Chapter 5

Lily raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. "The girlfriend?"

Det. Hammerson looked a little uneasy at the news. "They were going out at that time?"

Geoffrey chuckled again and stretched. "Nah, but us guys teased him about that because she was the only girl that seemed to be really close to him. They weren't boyfriend and girlfriend but they sure acted like that sometimes though they'd be the last people on earth to admit it. A bit of puppy love if you ask me."

Lily had to smile at that. "So, I'm assuming that you've met her?"

Geoffrey nodded. "Yup, through him of course. Actually brought her to the workplace once. Came around lunchtime, he was gonna leave early, go see a movie with her, that sort of thing."

"When was this?"

"Let me think….end of July I say. Or maybe the second last week. That was the time of the cooler weather in the midst of the heatwave wasn't it?"

Det. Hammerson nodded. "What was your impression of her?"

Geoffrey blinked a few times, trying to hide the uneasiness in his eyes. "She was a wonderful girl. Just wonderful."

"Except…?"

"Except there always seemed to be some big dark secret bothering her. And that's what made her close herself off to the rest of the world."

Geoffrey walked up to Vivien sitting under the big oak tree in the front lawn. "Mind if I join you?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "Don't you have to work or something?"
Geoffrey shrugged and sat down beside her under the shade. "I'm on my break. Besides, it looked like you could use someone to talk to."
Vivien laughed and looked down the street. "I'm an only child so I don't need to have a constant flow of conversation to survive."
"I didn't mean that. You were staring off into space and looking insanely sad."
"Insanely sad eh? That's a combination of words I haven't heard before."
"And now you're using sarcasm to cover that up."
She turned back her head and stared blankly into his eyes. "It's nothing. It's just…nothing."
Geoffrey opened his mouth to say something else but quickly changed his mind and closed it as he saw Steven approach the two of them.
"Hey." His voice was soft and friendly. "What have you guys been talking about?"
Vivien and Geoffrey exchange a quick glance. "Nothing," she finally said. "I was just thinking about some stuff, that was all."
"Stuff? What kind of stuff?"
"Just…stuff."
"Are you thinking about that guy again?" Steven demanded. His crossed his hands and stood back, waiting for the answer.
Geoffrey was intrigued. "What guy?"
A look of annoyance crossed Vivien's face. "I'm not. That wasn't what I was thinking about. And what if I was? Why would you care?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"Forget it. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Vivien stood up and walked off.

"Wow, that was pretty sudden of her." Det. Hammerson commented as he scribbled down notes.

"You're telling me." Geoffrey agreed. "She just got up and left, leaving me and Steven in the dark. He chased her down a few minutes after that. She wasn't mad at him, but it sure put a dent in plans because she left by herself soon after that."

"Any idea who the other guy was?" Lily pressed on.

Geoffrey slowly shook his head. "Not really…I had just met the girl that day, not like she was going to tell me right off the bat what her personal life held."

"It could have been another guy that held a flame for her. Do you have ideas of that?"

Geoffrey shifted a bit uncomfortably in the hard cushioned chair. "I don't know how relevant this is…I don't even know if I heard the truth. But from what I've been told…I daresay Andrew held a flame for her back then."

"Who's Andrew?"

"Steven's younger brother."

Det. Hammerson let out a low whistle and leaved back in his chair. "Classic."

The dots were slowly being connected in Lily's mind. "Was Steven ever the jealous type?"

Geoffrey shook his head slightly and shrugged. "Everybody gets jealous once in awhile, he didn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary in regards to that. I'm embarrassed to say this, but even after all these years, there are many times when I feel like I still don't know that kid. Whatever happened between them, he seemed pretty hurt by that."

That was all Lily needed to hear at that point. "Thank you Mr. Smith." She said as she stood up and stepped forward to shake his hand. "We'll be in touch."

"Sure." Geoffrey took Lily's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Hope I will be of some help."

"So Vivien seemed like a bit of a dark person back then." Det. Hammerson commented quietly to Lily as the two of them pushed open the glass doors and stepped into the warm afternoon sunshine.

"Yeah…" Lily cast a backwards glance at Geoffrey through the glass, swaggering off to a back room. "And if a stranger saw that kind of potential trouble and darkness within her, what would her friends and family have seen?"

It was a sprawling white rancher that lay on a corner lot surrounded by an even more impressive green lawn. At least it would have been if the premises hadn't been transformed into a mini-construction site. Thick white sheets were spread out everywhere, a huge dumpster full of scrap wood took up a good half of the driveway. Guys no older than forty raced around the rooftop as easily as Spiderman skipping over skyscrapers.

Det. Jeromes gave Det Stelleto a look a checked the address he had written on a piece of paper. They had contacted his apartment only to find nobody home and had to resort to calling up his parents to find his latest work address and location. Even then it had taken some effort to persuade them that no, their eldest son was not in danger or in trouble of any kind; they just wanted to ask him some questions. They better have given the two of them the right worksite address.

One of the guys on the ground noticed the two detectives and walked over to meet the two of them. "Can I help you?"

"Yes actually you can. I'm Detective Stelleto and this is Detective Jeromes. We're looking for a Steven Lassino."

"STEVEN!" the guy hollered to the guys running around the roof. "THESE GENTLEMEN ARE LOOKING FOR YA!"

"Alright Dan!" a guy hollered back. "Tell them I'm coming!" He packed the tools into his belt, scaled down the ladder and jogged over to meet the two detectives. Compared to most of the workers he was a scrawny little kid in faded black clothes, glasses, and matching dark hair. The two detectives blinked and the kid had grown. He was a taller, a little more muscular, the glasses were gone and he sported dusty jeans and a fitted white t-shirt. The same dark hair was now matted by sweat to his forehead. "I'm Steven."

"And we're Detective Stelleto and Jeromes."

"I'd shake hands, but you probably wouldn't want all that dust and dirt."

"This better not be to talk about your girl." Dan gave Steven a little wink and a nudge.

Steven rolled his eyes and pushed his co-worker away. "Yeah why don't you just keep your mouth shut and go off and actually do some work." Dan stuck out his tongue at Steven before swaggering off.

"Right. We're here to ask you some questions about the murder of Lin Pei Chan." Det. Stelleto flipped open his little black notebook.

"Murder? You mean it wasn't suicide?"

"We've got a new angle now." Det. Jeromes stated. "In our files it lists you confirming Vivien spent some time at your house the night of the murder."

"You waited all these years to ask me to confirm that?"

"We just want to make sure all possibilities are covered."

"It's the book Vivien wrote isn't it?"

Det. Jeromes stared at Steven for a few seconds.

"Alright, as I told the cops the first time around, she did spend some time at my house the night of the murder. I don't really see why it would be relevant now."

"What do you know about Lin Pei Chan?" Det Stelleto continued. "And not from what you read in the book."

Steven shrugged. "Not too much really. Real…quiet reserved kind of character. She never went out of the house from what Vivien has told me, so I never really saw her. In the end it was probably better that way."

"Why do you say that?"

Steven crossed his arms and stared at the ground, shifting his weight between his legs. "Vivien doesn't really like people knowing this…but if I can be frank…"

"By all means, go ahead."

"I don't know exactly what kind of person her grandmother was, but from what I know and can feel, she did some horrible things. She really screwed up her grandchild. And I hated her for that, because I couldn't find a way to help her."

Vivien is sitting on the worn black couch in the living room. The television is on and playing various videos on MTV, but Vivien has her head back and is staring aimlessly at the ceiling instead. Steven enters the room with two glasses of Coke.

"You know, if you really wanted to you could just switch off the TV and stare at my ceiling." He says as he hands her the glass.
"Thanks for the Coke. And no, you left it on this channel so I'm not touching the remote." Vivien takes a sip and sighs. "I'm sorry; I know this is the second time this week I've come over here. I just couldn't stand to be home right now."
"Hey, don't worry about it. That's what friends are for." Steven sat down on the space beside her and the two of them stare at the screen together. "You know…if you ever want to talk about what goes on at home…you know I'm right here."
"Thanks, but I don't know where to start…it's complicated."
"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"I'm sure."
"You sure?"
"Yes I'm sure. Please stop asking."
Steven glanced up only to notice a form creeping behind the corner. "What's wrong with you Andrew? Why do you have to sneak around here like some bum?"
"Do you mind if I come and join you guys?" Andrew asked timedly.
"Get out of here now!" Steven picked up a pillow and threw it at his brother, but Andrew easily dodged out of the way.
"I know more than you do." Andrew taunted before he disappeared. "Loud words and actions won't get you everywhere."

"Who was Andrew?"

"My younger brother." Steven replied. "Always hung around in the shadows whenever Vivien was over. And yet somehow that got them closer together than I was with her. In the end he knew more things about her than I did."

"So he would have known more about her grandmother than you."

"Look, all I know is that Vivien disliked her grandmother with a passion."

"And your brother?"

"He was madly in love with her."

"How does that help us in our investigation?" Det. Jeromes asked.

Steven took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. He looked back up a few moments later and stared at the two detectives straight in the eye.

"Because he would have done anything for her. And I mean anything."

A/N: Thank you for the reviews I have received so far! Hopefully I can a few more chapters up before my Winter Break is over…cross your fingers I guess, but I can't guarantee anything. Please keep the comments coming!

Joutsensydn: Thank you for your compliments on my flashbacks. I don't know if this stuff would ever happen in real life (Lily being "on loan") but I thought it would be better for now to base the story in a place where I'm more familiar with than try to put it in Philadelphia, which I know nothing about.

Snow Ivy: Thank you, I hope I can keep up with the quality of the story and not put forth a crappy ending. I confess I like the character of Geoffrey as well…he just seems to have that little something. And thanks for your suggestion. I have an idea about that…I don't know how successful it would be if I tried to put a bit of humour in there, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Also a big thank you to TatiakaTrinity and MaryRose for their comments!