Adventure in the World of Crimes

3.15 Stepanie's Number

Reign woke up by the noise in her kitchen. Since it was connected to the living room and there was not a divider nor anything that could at least muffle the noise, and she was mot in her bedroom, she stirred in her sleep, feeling something on her face which made her groaned as she touched whatever it was.

"Wake up, sleepyhead." She heard from the other side, which made her froze on the spot, the event from last night had slowly dawning back on her.

"It's so early! Are you purposely clattering everything there to wake me up!?" She irritatedly, still huskily replied, stretching her body.

"It's impossible to move these without a sound, Flora. And what's this that I had just found out about you?" Reign stopped from moving, or even breathing, upon hearing her serious voice.

Did she forget something that could lead her to speculate about her identity? Or did she find familiarity with the clothes she was wearing when she visited her hotel and she happened to be there as well? Did she finally know about her being an agent?

"I think you're the only woman I know who put a facial mask from since it's wet until it dried up in your face. You can say that in your interview about the secret of your beauty." She remarked followed by a boisterous laugh, "I can't believe you're still with that mask until now."

Reign heard another laugh from her, it was getting louder so she thought she was walking towards her. She let out a sigh of relief, she really thought someone would finally know her identity and she needed a lot of explaining to do, turned out, it was only about her facial mask which she purposely didn't take off in case she would peek on her sleeping state which she was not right.

Unknowingly, she huffed which caused her mask to fly out of her face to the floor, and then it was the exact moment when the manager peeked on her face from the backside of the couch with a huge smile on her lips and still laughing. She widened her eyes, squealing as she fell on the floor, and hastily ran towards her room and closed it loudly after her back.

"What's wrong with you? Were you shy? It's okay, I won't tell it to anyone!" She heard her yelled playfully, walking towards the kitchen to continue whatever she was doing there.

Reign breathed deeply first before shaking her head and proceeding to just fix herself so she wouldn't need to hide her real face. She looked around her room, finding it clean unlike how she left it yesterday, the bed was made as if no one had occupied it, her makeup kits and brushes were properly organized on the table, the clothes that she used and were previously on the floor were now in the hamper, and the paper bags and gifts which she received from the sponsors and the supporters were now organized from smallest to largest. Now she wondered if she slept last night or organized her room.

After minutes of preparation, she stepped out of her room, she saw the woman already eating the fried rice and eggs that she cooked, expecting that she also cooked for her, she looked at the pan but found it clean,

"Where's mine?" She asked with a furrowed brow, "Don't tell me you cooked only for yourself, using my stocks, in my house, after you slept here unwelcomed?"

"Don't be a meany kid, you are the opposite of my previous kid." She remarked with a little smile on her face while shaking her head, "Eat eggs, fruits, and yogurts. You need to diet, you can't be bloated."

Reign rolled her eyes in annoyance, proceeding to her fridge to get the yogurt and fruits. She hadn't been exercising lately, and she could feel herself gaining weight, so she didn't argue about dieting. She sat on the seat beside her and started eating as well.

"If you don't mind me asking, manager. What does the last you and Stephanie had talked about?" She opened up again about the manager's previous actress, they didn't get to talk about that last night because, after her answer to ger question, she had just walked towards her room without any more words.

"Why do you seem so interested in Stephie?" She curiously asked, but then proceeded to answer it after she swallowed the food inside her mouth, "As far as I could remember about how thankful she was that she had me as her manager. Just the usual exchange of gratitude message for having each other, that was just it."

"Do you know who was the last person she was with or the last person who visited her in her hotel room?"

Manager Betty put down her utensils and drank from her glass of water before answering, "The people who visited her that night, based on the CCTV that we checked upon investigating Greg's case, were Martin, Freya, Manager Karen with Greg, and Mr. Koto with Jeremy."

"You mean Martin with Freya?" She reiterated, putting a slice of apple in her mouth.

"No, they visited in a different time frame, I think an hour after Martin, Freya came." She replied, hand under her chin as she tried to remember the CCTV that was shown for Greg's investigation.

It had always saddened the manager whenever she thought of only Greg's case was being investigated, no one knows why and how did they manage to hide another death. When she heard about Manager Karen checking the CCTV, she immediately involved herself, by that, she would also see the possible people who killed Stephanie, and she did, but that was not enough, she couldn't bring herself to ask them about it.

"Freya knew Steph?"

"No, actually, I mean, she knew her by name and face but that's all, I think she talked to me about her that night. She told me she was a controlling woman, she threatened her about going out with Martin, she didn't like her for him, and she thought, she doesn't like anyone for her."

"You mean, Freya thinks she has the control over her members?" She asked in surprise, "Isn't she problematic with attitude?"

"She is. She's even worse than Caitriona." She answered, finishing her food. "But I think she got a little less handful when Clinton became her boyfriend."

It made Reign couch from the orange she was eating which caught on her throat, Manager Betty immediately tend to her and gave her a glass of water.

"They're-" She coughed once more, "They're in a relationship?"

Manager Betty stood up and washed her plates as she answered, "Yes, just recently. Freya likes every attention focused on her."

"I figured." She replied, shaking her head. "How about the others who visited her? What did they do in her room?"

"I don't know exactly, I'm basing what I'm telling you on our conversation since she was always updating me of her whereabouts. They just congratulated her on her award with Greg. Same with Mr. Koto and Jeremy though it lasted for almost an hour since the old man tends to be talkative sometimes, the visit was just for the sole purpose of congratulation. However, I don't really know about Photographer Geoff, I didn't know she visited her until the day I watched the CCTV, and when I looked at the time and search through our conversation, I found out she didn't reply to me for half an hour, then rereading what we've talked about she mentioned that she received an offer from a photographer that she didn't tell the name, about a casting for a film. She didn't elaborate but I shrugged it off, telling her there was a lot going on with her schedule so she couldn't entertain another project."

"What time was her last message to you and what did she say?"

She faced her, wiping her hand through the fridge's towel. "I actually forgot, let me look at it later while we're on the way. We're going to be late if we talk about all of this right now."

She said to which Reign just sighed and rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction and being hanged by the lack of information. She decided to finish eating and stand up, she organized her couch while she waited for the woman to finish preparing.

After a while, she came out of her room, wearing another set of clothes and freshly out from the bath. She had her bag again hooked on her shoulder while she was combing her thin, still dripping hair.

"Let's go, Flora." She said, walking straight to the door without looking at Reign.

Reign took her purse and followed her, walking towards the elevator down to the parking where the driver was already waiting. After settling inside, and the driver started maneuvering the van, she saw Manager Betty started fiddling on her phone, she kept on scrolling up so she bet she was looking for her and Stephanie's conversation which had been covered over completely by the other pile of messages.

"Here it is," She muttered after finding Stephanie's name, she opened it, "11:39 pm was her last message, telling me that she's so tired and sleepy so she's going to sleep. She even made a lot of typographical errors. I sent her a 'Good night' but she didn't see that anymore."

"Why is she tired? Did she go to a schedule before she moved to the hotel?"

The manager shook her head, "No, she's free that day. I don't know what did she do the entire day before the night, it was also unusual to me for her to sleep this early, she usually sleeps late like you." She explained, looking at the phone on Stephanie's name upon dawning on her how she missed this lady.

"May I see your phone?" Reign asked, not letting her answer but she just took the phone from her hand but accidentally pressed the call button.

It rang.

Their eyes widened when it rang, the manager was about to take it from her hand but she raised her other hand to stop her as they waited from the other side.

"Hello?"