Chapter 2 - How Rumors Are Started
The human mind is an amazing thing. Franziska von Karma had no memory of her breakdown on the train. While she slept, that event was quietly tucked away into a dark corner of her mind where the memory that had triggered her tears, and also many other memories of her childhood, had been sealed. When she woke, she assumed that she had merely succumbed to the exhaustion of a taxing day and thought nothing more of it. After all, it was a foolish and insignificant little event.
However, she had a little more trouble putting the detective's coat out of her mind. Several days had passed since that fateful night on the train and she still had it. The poor thing was currently residing in the bottom of the hall closet in Franziska's apartment, where she had thrown it the moment she realized that she had never given it back to its owner that night.
She knew that she had to return it, but it would be beneath her dignity to just walk into the police department and hand it to him, let alone publicly thank him for allowing her to borrow it. Despite that, she couldn't bring herself to arrange a private meeting with him, either. Some part of the unsettling feelings she had felt that night crept back into her system whenever she thought of herself having a secret meeting alone with the detective.
There was also the possibility that her job at the prosecutor's office might require her to visit the police department for some reason. If that were to happen and she were to see Detective Gumshoe there, he would most likely inquire as to the whereabouts of his coat, and she would then most likely be lost for an answer and thus publicly humiliated.
And so it was that the coat lay negelected in the bottom of the closet. It was covering the shoe rack, so Franziska had taken to tossing her high heels on top of it when she got home from work. Tonight was no exception. She hadn't had a case since that last trial and she found the paperwork and other menial day-to-day tasks at the prosecutor's office repetitive and boring. She had to do it beacuse it was a part of her job, but she felt like she was wasting her time and not really getting any work done.
Franziska sighed as she hung her jacket on its designated hanger and hung it in its proper place in the closet. I'm tired of this. I wish a case would come in soon. She closed the closet door and went over to turn on the TV. She had planned on listening to the evening news while she fixed dinner, but when she turned on the TV there was an old movie on. It was in black in and white and featured a young lady knight, desperate to join her king's army. Despite her intentions, Franziska quickly became engrossed in the plot of the movie and curled up on the couch to watch.
By the middle of the movie, she had fallen asleep. The credits were rolling when she woke up, groggy and disoriented. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. It was almost 10 p.m. I seem to be developing a habit of falling asleep where I shouldn't lately, she thought wryly to herself. She stood up and stretched, working the kinks out of her arms and legs from the awkward position she had fallen asleep in.
Franziska was about to head to the kitchen and scare up something to eat when the phone rang. Who would be calling at this time of the night? She couldn't think of anyone who would even call her at all, unless... Unless there was a murder. Maybe she should have been careful what she wished for. There had been a murder. A double. The victims were children, three and four years old. If she wanted to be part of the investigation, she would have to get to the police departent immediately.
Franziska threw open the door to the closet and hurriedly grabbed her shoes. She remembered that it had been cold out earlier and without thinking she picked up the detective's coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. She slipped her high heels on and rushed to join the investigation team.
When Detective Gumshoe had shown up for work the day after his fateful encounter with Franziska von Karma without his trademark trenchcoat, many of the other officers had noticed and asked him why he wasn't wearing it. Gumshoe had laughed nervously and answered with shifty eyes, "I kind of... left it somewhere, pal." The other officers agreed amongst themselves that it was certainly like him to do something like that and nothing more was thought of it.
It wasn't until the day that Franziska showed up at the police department wearing the detective's coat that the rumors started...