117

Ava had been back to work for a few days, and it was starting to feel like she never had been away. She was pleased to see that whatever improvements had been made to their security system, it wasn’t visible. Zane and Ava had decided it was time to let people outside of the closest circle know she was pregnant. They had discussed the possibility it would make her even more of a target. But she was not worried. Ava had Tom and she knew Zane had other men stationed in the building and probably outside it as well. She was sitting in her office, looking at the latest budget for the LGBTQ+ safe space. Gabriel’s dream was slowly growing and becoming a reality. Her intercom buzzed.
“Mrs. Velky, two police detectives are here. they want to speak to you,” Tom told her. Ava felt a moment of fear, had something happened to Zane? But she pushed that thought to the side. If something had happened, she wouldn’t be told by the police, someone in the organisation would have told her.
“Please show them in,” she told him. A moment later, Tom opened the door to her office and showed a man and a woman inside. Ava stood up and went to greet them. She met Tom’s eyes and he gave her a small nod behind the detectives’ backs. He would let Zane know what was happening.
“Mrs. Velky, I’m detective Smith and this is my partner detective Brown,” the woman detective introduced herself, shaking Ava’s hand.
“Detective, nice to meet you. Please, have a seat. Can I get you something while we talk? Coffee? Soda?” Ava said, shaking the other detective’s hand as well and gesturing towards the visitor’s chairs.
“No, thank you,” detective Brown said, and the detectives sat down on the chairs Ava had shown them and she sat down on the other side of her desk.
“What can I help you with? I hope nothing bad has happened,” she asked them.
“It depends on how you see it,” detective Brown said.
“We have received some information regarding your husband, and we wanted to see if you could confirm it for us,” detective Smith explained.
“Information? Regarding Zane? I can try and help as much as I can. But wouldn’t it be easier to just ask him?” Ava said.
“We prefer to talk to you first,” detective Brown insisted.
“Okay, then ask away,” Ava told them, leaning back in her chair to look relaxed and out of instinct, her hand ended up on her belly. She saw both detectives follow its movement.
“We have got a reliable source that tells us your husband has been up to some not so legal things,” detective Smith said. Ava raised an eyebrow.
“Honestly, I thought those rumours were behind us,” Ava sighed. It was detective Brown’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “When I first met my husband, I had heard all about his criminal ways, as everyone else in the city. But as I got to know him, I realised it was all just a misunderstanding. My husband may be a little rough around the edges, but that is it. But, and this is a little embarrassing to admit, he liked the image others had given him. It gave him an upper hand when making business deals, and women tend to be drawn to bad boys,” Ava said.
“Including you?” detective Brown asked. Ava laughed.
“It has it’s alure, but I prefer the man behind the mask,” she told them.
“So your husband didn’t use money from his illegal activities to set up this business and buy you a place here? detective Brown asked. Ava felt a spark of her temper ignite. But she took a deep breath.
“My good friend Gabriel started this company with money he had saved. I invested the profits from selling my parents’ house into this company, earning myself a partnership. I would think you would have done a background check and found that Gabriel and I have known each other long before Zane came into my life,” she told them. Her voice had gone cold.
“We have,” detective Smith confirmed. “But it seems like a big change to go from a nurse to… this,” she said, gesturing to Ava’s office.
“It was. To be honest with you, a year ago I was in a bad place. My uncle, who had raised me, told me that he was deeply in dept to some very unsavoury people. It wasn’t the first time, but it was the most serious. It forced me to look for a new job that would pay more to help him.”
“That’s how you met Mr. Velky?” detective Smith asked.
“Yes. Zane needed a private nurse to his nightclub. There had been a lot of scuffing, broken noses and things like that. It paid good and I took the job. It was my salvation. Not only did I meet the love of my life, I got some breathing room to think about my life. When my aunt and uncle went missing, I decided I needed a change, Ava told them.
“Still no word from them?” detective Brown asked. Ava tried to look worried and shook her head.
“No, I’m worried that the loan sharks got to them.”
“Or they decided to go underground to hide from them,” detective Brown suggested.
“I would like to think they wouldn’t just leave me behind if they had,” Ava said, trying to sound and look vulnerable.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t have,” detective Smith comforted her. Ava gave her a smile.
“How about a Doctor James?” detective Brown asked.
“I used to work with him, before I left the hospital. When Linda, my friend who is a surgeon at the hospital, told me about his accident I was horrified. Poor man.”
“And what if we told you, it wasn’t an accident?” Detective Brown asked.
“Not an accident? I thought he had fallen into the marina, that was what I heard. Do you think someone pushed him in?” Ava pretended to be horrified. She didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“Our source says your husband beat, tortured and killed the doctor and then covered it up,” detective brown told her. Both detectives looked at her and Ava looked at them. Then she giggled. The looked surprised.
“Sorry. I know this is a serious subject. But are you telling me that you seriously believe that my husband tortured and killed someone? We are talking about the man that when he found out I was pregnant had our driver drive us home below thirty miles per hours. This is the man that were so worried when his best friend had a fight with his girlfriend that he made him go and make up with her? The man that when he defended me against a man groping me and hurt his hand, spent the rest of the night worrying about ruining my dress? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make light of the subject. But as I said, the bad boy persona Zane has is not who he is. underneath that he is a softy,” Ava told them.
“Thirty miles per hour?” detective Smith asked.
“I know! Can you imagine the looks we got? I love the man, but there is a thing as being too cautious. God helps me when they baby get here and starts crawling and walking. My husband will wrap them in bubble wrap if he gets his way,” Ava said. The detectives looked at each other. The intercom buzzed again.
“Mr. Velky is here, Mrs. Velky,” Tom let her know.
“Could you please ask him to wait until we are done, Tom,” Ava said.
“Of course.” Ava hoped Zane would get the message and don’t come barging in to save her.
“Any other questions?” Ava asked the detectives. They looked at each other once again and she thought they looked uncomfortable.
“Are you being held against your will?” detective Smith asked. Ava looked at her. Of all the questions she could have asked, this was one Ava hadn’t expected.
“Of course not! Why on earth would you think that?” Ava asked.
“If you’re not with your husband, you are with your secretary, formerly employed by your husband, or one of your two friends, both who are dating men associated with your husband,” detective Brown explained.
“I will confess that my social group is almost identical with my husbands. That has just been a happy coincident. I am free to leave if I wanted. And I do have friends outside of my husband’s friend circle. Fatima Abadi is one of them,” Ava told the detectives. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea to point them to Fatima. But Ava hoped her friend had more sense than to speak the truth to the police.
“I think that was everything. Thank you for talking to us, Mrs. Velky,” detective Smith said.
“Always happy to help if I can,” Ava told them and stood up as they did. She followed them to her office door. As she opened it, Zane was sitting on the couch outside. He was looking at his phone and to someone who didn’t know him, he looked relaxed. But Ava saw the signs of his anger. He stood up and smiled at her when he saw her coming out of her office.
“Angel, I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting. I was just hoping to take you to lunch,” he said.
“That’s sweet of you, and you didn’t interrupt anything. The detectives and I were finished,” she told him and gave him a kiss on the cheek as his arm came around her waist.
“Detectives? Is something wrong? Are you or the business in trouble? Should I call our lawyer?” he asked, pretending to be worried.
“No need, they just had some questions,” she said and introduced him to the detectives. They briefly said hello before they excused themselves and left.