London Harmony: Minuette (6 page)

Fran was positively beaming at me.  “Sounds like she left quite an impression on you.  Did she have an accent or anything?  How old did she look?”

I had already stepped in it, but there was no way they could identify her with what I shared so I shrugged and said, “No accent.  She's about our age.”

Fran nodded again and entered some info into the computer.  “Ok, so we know she is British then and around our age.  If we assume a Londoner for now, that narrows the list considerably.  I'll start corralling some yearbooks for about two to six years back for the area for you to look at.”

Double shite!  She was scary smart.

She grinned at me and looked at the time again.  “I have to jet.  I'll be back in a couple hours.  Until then, if you can listen to the tracks, make sure we don't have any other mixups, and write down everything you can remember about your meetings with her.  I'll catch up with you after my classes.”

I tried one last time.  “I really don't think I'm the right person for this.”

She waved it off as she stood. “Nonsense, you've already helped more than you know.”

That's what I'm a afraid of.  I waved as she left.

I turned to the computers.  I've really buggered thing up this time hadn't I?  I couldn't help myself and found myself listening to all of Mindy's music they had gathered.  I loved her creations.  I wound up cranking the music and went about organizing the office space.  Fran may be smart, but she was sort of an office slob... and I kind of liked that.  It made her more of a real person to me.

I couldn't help myself when I flopped two tracks and shuffled one of them to the other side of a gap.  It was bugging me that they were out of order.  It couldn't hurt right?

I lost myself in organizing the office and absently typing out a description of Mindy as I daydreamed about her face.

The next couple weeks were about the same.  Mindy got a good chuckle over the whole thing and suggested that I lead them on a merry chase. She's such a bad one.  Of course I agreed, I'd do anything for her.  I felt guilty taking their money when I had the answer they were looking for but would never tell.  So I would take part of my days to organize everyone's offices whenever I could.

I was listening to the latest Phantom Melody that Bear had stripped out of a track from a month back when June came up the stairs to the now finished space.  She grinned over at Fran and me, grabbed a rolling chair, and scooted backwards until she was close to us.  She gave a big, final push and rolled right between us, the chair bumping the desktop.

I asked in a tiny voice as she just regarded me, “Hi?”

She had her head cocked, scrutinizing me.  “Why are you doing it?”

What?  Bloody hell, she knew.

She sighed.  “You don't need to be organizing everyone's desks.  They are all complaining that they are more efficient now and are getting more work done in the day.  They are allergic to productivity and you have them all breaking out with severe cases of it.”  The corners of her mouth were twitching as she restrained a smile.

I relaxed, exhaled, and shrugged.  “I'm not any use to you here, I don't know why you keep me around.  So I figure I should do something to earn my pay.”  Then I admitted in a whisper with a blush, “And I can't handle seeing a disorganized mess and not do something about it.  It makes me twitchy.”

Fran aborted an explosive laugh.  “She arranges my pencils by size.”

June did grin this time, a toothy grin that lit up her face.  She looked back and asked offhandedly, “Hey Squirrel, how may steps to the stairs?”

I answered before I slapped my hands over my mouth, “Five here in the dormer then twelve to the steps.”

The smile she gave me was warm and accepting as she slowly nodded.  She pushed back and spun in the chair lazily as it rolled back across the space.  “Keep up the good work.”  She hopped up and wander back to the stairs and paused at them as her brow suddenly furrowed.

She looked back. “Play that again.”  She had an odd look on her face.

Fran looked at her and started the single verse of the phantom track.

Then June asked, “The one before that?”

Fran played it and June started humming a familiar tune that haunted my dreams that I could never hold onto when I woke.  She stopped then just shook her head with a smile and disappeared down the stairs.

Fran was squinting after her.  “I hate it when she does that.”

I tilted my head. “Does what?”

She growled like a cute puppy with a sock and said, “She's figured something out and isn't saying.”

I looked back at the stairs.  What could she have possibly figured out with the last two Phantom Melodies?  Fran had her headphones on and started listening to something with her eyes closed as she started humming.  I watched as some sort of realization spread on her lips as her head bobbed and she swayed with the verses.

She pulled her headphones off with a thoughtful expression. “Son of a...”  She looked up at me and grinned and changed the vulgarity to, “...chipmunk.”

She was suddenly a woman on a mission as she started arranging the phantom tracks in an audio mixing program.  I watched as she put in some gaps about four measures apart.  She still didn't know about the first three.

Then with a victorious look on her face as she started humming and slapped her iPad.  Music started playing through the room and it matched her humming.  Then I listened in shock as all of the verses seemed to form another song when strung together.  Bloody Hell!  Had Mindy layered yet another Phantom Melody through all the songs?  How many layers deep was it, and how had I not picked up on it? I was intimately familiar with the music.

I heard June chuckle at the bottom of the stairs, she must have been waiting down there as Francine worked. Fran called out, “Wench!”

I can't tell you how much in awe of Mind I was at that moment as I listened to my voice sing a sad melody about a love that was just out of reach to the haunted and moody piano music.  A familiar syncopation in the rhythm tugged at my ear.  Good lord, there was something else underneath it.  Layers upon layers.  That brought up Mindy's raspy voice in my head talking like Donkey in Shrek.  “Layers, like an onion or a cake.”  I suppressed a chuckle.

A desperate curiosity welled up inside me.  Mind had hidden from me that all of the Phantom Melodies were part of a single song, and I wanted to hear the whole thing.  Before I could stop myself I mumbled, “Minuette performed at the Jackson a couple weeks back.”

Fran paused and looked up at me, squinting her eyes.  Then asked, “When were you going to tell me about that?”

I blushed and looked away.  “About five seconds ago?”

She snorted and retorted in an accusing tone, “Well, in that case, you are impeccably punctual. Did you know she was going to be there?  Were you there?  Did you see her?  Is there any video?”

Good lord, I hoped there was no video.

I lied. “My flatmate told me. She... umm, knows I'm assisting you in locating Minuette.”  Not a total lie, right?  I'm going to hell, aren't I?

She sighed and then was on her mobile.  I listened in as I straightened up her desk.  “Hi, Bear?  Yeah, there's another missing track.  Two weeks ago at the Jackson.”  She looked over at me, with a prompt in her eyes.

Oh.  “Open mic night Tuesday before last.”

She relayed the information and then said to him, “No that's ok, I'll send Annette to see if they have a recording.”  She paused. “What if we put out a want ad and fliers, offering a reward for any of the missing tracks?  Post it in the papers, the Crier, and at the hot spots like Broken Note?  Post a thousand pound bounty on each.”

She nodded and said, “Great, we're on it.  Thanks Bear... bye.”  Then she rang off with a positively satisfied grin on her face.  She looked at her mobile then me and scrunched an eye, “I don't suppose your flatmate recorded the set?”

I shook my head.  Not entirely the truth since she did when she had me practicing it with her at our flat beforehand.  It was going to be our next seed batch.  She deflated a little then her smile almost split her face when she looked past me.

I turned to see her girlfriend, Natasha peeking her head into the great space from the top of the stairs.  She picks up Fran every night after work and is pretty sarcastically funny when I speak with her.  Though she always looks so bashful to me every time someone spoke to her.  She waved at Fran who tilted her head and watched her girl with desire written all over her face.  I silently wished I could realize my love like that, but it was impossible.

Tasha walked over to us and took Fran's hand then looked me up and down.  She did that every single time we met, like she were seeing me for the first time and categorizing me.  She finally looked at my face after she took in everything else about me.  She said almost in a question, “Hi... Nett.”

I squeaked out a “Hello,” right back at her and she seemed to relax.

Then she asked, “Can I steal Fran from you for lunch?”  Then she added, “Or come with... we're heading over to Gertrude's”

Pizza?  My mouth watered and I just nodded.

She chuckled and said to Fran, “Aren't I supposed to be the shy one?”

Fran looped her arm in Tasha's and said with her lips close to her ear, “There's room in the world for two.  No need to appropriate all the reticent diffidence of your demure sheepishness.”

Natasha grinned then rolled her eyes. “Yes, thesaurus girl.”  She snagged my arm with her other and released her girl and pulled me along.  “Nett and I are going to eat while you regurgitate words.”

Fran chuckled and ran to catch up as I desperately counted strides.  “You my love, are an evil woman.”

I pulled out of Tasha's hold at the stairs and desperately looked back, we missed a step.  I looked at them in shame and then untangled myself from them and quickly strode back to the desk as Fran chastised her girl.

“Now see what you've done?”

They waited patiently and didn't say a single word or raise an eyebrow as I paced back to them.  It took a couple tries because I was so anxious that they were watching and wasn't metering my steps correctly.

But I wound up beside them, looking at my feet in embarrassment.  Without a word, Tasha re-looped our arms and we went down the stairs at a more sedate pace so I could moderate my steps.  I exhaled and looked between them.  They were right good sports for putting up with me and I liked them and felt we were becoming friends.

I loved Gertrude's.  It was a little pizzeria in a hidden cobblestone back alley just a short drive away.  You didn't order there except for drinks, you were just served whatever fresh slices that came out of the oven.  It was a flat rate for all you could eat.  Mindy and I frequented the place.

It was a fun lunch and the girls got me talking about myself and Mindy.  I made sure I didn't mention anything musical.  Though I did let slip that Mind played piano.  At one point Fran was grinning as she looked at me over her pizza as she took a bite.

I exhaled, it was one of those, 'I know something that you don't know' looks that she got.  It was infuriating because she usually did.  On the other hand it was pretty endearing and something just... Fran, about it.  I pointed my pizza at her and squinted an accusing eye, “What?”

She shared a smile with Tash then looked at me and grinned.

I mumbled, “Would I get sacked for calling my boss a bint?”  She giggled at that and I prompted, “Spill.”

She rocked back and fourth with a cute dreamy look on her face as she said long and drawn out, “You liiike her.”  Tasha was smugly chewing a bite of pizza, agreeing with her other half.

I blushed so hard my face felt like it was on fire.  I looked down and shook my head, and said in a hoarse voice, “You don't know what you're talking about.”

She cocked an eyebrow in challenge.  “Really?  Then why do you light up every time you speak about her, and your eyes get this twinkle that I see in the eyes of every girl in love.”

I was going to deny it, then I got afraid.  If they could see it, then I had to be more discreet lest Mindy found out my secret.  I shrugged and shook my head. “She doesn't know, and I'm not about to ruin our friendship by admitting it to her.”

Natasha shrugged back as she looked at the toppings on her slice.  “What if she feels the same?”

I looked at my half eaten slice, I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore, so I put it down on my plate and said, my voice cracking a bit, “She doesn't, she can't.  She isn't into girls.”

Fran put her slice down too, she looked a little alarmed at my change of mood.  She said as she dropped some cash on the table, “You'll never know unless you speak to her.  If she really is your friend, she will still be your friend whether she reciprocates your feelings or not.”

We all stood and made our way back to Fran's car.  They dropped the topic and they sang to some Tabby Cat tunes on the way back, trying to get me to sing.  I couldn't sing a single note or Fran would know, so I just shook my head and hummed along as I rocked in my seat to the beat.

They dropped me at the door of London Harmony.  Fran said, “We only have one class today, I'll see you in about an hour and a half Nett.”

I hopped out and grinned at the two and gave a tiny wave as they pulled away from the curb.  I dug out my key card and raised my hand to knock three times, but the door swung open before I could.  A super smiley Jen stood there, saying, “Ah ha!  I beat you to it.”

I looked at her then at my raised hand and I reached past her and knocked three times defiantly on the door she was holding.  Which elicited an explosive burst of laughter that had her covering her mouth with her hand.

I went to stick my tongue out at the evil woman but instead made a gleeping sound as someone behind me gave me a silly side to side hug.  I couldn't escape.  I relaxed as I realized I was just a victim of one of Zilrita's “squid hugs” as the other employees called them.

I looked back over my shoulder as she released me.  I grinned. “Hi Zil.”

As she started to turn to Jen, she replied to me with a fun little, “Hey lady.”  Then I saw her hesitate a moment as she looked at a silent Jen.  I have never witnessed Zilrita, hug-addict, pause before hugging someone.

She made her funny “Grawl.” sound of wanting more hugs.  Then she hugged Jen in a similar silly manner.  It seemed to last an extra heartbeat longer than her normal hugs and she seemed hesitant to let go.  A small smile started forming on my face as I realized that Zil liked Jen!

Then just like that, she was stepping past us and heading for the stairs, I swear the goth was putting some extra sway in her hips as she went.

I glanced at Jen then did a double take as Jen's eyes were swinging too, glued on Zil's hips.  I squeaked and covered my mouth in embarrassment of my outburst.  Jen looked at me accusingly and I pointed that the goth who disappeared up the stairs.

I cocked an eyebrow at her as I grinned.  “You're sweet on Zil!”

She blushed profusely then sighed and nodded.  “I was never into women before my transition.  Men are my kryptonite normally, but that woman just does something to me.  I... argh...”  She closed her eyes and exhaled and smiled.  Then she winked at me and nudged her head inside.