This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: Court Side.
"The Long Aloha"
7. Aloha, Aloha
They knew the police was on its way, but they couldn't just stand around and do nothing, so they started to wonder, about Rose, about what could have happened to her. There was still the very strong possibility that a killer stood among them, and that left them all on high alert.
"What about before tonight?" Regina asked the others.
"She never talked to me," Jon shrugged.
"Well why would she, you hate Dave and she loved him," Beatrice glared at the guy.
"I don't hate him," Jon cut in, frowning at Beatrice before looking back to Dave. The former friends looked to one another, and despite the state of their relationship at the moment, Dave knew Jon's words to be true.
"Look, this isn't about that right now," Murray tried to bring things back in line, and the others faced forward again. "Whatever you've got, it could help."
"If anything was wrong, she wouldn't have said," Tina looked to Beatrice, who agreed with a silent nod. "She was always open, but… not with anything like this. The one time we ever…" She paused, looking to Beatrice again, and the click of memory happened for her as well. They were silently debating it now – speak or hold your tongue.
"What is it?" Regina asked.
"We promised her never to tell," Beatrice shook her head to Tina.
"She's dead, Bea," Tina's voice trembled, and Beatrice's face gave tremors, but she nodded. "Last summer, there was a guy who tried to force himself on her. She said she couldn't remember who he was, but we think she did know, or if she didn't, then she remembered after a while." The revelation hit the group hard. It also concentrated their suspicions. Dave took the news with renewed sadness for his Rose, but also renewed anger for whoever had gone and dared lay a finger on her.
"An employee?" Regina asked, serious. The maids nodded.
"Why didn't she report him?" Evelyn shook her head, stricken.
"She said she didn't remember," Beatrice shook her head. "I think she was scared he'd come back and actually pull it off this time."
"What do you know about what happened, anything she might have told you or…" Regina asked.
"Was that the night of the Oscar party?" Sophie asked, remembering something. The maids nodded. "I remember, she was acting strange, just… I think she'd been drugged."
"But she was always careful about those things, I mean really careful," Tina insisted.
"Maybe not if she trusted the guy," Miles frowned with sadness. Rose had been his friend, too.
It took a moment, but then there was an intake of breath, and Evelyn backed up to stand safer, with others around her, as her eyes raised to the bartender. "She liked you. B-before she was with Dave, I'd see her looking at you," she spoke toward Chase, even if she was afraid to be without protection.
"So?" he shrugged, not liking the accusation. But the words had started a chain, of almost each and every one of them recalling either seeing or experiencing an amount of roughness from the most ardent contester of their new management. When that remembrance hit Dave, he looked like a man with a mission, and that mission was to rain hurt on the guy. If Jon and Miles hadn't held him back, he would have gotten there, and the only thing that hit the guy were Dave's words. He was surrounded – he wasn't going to get away.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Regina stepped forward, unafraid. "Did she confront you? Did she threaten to tell on you, was that it?" her tone was hard, showing a protectiveness of her dead employee that perhaps in the long run would help everyone warm to the change in management at their hotel. Chase wasn't denying anymore, just stood there.
"Why'd you hang her up like that?" Lou had to ask, and if events hadn't smacked them all hard enough, his response, and the smile that came with it, only hardened the blow.
"To humiliate her," he shrugged.
The game was over, no need to declare it as such. They stood in silence for a beat, letting it all settle before they could be themselves again.
"I wish we had a real pool…" Brittany was the first to speak, breaking the tension that had come with the end of the game.
"I did almost bring one," Kurt revealed. "Would have been too risky."
"Why didn't we just use the actual pool?" Rachel pointed out, and Kurt sort of wished she'd mentioned this sooner.
"Are you okay?" Santana asked Brittany, looking to her as she remembered the straps.
"Yeah, I got kind of pinched but just one place," she promised.
"Where?" Mike asked.
"I'd rather not say," Brittany turned back to Santana.
"Well why don't we go to the pool?" Puck suddenly suggested, and now the quiet was one of mischief – maybe…
"You guys go ahead, I should clean up," Kurt told them. They were quick to move on out, though two remained behind… Kurt kind of expected as much. Rachel and Mercedes helped him clean up the gym, taking the decorations down, packing what could be salvaged and throwing out the rest. Everything that belonged to the school was stacked in the corner, as arranged, while Kurt's things were loaded in the boxes he'd taken in with him before being taken to his car. When the trunk door was shut, he looked back toward the two girls.
"Come to the pool with us?" Rachel asked.
"I'm not really in a swimming mood," he shrugged.
"Are you in a 'tossing people in the pool' mood?" Mercedes asked innocently.
"Which people?" Kurt asked.
"We can leave that up to you," Rachel told him, holding her arm out. After a moment, he sighed.
"Alright, alright. Let's go." He smiled to each of his two best friends as they re-entered McKinley to finish out the night with their fellow murder mystery diners.
THE END
