Okay, Cyana was still on the stand and I still had my head attached to my body. I could still make a comeback. All I needed was a sick transition.

“Let’s just forget about the TV show for now,” I said, clearing my throat. Yeah. Sick transition. “W-What did you do when you, uh, heard the smoke alarm?”

“I told you. I went to Ms. Rayne’s desk to see what was going on.”

“Were you the first to get there?”

Cyana looked bored, putting her hand in front of her mouth like she was yawning. “I was. Violetta and Goldie didn’t take long to come after.”

“And… where did you go when you all decided to split up?”

“I told you!” Cyana yelled. “I went back to the lounge! I didn’t go to Volk’s office, so get off my back!”

Whoa.

Lyili cleared her throat loud enough for me to know that she didn’t really need to. “Your majesty, I hardly think there’s a point in hearing more about that. He’s grasping for straws.”

The king’s expression hardened. “Mr. Allard, is that true?”

Of course it was true. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing.

“Lyili is the, uh, one grasping at straws.” I stumbled over my sentence so much, even an idiot like Violetta could probably see right through me. “I still have some… uh, questions to ask.”

“Oh?” Lyili laughed under her breath. “Do you now?”

“Yeah…” I would just have to say the first thing that came to my mind. I couldn’t let her leave the stand without getting something out of her. “Questions about her… meeting with Volk?”

Wait a minute. Volk. Her questions with… Volk. This was it. This was the slip-up I was waiting for.

“Mr. Allard?” the king asked.

“S-Sorry, your majesty. I actually… do have another question.”

“Interesting,” Lyili said. “Let’s hear it then.”

Oh they’d hear it alright. This was my chance to take control.

…Or it was nothing and I was fucked. Then again, I was fucked if I didn’t say anything. If I was going to be fucked, it was going to be fucked by my own hand.

Okay, that didn’t sound quite right. Whatever.

“Cyana…” I locked eyes with her. “Just now… You called your manager ‘Volk’, didn’t you?”

Crickets again. Great.

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“Um, bro?” Brad whispered from the sidelines. “You know… his name was Volk, right?”

“Of course I know that!” I shouted. If there had been a table in front of me, I would have flipped it. Okay, so there was a table, and I wanted to flip it, but chose not to. After all, if I broke it, I’d have to see that shark guy again. Pass.

Oh yeah, that’s right. Explaining.

“Up until now, Rayne, Cyana, and the rest of the Succy Girls have all referred to the victim as ‘Mr. Volk’.” Super smug Ryley smile engage! “Just now, when Cyana yelled at me, she dropped the ‘Mr.’!”

Yeah, this no reaction thing wasn’t exactly boding well for me.

“Now that you’ve wasted all of our time,” Lyili said. “Let’s move this trial along…”

“Wait!” Yaika put up her hand. “I get it!”

Out of all the demons to understand what I was saying, she was one of the last I would have expected. Still, I wasn’t complaining.

“Ryley’s saying that not using ‘Mr.’ is rude…” Yaika threw up her fists. “And that makes Cyana the murderer!”

Uhh… No?

“Oh my!” the king said. “It all makes sense now.”

No. No it didn’t.

“Sir Allard, will you stop them or should I?”

Yeah, as much as I’d have liked to push the blame on Cyana, it wasn’t going to happen this way. “Sorry princess…” I said. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

Yaika lowered his fists. “Oh.”

“What I’m trying to say… is that I don’t think it was just a coincidence. I think she revealed something to us. Something that she’s been hiding.” I turned to Cyana. “Tell me, do you always meet with Volk alone?”

Cyana narrowed her eyes. “Not always.”

“About what percentage of the time would you say?”

“Maybe…” Cyana crossed her arms, avoiding eye contact with me. “75% of the time.”

“That’s interesting,” I put my hands on my table and leaned forward. “One would think that a group would meet with their manager together more often than not.”

“What are you trying to say?”

This girl didn’t like me. It was time for her to like me even less.

“It just makes me wonder why Rayne seemed so angry when she was talking about the meetings,” I said. “You wouldn’t… have any idea why?” I certainly had an idea, and it involved those things women could tell I was looking at.

“Are you implying that Madam Cyana had some kind of… sexual relationship with Sir Volk?” Lyili gave me the kind of look people gave to an idiot dog bumbling up to them when they got home. “Not everyone is as sexually deviant as you, Sir Allard. Try as you might, you’ll never have your way with me.”

If Lyili’s weird allusions to sex were some kind of tactic to distract me, they were a huge success. What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, Cyana fucking her manager.

“That would explain why they met alone,” I said. “And this information could help lead us to the real killer.”

“Hm. Real killer. Of course.” Lyili sighed, putting her hand out. “Your proof. Where is it?”

Fuck, this woman was a pain in my ass.

“That’s right!” Cyana put out her hand too. “You don’t have any proof.”

“What? Are you seriously going to try and tell me that new choreography needed to be taught separately?”

A vein on Cyana’s forehead bulged so much that I thought it might burst. “Hey it’s not my fault that Volk decided…”

Suddenly, a voice came cut through the air like lightning. “Can I like, say something?” Goldie walked out of the audience, her black sundress swaying back and forth with every step.

What the hell was she doing?

“Ms. Goldie?” the king asked. “Is there… a problem?”

“Totally, your majesty.” Goldie nodded. She kept walking until she stood next to Cyana. “I think it’s time… the Succy Girls like, came clean about stuff.”

Cyana grabbed her by the shoulders. “Goldie, you aren’t seriously…”

“Keeping things quiet isn’t, like, going to help this trial thing,” Goldie continued. “I know, it’s like super hard to say, but we gotta.” She pulled Cyana close and wrapped her arms around her.

“What is this?” Lyili asked. “Don’t tell me…”

Goldie turned toward the throne. “Cyana was sleeping with Mr. Volk. All of us were.”

As the crowd went insane for the millionth time, all I could think about was how lucky I was. Lucky because this established a motive for someone. Someone that I hadn’t even considered as a suspect.

Some wives divorced their husbands for cheating. Others killed them.