But something moved. Something moved ever so slightly that it had taken until this moment for Simon to even notice his presence. It was the youngest member of the Black Family. James Black turned a few pages on the journal he had on his lap, making no apparent observation of anything or anyone around him.Simon, at least relaxed. His mother, Joanne Black, was nowhere in sight. He coughed a little to get his brother’s attention. James, however, continued, his light reading uninterruptedly. “You’re back, Brother,” said James, not looking up from his book.“Uhh, yeah, obviously” started Simon, finding a place to sit among one of the sofas. “This is definitely a surprise. What are you doing outside your room?” Simon asked. James had belonged to that category of persons who shut themselves indoors to pursue their innate interests.His mother and father had not usually berated him over it, considering he was still under 18. It was a behaviour they hoped he would eventually grow out of, and

“Then you pretended to wait for a call from this Mr Jenkins and decided for the farthest possible hospital away from here. Once we were gone, you would tell the police that you just saw us fleeing from the scene, and a long chase downtown would ensue. We would be handcuffed before we had a chance to tell our side of the story.” finished Benjamin's tale. Amber stood amazed, marvelling at Benjamin’s insight. Nicole, on the other hand, was convinced she was in a nightmare. "Well?" asked Benjamin. Nicole stuttered and muttered words that were only comprehensible to herself. If she was physically able, she would have begun to foam at the mouth. She took shorter and shorter breaths, steeping back away from them, darting her eyes around, looking to see if anyone had overheard Benjamin's analysis. Benjamin slicked back his hair satisfactorily. "That confirms it, then," he said. "Confirms what?!" snapped Nicole. "I think the city police have their first murder suspect on the case of Mr Ki

"You've already condemned me." "Don't be so sure" started Benjamin. "Because the worst thing to do right now would be to condemn yourself first." She looked at the faces of the serious Benjamin and Amber. "Well?" asked Amber.'I - I did see the letter, from Ms Amber to Mr Kirkland" she confirmed. Amber crossed her arms. "Go on" she instructed Nicole. "It was sent up to the secretary's office by one of our mail attendants, along with our usual mail. I' didn't think much of it when I sat the name, only that it was a little different from our usual addressees." explained Nicole. "What do you mean? How different?" asked Amber. "Well, it was the first time I had seen such a feminine name in Mr Kirkland's list, although, he did have his fair share of admirers too.." "Wait...Are you saying that it was my name on the mail?" asked Amber. Benjamin cast a small glance in her direction, wondering about the sudden outburst. "But yes, it was written 'From Amber Stone' on the envelope," sai

"Of course, I'm talking about your salary. You are going to come work with us, Ms Nicole. Where I will be barking orders at you all day, and have you doing the work of 4 other people, along with talking a salary significantly under the range of your position. What do you say? Sounds like a damn good deal to me" smiled Benjamin. Nicole blinked in small rapid sputters. "You're serious?" she asked. Benjamin cocked his head to the side and relaxed it on his chin. "Of course. I don't take the matter of underpaying people so casually. I'm on the forever hunt for easy, cheap labour, you know" he smiled. "No, I mean, you-" "Yes, of course there will be much abuse from me and even more from Amber. But I suspect it would mostly be mental abuse and the resulting stress from working in an understaffed organisation." Nicole paused and then rapped her fingers on her thighs. "And that's it? That's all I have to do?" she asked quietly. Benjamin raised his eyebrows. Why can't she just take the e

"You know what, forget it. You clearly don't know the intricacies of feminine nature." For a few seconds, it didn't respond. "I hope you will not take this the worst way, Master, considering that I am a program and mean you no offence, but is it truly valid that you would be in a better position to comprehend these intricacies you speak of? Your last relationship ended because you could not realize what was truly in Claire's heart." "What the fuck?!" Amber returned from the phone call. "I was able to get through to him, but he says you never once mentioned anything about an extra case file. But he was mostly just concerned about not working overtime today of all days" Benjamin forced a smile. "Is that so? That does sound exactly like Johnny." "I also walked this through your office. No files are sitting on the desk. Seems like you cleared them all already" finished Amber. "Oh, Gee. I must have. I think I'm confused with the days or something. I'm just-" "Worried about Kirkland?