Chapter 4

Steffennie Smith

"A party. I’m kind of in a hurry, so what’s this new development, Joe?" Diana asked as she flopped down on the sofa in Joe’s office. It was obvious from the tone of her voice and her body language that she did not want to be there.

Joe tossed a file to her and began to talk as Diana started looking through the file. Although she was looking at the file in front of her, she wasn’t seeing it, and Joe’s voice sounded like an annoying mumble in the distance. All Diana could think of was Winterfest and all that was waiting for her Below.

She kept picturing Vincent leaned over Jacob as Father tried to teach him how to play chess. The smile on little Jacob’s face as he listened to his father and grandfather comically converse about the best move for him to make. The sadness in little Jacob’s eyes when she left. It made her heart break just remembering it. How could she forget the look of guilt and sorrow at disappointing his father in his eyes after the candelabra fell off the table?

"Diana? Diana?!" Joe called, "Where are you?"

"I’m sorry, Joe. I guess my mind was drifting." Diana apologized.

"You guess? I think it’s pretty safe for you to say you weren’t paying any attention. Does this not hold your interest anymore? Because we can just let the murderer go.…"

As Joe rambled on, Diana’s mind wandered back to Winterfest. This time she thought of how Geoffrey had greeted her. He was so grown up now. It made her smile to think how proper and grown up he was acting. Then she thought of the people and the music. Just how peaceful the place was. There was nowhere that she would rather have been. That place where candles lit every dark corner. The music was so lively and everything spoke of hope. Where the beautiful tapestries hung with their mysteries trapped within them. The place where it was never silent, because there was always someone talking on the pipes.

Joe’s ramblings finally broke through as she shook her head as if clearing the cobwebs. She heard Joe say that the big break in the case was that they finally had a suspect. That should be a good thing, right? Why did Joe seem so distraught by it? Then she knew. There was an apartment less than a block away from where the murder had happened. They had finally traced the suspect back to this apartment and they found three kids under the age of twelve playing with guns. They had run their prints and they matched those on the murder weapon. The question now was what were they going to do? There didn’t seem to be any parents around. According to public records, the lease was in the name of a dead man. So that’s what Joe had needed her for. She was paid the big bucks because she specialized in solving unsolvable cases. Only tonight was a bad night, because she couldn’t care less about this case right now. Suddenly she knew she had to leave. She had to go back. She had to see Vincent again.

She cut Joe off, "Joe, I can’t concentrate on this tonight. If you want my help it will have to wait until morning. There is something I have to do, and it can’t wait until morning. I’m sorry Joe." Diana explained as she stood to go.

Suddenly Joe stood up so quickly he nearly knocked his chair over. He knew it was now or never. "Diana" he cried breathlessly, "I have to talk to you."

"Joe, can’t it wait…"

"No!" Joe interrupted her. "It has to be now. Sit down, please. Just give me a few minutes Diana."

Whatever it was, it was obviously very important; so Diana relented and sat down, extremely curious about what he would say next.

"Diana, the truth is I can’t concentrate either. There is something that I have been wanting to talk to you about for months." He paused, as Diana wondered where he was going with this. "You see, I have tried to ignore this and tried to pretend that I don’t feel like this. But I have done that before, and when it was too late I regretted it. I can’t let that happen again."

"What are you talking about, Joe?" Diana asked.

"I’m trying to … I’m trying to tell you…I’m in love with you, Diana! I can’t sleep, I can’t think about anything but you, and I sure can’t sit here and pretend that I don’t feel this way." Joe stopped and waited for some kind of reaction from her.

Diana was in shock and said, "Joe, I don’t know what to say." All she could think of was Vincent. Joe was standing right in front of her offering her everything she had ever wanted and yet she felt guilty, because in her heart she believed he was the wrong man. Although, Vincent didn’t seem to share her feelings she just couldn’t stop her feelings of guilt. She didn’t know what to say, so she turned to leave Joe’s office.

Joe grabbed her by the arm and spun her around as he started to speak, "Diana.…" He didn’t know what to say, so he kissed her. When he pulled away he couldn’t tell what she was thinking or feeling, and neither could she. Diana ran out of the office leaving Joe standing there feeling as though someone had weighted him down, because he couldn’t take a step.

Diana climbed in a cab and told him to go to Central Park. She couldn’t sort out her feelings. When Joe kissed her she hadn’t pulled away. Did that mean she had feelings for him as well? And why did she feel like she had cheated on Vincent? Did she really love him or was it just a nice dream, something that happened when she had tried so hard to become Catherine so she could find her killer. Maybe it was all a mistake. But she didn’t know. She paid the driver and went to call for Vincent, but he was already waiting for her as if he had known she was returning.

Vincent saw how confused she looked and asked, "Diana, what troubles you so?"

Should she tell him? Should she pretend it had never happened? Should she have him help her sort out her feelings? All she could say was, "Vincent…."

~