined with sneakers or classic slippers. She took a deep breath and sipped her coffee again, feeling it burned her throat.

“Will you come tomorrow?” George asked, stepping closer to her desk.

Mireya looked away from the monitor and looked at him questioningly.

“Well, tomorrow is it like a corporate party?” George explained.

Mireya leaned back in her wide computer chair made of black leather, “I always missed it. And you noticed it. Then why the question is?”

George backed away. “I just asked.”

Mireya threw her head back, closing her eyes. Too often he asked her stupid questions.

Rick went up to them and put the folder with documents in front of Mireya, winking. “This should be done before next Friday, you have a lot of time.”

Mireya smiled. “No questions asked.”

Rick gave a predatory look to George as if preparing for an attack. “What are you doing here? Buddy, you didn’t even complete the day before yesterday. Do you want me to hire someone to replace you? I personally don’t mind.”

“No, I…” George looked around awkwardly, “I’m leaving, I’m sorry.” He tripped over something, heading back to his workplace.

“I would like to re-educate him,” Rick said.

Mireya pressed her lips together. “I think he’s just not made for the job. Sometimes I even feel sorry for him, Rick. He seems to be a lot nervous.”

“Well yes. We will discuss this later.” Rick replied, his cell phone distracting him. Answering another call, he walked away.

Mireya’s cell phone vibrated, she exhaled irritably. She didn’t like it when someone called her during the working day. She took the phone from her desk drawer and looked at the display – Leandra Rae. She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Mireya and Leandra were best friends before and even after they went to college together. But at some point, Leandra left their common path and after she left college, she moved to Las Vegas to work at the Casino Hotel. Nevertheless, not understanding her choice Mireya tried to communicate with her as often as possible, but in the end they drifted away, and as it seemed to her, their communication stopped. They haven’t heard of each other for months, but now something seems to have changed.

Mireya doubted whether to start a new dialogue, and decided to press the green button, taking the call. “Yes?” She said into the [hone.

“Mireya?” The voice of Leandra answered, “God, I haven’t heard you for so long! How do you?”

Mireya rolled her eyes. “Not bad. But I’m at work, Leandra. I thought we were no longer close?”

“That’s right, but…” Leandra hesitated, “Unfortunately, it was my fault. But I want to see you. See you at the hotel tonight?”

“Wait, are you here? In Los Angeles?”

“Yes!” Leandra shouted enthusiastically, “I arrived a couple of hours ago and immediately called you. So what do you say?”

Leandra’s proposal caused mixed feelings, but the thirst for curiosity had some elusive advantage, and Mireya agreed to meet with her. Her hotel was a high-rise building in downtown; upon arriving there, Mireya climbed to the 25th floor admiring the colonial-style corridors in red and gold colours.

Knocking on the door of Room 247, Mireya froze, realizing that she probably didn’t want to be here. But the door handle turned.

Leandra, a girl with long blonde hair, greeted her with a slightly childish smile, straightening her creamy jacket, which was paired with a black T-shirt and jeans. “Mireya! You’re here!” She hugged the one she still considered her friend tightly and let her in.

Mireya mentally grinned, studying the situation – she was in an expensive room with a double bed, three night lamps (it was strange, but Leandra was afraid of the dark, but didn’t like the light of the lamps on the ceiling), a red soft carpet, a Russian drink, probably from a Russian store (Leandra’s grandmother was from Siberia), several suitcases of stuff, and this awfully familiar smell of perfume that Mireya would recognize from a thousand. She turned to look at Leandra, who was staring into her miniature mirror, fingers running down her thin eyebrows.

“Well.” Mireya walked around, “Why am I here?”

“You as always, start the dialogue outside the box”, Leandra sat down in a wide chair, which almost merged with the colour of her jacket.

Mireya looked back and looked at herself in the reflection of the floor hotel mirror. A striped T-shirt, a black leather jacket, black jeans and gothic boots – Leandra must have thought she hadn’t changed in all this time. However, she would be right… in part.

“You probably wondered many times why I did it?” Leandra said, “Why did I so abruptly leave college, where I was so fanatically striving to get, but I thought it was all worth it.”

“Is your job in a casino hotel worth it? By the way, you still haven’t said what you were doing there?! Mireya looked at her suspiciously, “This is not… what is connected with…?”

“No, no.” Leandra waved her hand, “Nothing like that.”

Mireya breathed a sigh of relief, but her tension returned instantly. “But it was something illegal?”

“Why did you decide so?”

“Otherwise, why should you be silent about it?”

Leandra fell silent for a couple of seconds. “There were people who illegally worked as hackers for jealous guys or girlfriends. It was almost like a hobby.”

Mireya spread her arms, “Well, if you say so.” She suddenly caught herself thinking that she was almost not interested in everything that happened to… perhaps still her friend for the entire time of their remoteness.

“Do you want something to drink?” Leandra said, smiling too sweetly.

Mireya felt a slight irritation. “A water?”

While Leandra was pouring mineral water into a glass, Mireya distracted her cell phone, checking the message she had just received from her boss: “There was a technical error. Please, send me the results of your work over the past three days. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Here,” Leandra handed a glass of water to Mireya.

Mireya put her cell phone aside and took a couple of sips, once again seeing Leandra’s typical overly cute look.

“Probably, I should go – I have unresolved problems at work,” Mireya said, putting her glass on the wooden table. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

Leandra smiled slightly, for a second panic flashed in her eyes, but Mireya was too distracted to notice it. Her cell phone ringtone shattered the silence between them. Mireya looked at its screen again. “I have to answer the call.”

Leandra nodded.

Mireya came out into the hotel corridor and moved away from Leandra’s room. She didn’t want her to ask questions about her work, her personal life and her life in general. It was too late.

After finishing the conversation with Rick, Mireya returned to the door of room 247, but after pushing it she realized that the room was locked. She knocked on but got no answer. “Hey?” Leandra, what the hell?” She said and again, she received no answer. Mireya wearily lowered her head and hit the wall with her palm. “If you don’t want to see me, you could tell me about it face to face. This is so stupid”, she snorted, “Goodbye, Leandra”, Mireya pressed the elevator button and after leaving the hotel, she disappeared into the night city…

… The Sun’s rays passed through the window, burning her face … Mireya opened her eyes. Being in her downtown skyscraper apartment, she tried to remember how and when she got home, but the last thing she remembered was walking into the hotel’s elevator after she visited Leandra. There was nothing more. She got up and looked around – three empty cups of coffee from a local coffee shop were on the coffee table next to her open laptop; the check next to them showed she had bought a refreshing drink within half an hour while she arrived at the hotel. How could she forget about this?

Mireya checked her laptop – she sent the archives of her work, which Rick asked, also she started working on a new project, but she didn’t remember at all how she did all of this, there was just a blackout. It dawned on her… Leandra. Leandra gave her water; she probably mixed some kind of a sleeping pill with a side effect. At least it was the only one explanation.

The sound of her cell phone ringing pulled her out of her thoughts. She took it out of her jacket pocket and looked at the display. “Leandra Calling”. Right now, she had no desire to talk to her, but she wanted an answer to the main question – why did she come back? But there was no point in talking about it on the phone, and after giving herself a few minutes to recover, Mireya took her backpack and jacket and left the house.

After taking a taxi, she returned to the hotel where Leandra was staying in. Passing the reception and tourists with a large number of suitcases, she entered the familiar elevator, smelling a slight smell of tobacco in it. The door opened, she went out and froze… The door to Leandra’s room was open, several police officers were working inside and two others were standing outside, not letting in strangers. What the hell happened here?

Under the cold gaze of these two officers, she looked inside and saw a girl she knew. “Adrianna?”

Adrianna Hale was a detective and Mireya’s and friend for quite some time – their fathers were investigators for the Chicago Police Force until their families moved to Los Angeles. But the presence of Adrianna made Mireya feel trembling in her body and growing excitement – Detective Hale was investigating the murders.

Hearing Mireya’s voice, Adrianna turned around and having said something to her colleagues, she approached her. “Mireya? You already know?”

“What about?” Mireya involuntarily took a step back.

“Let’s step away, okay?” Adrianna put her hand on Mireya’s shoulder, and they walked to the window at the end of the corridor.

Adrianna tried to find words. “I’m sorry to say that. I don’t know if you were still friends. But it’s always hard to lose someone who was your friend once. Mireya…” She slowed down. “Leandra was killed last night.”

Mireya froze. But she did not feel the expected shock, but still tears dripped down from her eyes. “How did it happen?”

“Someone strangled her.” Adrianna answered. “Our people are checking her room, but… All the fingerprints were deliberately erased, so the killer obviously tried to cover up the tracks.”

“Wait…” Mireya raised her hand. “Someone called me from her cell phone this morning. I thought she wanted to talk, and I came here. I didn’t know that she…”

“Her cell was stolen, but we will try to track where the incoming call came from.” Adrianna said. “Tell me, when did she return?”

Adrianna knew Leandra from the beginning of her friendship with Mireya, but they almost didn’t communicate with each other – different interests, different opinions, and even a mutual friend couldn’t make them at least “just friends”.

“She said she came back yesterday.” Mireya answered. “Can you check it out?”

“Of course we can. So, she called you?”

“Yes, she did. It was too sudden.” Mireya chuckled. “After so much time, our conversation took only a few minutes and now… I didn’t even ask why she came and…” Mireya felt the current pass through her body. “I left her room when we talked, and she just locked the door.”

Adrianna raised her eyebrows inquiringly.

“Well, it was strange of her.” Mireya looked along the corridor. “What if her killer was there when I was outside? I could stop this one?”

“Or this one would have killed both of you. All right, listen to me…” Adrianna took Mireya by the shoulders. “Theoretically, you are the last one who saw her alive. And sorry, that makes you a suspect. You need to go with me to the station; our people have already checked the video surveillance cameras. Mireya, the time of Leandra’s death coincides with the time of your visit. I’m afraid you need a lawyer.”

***

Arriving at the police station, Mireya passed through a typical working chaos – the detectives’ desks were clogged with documents, phone calls did not ever stop, the sweet smell of their favourite donuts and coffee spread, it seemed throughout the building. Adrianna led her to the interrogation room, where there was a silver table and two chairs, also cameras and microphones that recorded everything was happening in it.

“Is it all so bad?” Mireya asked, sitting down at the table.

Adrianna sat down in front of her, opening a folder for entries. “That’s what we have – you left Leandra’s room, the time of your departure coincides with the approximate time of her death. After you left, someone left her room, but a couple of hours after she left, and it wasn’t Leandra because the door was opened with an electronic key, but someone hacked it to open it; the sensor still worked. So Leandra wasn’t alone there. The cameras were turned off when that unknown came out and left the hotel.”

“The police think it was me?”

“Listen. In her hotel room, all fingerprints were erased, except from a glass of water – there are yours and Leandra’s on it. Yes, the detectives believe you could leave after you committed the murder, but then you came back to cover up the tracks and therefore found a way to turn off the cameras.”

Mireya chuckled. “So I did not turn off the camera before committing the murder and just so quietly left the body of the murdered friend? But then I came back and… Heck! I decided to cover up the tracks, hiding myself. God, that sounds stupid!”

“Maybe it does.” Adrianna wrote something down. “We checked her calls out. Leandra called only you while being in Los Angeles. You were the last one to see her… except her real killer. And there are your fingerprints. But Mireya…” Adrianna leaned back. “All of this is not enough to charge. We need a motive and a weapon of murder.”

Mireya shrugged her shoulders. “We did not communicate for several months, I had no offense – I knew her nature. I was surprised, but not overwhelmed by her decision to suddenly move to Las Vegas, so I probably did not have a motive?”

“Probably you don’t?” Adrianna agreed.

“Okay, what about a weapon of murder?”

“It was a denim belt.” Adrianna said after a short pause.

“A denim belt?” Mireya repeated. “Well, that’s very original. So, am I the main suspect now?”

“That’s partly.” Adrianna smiled sympathetically. “Do not leave the country until the end of the investigation.”

“The country? Wow. I thought, usually the police order not to leave the city limits. Why there are such privileges for me?”

“We are going to Las Vegas.”