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“Wow.”  Kyle actually looked surprised.  “That was harsh.”

“I know,” Emma said.  “I know.  I sound horrible, but it’s hard for me to trust people.  I have two best friends and my father and that’s it.  Those are the only people I depend upon if I can’t do something myself.  And I’d rather just be upfront with someone than lead them on.”

“So you’re totally okay with being alone for the rest of your life,” Kyle stated.  Emma gave him a confused look and he explained.  “You have to take a chance on someone once in your life, Emma.  You can’t always assume that it’s going to be a waste of your time.  Sometimes, you don’t actually have to go anywhere when it comes to a progressing relationship.  Sometimes, you can spend time with someone simply because you enjoy a person’s company.”

“That sounds like a nice way of saying you don’t want to commit,” Emma pointed out.

Before Kyle could comment, the waiter presented the two with their respective food, and wished them a bon appetite.  Although, technically speaking, he wished Kyle a bon appetite.  Emma grabbed her intricately decorated chopsticks and immediately grabbed a crunchy roll.

“It is,” Kyle agreed.  “I’m twenty-five years old, doing something I love.  I’m not looking to settle down any time soon.”

“And do you actually let your dates know that on the first date?” Emma asked, once she swallowed the food.  She grabbed another piece of sushi and plopped it in her mouth.  Despite the rude wait staff, the sushi really was the best she had ever tasted.

Kyle lifted a shoulder.  “More or less,” he said, taking a bite of his own food.  “I tell them I’m not looking for anything serious, but girls always think that they’re that game changer.”

“Game changer?”
  Emma hadn’t meant to speak with her mouth full of food, but the term threw her off that she couldn’t stop herself.

“Yeah,” Kyle said.  “You know, a girl who completely changes a guy’s perspective on life, makes him want to commit to her, settle down, refuse to sleep with anyone else.  She comes when he least expects it, changing his life by being herself.  She doesn’t realize the effect she has on him. 
A game changer.  And I believe the elusive game changer will come for me sooner or later and then I’ll want to forego sleeping with whoever I want, seeing whoever I want.  But I have yet to actually meet her and I’m not waiting around for her.”

“When guys meet this so-called game changer, do they actually commit to her, settle down?” Emma asked.  She’d never heard this before, never heard of a game changer.

“Some do, some don’t,” Kyle said.  “For those who do, though, it’s a big deal.  Usually, a guy’s been hurt by his – what’d you call it? – first apple and as a result, disconnects from his emotion and subconsciously becoming afraid to commit because they’re afraid they’ll be hurt again.  It takes time, but in the end, the guy’s completely happy and doesn’t regret it.  But for those who don’t, everything will remind him of the game changer he let go.  He’ll move on with his life and maybe he’ll settle down later on with someone else, but it’ll never be her.  And he’ll never be complete or as happy as he could be.”

“Wow.”  She pushed her brow up, looking at the off-white tablecloth. 
“Pretty heavy.”

“Yeah.
  But I have yet to deal with it so I don’t really care.”  He straightened.  “Can I just be honest with you?  I’m so glad I could talk to a woman about this stuff.  I’m glad I can be up front with you.  Most just have these unreal expectations and it puts a lot of pressure on guys.  And I really don’t like breaking hearts.”  Emma shot him a look, but his face actually seemed sincere.  “I just want to have right now, and I want to meet girls who want the same thing, instead of wanting some long-term, serious relationship.”

Emma smiled.  “Surprisingly enough, I’m glad I can talk about this stuff too,” she said.  “Whenever I talk to guys about this stuff, they seem put off, intimidated.”  She stuck her hand out across the table. 
“Friends?”

Kyle grinned, shaking her offered hand.  “Friends,” he agreed.  They both went back to their food for a few moments before Kyle, his mouth filled with rice, said, “So you’ll be at the game tomorrow?”

Emma nodded.  “It’s it’s at Sea Side, I’ll be there,” she promised.       

18
.
 
The next morning, Seraphina woke up just before eight o’clock in the morning.  She groaned, still not used to waking up early for this new job she had been thrust into.  Looking out the window, she decided that perhaps an early start would be worth it, given how beautiful the day already was.  It was typical Southern California weather that she had to remind herself not to take for granted: a light sea breeze and the sun already shining in a soft, blue sky.

As she showered, Seraphina realized that her previous crush on Detective Christopher Williams had all but vanished.  She was still annoyed with his abrupt phone call from last night, and even more so that he hadn’t told her about
Alan personally.  However, he did mention that the autopsy report was finished.  Maybe he would make up for his lack of forthcoming information by telling she and Katella about what actually killed Papa. 

Her mind tried to go back to when she found him, lying there motionless on the floor of his office.  He never would have wanted her to see him like that.  But all she could think about was seeing if he was alive, not what caused him to be this way.  And when she realized he was dead, all she cared about was holding onto him for just one minute longer, before the police came and took his body away from her, somewhere where she would never be able to see him again. 
What
happened didn’t actually factor into her mind.  She didn’t care at that point.  All she cared about was that it had happened, and Papa was gone.

But now, a few weeks after his death, Seraphina found that she was actually curious as to what had killed Papa, and even more than that,
who
would do it and
why
.  As silly as it sounded, she was hoping that maybe she could help solve this, even in some small way, for Papa.  Running a hockey team still felt unfulfilling right now.  Papa’s killer was still out there.  Justice had yet to be found.  And even though it wasn’t her fault nor was it logical, she felt as though she could be helping and wasn’t.  If the positions were reversed and Seraphina had been killed, Papa would do everything in his power to figure it out.  She wanted to do the same thing.  It would give her a purpose, instead of just sitting around, doing nothing.

Besides running the team, of course.

Seraphina stepped out of the shower, making sure to dry her face more so than normal.  Tears came easily nowadays, but that didn’t mean she wanted people asking about them, asking if she was okay, so she allowed herself moments when she was by herself, like right before she fell asleep and when she took showers.  As she got dressed, she could hear Katella bustling around downstairs, probably making some coffee and ensuring the kitchen looked presentable.

At ten o’clock sharp, the doorbell rang.  Katella led Christopher Williams – who was wearing a green shirt in the same style as the last one Seraphina had seen him in and brown pants – into the dining room.  Seraphina was already sitting, the day’s paper pushed off to the side of the table and a cup of half-drunk coffee resting between her hands.  At Katella’s look, Seraphina stood until the detective took his seat.

“Coffee, Detective?” Katella offered.

“Yes, please,” Williams said, nodding his head.  “Again, I’d like to thank the two of you for meeting with me this morning.  I know it must be hard waiting for information about this.”  He placed a couple of manila folders – folders Seraphina hadn’t noticed until this minute – onto the table.  He began to murmur himself, something Seraphina was beginning to notice as one out of many eccentricities that made up the young detective.

Katella set the mug on the table before taking a seat next to her sister.  Her posture was much more professional than Seraphina’s, but that was probably because Katella had been up longer.  She had always been a lark, someone who was an early-bird, which Seraphina liked to stay up at night and figure things out in the quiet isolation.  Katella took after Papa in that way, while Seraphina was supposedly more like her parents.

“Do you have work today?” Christopher asked, looking up.  His blue eyes still caught Seraphina by surprise, but the butterflies seemed to regress back into their cocoons.  “The reason I ask is that I’m going to need to talk to you for a bit, so any meetings you might have, you might want to call and let them know you’ll be late.”

“I don’t have a meeting until one,” Katella said, “and we both run our own business so we won’t have to take you up on your suggestion.”  Seraphina watched as Katella forced a tight smile.  “But thank you.”

Seemed Katella was just as annoyed at the lack of information as Seraphina was.

“Good.”  He looked back down at the folders before him and then back at the sisters.  He repeated this action two more times until he finally said, “So the autopsy report confirmed what we already assumed, that your grandfather was, in fact, murdered.  The M.E. wrote that he was strangled and that there was also trauma to the head.  There were no fingerprints left around his throat, so we assume the perp was wearing gloves.”

“So someone hit our grandfather on the head with something and then choked him to death?” Katella guessed.

“That’s what we think happened, yes,” Christopher said with a curt nod.  He looked back down at the paper.  “Also, we found time of death to be between five and seven o’clock at night.”  He paused and then glanced between the sisters.  “Because of this, we will be taking Brandon Thorpe in for questioning.  In fact, we have men picking him up right now.”

“But he didn’t do it.”

They were the first words out of Seraphina’s mouth during the entire conversation.  If she was going to help solve this thing – unbeknownst to the actual police involved, of course – she knew she would have to keep quiet and listen to everything rather than comment.  Perhaps she would ask an innocent question as to inquire more information, but otherwise, her mouth would be glued shut.  However, this determination wasn’t rifting through her mind and therefore could not prevent her from stating what she thought was so obvious.  Brandon Thorpe didn’t kill her grandfather.

Both Christopher Williams and Katella turned to look at Seraphina.  Both had perplexed looks on their faces while Katella actually had a touch of red on her high cheekbones.  Seraphina couldn’t exactly blame Katella for being embarrassed at Seraphina’s outburst.  But it wasn’t as though Seraphina could take the words back so she sat up straight and met Christopher’s stare with a level gaze of her own.

“Excuse me?” the detective asked her.  It sounded as though it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to remain as polite as he had been.

“I”
-  Seraphina stopped herself.  She wasn’t going to apologize for something she thought was true.  “I just don’t think he did it.”

Christopher rubbed his lips together, still openly staring at the young woman in front of him.  “With all due respect, Miss Hanson,” he began slowly, as though speaking in this way might help Seraphina better understand what was going on, “he is the most likely candidate.”

“What happened to Alan?” Seraphina asked.  Again, she spoke before she thought, but she felt as though she was starting to be pushed up against a wall and had no choice.  If no one else was going to defend Brandon Thorpe, she would have to.  “Both my sister and I had to find out in the papers that he was your first primary suspect.”  

“Yes, I’m sorry about that,” Christopher Williams said.  “The lieutenant who released that information before he was given clearance to so has been punished.”

“Even so, you should have told us personally, after it was released.”

“Seraphina!”
Katella hissed under her breath, despite the fact that the detective was sitting right there, in front of the two of them.

“What?” the younger sister asked.  “It’s true.”  She turned back to Christopher.  “First you accuse our uncle – and you don’t even tell us directly, whether or not it was cleared – for killing our grandfather and now you’re accusing one of my players.” 
My players
?  Maybe she was getting the hang of running her own hockey team.  “Well, which one is it?  Why is it one and not the other?”

“It’s not.”  It was the first time Detective Williams’ voice was curt.  “We’re looking into everyone, every player on the team, the coaching staff, the financial advisor, the medical staff, everyone.  Your uncle actually has an alibi for that night.  Brandon Thorpe does not.  And, in fact, was most likely the last person to see him alive.  Have you checked his date book?  Certainly you must have.  You saw that he was meeting with Thorpe.  He has motive too.  He wants more money.  He wants to play for the Gulls.  He didn’t want to be traded.”

Seraphina’s idea that her grandfather didn’t actually want to trade Thorpe danced on the tip of her tongue, but instead of allowing it to tumble out as she thought she might, given the last few quips she made, but for whatever reason, her mind held it in.  And the weird part was that she didn’t have to think about doing that either.  Guarding that was as natural as one of her quick remarks.  Normally, she would have tried to figure out why she kept this to herself, but she couldn’t with Detective Williams right in front of her.  He might somehow figure it out, and for whatever reason, Seraphina didn’t want him to do that.