24: Relay

Iris knew who had come and who had left, she knew where all the pieces of this game of chess lay and where they would move. She dried herself off in the shower area and glanced at her vibrating phone on the heap of towels that lay on the floor. It's been ringing for a couple minutes now but Iris liked to play with her prey a little, keep her on her toes.

With a smile she finally answered the call, "Hello honey,"

"Don't call me that!' hissed the voice on the other end. 

"Our little nephew was here a while ago, shrank back when he saw me I suppose,"

"How did you know that?"

"I knew he'll leave this way, I overheard before I left the gallery, but I haven't seen him yet, so I'm assuming he saw me and ran off," she explained.

"Why were you in his way? " the voice on the other end demanded to know, sounding almost pouty.

"I wasn't in his way. I knew you and your little schemes are mounting the stage and wanted to have a first row scene to the action," she said nonchalantly. 

"You can't stay there anymore, why don't you move in?"

"Why can't I stay in the hotel anymore? I'm perfectly fine here," Iris refused.

"No you're not, or soon enough you won't be. Why do you fight me so?" 

"I'll stop by, and if things do get as bad as you say they will, you know I'll find you," Iris bargained.

The voice on the other end hummed a sullen reply before ending the call. 

On the very other end of the town, Kanimozhi laid her phone down. She looked herself in the mirror and winced at the memory of the previous call. She needed to stop acting like a teenager with that woman. Kanimozhi was barely thirty but as she glanced at the photo on her vanity, one of her and her ex-husband, she grew solemn. Her dead husband was someone she wouldn't let the world forget, and she of all people must never fail to think of him. 

She wiped away the lip print on her vanity mirror with her handkerchief, but as she approached the laundry bin to put it away, she couldn't help but drop it into her purse instead.