Mina’s plan was to turn on the phone and check out some web pages. The first part of plan worked as intended; the phone successfully booted up. The second part met an obstacle. Literally dozens of messages popped up as soon as she entered the pin code.

Though she felt nothing particular towards Martin, she was not immune to empathizing with other people’s feelings towards him. Quite the opposite. She read a lot of uncertain hope between the lines asking if he was okay, and to call back as soon as possible. It didn’t help that she could easily imagine these people from his memories. Linda, his girlfriend, would head straight into a depression, if she wasn’t there already. His daughters would be crushed, robbed of their daddy. Particularly Elly, who always favored her father. It didn’t matter that they were adults now.

Then there were messages from friends, colleagues, acquaintances. A few of the messages were your everyday message about mundane things, from people who probably didn’t know what Martin had been involved in. But most asked for him or other members of his band. There was even an actual prayer in one of the messages, as if that’d help Martin in any way.

The smart course of action would have been not to read them in the first place. Too bad she wasn't feeling particularly intelligent today. She briefly considered answering the message, but quickly figured that was a bad idea. Besides, what was she going to tell them? Sorry, the person you are looking for is toast, please try again in the afterlife. Maybe not.

Wait, shouldn't the witch have stolen or at least dulled their feelings as well, like they did with Karin? She examined the messages closer. Yes, it was pretty obvious when she checked the timestamps. There were no messages sent after Martin hung up.

She wondered what was worse; that his family and friends remembered him fondly and grieved his death, or that they didn't really care much for him and was spared the immediate emotional pain. Take Elly, for example. The grieving for a father might have pulled her closer to her mother. With that vector gone, would she instead just drift further away from her family and just end up feeling estranged?

Could Mina do anything about it? Not really. Even if she told her the whole, uncensored tale, the feelings for her father would still be tainted forever. Maybe it would make her feel even worse, because she suddenly became acutely aware of everything she lost, with no way of regaining it. Well, unless she managed track down the Ms. Redwax and convince her to reverse it. If the witch was even capable of it.

Martin also had new notifications on Twitter, Facebook and various other apps. Mina left them alone. She wasn't really interested in any shenanigans from Martin's acquaintances.

Instead, on to more important and less depressing business. Like what she really thought about Parchbel's Canon. She found the song and played it.

Hmm. It wasn't bad, but also not super exciting. Maybe this was one of the opinions she actually shared with Martin?

While listening, she fired up the browser and a news page. Almost at the top, with huge letters, the headline “THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENED” she spotted a picture of a mansion. Not just any mansion, the exact one from the incident Martin was involved in. In the bottom right corner, there was a smaller picture which presumably showed what the mansion looked like now. Just soot and ashes, with police tape around the area.

So the police had put the pieces together? Mina eagerly clicked the article, and was immediately discouraged. It didn’t take long to realize this was not an explanation, but a cover-up. There was a floor plan, marked with the presumed position of the guests and the supposed fireworks.

An expert detailed why industrial strength chemicals should not be part of fireworks unless handled by professionals. Something about a reaction that had happened over the course of days, because two types of chemicals had been unsafely stored. Together, they filled the entire ceiling of the house with hydrogen. When the guests and even the staff gathered to see the magnificent display, there was a huge explosive reaction. Because the rapid expanding waves of energy had nowhere to escape to, they ricocheted between the walls, magnifying the already significant blast. While the blast had probably not been powerful enough to kill, it would have knocked out many of the participants, and ruptured practically every ear and upset their balancing organs. The explosion had also expended all the oxygen in the room, meaning all inside quickly fell unconscious.

The fire that broke out actually started pretty low, since there was practically no oxygen inside the building. It grew quicker on the outskirts of the mansion, gradually burning inwards. The constant lack of oxygen kept anyone from waking up. Later, when the fire reached the fireworks, the sound could remind one of gunshots…

Mina stopped reading. She put down the phone and tried to calm her shaking hands.

Martin had believed, or maybe hoped, that the corruption only extended to members of the local police department. This was worse. Way, way worse. A fire, even a huge one, did not magically erase bullets. Someone with the power above federal police had kept the investigation under wraps.

With Martin wiped off the face of this planet, all outside witnesses were dead. And yet Mina sat here with knowledge of what had happened. What’s worse, she had told Karin about it. How much had she told her friends? And they, in turn…

She needed to make sure the secret didn't spread any further. Good thing they were all gathering in the evening. She was reminded of something from a movie along the lines of "Two people can keep a secret only if one of them is dead". Not exactly a great way to solve the problem.

Mina's nerves were tittering. She couldn't sit still. After pacing back and forth for a few minutes, she decided she needed to do something. Anything.

While she was unable to do anything about her predicament, she could at least make herself useful. Like… helping Karin out, not giving her any reason to throw out the freeloader. A part of her told her that she was irrational; Karin was not the type to throw her out. On the other hand, helping out in itself was not the worst way to spend her nervous energy.

So, what to do? She couldn't make dinner, that was too early. The stables had been tended to. Housework! There was always a need for that. She dug out the vacuum cleaner and started working on the living room.

Midway through the living room, the vacuum started making a lot more noise. Only after turning it off did she realize the sound was coming from outside. The sound originated from a helicopter, somewhere above the farm. None of the windows gave her line of sight to it. Before she could go out and take a look, the doorbell rang.

Should she open the door or not? If these people had come here with a helicopter, she doubted they were going to leave if no one was home. Quite the opposite; hiding from the doorbell would only give them reason to believe she had something to hide.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Nervous, but determined, she opened the door. Two men and a woman stood outside. They were wearing some kind of fancy jumpsuit with harnesses. Now that she thought about it, she never heard the helicopter land. These people must have repelled down from the helicopter. In theory pretty badass, but also another reason for her to be nervous.

The guy at the front looked sharp in more ways than one. It was hard to describe just how, but both his face and his gaze felt sharp. He had a lawyer-like look, even in the para-military outfit. The other man was significantly less well-groomed. He looked irritated about something. The woman was wearing black glasses that hid her eyes. Mina couldn’t get a good impression of her, outside that she seemed determined about something. Interestingly, she was taller than the other two.

None of them carried any visible weapons. Even without any, they intimidated her by just looking at her. It was way too easy to mentally connect these three with the hitmen that killed Martin and his bandmates. She had no proof that they were actually there. After all, Martin hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of them, and all the impression he had was that they had black suits and guns. She barely managed to keep her fear in check, just standing there.

“Consortium. Is there anyone else in the house?” the man in the front half shouted. Speaking normally was not an option with the helicopter hovering nearby.

She felt immensely pressured by the man’s presence. What did he mean by 'Consortium'? It was not a name she was familiar with, outside of the general definition, and she was pretty sure it didn't apply here.

She hesitated for a few moments, which was long enough for the shorter guy to grow impatient.

“Can't speak, huh? Probably doesn’t even understand English.”

She wanted to immediately deny that accusation, but something was nagging at the edge of her mind. There was something eerily familiar with the voice, and especially that deriding tone. She felt a shiver down her back, as she realized Martin heard his voice when he hid and everyone else was killed.

“Hold it, you two,” the woman said. She kneeled down. Her intentions were to calm her down, which was a nice sentiment.

“We wish to speak with the owner of this house. Is she home?”

Her much more comforting demeanor finally left Mina capable of answering.

“No, I’m sorry. She’s out grocery shopping.”

“No worries, we can wait for her. If you could help me answer a few questions, we’d be most grateful.”

Mina nodded. She didn’t know if they were intentionally or unintentionally playing Good Cop, Bad Cop, but she was happy just to talk to someone that didn’t look like they’d bite her head off if she answered wrong. The helicopter moved further away, allowing their conversation to be less shouting and more talking.

“Is there anyone else but you in the house right now?”

Mina shook her head no. The woman looked towards the taller man. He nodded back.

“Do you mind if we take a look? We are looking for a man, a fugitive. He might have hidden here without your knowledge.”

Mina had a very strong suspicion she knew who they spoke off. Not wanting to create any trouble for herself, she moved away from the doorstep, gesturing for them to come inside. The shorter man passed her, but then stopped and suddenly looked intensely at her. It felt like he was trying to peek at her very soul or something, it was that intense. She squirmed and looked away.

“Huh, I missed it at first. She’s awakened.”

“I am what?”

“Shut up. Not talking to you, brownie.”

Yeah, fuck you too, asshole, was what she wanted to reply. She held her tongue.

“Agent Willow,” the other man said in a berating tone.

“What? I’m not allowed to say that? Come on, it’s like calling someone honey or sugar.”

“Your competence is appreciated. Your opinions are not,” the other man berated him, “As for the other mentioned issue, it is not a priority. Now go.”

The shorter man grumbled something and went inside. Meanwhile, the woman led Mina to the kitchen, where she offered her a chair and took the other herself. The taller man just loomed somewhere behind Mina.

"I'm Agent Sigil. That is Agent Solitaire. What's your name?"

"Mina."

“Nice to meet you, Mina. Do you know this man?” agent Sigil asked and held up a picture of Martin. It was probably a few years old, enough that he had changed the way he groomed his beard since then. She wasn’t about to point that out to them.

“I have never met him,” she answered, seeking refuge in technical truths.

The agent looked over Mina’s shoulder, probably at the other agent. Her gaze returned quickly.

“His name is Martin. His cell phone is broadcasting from this area, possibly even this house.”

Mina nodded. “It’s in the living room.”

“It is? Can you fetch it for us?”

She did as she was asked to. Rather than hand it to the woman, the other agent held open a plastic bag for her to drop it into.

“How did the cell phone get here?” the woman asked once she had taken a seat again.

She was really nervous now. How to deflect this without casting too much suspicion on herself?

“I found it.”

“Where did you find it?”

“In Karin’s wagon.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“And how did it get there?”

“You have to ask Karin about that.”

“I see. But it’s turned on…?”

“Yes, I charged it and turned it on. I was just borrowing it.”

She was really nervous now. It wasn’t really true that she was borrowing it, she was planning to keep it, but it wasn’t particularly tempting to admit that.

The agent glanced at the other man, before her attention returned.

“Okay. How did you know the pin code, then?”

“I guess the owner was the forgetful type. He wrote down the pin code on a piece of paper.”

True by the slimmest margins. She hadn’t actually used the paper to unlock the phone, though.

“I see. What have you done with it since you turned it on?”

“I have… read the messages. And news. Nothing else.”

The agent glanced at her colleague yet again.

“So you knew that the phone belonged to Martin?”

She nodded. It was a stupid thing not to admit at first, they were bound to figure it out.

Contrary to what she expected, agent Sigil wasn’t disappointed or angry or anything.

“Well, I’m afraid we can’t let you keep the phone any more. I guess you don’t have a cell phone of your own?”

Mina shook her head.

“Okay. Just give me a moment.”

She rose from her chair and went out of the room with Solitaire. They were discussing something, but Mina couldn’t catch even a single word. The helicopter was still close enough that many other sounds drowned. Willow soon joined them.

Was she off the hook or not? They didn’t appear angry with her, at least. The waiting was really nerve-wracking.

Agent Sigil seemed to pick up on that. She walked over to Mina.

"We don't have any more questions for you right now. You may go to your room or somewhere else you like. We will wait for Ms. Smith’s return. We can wait outside if you prefer that."

Ms. Smith? Right, Karin's last name was Smith.

She shook her head at Sigil's question. If they stayed inside, maybe she could pick up some tidbits from their conversations.

She excused herself and went upstairs. Rather than go into any room, she lingered at the top of the stairs. Just in time to hear Karin come home.