Liar Liar

Graciela’s POV

Monday morning and it was interrogation time. Everyone from Tonique’s Antiquities except Mr. Prongers were called to the office. We had not interviewed them the other day.

The interrogation was conducted simultaneously by Holly, Ellie and I in separate rooms.
Holly was interviewing the son, Will and Ellie was interviewing the daughter Alexis. That left Quince for me.

“Please state your full name and age for the record”

” Quince Rockford, 27.”

” How long did you know your colleague Brianna Collins for?”

” About 4 years now.”

“What was your relationship with her like?”

” We were seeing each other.”

“You were seeing your colleague Brianna?? Why didn’t you ever mention it?”

“Yes. No one ever asked me. And we’ve never spoken before.”

Fair point.

“How long have you been seeing each other?”

“Less than a year now.”

” A year? Does Mr. Pronger know that his employees are seeing each other?”

” No, not really. But he wouldn’t mind even if he did know. “

” What makes you say that?”

“Mr. Pronger’s being the old man he is, teased us sometimes together, when we were working side by side. He said we looked extremely happy and good together. Initially of course we just used to laugh it off…”

He trails off and I think just for a split second he breaks but he clears his throat and gets back to answering questions to the T. The wall was back up.

“Was Brianna allergic to anything?”
“Just peanuts, walnuts, almonds, I think just about all nuts, you know?”
Pauses.

And I think to myself so he doesn’t know about Kale or he isn’t referring to it in case he thinks he’ll be tied to the crime. That’s when he proceeds to continue-

“Oh and Kale”

Great.

“Do you know a man named John Gavish?”

“Yeah. Her ex. Real mad guy.”

” Can you please elaborate?”

” Some guy he is. Possessiveness is okay, yeah? But not to that level. She told me he didn’t like her job and wanted her to quit. I always thought the dude was crazy to think anything could ever happen in Tonique’s.

It was the small things at first but then she got fed up. They broke up after a couple of years. But he still sees her now and then. Sorry, he used to see her.”

Pauses.

“She didn’t like it, you know? Him bothering her all the time.

So she moved to a better place. Closer to the shop. I even helped her move. It was a well furnished place.”

Quince, even though he refused to show it, was quite bothered about all this. It was clear. Maybe he did care for her. It was quite possible for them to be in love. They worked together and as I heard he is quite the charmer.

And then there was John, who was supposed to get married to her. Also helped her move in during which the crime was committed.

Liar Liar.

But Liar, who?