Seated inside a reception room in the Pearl Palace, the Quasars tried to take in what Mr Lee had just said. According to the Tokkian, Quinn had threatened to kill someone but Kailani, Ran and Indigo hadn’t heard the supposed outburst and this was the first time their manager had mentioned it to any of them.
“My sister didn’t say that!” Junn said forcefully, breaking the awkward silence into which the group had fallen. “It’s simply impossible that she would have threatened to kill anyone. I don’t believe you.”
Mr Lee blinked, “So you think I’m lying?” he asked, narrowing his eyes and glaring at the young man.
“No, no. That’s not what he’s saying at all,” Kailani cut in before Junn could respond. “He’s just saying that it’s incredibly hard to believe that Quinn could even think something that violent let alone say it.”
Junn glared at Kailani but she squeezed his shoulder and shook her head slightly as if telling him not to say anything. The teen glared at her angrily and slumped into the seat at the desk where he had been standing.
“This is really…” Indigo started and then trailed off. If Quinn’s situation, arrested for murder back stage at the end of their concert, hadn’t looked bleak before it certainly did now. After Quinn had been arrested the Quasar’s old friend Aleister Trace had informed them that they would be expected to go to the security headquarters and give statements about the crime. Now that Mr Lee had told them about Quinn’s supposed outburst at the autograph signing, that tidbit of incriminating evidence would obviously come out too. Quinn had threatened to kill someone and the same person had ended up dead in her house. In her bed, no less.
“I’d really like to know how the police explain arresting Quinn for this when she’s been with us since we arrived back on Adhara.” Ran said, looking at Junn for a possible explanation.
“That doesn’t matter,” Mr Lee interrupted, “Quinn wasn’t with any of us all of the time, was she? I mean think about it, in addition to a few minutes here and there when you were awake there were times when you were sleeping during which you have no idea what Quinn was doing.”
Indigo turned on the manager angrily, “Are you trying to get Quinn into even more trouble? First you come up with some story about Quinn threatening that freaky stalker which none of us have ever heard before and now you’re saying that even though there was hardly a minute when any of us were alone over the last few months there might have been an opportunity for Quinn to leave the hotel or venue and kill Tigre Stripes. After all that Quinn has done for you, you’re trying to set her up aren’t you?”
Lee Jae-Seong’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head and he was about to reply when there was a knock at the door and a servant quickly rushed in and whispered something to Junn but before the man had finished relaying whatever message he had come to give, the door burst open and a teenage girl strode into the room. “I’m not waiting any longer,” she said, her thick Flababian accent clear. “This is a matter of life and death. There’s no time to be waiting around.” Behind her two other teenagers also entered the room. One was from Bim, the other from Gondor.
“Princess Roxzamora of Bim, Princess Opal of Gondor and Princess Rina of Flababa,” the flustered servant announced, in order of status rather than order of entry.
“Enough of that,” Rina, the girl who had burst in, said dismissively. “Leave us.”
The servant looked at Junn hesitantly only leaving when the young man nodded his approval.
“You can’t just go around bursting into people’s homes, you know Rina,” Junn sighed as the door closed behind the servant. “What is it that you want, I’m entertaining guests.”
Rina looked around the room at the Quasars and their manager, scoffing, she set her hands akimbo and turned back to Junn, “Entertaining guest? You mean having a conference to find out what to do to get your sister off the hook for murder don’t you?”
“How do you…” Junn began, but something seemed to dawn on him and he rolled his eyes, “Of course, you three busy bodies are here to offer your investigative skills, aren’t you? You just can’t keep your little noses out of other people’s business. Thanks but this isn't one of your silly little cases. This is serious."
"Wow!" Rina enunciated, "That's no way to speak to people who have come to help you." Turning to her two friends she said, 'okay girls let's go. The big man there has dismissed us. He doesn't need our help. Let's pack up our evidence and leave."
Rina turned and walked towards the door beckoning her two friends to follow, "Unbelievable!" Opal said, “And to think that we were about to tell you which one of your servants it was that let Tigre Stripes into the palace.”
“Wait, how did you know that the victim was called Tigre Stripes?” Kailani asked, looking at the three girls. She remembered them from her time at Adhara Academy when she had been an upperclassmen. Rina, Opal or Duchess as she was fondly called and Roxzamora had always had a penchant for solving mysteries. The three girls had been doing as much since they had first arrived at the Academy and as far as Kailani knew they had rarely if ever made a mistake on a case no matter how big or small.
The third girl who had entered the room approached the desk where Junn was sitting and carefully put down a large Com-D. “This contains a dossier of all of the intel we’ve gathered so far on the case.” she said, stepping backwards and turning to leave. Remembering something the girl turned back to Junn, “I almost forgot to mention, as the heads of the school council we used our influence to have you released from your studies for the foreseeable future. You won’t have to come onto campus. Also we’ve ordered a complete black out of all media on school grounds, concerning your sister’s arrest until such a time as Quinn is found to be innocent, and she is innocent by the way. Do call us when you realise that we take this and all of our “silly little cases” very seriously,” she said and with that the three girls left the room.
Continue reading the story here:
Chapter Four
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