I Can Hear Your Heart

17. Police Interrogation

The severity of the news sidelines made my comfortable feeling disturbed. I failed to concentrate. So to calm myself down I took a short pause around the hotel.

I stepped slowly towards the flower garden behind the hotel which was equipped with a fish pond with wooden swings for lovers who were kasmaran. Above the fish pond stretched an iron bridge that was perfectly painted like a wood. Some guests were seen posing there. Sometimes I get an impromptu job as a photographer. Seeing their laughter and happiness is more than pleasant.

A beautiful and pleasant hotel, if the tragedy did not happen maybe this vacation will be more fun because there is no need to separate the hotel with others. Fuckin' coward. What can a ghost do?

Great, when else would a hotel as good as this go down in price? You can get stuck in a five-star hotel for three stars.

Steady! When this case closes later they will regret their decision not to stay here.

I let the sound of that voice hit me.

"Thank you." The young lady was my fifth impromptu customer for ten minutes I set foot in this garden. I stuck out her little camera with the powershoot SX 740HS. She grabs him and once again thanks him before then passing by holding her husband-married honeymoon couple in room 2107.

"Manager Li." Someone patted me on the shoulder, scattered the daydreams in my brain. I turned my body around and found a figure that was taller than me smiling broadly. Her clean white teeth lined up neatly, her eyes looking reddish probably due to lack of sleep due to the Sarina case she is now handling.

"It's good you're okay. Why didn't you call me when you got back? I'm almost crazy looking for you." He screeched angrily, some guests glanced at us and I was sure that at least one of them had misinterpreted his words as the anxiety of a lover.

Let's just say that when I disappeared yesterday, our relationship wouldn't be in a cold war like this.

"Because I didn't even know you were looking for me, Mr. Police." I answered him simply and he laughed.

"Come, get out of here there's something I need to talk to you about."

"Is this about Sarina's death or about Rosta's kidnapping of me?"

"What difference? This case is interconnected." IPTU Candra extended her hand to let me go first. I followed him stepping in front of him.

We drove by his car to a world-famous cafe with delicious coffee that looks quiet after office lunch hours, just because he didn't want to eat or drink at the scene of the crime to protect his integrity as an investigative officer. Doesn't that look so idealistic? Does anyone intend to bribe him? If this news has not been released to the media maybe, but the tragedy has been released to the media on the night of the incident as well, so there is nothing a hotel that gets a tragedy like us can do but be steadfast and persevere while hoping there are still loyal customers who do not care about the situation or many new customers who even though it appears because it is lured into the lure of discounts, but it can be a mouth of advertising for others out there that the state of the hotel is fine, the service is still good and classy. That would be more profitable advertising than all advertising spread across print, electronic and outdoor media, interactive media, alternative media, or even digital advertising.

But I have now just realized whoever told the crash to the media - the incident even went down on the online news site was the one who intended to take down the Royal Garden Hotel. It's not just human murder, it's business murder and Rosta...

Return all the files to me! It'll be better for everyone. You don't know who you're dealing with. He wanted this hotel.

"Coffee?" IPTU Candra offers when we set foot inside the cafe. "I'm the one who paid as a thank you and sorry for not being able to take care of you."

"Give me the most expensive," I said casually without even feeling guilty as I watched his face glare. It was his fault for offering it to me. Free is always heart-wrenching. "with sponge cake, please."

I walked away from the bar table, looking for the most comfortable seat for us to talk to later. I picked a chair in the corner of the glass window. From that window I could observe the crowd in front of the cafe. Five minutes later IPTU Candra appeared before me. Put down a brown envelope that she seemed to have just picked up from inside the car - because when we got down together from inside the car she was carrying nothing. He put the envelope on the table.

"Can you tell me what really happened yesterday?" IPTU Candra spoke directly to the point she wanted to know as an investigator.

"That morning I just got out of my room and talked to Larisa, she's one of my subordinates at the front office. Larisa said Rosta made a scene at the hotel because she wanted to see me. It's a matter of the file I took from him." I whispered in the last sentence afraid that someone else could hear it. Then I paused when a waiter came to put the order on the table.

I sipped the coffee in front of me. Letting my eyes look at the male waiters with long black aprons two feet below our knees before continuing my story, "Then he suddenly appeared that morning. Forcing me to return the file. I told him that the file had been handed over to the police. The result was that he darkened his eyes and went berserk. He forced me to go with him. He even beat up the security guard and Larisa's trying to help me. He managed to get me into the car. I don't know where it's going to take me, what I remember last time was that I tried to stop the car by disrupting the steering wheel and causing it to hit a sidewalk..."

"Which way?"

"Sudirman Street."

"One of the road users reported it to the police because the black BMW sedan hit the bumper of his car as it went down the sidewalk." Rosta grabbed the brown envelope that was on the table. He took out two photos of a jumbo-sized black BMW and asked me to choose one. I pushed one of the pictures towards him. He grabbed the photo and stared at the photo. Then change looking at me. "You sure?"

"Did he take you to the former Lamara Hotel?"

"What?!" I was more surprised at his question.

"So where?"

"I don't remember. My last memory was the incident on the car. It ended when the car hit the road and I tried to open the door, but he banged my head against the car's dashboard. I fainted and when I realized I was in my room."

"There's no way you can't remember it. Try remembering. Because this is so weird."

"What's so weird?"

He spoke a little slowly. "The public reported the commotion that occurred at the former Lamara Hotel."

"I've seen the news." I cut quickly while putting a piece of sponge cake into my mouth again. It doesn't taste sweet, but it fits on my tongue even with a slight salty taste. He put a jumbo photo in front of me again this time managed to make me nauseous and did not intend to eat anymore. Fuck up! So this is the reason he refused the sponge cake I offered? In a hurry he kept back photos of decomposing bodies that even some parts of his body had been living the bones. "Fuck, you!" I cussed between my shavings on my coffee. Fortunately the aroma of coffee and the sticky taste of coffee on my tongue camouflaged the shadow of the stench from the photo IPTU Candra showed me.

"I haven't even eaten since morning because of that."

"So I should thank you for showing it after I had lunch? That so?" He chuckles. "Say you're not willing to buy me expensive coffee."

He chuckles again. "It's good that you know. So again you're not gonna ask me to buy you expensive coffee?"

"Basic stingy."

"I'm stingy with other people, but not with my boyfriend so you have to be my girlfriend first to know how royal I am."

"Ha ha ha." My words also welcome his incompetent fight and it makes him ngakak back. "Stop laughing. I'm not a clown. What else do you want to ask, Police Officer? You know I'm pretty busy?" I sat down with annoyance.

"I don't want to ask anything more" he said, "You don't know. So I'll figure it out myself. Including finding out why you can forget this important thing. Thanks for the cooperation." He got up from his chair. "So we're going?"

I glanced at the sponge cake that was still left half on the plate, actually I felt fond of throwing it away, but what else - I might not even intend to eat anymore because of the magic photo IPTU Candra just showed me. I stepped lazily while recalling his words: 'find out why you can forget this important thing.'

Yeah, why did I forget about it? Did I get stuck on a rock and experience partial amnesia (forgetting certain memories)? Or is this the impact of my ability to read other people's minds? And I lost my own memories? Lost my own thinking ability?

I was horrified to think of the cleverness I was doing.

Why the body was using all the clothes used Rosta even had a wallet containing ID card, SIM and even Stnk and Rosta car keys in his suit pocket. What to avoid the law he chose to pretend to die? Geez, this one villain is really shrewd.

Just look I'm gonna get you, motherfucker! After DNA tests on the body there will be witnesses who have met you and I will chase you even to the grave.

We got into the car with our own thoughts even though I also heard his thoughts.

IPTU Candra drove her car slowly out of the coffee shop then when I saw the rearview mirror, I saw a shadow in the back seat of the car. I quickly turned my head to look at the back seat. Finding the seat empty.

It's nothing, maybe it's just my mind.

I tried to calm my heart.