The Seduction of Silence
WRITTEN IN THE ORDER: SARAH, IRENE, KATE, KAT, MAYA
Matt, the mute, sat in a room of the Mount Frigid ski lodge. He looked out the large window of the dining room at the people, wrapped in expensive and colourful suits, their cheeks pink and their smiles bright. Next to him sat his twin brother Rod (identical twins, except for the mute thing which only afflicted Matt) and their cousin Kat. Matt, Rod and Kat Jones had arrived that morning and were looking forward to a long-weekend of skiing fun. They also expected to find some new friends among the guests.
A commotion at the lodge entrance alerted their attention.
"If any of my bags are dirtied by your clumsiness, the manager will know and I severely doubt of your job then." The haughty voice floated across the room to the Jones family. They craned their necks to see the person.
"Quickly, quickly! I have not got all day, you know."
Unbeknowmst the them, the voice belonged to... 
Chris, who was also planning a relaxing holiday at the lodge. The others watched as he grabbed the bags off the small clumsy girl he had been telling off, and he mutteres angrily to himself. As he noticed his audience, Chris's face grew dark.
"What are you looking at?" he asked. "Er, sorry..." mumbled Kat and Rod, while Matt could only look on apologetically. Chris continued off down a corridor, still muttering away. "What a nasty looking man" Rod was saying to Matt and Kat. Little did they know just how nasty Chris really was...
***
Meanwhile, a young boy was trying to explain to the police exactly what had happened. "I just tried to wake her up but she wouldn't move..." Lawrence was sobbing. Darren (the policeman) scratched his head and pondered for a moment. He glanced back at the body, laying motionless on the sofa, and then turned it a little. "Oh dear," He whispered, unable to shift his eyes from the knife in her back.
***
Kat wandered through the corridor, away from her room in the lodge. Suddenly, as she walked, the door ahead of her was flung open and a girl ran from the room, accompanied by several bags. A very familiar haughty voice chased the girl out: "I told them that I wanted this specific room. Find yourself another one."
The door was smalled. Kat went to the girl.
"Hi! I'm Kat," she of that name introduced herself. "Are you alright?"
The girl sniffed and looked sorrowfully at her bags.
"I have no room now," she wailed.
"That's okay," said Kat. "You can share my room - there's plenty of space."
***
In the police station at Old Beanaly, Edward Payne spoke to Darren the policeman on the telephone.
"Have you had the area sealed off?" he was asking. "Right... okay... oh God, who would do such a thing? Look, I'll be there as soon as I can."
Ed placed down the phone and took off, up to Mount Frigid ski logde, to deal with the homicide that had just occurred.
***
The slopes were fantastic and Maya skied to a hault after a brilliant rush down the hill. She lifted her ski goggles and glanced around, preparing to make her way over to the ski lift for another run. She was distracted by a pair of identical twins trudging by. Although they were identical, they had slight differences, and hence one was, to Maya's eye, infinitely more handsome than the other. As they passes, Maya noticed that their rugby jumpers had their names on the back.
"Matt," Maya sighed, "A beautiful name for an incredibly good-looking guy. I want him! I need him! I must seduce him..."
***
Kat's new friend was Irene. Once Irene had calmed down from the abuse of the horrible Chris, she and Kat had hit it off. Kat introduced Irene to her cousins and Irene and Matt hit it off, Irene being proficient in sign language. The two were soon skiing together and having long conversations about ballet - one of Matt's favourite things.
Maya saw Matt and Irene standing close together, talking with their hands, and was overcome with seething jealousy.
Contriving to stop Irene talking to Matt, Maya carefully aimed herself down the mountain. She canoned into Irene at a great speed, causing, she hoped, severe injury to that person. Unluckily for Maya, all she caused was a sprained wrist for herself, which then made it extremely difficult for her to attempt to talk to Matt, even if she did happen to learn sign language in the next 5 minutes.
Irene was lovely about the "accident" and escorted Maya to the lodge nurse, before returning to the slopes with Matt. Maya became depressed, and after she's had her wrist bandaged, moved to the bar as the nurse had forbade skiing. In the bar sat a man in a fireman's uniform.
Maya instantly perked up. She loved firemen. She made her way to the bar and introduced herself. The name of the sexy fireman was Geordie, and Maya decided to use him to take her mind off Matt. Unfortunately, Maya had competition - the bartender, Bree, had been chatting to Geordie for the better part of half an houe and was not aobut to let him leave with Maya.
"Say, Maya," said Bree after introductions. "How do you feel about you and I taking Fireman Geordie here back to my room for a bit of fun?"
Maya pondered the logistics of this for a while, but after a few brief explinations from Bree, and several enthusiastic suggestions from Geordie, Bree closed the bar and the 3 went to Bree's bedroom with a bottle of vodka and several other "essentials".
***
Alone is his room, Chris sat, looking out at the slopes. He has not come to ski, but to "be seen". He had laid out his best suit, but he had asked for a male dressing assistant, who had not yet arrived. Chris did not want any female to see him less than fully dressed. Again, Chris was distracted by the two female voises from the next room.
"Mmm, chocolate syrup," said Maya. "I love chocolate syrup."
"Me too. Oops, I spilled it on Geordie!"
"Oh, I'll lick it off if you want," offered Maya.
Chris decided he would not listen to any more, and heard a knock on his door.
"Enter!" called Chris, turning from the window.
Lawrence entered the room, looking a little upset still.
"I suppose you're the best they could do?" asked Chris. "Very well. Come and help me dress. Wash your hands first, I don't want you to dirty my suit. And while you dress me, tell me what is happening in the hotel."
Meanwhile, at the scene of the crime, the coroner Laura Corona had arrived to investigate the stabbing.
"So what's the lowdown, pals?" Laura asked Ed and Darren, the 2 cops there.
"We've I.Ded the body as Mrs Ariel, a woman who came here for a visit with her only daughter Sarah, but we have yet to contact the daughter," Ed explained, "The knife in her back is from Scarfe Supplies, an undercover arms shop owned by the illustrious Julia Scarfe."
Laura walked around the body thoughtfully, "Well, after a lot of thought, I think it's murder!"
Ed and Darren gave each other strange looks, "Yes, we think so too."
"Another strange thins - Julia Scarfe is staying here this weekend and arrived a day before Mrs Ariel and Sarah," Darren said.
***
In a hotel room, a hushed female voice spoke on the phone, "Yes, it's been done... it all went to plan except the knife was left... yes... yes, okay, bye."
Kate put down the phone and wiped the sweat from her brow.
***
Maya staggered out of the room.
"Oh, My head." She groaned and then shivered when she remembered what had happened the night before with Bree and Geordie.
As she walked down the corridor, Maya collided with another woman.
"Watch where you're going, skank." Lauren yelled at Maya and brushed herself off.
"How rude!" commented Maya, quite affronted and continued down the hall.
Lauren was going to meet her brother Payne for lunch. After they had finished their meal, Payne leaned conspiritorially forward.
"So the murder could have been committed by any of the guests. We don't have enough evidence to suspect anyone particular at the moment AND we can't find Mrs Ariel's daughter, Sarah."
"Wow!" Lauren's eyes widened.
Across the room, KatE entered. Following her was Rod, Matt, Irene and Kat. Then Geordie, Bree and Maya entered and Chris with Lawrence trailing behind.
"We have reason to believe it's one of these people," said Payne pointing to the group.
"I tihnk it's her." whispered Lauren, pointing to Maya.
"Wait, I've just spotted her," Payne exclaimed. "Mrs Ariel's daughter." He rushed off to talk to her.
Lauren, however, smiled evily at Maya and fingered her Swiss Army Knife.
***
Laura gasped as she received the email. It had the results of the fingerprint analysis of Mrs Ariel's room.
"Oh dear" she murmured to herself. "This is going to talk some work." The analysis had identified prints of 4 people - Kate, Maya, Geordie and Lawrence, who had discovered the body. Laura jotted down some notes on her note pad and then headed off to ask some questions.
***
Maya backed away from Lauren, her eyes fixed on the Swiss Army Knife Lauren was attempting to conceal under her jacket. Chris, meanwhile, was getting restless. "I don't have time for this crap. I don't even know why I have to be here." With that, he grabbed Lawrence by the arm and they headed back towards Chris's room. As they walked, a dark figure passed them silently in the corridor, a strange smell filling the air.
***
Laura checked her notes once more.
"This can't be tight... hang on... YES! But Oh my god! This is all very interesting..."
She packed up her things and, accompanyed by Ed and Darren, made her way to the Lodge where the guests were still waiting to find out what was happening. Everyone looked up as the police and Laura entered. "I need to speak to a Mr. Chris Edwards" She said, somewhat urgently. There was a soft murmur as the guests wondered where Chris had got to.
"I think he went back to his room." Rod suggested, pointing down the corridor. Laura nodded and motioned Darren and Ed to follow as she went in search of Chris.
***
As the police left, Kate, Rod, Matt, Irene, Kat, Geordie, Bree, Lauren and Maya sat in the room, wondering what they were meant to do next.
"I suppose that we shouldn't leave," announced Kate, settling herself comfortable on a sofa and producing a mobile phone, with which she commenced typing a text message.
Lauren shrugged. "I'm not a suspect!" she announced. "I don't have to stay here." Lauren left the room, leaving the others behind, with confused expressions on their faces. No one else worked up the nerve to leave.
Instead, Maya sidled over to Matt and draped herself on the couch next to him, resting her hand on his leg. She flashed him a smile. Worried, Irene went to Matt's side. She walked up to Maya, and said softly to her - "Excuse me? Would I be able to sit there, next to my boyfriend?"
Maya looked sweetly at Irene.
"No, I don't think so," she replied, idly stroking Matt's arm. "Matt has decided that he would rather not spend any more time with you."
Matt looked helplessly at the pair of girls - he liked Irene, but was quite pleased with the prospect of two girls fighting over him. Maya and Irene continuted to converse over who had ownership of Matt - in a sickeningly sweet way - until Maya muttered about the stupidity of a girl who wouldn't even give up when hit by a skier. Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle came together for Irene, and she realised that Maya's crash into her may not have been an accident. Irene reached out and grabbed the nearest item - a chess board - and began to hit Maya with it.
While the two admirers of Matt thumped each other, Rod, Kat, Geordie and Bree were on the opposite side of the room, dining on some crab and tartare sauce from the meal Chris had ordered to be sent to the room when the police had called him in. It was Kat who noticed the fight, and she stood to separate the girls, only to be stopped by Rod, who believed that Matt would sort it out. So when Maya's nail was broken and she whacked Irene so hard as to cause her to lose consciousness, the four others were still dining on crab.
***
Lauren walked slowly down the hallway, thinking as the fingered her blade. It was very interesting to Lauren that the murder had occured, because it had not been part of her plan. This meant that either one of her pawns had erred and failed to inform her, or that there were other activities afoot that she did not yet know of. As she turned a corner, Lauren heard the ping of a mobile telephone receiving a text message, but peroccupied, she paid it little attention.
***
Darren, Ed and Laura strode down the corridors, towards the room of Chris Edwards. Just as they reached his door, a scream echoed towards them.
"Check it out!" commanded Laura, and Ed took off towards the sound. As he disappeared, Darren put the key to Chris' door in the lock and turned it
Darren and Laura entered Chris' room, calling "Mr. Edwards?" as they did so. The room appeared empty.
"Where the hell is he?" screamed Laura in frustration, spinning on her heal and leaving. Darren remained, staring around the room. Near the cupboard he saw blood-stains on the carpet. He went to it and threw open the cupboard doors.
In the cupboard, stood Chris, one of his very expensive neckties hanging him from the top of his cupboard. Darren examined the body curiously, and noticed that there was blood on the suits - however there were no wounds.
***
Ed rounded the corner to find Lauren and Lawrence standing in the hall. Lawrence had been the one who had screamed; he was bleeding and Lauren was holding a bloodied Swiss Army knife between them.
"She attacked me!" cried Lawrence, brandishing a bloodied arm.
"I didn't!" screamed Lauren. "You lying, cheating, lying ho-bag!"
Ed evaluated the situation quickly, and restrained Lauren. He commanded Lars to return to the dining room, and led Lauren to the waiting hotel room, which was to serve as an interogation room, Lauren screaming curses all the way.
***
In the examination room, Payne spoke to his sister.
"You idiot, Lauren," he scolded. "I told you to leave that knife at home."
"But I didn't hurt him! He's trying to frame me!"
Payne gave his sister a knowing look.
"Lauren, you forget how well I know you."
"But I didn't!"
"Yes, Lauren," replied Payne, clearly disbelieving. "You will have to wait here until Laura arrives. She'll be the one to question you. I'll be waiting just outside, so don't try and go anywhere. We're on the 5th floor so you can't get out the window, and there's no adjoining air vents."
"I would never," began Lauren.
"Again, sister dear," Payne interrupted, "I know you. Now sit there and wait."
Payne left the room, Lauren alternatively protesting her innocence and screaming curses at his retreating back.
***
"Chris dead. Terminating deal. No further investigating will take place. K2."
Sarah read the text message and sighed. Good help was so hard to find. Obviously she would have to employ someone else to investigate the relationship between her mother, Julia Scarfe and Lauren Rizzi. Sarah thought for a while, then sent a text message to Irene.
In the dining room, Irene was still unconscious, and Maya was sitting on Matt's lap. When Lawrence entered the room, he rushed over to KatE.
"Did you get my message?"
"Yes, I got it," sniffed KatE, dark glasses hiding her eyes. "Do you know who did it?"
"I think it was that awful blonde woman! She cut me with a knife!"
Lawrence brandished his arm. KatE looked at it and saw the distinctive markings of a "Scarfe Supplies" pocket knife blade.
"How interesting..."
TO BE CONTINUED...