This choice: You're innocent and you assist with the investigation. • Go Back...Chapter #8Elementary, My Dear by: Sly F   After Sam's speech, Alex slammed the bottom of her ornate walking stick on the floor twice loudly.
"As you were," she said. "We'll find each of you when we have questions for you."
The crowd in Seline's drawing room began to disperse. You were about to leave the room as well when Alex gestured to you.
"You, there!" she called. "My colleague Miss Hyde and I would like a word with you."
You slowly pointed at your own chest and shrugged your shoulders, questioning if maybe they were actually beckoning to someone behind you. But when you looked around you realized practically everyone else had already cleared the room, or was at least standing far enough away from you that there could be no mistake.
You paced over to the investigators nervously.
Alex's eyes were cold and calculating as she looked you over, almost mechanically. It sent a chill down your spine. You looked over at Sam. Her eyes had a much warmer glow to them. They offered you some comfort.
"You're a writer?" Alex said.
"A ghost writer," you corrected.
You stuttered a little. The persecution complex of someone always trying to do the right thing and worried they screwed up. The kid called to the principal's office for a perfectly innocent reason and wondering what they're in trouble for the whole time.
"I'm helping Seline with her 'autobiography,'" you said, unable to resist making the "air quotes" with your fingers.
"Yes," Alex said. "You similarly helped..."
She took a deep breath and then gave you a comprehensive list of the famous actors, musicians, athletes, and entrepreneurs whose names had appeared on their memoirs as the author where your name rightly should have been.
"How did you find all that out?" you asked her.
Alex rolled her eyes, as if having to answer such a simple question was beneath her.
"When our client mentioned you, I tracked down a brief sample of writing you were able to have published under your own name. I recognized the limited vocabulary and barely evolved syntax from excerpts I'd read taken from memoirs supposedly written by the notable figures I just listed."
The way she said "limited vocabulary and barely evolved syntax" hit you like a punch in the stomach.
Sam gave you a brief, friendly touch on the arm.
"Alex is just being mean," she said. "I love your work. Right now, I'm reading the story of that one actress, and I can barely put it down. I'm at the part with the jerk with the personal massager..."
Alex looked at her sister sternly. Sam's smile didn't falter.
"Besides," she said. "She's only ever this mean to someone she's worried she might actually like."
Alex actually seemed flustered for a moment.
"I don't want to waste any more of our precious time or yours than I have to," she finally said. "Assuming Miss Garcia has actually trusted you with intimate details of her life story, and that you have spent a considerable amount of time around the other people assembled here, you may be able to provide some insight that Samantha and I don't have."
You looked at Sam again.
"That's her way of asking for help," Sam said.
Alex let out an audible groan.
"I'll do anything I can to assist you," you said. "I'm sure Seline would be really happy to get that necklace back. She's really not that bad when..."
"Very well, then," Alex interrupted.
You followed her out of the room as Sam asked you questions about the other famous people you'd collaborated with and if they were "nice in real life."
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