“I arrived at the hotel...

...I was hoping to talk to Liam, at the hotel cafe, where it has more open space and in public, not private. That was when I came across the Hotel Manager, I forgot his name. I asked him about the cafe, he told me they only open during the mornings. Just my luck. Then he offered me to take me up to Liam’s hotel room...”

Tessa Roads couldn’t help but pull at her hair, a habit whenever she got nervous or jumpy. Rubbing the hair between her finger and thumb had this odd calming effect on her, like stroking the belly of a cat.

“Everything was fine, at first.” She went on. “Until Liam opened the door to greet me. I saw the candles and the aroma of scented oils hit me hard. Liam told me, he set it up to help me relax to make it easier to pitch my proposal. A-and he thought after the practice I would stay for dinner. My mind was obviously racing, but I was already in his hotel room. The good reviews everyone told me kept playing in my head, so I didn’t think anything of it. I really did hope, it wasn’t what I think it was...but.”

Tessa swept a hand through her hair. “I was just stupid. When I seriously pitched my proposal, he kept getting close to me. I politely moved away but he followed. I even insinuated I wasn’t interested but he kept trying to get close to me. I couldn’t handle it and bolted to the bathroom, to calm down.”

Merlin nodded along. Not bothering to eat anything, he wanted to hear every bit of juicy detail.

“I thought it over,” whimpered Tessa, “Very carefully. Was it truly worth it? The promotion and everything?... I gave up. I didn’t want to stay. I wasn’t that kind of girl who trade her body for such things. So I came up with an excuse to try and leave.”

Merlin then asked, “Then how did it end up in such a mess?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know! At first when I came out, I didn’t see him. I thought he left his room. I tried to grab my bag and everything to run but – he surprised me, popping out of hiding to pick me up. Like I was his girlfriend, the nerve! I blatantly said no, I clearly said I was not comfortable and I want to leave! H-he wouldn’t listen!”

Tessa covered her face as if trying to wake up from a bad dream, “He closed the door on me and-and dragged me around like I was his toy. He...he tossed me onto the couch and...he laughed at me...he thought I was playing hard to get. Then he......He tore off my skirt. He pinned me down, rubbing his face into my neck—Uugh--I panicked! I grabbed whatever my hand could reach and clu—Pinched him in the head!”

“How many times?”

“J-just once! On the forehead!”

“How hard?”

“I-I don’t know! I-I panicked!”

“Pinch me.”

“Wut?”

“I said pin—YOOOOWWW!” Merlin screamed as Tessa literally twisted his cheek between her fingers. He slapped it off, rubbing his reddened face, and barked. “I mean how you PINCHED the victim.”

“...Oooooh.” Tessa wiped the embarrassment on her face. She looked around, before picking up the empty orange juice bottle into both hands. She reared back--

--Only for Merlin to pause with a hand raised. “Don’t shatter the glass okay?...3...2...1.”

BONK

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“OOOOOOOOOOOOW!” The Detective Merlin reared across the prison bed, only to fall off over the short end and flop on the ground. Tessa Roads panicked, but gripped onto the glass bottle, still intact. It was when Merlin crawled up to his knees, he had a visible red bruise on his forehead. “That definitely hurt...but clearly I’m not dead.”

“I-I know!” Tessa dropped the bottle, letting it roll and clatter on the floor. “I-I don’t understand how Liam died from that! He was still rolling across the couch and floor, yelling at me all the while. I still heard him as I ran down the stairs back then!”

Merlin slung his body back on the prison bed. He checked his palm for any blood. When none showed up he just rolled his hand over his bruise. “When you ran away, did you run into anyone? Staff? Guest? Suspicious people?” Tessa returned a shake of her head. “Anyone on the way back, to pick up your purse?” Another head shake. “Where did you go after you escaped?”

“I wandered in the streets to calm down. I really wanted to take a taxi home, have a hot shower, and write my email of resignation in the morning but...” She gestured a hand to the detective with a ‘you know what happened’. “Just bad luck.”

“Bad timing really.” Merlin hissed at the bump on his forehead. “Did you ever wonder, why he suddenly handed over three cash cows to you? You know, the lawyer, dancing queen, and rich wife?”

Tessa shook her head, tired. “All he said they were difficult to handle and thought it required a lady’s touch so he passed them over to me. H-he’s done something like this before with other colleagues, but never clients with big pockets like them. Since then I try to find peace with each client and Liam often praised me for helping out.”

That was when the suspect was hit with a terrible realization.

“Wait a minute detective. Liam sold his body in exchange for those three lady’s insurance...That means, he’s a gigolo right? A-and I ended up receiving the payments on his behalf...D-does this make me his Pimp!?”

Merlin wanted to make it easy for everyone, so he told the truth. “Kinda, yeah.”

“Ooooooooooooooooooh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy goooooooooooooooooooooooooood!”

Shame overwhelmed Tessa Roads as she tipped over to flop on the prison bed, rearing back and forth in sheer embarrassment. “Oh my goood—My father is rolling in his graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!”

Merlin sighed, but didn’t comment on it. The suspect already had a lot weighing on her shoulder. So he picked up a stick of french fries and stuck it in his mouth, letting it hang like a cigarette. “Ignorance is bliss as they say.”

“I’m not ignorant any more. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! I wasted my entire life selling out a man’s body! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Merlin tapped on Tessa’s knee to try and cheer her up, it only earned a small kick of her heel into his shin. “Owowowow. Believe it or not, I don’t believe in the perfect crime. The real killer left the clue, I just have to find it. You say you’re innocent, I believe you. And in order to convince the world – you have to believe you’re innocent too.”

“...Uuuh.” Tessa stopped thrashing on the prison bed. Small whimpers as the title of pimp echoed in her mind. “I don’t know what I can do. I’ve been making my own coffin the entire time.”

“I need you to believe in yourself! Show me some confidence you’re not the killer. Otherwise, your own defence attorney will make you plead guilty, you want that?” Merlin waited for a response and Tessa shook her head while fighting the urge to cry. A sigh, before he fumbled a hand into his coat pocket and tapped something onto the suspect’s hips. “Here. You’re going to need this.”

Tessa moaned under her breath. “I don’t smo—Wait...a facial mask?” She suddenly bolted sitting up cross legged. She picked up the item the detective passed over and flipped it around to examine it.

It was indeed a facial mask, with an expensive brand name...Hold the phone, the box looks familiar.

“Kaoganai Face Mask? The imports from Japan!?”

“Sssssh.” Merlin hushed to lower their voices, “You had your eyes on this product right, on the day we first met. Anti-aging, anti-wrinkles, anti-blemish, anti-everything. I swiped it from Eve’s secret cosmetic stash, I had to crawl through a mountain of swords and swim through a sea of boiling oil to get one slip into your hands. Don’t let my efforts go in vain!”

Tessa wanted to cry. There was something about this small gesture that gave her this bittersweet irony. To think out of everyone in the world, only an idiot detective looked out for her.

“...I appreciate the gesture, detective...but I can’t use this to dig out of a prison. Neither can I use it to knock out the guard.”

Whether you show up in trial, or walk out of the station front doors – don’t you want to look good when you tell the world ‘I told you I was innocent.’”