06

HALLÉ

I felt a shiver down my spine as I walked into the all familiar Karaoke bar-"The Masked Singers". I shook the thoughts from my head as I moved towards the bar.

As I sat down, I saw a familiar face come to take my order; *Steven*

He walked over to me with a huge smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes "Well, well if it isn't our infamous red vixen" He said with his usual blinding grin.

I returned the smile with the same amount of fervour; Steven standing at an inch over 6ft with his dirty blond hair, blue eyes-All American boy-look and pure charm was the reason why people had a fondness for the dingy karaoke bar, well that and the anonymity.

A fact I was reminded of as Steven stared at my curly red wig complemented by my rose gold mask and equally gold Greek goddess ensemble. "Well I couldn't just forget all about my darn favourite bartender, now could I" I replied making my voice deeper and adding extra emphasis on my southern drawl.

"Of course not, it just hasn't been the same without you" He said nodding over to the poorly dressed *Hercules* on stage giving an equally poor rendition of Destiny's child *Say my name*.

I laughed as I recalled the fond memories of coming here with the entire "gang"- Michael, Solange and a few times even *Luiz*. It was the one place where I could perform for fun and not worry about criticisms and the *only* place Solange ever sang.

I was suddenly pulled out of my reverie, when I felt Steven's hand on mine. "Are you okay Red?".

I almost wanted to correct him, then remembered *Red* was the Alias I used here; *pull yourself together, it hasn't even been that long, you can't start slipping*

I smiled at him "Of course". He raised an eyebrow in response "Well I was just asking where that boyfriend of yours was, I assumed ya'll were practically joined by the hip and Miss S didn't make an appearance?"

I shook my head at him, Steven had a huge crush on my sister *figures*. "No, she's quite busy and the boyfriend..well he just isn't around".

His eyebrow raised even higher at my answer and I could see the raging curiosity in his eyes but thankfully he chose not to pry and instead continued on "Well that's just too bad, your frames just arrived. Phil wanted ya'll to get them in person".

Then he ducked down behind the counter, pulled out a gift wrapped rectangular box and placed it in his arms "He also wanted me to tell you this is one of the best pictures he'd taken".

I felt tears well up in my eyes as I stared down at the box "Well Phil likes to exaggerate". Steven said nothing at first and just nodded, and almost as if he knew I needed space said "Well I'll leave you to it, I've got to get somethings done in the backroom" and left.

There was nothing but loud music and voices in the background and yet in this very moment as I opened up the box and pulled out the framed picture, I felt surrounded by nothing other than my own thoughts.

I looked down at the pictures and almost couldn't recognize this group that once felt all too familiar; Michael with Luiz in his arms, Solange standing with her elbow on his shoulder, grinning down at me in front of them all crouching down with my tongue out.

This looked like a cross between *friends* and *grease* as we all stood scantily clad in matching leather outfits. I remember the theme for that night was the *50's decade*, I could never forget it; the first time Solange ever sang in public.

*Solange! I yelled from the bottom of the stairs as I watched Luiz and Michael show off their "guns" to each other in their sleeveless leather vest and wondered how exactly I married a five year old and ended up with his equally five year old friend.

I shook my head and at the click clack sounds of stilettos whipped my head back to the stairs; and there stood my sister in an equally matching red wig, green contacts, corset leather and leather pants ensemble; Gorgeous.

I had always loved the more slender figure she had inherited from our mum compared to my much more curvier body.

She stopped in front of me with an uncomfortable look on her face before she spoke "Hallé I need to talk to you".

I looked back at Michael and he understood, dragging Luiz along with him to the car, and then I moved my attention back to Solange "What's wrong?"; She sighed "I just don't think I can do this, singing on stage in front of people,I-"and then I cut her off "S, relax". She then took a breath and stopped ranting so I continued on-

"Where's the bad bitch that normally drives me insane, come on you've got this, you have an amazing voice,and this is a great way to grab Luiz's attention; besides the whole point of why we do this Karaoke thing is to have fun and be someone other than ourselves. I mean look at us wigs, contacts and masks. Just let loose and if it helps think of it exactly like that, we're playing characters".

At that she took another deep breath, nodded and pulled me outside with her*.

Once more, I was pulled out of my dreamworld spiral with Steven's hand on mine and his voice calling my name "*Red*". I flinched *how long was I out of it*; I gazed up at Steven and from his expression I could tell the exact answer to my question - *pretty darn long*.

He looked like he was really about to ask this time and so I jumped in first "Sorry, I just keep spacing out these days, got a lot on my plate. So what did you want, hun'" I threw a dazzling smile in with the *hun*.

Thankfully he ran with the subject change and replied "Well I was just wondering if you were going to sing tonight, I mean that is why you're here?".

I paused for a while *truthfully, that is why I left the house; to get away from everything and to just be able to sing again and pour out everything I've been bottling in, and seeing the picture just reminded me even more that I needed to let it all out.**

So with that thought I responded to Steven's question gaze with one single statement "Of course"

...............................

MOLLY

As I watched Hallé walk out of the house, I sighed; *on any other day this would be a dream*.

I squinted my eyes, gazing at her outfit *of course she looked gorgeous as usual, Lord I adore this woman* but her choice of outfit was also strange, not her usual style at all, gold dress and a mask? *what was she doing*.

This seemed like something Detective Gomez would want to know, he did say to report any form of movement from the house to him.

I sighed once again, picked up my phone, and dialled his number; *This was turning out to be a lot harder than I imagined*.

..................................

DETECTIVE GOMEZ

I groaned rubbing my temples, while staring at the board of increasing suspects, everyone from her Hallé to her manager; *this case was going to be the end of me*.

I was about ready to fling the board out the window,when Josh; my unofficial personal assistant opened up the door and popped his head in. I turned towards him with an irritated expression "Please tell me you have *some* good news".

He nodded rigorously, with a terribly bright smile and a very obvious blush. *I almost forgot about his little crush* "Alright come on in".

He walked in lugging files in both arms before placing them carefully on my desk. He started to ramble and I had to reach out to him to get him to calm down "Josh, slowly. Now repeat yourself".

He took a deep breath in "Well I ran the background check on the family like you asked me to, all the information are in the files over there and mostly everything checks out, squeaky clean; no criminal records well all except-

"No. Don't tell me; Hallé?"

He nodded in response. I sighed and shook my head "So what is it?" and then his smile got bigger, "That's just it, *I don't know*; I just know that she was charged but everything else about her case records has been sealed off and I'm guessing this was a court order; He took a breath in before he went on-

"I mean its just too damn intriguing, if the court sealed it off, there's a high probability it happened when she was a minor, it's not exactly related to the case but I just have a gut feeling that this could give us a lot of insight"

At this point I was smiling too, this really was *intriguing* and thankfully I know a certain chief of police with connections to the current DA; exactly the kind of favour I would need to pull to get my hands on that case record.

Just then my phone rang, *Shadow* with a nod and a thank you I dismissed Josh but not before he offered to run to the nearest pharmacy to get me some pain medication like he had no work of his own to get done. *Sweet*

I then picked up the call, and then she answered also rambling *what is it with these young people and talking without breathing*.

"Shadow calm down, start over"; she then *slowly* filled me in about Hallé, a "gorgeous" gold dress, a red wig and a mask; *of course, Friday. The Masked Singers; odd that she'd still want to go*.

"Forget about that, I know where she's going; just go home and get some sleep because come Monday, you and I are going to have a lot of digging up to do, Shadow. This is the greatest in depth history you'll ever get about your *idol*"

I dropped the call, whistling to myself; *this just got a lot more interesting*