Killing Roses

16__Not so fancy family

Valerie held the cat snugly in her arms, keeping her gaze fixated on his hypnotically swaying tail. If the heavens were merciful, the sofa she sat on would wrench open and gulp her whole, saving her from dealing with her life as it currently was.

Val blinked, slowly raising her gaze to the couple staring at her with eyes of utter disbelief and disapproval.

She was still here. It appeared the heavens were not kind at all.

“A killer,” her mother finally said, her voice that usual quiet that held unspoken threats behind it. “You managed to get yourself entangled with a killer?”

Pursing her lips, Valerie raised her eyes pointedly to Roman who loitered near the kitchen with Michael and Officer Kingston. All three pretending not to listen to the conversation. Her eyes narrowed. Damn Roman for bringing her in here. Val had told him to just drive off to a McDonald's and avoid her parents, but no! Righteous cop that he was, he’d dragged her inside!

“Are you listening?!”

Blinking, Valerie brought her gaze back to her mother’s.

“Huh?”

Shaking her head, her mother sighed, briefly glancing at Val’ father, who sat as stiffly as he always dis, keeping his frowning gaze locked on the tablet before him.

Valerie looked at him, her arms instinctively wrapping further around the cat. She’d been moved into a safe house because her life was being threatened by an unidentified killer and yet, her dad could still bury his nose in work like nothing was wrong.

“Did you hear her?” Valerie asked him, with a raised brow. She leaned over when he ignored her. “Didn’t you hear, dad? I got myself involved with a murderer.”

“It’s nothing to be proud of!” her mother hissed.

“What do you want me to say?!” Val retorted. “You say it like I asked for it! I didn’t ask for this to happen! I don’t know who it is and I’m scared—”

If you’d done as your father said—"

“If you are only here to further worsen my life, you can leave!” Valerie cut her off, her voice trembling with anger now. Sensing the tension in the air, the kitten buried itself inside Val's coat, leaving only one pointed ear poking out.

Clenching her manicured fingers into fists on her lap, Tamara Quinn looked at the daughter who continuously disappointed them. “Your father and I have a lot of work to do, Valerie.”

Val scoffed before she could stop herself and shook her head. “I'm so sorry, mom and dad, for pulling you guys away from your precious work! It barely even matters that I might get killed soon and it might be my blood soaking up a bed next, I’ll just sit in my corner and be quiet about it, so you two can work!”

Her words rang out with trembling rage, full of all the sadness and hurt she refused to show to her ice bloc parents. It would barely melt them.

“Impudent as always.”

The words were spoken by her father, his gaze still locked on his tablet. The first words he'd spoken to her in a few months and yet, even under the circumstances, it had to be those words.

Valerie scoffed out a laugh, aware the three pairs of eyes that were looking on from the kitchen area.

“Impudent?” she asked her dad. “Yeah, I’m impudent. I’m also stubborn, reckless and a little foolish. If that isn’t enough to prove that I can’t be your child, perfect specimens that you are, I don’t know what is.”

Her mother gasped. “Valerie Quinn!” Discreetly, she glanced over at the three men standing nearby, appalled at thought of them hearing anything unbecoming of a family as prestigious as the Quinns.

Val saw her father’s fingers still over the screen of his tablet. His gaze still did not rise.

Tired, she sighed and gave her parents a shrug. “We should stop. You guys tried the whole parenthood thing, it clearly isn’t your forte. You’re elite, fancy-shmancy and I’m strangely normal, different from you. You can’t accept that, you can’t accept me, but I’m not going to change! I’m going to stay a social worker, I’m not going to suddenly decide to study economics and commerce, I’m going to live by my own rules and free of yours! See that kid over there?” She suddenly pointed at Michael, making him blink. “I’m going to adopt him very soon!”

“You’re going to what?!”

“I’m going to become more and more the daughter you don’t want, so give up already or love me like this! If you guys still can’t do that, then we have nothing more to discuss. I will remain your disowned child and you will stay out of my life and stop calling me for functions to play happy families.” She stood, the cat in her arms. “I’ll be sure to send a post card if I happen to get hacked by the killer to inform you of it, for old time’s sake. You guys did bring me into this disgusting world, at the end of the day, I couldn’t be more grateful. I love it here.”

With that, Valerie stalked away from her parents, ignoring her mother’s shocked expression. Roman watched her stomp up the stairs with a raised brow. Talk about family problems.

The Quinns promptly stood, husband and wife standing side by side. Roman approached, Kingston and Michael behind him as the millionaire couple turned for the door.

They stopped before Roman and studied him with sharp eyes, Valerie’s father seeming bored with the entire situation.

“Detective,” he said. “You have my card. A phone call if there arises any then of events in this matter.”

Roman in turn, studied the older man, trying and failing to keep the ice out of his eyes as he settled a cold look on Mr. Quinn. “Sure thing,” he said. “However, since you’re here, how about we head on down to the station right now for a quick questioning?”

Valerie’s father’s eyes narrowed. “The station?”

“How unnecessary,” muttered her mother.

Roman shrugged. “We could do it here.”

The older man tilted his head, looking at Roman with a deep scrutiny. “Detective, are you by any chance suspecting me of trying to kill my own daughter?”

Roman felt his pulse kick up. Now, why would he go and say that? “Would I have any reason to suspect so, Mr. Quinn?”

“My daughter thinks of me as the devil himself, whatever she's told you must have been bad enough to plant such an idea into your head.”

“Actually, Valerie didn’t tell me anything at all about you, she didn’t mention you at all. Had I not had her family records in my possession, I would’ve thought she was an orphan.”

The older man barely twitched. “Valerie? Is it appropriate for the Detective on a case to be on a first name basis with a victim under his protection?”

“The questioning now, please, Mr. Quinn.”

“I’ve already done it.”

Roman frowned. “Excuse me? There’s no record-"

“A Detective Cooper came by my office and asked all you need to know. I believe he is a colleague of yours, so find out from him whatever you desire to know.”

With a curt nod, he stalked off in a huff of millionaire indignation. His wife dallied behind, giving Michael a very sharp study.

The boy squirmed back a little, but Tamara Quinn didn’t ease up on her glare.

“Whoever you are, boy,” she said coldly to him. “Don’t hang around in my daughter’s life and stain the name of the Quinns with your lower-class grime.” Her eyes flashed with warning and she lowered her voice, saying in a dark mutter, “Adoption, my foot.”

The woman stalked out after her husband, leaving a smell of perfume and money in the air. Roman’s nose twitched. He always did hate that smell.

“Geez, who are they?” Officer Kingston asked with a heavy exhale. “The damn presidential couple?”

“I thought I would die when she looked at me,” Michael said to him and Kingston chuckled.

“Right? I thought she’d shoot lasers out of her eyes at you, son.”

They laughed quietly, Kingston nudging the slim boy so he nearly fell over. Roman wasn’t listening, his gaze trained on the open front door.

Julius Quinn. A strange man, he thought. Other fathers would be only too glad to answer any questions that could aid in keeping their daughter safe. But, what? He demands if he’s a suspect? Roman ran his tongue over his teeth.

And besides that bit of disturbing news, what the hell else had he said? That Cooper, behind Roman’s back, had questioned him concerning the case?

Roman’s jaw clenched. First asking to conduct a private investigation with the victim’s body and now doing secret interviews.

What in the hell was Cooper up to?