Questions

The next morning Bakker calls me and tells me to work from home until four o'clock. The office is full of people and since I'm not really needed today, except in the afternoon and in court, he needs me to work from home, to save some space at the office.

'Why are you there?' I ask suspiciously.

'Well, I need to work. And since I have a five and a three-year-old at home, I can't work there. Plus, I have meetings all day. I also got you a new case if you want it.'

'You can give it to someone else. I am already working on three cases right now.'

'Ok fine. I'll see you later.' He says before hanging up the phone.

I'm making phone calls all day and I try to wrap up the case I've been working on for the last five weeks. My boss wanted to give the case to someone else since I've been working on it all this time. The attorney on the other side of the case keeps stalling the sentence, which makes me look bad. He keeps "finding" new evidence and since the judge can't ignore it, the trial just keeps going on and on. I decide to settle on a pretty good deal when he hits me with a new piece of evidence for the tenth time in the past five weeks. My client only needs to go to prison for five years, instead of twenty. And since she's been keeping things from me the whole trial, I think it's a good deal. If she would've been honest with me from the start, I could've talked her out of prison into community service, but she kept lying, so she brought it upon herself.

At half-past three I leave my apartment for work. It's complete chaos in the hall of my floor when the door of the elevator pops open. There are a couple of people screaming at each other in Dutch, which I only understand partly. A couple of police officers emerge out of my office while dragging a very angry woman in handcuffs behind them. She stops walking as she sees the two people screaming at each other. She yells something that means: 'You'll see.' in English, but in Dutch, it sounds more powerful and threatening.

Behind me, the security walks to the two screaming people and drags them into the elevator. When the security and the police bot leave, it suddenly becomes very quiet. What the fuck happened here today?

Bakker pops up behind me as if he just dropped from the ceiling.

'Oh my god, Bakker! You scared the hell out of me.' I scream.

'I still don't get why you call me Bakker. My first name is Gijs.' He says for the hundredth time since I met him.

'I can't pronounce your first name as you do. When I say it, it sounds like I'm choking. And your last name is the only thing I can pronounce.' I say with a smile.

'Well you also get that wrong all the time, but it's not as bad as you trying to say Gijs.' A small smile forms on his lips.

'It's much easier to say "Shawn".' The elevator behind me slides open for the sixth time in the last five minutes.

It's Shawn's voice that fills the room immediately. He doesn't really have a deep, low voice but the sound of it is still nice. Jeez, why am I liking his voice? What's wrong with me?

'Since we both speak English, I think it's kind of obvious I can say "Shawn".' I say as I turn around to face him.

His father isn't with him today. He walks toward me and puts his hand on my shoulder. I grab his wrist and push his hand off of my shoulder as if he's carrying a disease. Yesterday he didn't even want to shake my hand and today he's touching my shoulder?

'Are you going to talk about the case today?' I ask Shawn.

'Yeah sure. But only to you.' He says.

'What do you mean?'

'I don't want to sit with him. He's rude.' He says when he stares at Bakker.

If he thinks Bakker is rude, what does he think about himself?

'There has to be a third person, just so there's proof of what you said.' Bakker says.

'Well, I don't give a fuck about proof.' Shawn says with a laugh.

'Bakker it's ok. I'll just tape the whole thing.' I reassure him.

'Like a sex tape?' Shawn says with big eyes.

'Yeah, but then without the sex.' I say with annoyance clear in my voice.

Shawn shrugs and looks at me with a serious expression. I tell him that we're going to talk in the same room as yesterday. He doesn't even respond. When I turn around he's pulling the blue hoodie he's wearing over his head. His abs are visible when he also pulls up the t-shirt he's wearing underneath his hoodie by accident. He grins when he sees my eyes shoot away from his abs. He runs his fingers through his hair and pulls the necklace on his neck up from under his t-shirt.

'After you Beth.' He says.

I almost start to cry. The only one that called me Beth was my mom. My heart cries and smiles when I think of her. She's the most magnificent woman I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

She died the day I graduated from High School, she was so proud of me. I remember the look she had in her eyes when the teacher handed me my diploma. That evening she got hit by a car. It was a hit and run and my father insisted on solving it himself, even though he was not a detective.

'Are you ok?' Shawn asks after a few seconds. The look on his face makes him look like a completely different person.

'Yeah, fine.'

I walk into the meeting room and start the camera. Shawn walks to the same seat where he sat yesterday. He looks at me with a smirk.

'What's your full name?' He asks.

Are you fucking joking right now? How is he able to continue this game? He's a suspect in a murder case, and he has time to fucking play games with me?! Jesus!

'Okay listen to me. You are going to sign this contract.' I slide a contract over the glass table to Shawn.

Without reading, or asking questions about the contract, he signs it. He just signed it without knowing how much he'll pay me for this case. He's crazy!

He slides the contract back to me with a challenging look in his eyes.

'You just signed it.' I say, a bit flabbergasted.

'You told me to sign it. So I did.' He responds with the same look. 'Are you going to answer my question?' He asks.

'No. You are going to tell me what happened at the party and why you were arrested for murder.' I say annoyed.

'Everyone who was at the crime scene got arrested. It's not that big of a deal, you'll get me out of this mess.' He stays quiet for a moment. 'Now, answer my question.' He says again.

'It's not a big deal?! No! I won't answer your question. I need to know every detail about that party and your role in it or I'm not going to be able to help you out of this mess. We go to court in four days and I need to keep you out of prison, why don't you understand that?!' I say with a raised voice.

'Oh, I understand. Don't worry, I'll tell you everything in a few seconds after you answer my question.'

'Okay,' I inhale in sharply. 'I'll answer all your questions when you're done telling me what happened at the party.' I try to negotiate.

'I can live with that.' He sits up, resting his hands on the table.

Shawn finally starts talking, this time telling me what happened. Friday night a few weeks ago he was at a big party, at his friend's house. His best friend Camila threw a party at a mansion because she graduated college. He went there because she forced him to come since he didn't want to.

'I don't really like parties. They're always so loud.' He says.

When he arrived his friend Niall gave him a drink and dragged him inside, where almost everyone was playing beer pong.

'Six ping pong tables were scattered around the living room.' He continues.

Most guys were playing beer pong in different groups. There were a lot of people and everyone who wasn't playing was watching someone else play until it was their turn.

'When it finally was my turn, Niall fucked me over. He decided to play with Camila and left me standing there until some stranger joined me.'

The guy that paired with him, wasn't his friend, but he talked to him a couple of times before. Even though he wasn't his friend, he was really good at playing beer pong, which only caused them to drink a cup, two or three times.

'Then something horrible happened.' He looks down at his lap.

I've read the police report, and they still don't know what happened. They arrested everyone at the crime scene when they arrived, including Shawn. No one told them what really happened, but they did find drugs in the guy's system. A detective told me that they can't figure out if the guy took them himself, or that he was poisoned. The mixture of the two drugs in his system was lethal and that's what killed the poor guy.

'When Niall's ping pong ball landed in the red cup, he chugged it down and before the cup was empty, the guy was already on the floor.'

'Who was in charge of filling the cups when they were empty?' I ask.

'A lot of different guys. Honestly, I didn't know anyone at the party, except Niall, Camila and Taylor. So even if I remember their faces, I don't even know who they are.'

'What happened after the guy passed out?' I ask.

'He didn't pass out. He died on the spot.' Shawn says.

'The police report said that two different types of drugs killed him. That couldn't have happened that fast.'

'Well, it did. The guy was dead when he hit the floor.'

'How do you know?'

'Because while everyone was playing fucking beer pong, I was next to him on the floor, searching for a pulse. Which I didn't find, by the way.' He's upset. I see it in his eyes and I hear it in his tone.

For a moment I think about asking him if he knows how to find a pulse, but I decide against it. I don't want to patronize him. I finish writing my notes in my notebook.

'Okay, I think that's enough for now. I'll look into the drug thing, maybe the police did something wrong.' I think for a minute. 'Why was everyone here though? You all live in Canada and America.' I say.

'She was an exchange student, and since she graduated in Amsterdam, she wanted to throw her party there.' He says.

'Was the guy dutch?' I ask.

'Think so.' He reacts.

I press the button on the machine in the middle of the table. It rings a few times before the floor assistant picks up. I ask her to bring two glasses of water to meeting room sixteen-B. Within a few minutes, she knocks on the door softly.

'Whos there?' Shawn says with a smile.

I shoot him daggers and he puts his arms in the air as if I shot daggers at him. The girl is my age and she's wearing a tight skirt when she walks in. I told her one thousand times that the length of her skirt is too short for her profession.

She tries to get Shawn's attention while putting the glass of water down in front of him. He doesn't even acknowledge her existence. His eyes stay fixated on me. It suddenly becomes harder to breathe, and without thinking I open one button of my blouse. Shawn's eyes travel down my neck as my hands leave the place. When the assistant finally leaves the meeting room I clear my throat.

'Are you done asking questions?' Shawn asks before I can speak.

'For today? Yes.' I say with a serious tone.

'Finally.' He says.

He stares at me, waiting for an answer. I finally remember the question he asked an hour ago.

'Elizabeth Mina McCullen.'

'Mina? That's a nice name.' He says.

I wait for Shawn to ask the next question, but he doesn't speak. I look at him and now I see that he's also waiting for me to say something.

'What is your whole name?' I ask when I roll my eyes and suppress a smile.

'Shawn Peter Raul Mendes. But you already knew that, didn't you?' He asks.

'Well You're all over the internet and you're my client, so I have access to your full name.' I say, feeling a bit guilty. I don't know why I feel guilty, but the feeling is just there.

'What's your favourite colour?' He continues.

Shawn stands up and walks to the big window behind him while pulling his hoodie back over his head, staring down at the people walking in the streets as he waits for my response. I study his body and every single thing he's wearing. He is wearing Yves Saint Laurant boots that are the finishing touch to his outfit. The black jeans are tight around his leg muscles, while his hoodie is loose, except around his arms and shoulders. He turns around slowly and my eyes scan his body again. The hoodie he's wearing has an embroidered red rose, right above his left peck.

I feel someone staring at me when I'm caught up in my own thoughts. I don't know why I find this man so interesting. He annoys me, and he's rude with his weird questions. Somewhere deep down, I like the way he wants to know those weird things about me. It makes me feel special.

Also, the way he didn't look at the assistant surprised me, I was convinced that he would stare at her until she was no longer in his eyesight, but he didn't.

'You look like a yellow kind of woman.' He says when I still haven't answered.

'No. Yellow is the colour of hate. My favourite colour is navy blue.' I answer.

'The colour of confidence, authority, intelligence and stability, with a sense of elegance and sophistication... I should've known.' He smiles.

'How do you know all that?' I say with surprise clear in my voice.

'I just do. And I'm the one asking the questions.'

'What do you hate most in life?' He asks again.

I think for a moment. I want to say murderers, but that's a lie. People shouldn't kill, that's true, but most people have a motive and if you think about it, every human being can kill someone.

'Liars' I think for a moment. 'And crying babies.'

'That's' His eyes narrow. 'oddly specific.' He says with a frown.

He walks around the table to me. When he's almost in front of me he asks me to stand up, I do as he asks and he grabs my hand when he's a couple of inches away from me. The smell of pine needles invades my senses and I find myself enjoying the smell. Is it Shawn who smells way? It must be.

This time I let him hold my hand. He doesn't hold my hand in an intrusive way and he also doesn't come any closer. He just leaves the right amount of space between us for me to feel comfortable. He looks into my eyes for a couple of seconds before looking at the lines on my hands.

'Last question.' I nod as he looks up at me for a second.

'What's your favourite place?'

'In the Netherlands? Or?' I ask.

'In the whole wild world.' He spreads his arms with a smile.

'Edinburgh.' I say after a couple of minutes.

'Really?' He asks with a high pitched voice as if I'm lying.

'Yes.' I say seriously.

Thank you for reading!

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