Chapter 5
The flashing red and blue lights of the police cruisers painted jagged patterns across the high windows of The Velvet Anchor, casting an eerie, synthetic glow over the debris of the ruined lounge. The bar manager was speaking in hushed, frantic tones to two responding officers near the entrance, pointing intermittently toward the back booth where the chaos had taken place.
Elena sat upright on the velvet couch, an ice pack pressed against the swelling left side of her jaw. The anger in her eyes had been replaced by a cold, calculating stillness that was perhaps even more unsettling. Her black blazer was stained with spilled wine and dust from the floor, but her posture remained stubbornly rigid. She refused medical attention, staring straight ahead at the opposite wall as if mentally rewriting the entire sequence of events.
A few feet away, Maya sat on a metal folding chair provided by the staff, casually sipping a glass of ice water. Her white varsity jacket was unzipped, revealing her black crop top, and her pink platform boots were noticeably scuffed from the scuffle. She looked remarkably composed for someone who had just engaged in a full-scale physical altercation in a public establishment.
Clara had finally been given a dry woolen blanket by one of the sympathetic bartenders. She sat wrapped in it near the back exit, shivering softly despite the indoor heating. The dark wet hair had begun to dry in stiff, tangled clumps around her shoulders. She looked between Elena and Maya, the guilt gnawing at her insides with every passing second. She knew the fight wasn't really about a spilled glass of wine or even the bruised jaw; it was about the missing four hundred thousand dollars from the firm’s escrow account—an embezzlement scheme that only the three of them had the clearance to execute.
One of the police officers, a weary-looking detective named Miller, approached their corner with a heavy sigh. He flipped open a small leather notebook, his pen poised and ready.
“All right,” Officer Miller said, his voice gravelly and devoid of patience. “Management doesn't want to press formal charges if you all agree to leave right now and pay for the property damage. But I want to know right here, right now, what started this mess.”
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Elena slowly lowered the ice pack from her face. She looked up at the detective, her gaze unwavering. “It was a disagreement over corporate ethics, Officer,” she said smoothly, her voice betraying no hint of the fury that had driven her minutes earlier. “Nothing more. My friend here simply misunderstood my methods.”
Maya scoffed quietly, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling. “Your methods involved assault and public humiliation, Elena. Let’s call it what it actually was.”
