Memories
(by Angela Merici Grzybowski Brazil - March/2021)
(english version – using . and and reviewed by Sherri Kelly and Rosely Rodrigues - thanks)
Eliza, sitting in her office, rethinking the week, it was intense and profitable.
"The bills for the month are paid, that's good, you're doing great, Lizzie," says Henry, sitting in his old armchair.
Eliza gets up and goes to fix the paintings on the wall, "you know I don't want you to call me that anymore, I grew up, Daddy"
"OK, Eliza, dear, something else, you didn't need to be rude to William, you know he cares about you, especially after I..." Henry doesn't finish the sentence.
Eliza turns to Henry, "After you died?!" Eliza completes Henry's phrase, "you can't say that, can you, Daddy?"
"No, Eliza, you can't get me to say that, you put the words in my mouth, remember?!"
"aahh, Daddy, I miss you so much, everything is still very difficult for me, when I thought you had a heart attack, it was already complicated, but to know that someone, that Frank ... Ohhh""
Eliza hears footsteps on the stairs and wipes a tear, when she looks back at the armchair, Henry is no longer there.
She goes back to her chair, behind the desk and thinks aloud, "as usual, you're gone"
A couple opens the door, both very young, nervous, they are just passing by London, they are members of the theater group that is playing in town and they need help to find one of the actresses, who mysteriously left the play and disappeared.
Eliza listens to the story, asks the usual questions: when they last saw her, if and why she decided to leave...
When the couple leaves, Eliza looks at the photo in her hand and rereads her notes, she doesn't have much information, at least she doesn't need to go to the Morgue, where she isn't welcome, nor to the hospitals, after all, the young couple has already been to these places, and didn't succed.
But, yes, she will have to go to William, they have not seen each other for a few days, the last time she was angry, William paid no attention to her, he was busy with the new Chief and a new policeman, since Chief Stirling died and Frank was arrested.
"Well, come on, this time I need more attention, Mr. Inspector Welligton of Scotland Yard." Speaking to herself, Eliza picks up her bag and leaves the office towards Scotland Yard.
"Wow, a missing actress?! Good case, Eliza, but no, I can't give you any information." An impatient William replies, already imagining that this answer would not be well accepted by Eliza.
"But, William, I just want to see if you have anything I can use, after all, just a photo is too little for us, detectives, to start an investigation."
"Eliza, how many times will I have to repeat ?, I am a detective and you're..."
"A curious woman?! Eliza finishes, shooting William with her eyes.
"OK, ok, you're a detective, but a private detective woman. I can't pass on the Scotland Yard's information to you, and you know it very well," says William holding Eliza's shoulders and returning to that look of admiration and so common disappoval, when they have professional differences.
William admires Eliza for her strength and determination, but in the male professional world he lives in, it is difficult to fit Eliza, even recognizing her competence.
Eliza knows William's look very well, she has already learned how to use it in her advantage, so she changes the tone of the conversation and the subject "very busy with the new boss?..."
"Hopper, Chief Hopper, and yes, busy with him and Mike, in for Frank, ... OK... so Eliza, it was a pleasure to see you again and I hope you can find your missing actress," says William, indicating the door, signaling to Eliza that she should go.
"Bye Wiiliam" says Eliza annoyed, but leaving the office frustrated at not having added anything to her investigation; she then decides to go to the theater, ask for information about the actress.
Later, returning from the theater, Eliza is more discouraged, nothing was added after talking to the theater staff, on the contrary, some of the actors think that Mary, the missing actress, just left the theater, did not disappear, went away, Just like that.
But then what was bothering Eliza, why she couldn't agree with what almost everyone said "She left, said she was going to leave, and one day she left, she didn't desappeared."
Getting home, having dinner and resting, that's what she needed now, tomorrow she would think about it again.
The next morning, in the kitchen, having coffee with Ivy, the faithful maid who had taken care of her since she was a little girl, Eliza rethinks the case, and says she will GO back to the theater and talk to the play's producer and the couple who hired her, perhaps the their youth has overcome reasoning and they have seen the departure of Mary (the actress) as desappearance.
"Yes, " says Ivy, and as she collects the cups and the dishes, she asks, "so, did you go to talk to Inspector William?"
"I went, but it didn't add anything, and you know, William doesn't totally approves me being a detective. He still has that disapproving look. Well, I'll be back to lunch, after all, I have no other case to dedicate myself to and this one, or even one case seems be. Bye Ivy"
"Bye, Mrs Scarlet, be careful anyway, " replies Ivy.
Someone knocks insistently on the kitchen door, Ivy doesn't understand who it might be, it is not yet lunchtime, and if it was Eliza she would come in from the front of the house; Ivy went down the stairs and opened the door.
Startled, Ivy sees Moses entering with Eliza in his lap, she is unconscious and he is panting.
"By God, what happened? Mrs Scarlet, my God, what happened?"
Moses crosses the house to the living room and places Eliza on the sofa, turns to Ivy, ask for salt and answers "I don't know what happened, Mrs, I saw Mrs Eliza lying on the street, so I brought her here. I don't see any marks, but it's better to call a doctor."
"Yes, of course, oh my God, Oh Eliza, what happened?! I'm going to call the doctor and the inspector too, he needs to know that".
Moses faces Ivy, he and William care about Eliza, but are not friends, they just tolerate each other and only because of Eliza; he doesn't want to have to answer the questions he knows William will ask, he wants to look for the answers to those questions.
The doctor examines Eliza and sees nothing more serious, just a sprained foot and a slight concussion, but she is still unconscious, William knocks on the door, Moses decides to leave, thus avoiding meeting William and his accusing look.
William can't hide his concern when He sees Eliza unconscious on the sofa, "by God, I always said that being a detective is a profession for men, Eliza"
Ivy explains that Eliza went to the theater in the morning, and that Moses found her unconscious on the side street and brought her home.
William writes it all down mentally, he will have a serious conversation with the Jamaican about Eliza and all that.
Accompanied to the door by William, the doctor explains that Eliza must have twisted her foot on some step and ended up falling and hit her head, nothing serious, she must wake up with severe headache and limp for a few days.
Upon returning to the living room, William sits on the armchair next to Eliza and gently holds her hand, watching his little fingers interwined with his big ones.
Ivy comes back with tea for William, who prefers to take his whiskey out of his pock.
"Ivy, I'm going back to the Scotland Yard, please let me know when she wakes up, will you?" Says William, leaving Eliza's hand and getting up to go.
When he is leaving the room, Eliza wakes up and says, "Ivy, what am I doing here? What happened?"Wow, and why I have this headache" taking her hand to her forehead, trying to get up, but she gives up and lies down again.
William returns to Eliza and explains that she must have twisted her foot, fell and hit her head, but that is nothing serious.
"Ohhh, thanks doctor, I don't remember where I was or what I was doing; Ivy how did I get here?" Asks Eliza.
"Doctor?" asks William, incredulous.
"Yes, I suppose it's a doctor my maid called, right Ivy?"
"What do you mean, you remember Ivy, but you don't remember me? It's me, Eliza, William, you Just gotta be kidding." William says, without believing, rubbing his face, typical of when he is upset.
Ivy can't understand it either, but she knows that Eliza wouldn't play like that with the inspector; to appease the situation, Ivy explains to Eliza that the doctor has come and gone and also who William is, who called him because she worried about what might have happened to her.
Helped by Ivy, Eliza sits on the sofa, "oh, I want to go to the bedroom, Ivy, I think going to bed will be the best now."
Going back to William, "Thank you Inspector Wellignton, but I think it was just an accident, I don't see why we should involve the Scotland Yard in a common accident."
William, without understanding anything, realizes that he must leave, says goodbye and leaves, not in the direction of his office, but in search of Moses and for answers.
Later in the evening, at his house drinking his brandy, waiting for Moses, William remembers what happened and talks to Henry, who is standing leaning on the fireplace in front of him.
"How is it possible for Eliza to remember some things and not others?" "How could she have forgotten me, Henry?"
"I don't know, William, I'm not here anymore, remember?" Henry replied calmly.
"Ahhh no, you are here now, and you owe me that, Henry, Eliza gives me headaches in different ways, and many of them are your fault, so you owe me that Henry, yes"
Smiling, playing with a statuette, Henry continues "yes, William, you two always gave me headaches," changing the tone, looking paternally at William, he continues " ... I am very proud of you."
At this time Moses appears at the office door, silent as always, William notices the Jamaican's presence and turns to him, determined to get answers, Henry is gone.
"We have a lot to talk about," says William to Moses.
A few days have passed, William is sitting in his office, with a pile of folders in front of him, but still not understanding what happened to Eliza, his searches in the theater and the conversation with Moses have come to nothing, and since then Moses has not got in touch, if he discovered something, he decided not to share it with William.
Eliza was investigating a missing actress who, well, does not appear to have disappeared for some, at the Scotland Yard it was filed as "case without case"; but what bothers Wiliam the most is that he is a total stranger to Eliza, after all, they've known each other since they were teenagers and, also, there was that kiss between them, did she really forget everything that involved William in her life?!
Mike, the new Police officer, walks into the room without knocking and takes William out of his thoughts.
"Duke, they found a woman's body, it's in the morgue, it seems to be the actress your detective was looking for."
William gets up, picks up his hat and answers dryly: "Eliza is not my detective, Mike."
Leaving the morgue, Wiliam decides to go to Eliza's office, see her notes, he turns over the pocket where he carries the copy of the key. The medical examiner has barely started his work, but he can already say that the actress drowned in the waters of the Thames.
Being in Eliza's office brings many memories to William, the discussions, the looks, almost a week and Eliza still doesn't remember him.
William flips through Eliza's notebook, her unmistakable handwriting, feminine, firm features, "quite different from my scribbles," he thinks.
The door opens, Moses appears, I thought you were here, I stopped by the Police station and they said you had left.
William looks suspiciously at Moses, " they found the actress, drowned in the Thames, the theater people did the reconnaissance" reports William conclusively.
"yes, I heard, I'm working in the theater, they're going to take everything apart and go on with the play." Moses says, approaching the table and picking up a paperweight.
"Working in the theater?! Were you able to discover anything else?" William asks,
Leaving the paperweight back on the table, Moses responds: "to such an actress, Mary, she wanted to stop, to stay in London, asked for her share of the contract and said she would look for a place to live and another occupation. The actors don't talk to the police, but they talk in front of the carpenters, we are nobody to them."
"it seems that the producer was not willing to pay and she left anyway, saying that she would come back to receive it." Moses continued.
"Hummm she may have gone to get the money and ended up in the Thames..." concluded William,
"But Eliza didn't even come close to it all, there's nothing in her notes, was it really an accident?" William spoke more to himself than to Moses.
"No, Eliza didn't have an accident, look at this, " said Moses showing a broken piece of wood. "I was told to fix the stairs at the side exit, this step was cut before it broke." "It was on this side that I found Eliza, but away from the stairs" "She must have fallen, hit her head, whoever cut off the step saw her fall and dragged her to where I found her."
William took the piece of wood with fury in his eyes, Eliza had been a second victim of of the killer of Mary, the actress.
"OK, Moses, go back there, try to find out something else, we Will have to continue working on it together, I will go to Eliza's house, see if she has her memory back. Please keep me posted. "
The two did not like each other, but for Eliza, they would overlook their personal differences.
"Inspector Wellington, how are you? Please come in" greeted Eliza as she saw William enterring the room, "Ivy, get some more tea, will you?!"
William felt a squeeze, calling him an inspector already showed that her memory had not returned.
Eliza was accompanied by Rupert, strangely she remembered him, but only until the marriage proposal she had refused, not that He was her partner in the investigation office. But that didn't bother Rupert.
"Inspector," said Rupert, drawing William from his thoughts, "is it true that the actress in the play is the woman found in the Thames?"
"My God, what a terrible thing, why would someone take his own life like that, at the height of his career" Eliza said, and then addressing William: "Inspector Wellington, I can't imagine entering a morgue, having to deal with bodies, with different traumas, my God, this must be very difficult. "
William looked at this new Eliza, tempted to say that in the recent past numerous times he had to drag her out of the morgue at the request of the coroner, but in the end just commented "Yes, Miss Scarlet, it is a difficult task, but it is part of the duty of a Police officer or inspector. We still don't know if it was suicide, Miss Scarlet, the doctor hasn't given us his final diagnosis yet."
Ivy brought more tea and a cup for William, he was going to get his personal whiskey, but he gave up, and accepted the tea Eliza served him. This new Eliza was sweet, calm, very different; but he found himself missing the previous Eliza, the instigator, his Eliza.
The investigation of the actress found in the Thames took William to the theater, there he saw Moses working, they did not know each other, but Moses signaled that he would look for William later.
The interviews with the theatre people did not yield much, just what William already knew: Mary wanted her share of the play money to go out and settle in London.
The producer of the play was not found and William thought he was already a long way from London; all the more, the coroner discovered that Mary had been almost strangled before she fell or, more likely, was thrown on the Thames, drowned because she was unconscious.
What tortured William's mind was how Eliza would have gotten into all this and ended up partially losing her memory, Just forgetting about him. He decided to go and talk to the doctor, to find out if Eliza's impairment wold be permanent, yearning for any hope of having Eliza as she was before, irritatingly disagreeing with him whenever possible.
When he left the doctor's Office without much hope of haveng his Eliza back, he saw Moses across the street, crossed it and went to see what the Jamaican had to say.
"Any news from the girl's memory?" asked Moses
William just shook his head and asked "and you, did you know how Eliza got into it?"
"She spoke to the producer a few days after the actress left the group and disappeared; he must have felt threatened and prepared the stairs for her while she talked with the other actors. When she left, she stepped on the step that broke and the rest you already know, Inspector." Moses emphasized the Inspector at the end of the conversation.
"An alert was given at Scotland Yard, if they find that producer, he will be arrested and brought in for questioning, I want five minutes with him, if that is true, he will tell me" said William with a certain fury in the eyes, as Moses had well realized.
"Well, the girl is fine, and as far as I'm concerned, it's all right, so..."
"What do you mean, Eliza remembers you, Rupert, Ivy..? How does she not remember me or that she was a detective?"
"I don't know, Inspector, I don't know." said Moses, walking away leaving a bewildered William, standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
A while later, William is at the bar, drinking his whiskey, Mike (the new Police officer) arrives, sits and starts a conversation, Just like Frank did, " I thought you would be here, Duke, yeah, the producer was the one who killed the actress and tried to kill Miss Scarlet, your detective."
"My detective, Mike?" comments William, "she was never my detective and she probably never will be, since she is not even a detective anymore."
William takes the rest of the glass in one gulp, hits the glass on the table, gets up, " I'm not going back to the office today, I'll be home if they need me."
Already on the street, he finds the key to Eliza's office in his pocket, decides to go there,he misses "his Eliza".
Sitting at Eliza's desk, he remembers the discussions and other moments there, Henry is back in the armchair in front of him "She'll be back, William, she just needed a little time."
"Are you talking or am I putting words in your mouth, Henry?" asks William
"Maybe a little bit of both William" replies Henry smiling
The door opens, Eliza enters and is surprised to see William in her chair: "William, I didn't think I would see you here at this hour, the Scotland Yard didn't pay the rent for your office and then you decided to use mine?"
William looks towards the door (Henry is gone) he gets up, stunned, but smiles when he sees her there and happy, for her call him by name, Eliza finaly remembered!
"Eliza, or should I call you Miss Scarlet? Did you recover your memory?"unable hide/disguise his happiness.
"Eliza, and yes, I have recovered, thank you, William; I woke up today with my memory back" replies Eliza, with the look of accomplice that both William knew and missed.
"Good to know that, Eliza, so how about we go to dinner, celebrate your recovery" invites William, taking his hat, smiling inside and out , for havind her back by his side.
"hhuuummm it's still early, William, but okay, we can go, so you update me of what made this time of truce between us," replied Eliza with the traditional seductive and challenging look she had only for Wiliiam.
They went out together, as friends, accomplices, closing the office door.
End