Chapter Four

Leland quickly realised that he had to find out what Melody had been hiding from them. And the best way to do that was to snoop. Surely somewhere Melody would have hidden more information about these people, whoever they were. So Leland started in her bedroom where he had found the pictures and the newspaper cuttings.

So he slowly opened her nightstand draws until he reached the bottom draw. He couldn't open it, somehow it was locked shut but there was no key or a place to put a key either so it was going to have to be broken open. Leland carefully kicked the side of the draws hoping it was going to be easy to break them open. But in typical Melody style it had to be more difficult than it seemed. The harder Leland kicked the draw the more resistance it seemed to put up. The stronger it seemed. It was just like the draw was fighting back.

After three hours finally the draws started to crack, split underneath Leland's heavy combat boots the contents falling on to Melody's bedroom carpet. A wallet, a purse, photos, newspapers and jewellery. What was Melody hiding? What had she been doing? Who was she?

Leland immediately started to think the worst, the items in that draw, the security. Melody was a thief. In his eyes. She must have stolen them why else were they locked away. But he had to find out what was really going on. Leland ran out to his car grabbed the gloves he kept on his belt for searching fugitives before pulling them on and running upstairs knowing if Melody died the whole apartment would become a crime scene so he had to work fast.

Leland decided to start even though it was three in the morning. First job was to find out what all the stuff was before piecing together Melody's story, finding out what had happened and why she had all the things in her nightstand that she did as well as discovering what the draw was made of that could fight back against Leland's kick.

This could take weeks before Leland could completely discover what had happened and time was running out quickly so he had to start searching for answers. So he started with the wallet, slowly opening it he found credit cards, hundreds of dollars and not much else. Leland went into bounty mode pulling out every card, every bill emptying the whole thing on to Melody's bed. Before checking every single card, every bill, every dime. There was at least two thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills and about fifteen cards all under Howard Stark. Whoever he was he had a history with Melody. Finally all that was left was the wallet its self; Leland carefully looked at it trying to see what he hoped and believed was there. The answer or at least a clue and there it was the logo on the front. The Captain America logo, it was a button that opened a secret front compartment which held a photo of a little boy who only looked about two and then a small post stamp sized photo of a young girl who looked a similar age to the boy. There were no notes about who the children were.

Next Leland opened the woman's purse finding a large wallet, filo fax, a handkerchief and a notebook. Leland tipped the bag upside down emptying the contents on to the bed. Many smaller items fell out of the bag including lipstick and a small plastic bag containing some keys at a guess for a car.

The bag was labelled up as evidence for the murder of Howard and Maria Stark. Also there was a larger bag, large enough to fit the whole purse in. This was labelled for the death of Maria Stark. Whatever had happened both Maria and Howard must be dead.

Next Leland carried on searching through the wallet finding more pictures of the same boy and girl. The boy seemed to vary in age from a little baby up to a man about twenty but the girl was always aged between newborn and two. Never any older. The wallet also contained some dollars but not nearly as many as the man's wallet.

There was also the filo fax from ten years ago around the time that Barbara had died. As he looked through the diary he noticed that there were only events leading up to September and no more. He carefully walked over to the newspaper article showing the death of Howard Stark it was dated May 3rd 2006. Only two weeks before Barbara died. That may explain why the diary was only filled to September and no further.

The sun rise was casting a burning orange light into the bedroom. It leaked through Melody's curtains like spilled orange juice. Setting and an eerie glow across room making it appear like the whole room may spontaneously burst into flames.

All that was left was the notebook. It was leather bound with a message on the front 'My dearest Maria. For things close to your heart. You will be in my heart forever and always Howard' as Leland opened the notebook he noticed some of the pages were tinged with smoke and others covered with blood.

By the time Leland had finished reading the book it was already lunchtime but he didn't feel like eating; luckily enough it was Sunday so he was not expected to be at work so no one would notice his disappearance meaning he could work all day and night if he needed to. The draw itself was some type of advanced technology which Leland could not understand so he gave up for today and get some sleep.

As Leland walked down the hall towards the guest bedroom it felt wrong that he was still in his sister's home while she was in hospital. Leland then went to shower; he needed to remove the dirt and grime of a long day crime fighting and then Melody's disappearance he was well overdue a shower and possibly a spar with Sonny.

So Leland walked back to the en suite attached to Melody's bedroom in order to have a shower and find some fresh clothes. He wasn't leaving in case someone tried to ransack the apartment after seeing Melody leave in the ambulance. It was too risky. So he slipped into Melody's shower grabbing her shampoo and shower gel to use on the way past the medicine cabinet. Then he noticed. There was a small music box which was just propped open by a chain. So Leland walked back to the cabinet, carefully picked up the box trying not to break it but it was tiny, old and extremely fragile. Knowing that Melody would know as soon as she got home that he had been through all of her things, searching for the secrets she hid. So Leland placed the music box on the counter carefully opening the lid to reveal a set of rings and two necklaces. The rings looked like wedding bands. What was Melody hiding? Leland had to tell Dog or Beth. Or at least ask the questions he should have asked years ago.