Vol 7 Chapter 5 (2/2)
Larry served Bridget tea
“Oh hat a fancy cup I expected nothing less from the Jones heiress And the tea s with comments completely unrelated to her request
“Try these too,” Natalia offered, handing Bridget a small plate of rusks
“Oh, ! I love this bakery They have the best rusks in the Capital District And they’re maple-flavored too How lovely”
“You have excellent taste”
“Of course I could say the same for you”
“Aw, you’re makin’ me blush”
The conversation was going nowhere Jenny forced it back on track
“Er…are you hoping to join the club? We’re always looking for new members”
Bridget noticed the hint of sarcasm in her tone
“Oh, sorry I always get carried ahen I see nice things I hope we can have a nice, long chat someday once my problem’s been solved,” she said, the s
‘We don’t even knoe’ll accept your case, let alone solve it,’ everyone thought, but no one said a word
Bridget finally got to the point
“I have a fiancé He’s the sae as me and attends this school His name is Kenneth Einsworth”
Everyone knew that already They nodded
“My parents and his parents set up this e before ere even born They want to hold the cereraduate”
Everyone knew that already, too They nodded
“He’s verbally abusing me”
No one had known that
“Hm?” “What?” “…?” “Huh?” “No way”
Everyone gaped
“He’s verbally abusing me It’s terrible”
Bridget repeated herself There was no sadness in her eyes—she told her story with no emotion
“On the outside he seeuy Handsome, friendly, and nice But he flips out e’re alone Swearing athe tells me to do”
The club et continued, her beautiful face frozen as though in a mask
“He despises me So of course he doesn’t want to marry me He wants soainst theh to face hi out all that stress on me, since I’m powerless to resist I’m sick of him”
Jenny slowly raised a hand
“Could I ask you a few things, SC Bridget? You don’t have to answer if my questions make you uncomfortable, of course”
“Sure”
“When did this verbal abuse begin?”
“I don’t know He’s always had a bit of that in him since ere kids When ere alone, he’d try to act all cool, like he was the best guy in the world It got worse once we started secondary school together and got et really bad until around the middle of last year”
Natalia and Nick exchanged silent glances Larry’s lips had been pursed for some time
“I see Thank you for answering So what exactly do you want us to do?”
“Help e us marry, and it’ll be nearly impossible to convince them Same with his parents”
“Right”
“So I need irrefutable evidence of his abuse Sooing to be enough, so I need someone else to back me up”
“So you’re asking for a recording?”
“That would be the best, but recording devices are too big I’ve already looked into it, to tell you the truth”
“I see My father does have a tape recorder at ho it to school That’s probably the only way, since you can’t capture verbal abuse on camera”
“Your testimony ork too You can even listen in on us if you’d like”
“I don’t know if anyone would consider us credible witnesses, though”
“Oh? You knoell as I do that the Jones heiress is more influential than that”
Jenny fell silent But Nick quickly took over
“Has SC Kenneth ever resorted to physical violence, SC Bridget?”
“Not yet, thankfully But that’s not Kenneth being a gentleman He knows he can’t afford to leave any evidence of his abuse And he always makes sure we’re alone when he abuses me”
“Then I suppose a sound recording will be our best option It will serve us better than simple eyewitness testimony”
“Can you do it?”
“We could bring the necessary machinery to the office and set up the microphone a distance away What do you say, Jenny?” Nick asked, turning Jenny thought for aup
“It’s doable, but the microphone has to be within a few dozen meters of the office For exa”
“That sounds perfect Then could I trust you to do this for me?”
“Of course But it’ll take at least two or three days for us to prepare Maybe even longer”
“I’ve waited this long; I can certainly wait a few more days Then that’s all I have to say for today”
Jenny nodded “If SC Kenneth abuses you again, make sure to note down the place and the content of his abuse somewhere”
“All right That sounds like a good idea And about contacting ht notice if you call h lockers Mine’s nu on it”
“Of course Please wait for us to contact you My locker number is 4649”
“Thanks for everything, newspaper club Let’s fight hard together,” Bridget said with a s her cup of tea “This tea is really good Who brewed it?”
“Oh, it was me”
“You’re really so
Larry’s spine trembled
A et left the office
Everyone had been silent—or stuffing themselves full of rusks—but Nick finally spoke
“Curiouser and curiouser”
“So leed couple The guy wants us to see if the girl’s cheating on hi her And they both want to rebel against their parents and break off the engagement”
Larry stood and put away Bridget’s teacup “One’s a cheater and the other’s an abuser And they both want to get the upper hand on the other That…alhed incredulously
“So what shall we do, Jenny?” Asked Nick
“What would you suggest? What would you do in my shoes, Nick?” Jenny shot back
“I would carry out both requests dutifully and find out the truth Then I would judge which one of the till serve best as an informant in the future and take their side,” Nick said, all with a smile on his face
“You are evil” Natalia shook her head But then she grinned “And smart! Let’s do it, chief!”
“So you’re for it?” Larry said snidely, returning to his seat
“Can we really call this a ro up an arranged e… It’ll be hard to pull off”
“Probably,” Natalia said with a nod “If they could’ve broken up on their own, they would have already”
“Hm?”
Seron looked up, quietly breaking his silence Larry noticed the change but turned back to the conversation between Jenny and Natalia
“You think , chief?”
“It’s definitely a possibility,” said Jenny
“Oh! That ht be it!” Larry nodded
“You gotta learn to be more suspicious, Larry,” Natalia quipped
“Right, right You ht be nicer than you look sometimes, Lia”
“Flattery won’t get you any rusks”
“That was suspicion, not flattery”
Jenny cut in “We have three possibilities,” she said, writing on a notepad
The first possibility:
Kenneth was lying to the club (in other words, Bridget was a faithful fiancée and a victioat to get out of the engagement
The second possibility:
Bridget was lying to the club (in other words, Kenneth was a kindhearted fiancé toret wanted to use hiement
The third possibility:
Both were telling the truth (in other words, Bridget was cheating on Kenneth and Kenneth was verbally abusing Bridget) Both wanted to hide their own faults and use the other as a scapegoat to get out of the engagement
“That’s nice and easy to understand Thanks, chief”
“So it must be one of these three possibilities I would bet on the third option”
“I see”
Everyone nodded, but Seron alone remained still “Nat, could I have a rusk?”
“Go ahead”
“Thanks I’ve got a sudden craving for sweets”
“Your brain’s revving up, eh?”
Seron ar to his stomach and his brain
Larry began to think “SC Kenneth didn’t seeh”
“But did SC Bridget look like she was?” Natalia shot back
“No She didn’t”
“Guess we can’t just take either of ‘em at face value And neither of ‘e out e investigate We’ll knoho’s lying, or if they both are”
“That does present us with a problem,” Nick remarked, “if ish to carry out SC Kenneth’s request, ill have to get near SC Bridget But she knows our faces”
“Yeah…” Natalia nodded, but she looked up “Actually, no You’re doing this on purpose, Nick SC Bridget hasn’t seen Megmica yet”
“Ah, it slipped my mind”
“I see right through you, Nick”
Jenny nodded “So we’ll have to get Meg to take the snapshots I can support her with a telephoto lens from afar”
“That does seemica was very enthusiastic about SC Kenneth’s request And though it pains est this, I propose that we keep the fact of SC Bridget’s request fromica”
“Yeah…at least, until we figure out what’s going on,” Jenny said with a nod “I’ry later, just tell her I put you all under a gag order Got it?”
“A chief, are you playing the bad guy again?” Natalia teased, elbowing Jenny, but Jenny ignored her And she turned to the member of the club most suited to silence
“What’s your take on this, Seron?”
“…”
“Seron?”
“Huh? Oh, er…it’s really good”
“Not the rusk,” said Natalia, “only an ani but food on their mind all the time, Seron”
“Sorry”
“That was supposed to be a joke, buddy,” said Larry
Seron looked around at the others with his blank grey eyes
“I went through the possibilities into us So I agree we should carry out both requests”
“Oh? So your basic assu? I’m surprised, Seron,” Nick said, a little snidely but still s
“Yeah Wouldn’t be surprising froreed
“There’s all kinds of people out there,” Seron replied simply
Jenny nodded and wrapped up
“Then we’ll prep for SC Bridget’s request while carrying out SC Kenneth’s request with Meg device fro so it, and I need a car and someone to carry it into the office I can leave it to Kurtz and Litner, but—”
“I can help with the heavy lifting”
“I’ll ask for help if we need any Any questions?”
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