Chapter Twenty

She had been deathly afraid that by giving JC a glimpse into her past, that things between them would be strange. After all, how often was it that someone unloaded years worth of emotional turmoil onto him, completely unprovoked and without warning? She would be willing to guess not often at all.

But she had been wrong about it. He had provided her a much needed shoulder to cry and he had provided a strong pair of arms to wrap her in once she was done telling her story. She had never felt more loved. It was the kind of relationship she’d always longed to have, but always felt destined to be without. Until he came along.

He was a Godsend. Not perfect by any means, but perfect for her. Just the thought of the way he smiled at her made her knees weak. The way he said her name. The way he had no problem putting her in her place when she needed it.

She shook her head to rid herself of her thoughts. As nice of a mental image that he gave her, she needed to concentrate on the case. She felt so close to the answers that she was seeking. The envelope and letter had been sent to the lab back in DC to test for finger prints. Hopefully it had not been too tainted by hers and JC’s prints. It was a long shot, but right now, it was all she had.

She couldn’t help but think that there was something sitting right in front of her, something so obvious, that she was missing. It wouldn’t be the first time. People who were born investigators often had a tendency to dig deep into their work, trying so desperately to find the answer that was staring them in the face the entire time.

She shook her head and turned the corner, heading down the hallway to her boyfriend’s dressing room. It wouldn’t be long until she got the results from the lab, and then hopefully, she’d be closer to solving the case. Until then, there was not much that she could do.

She only took a few steps down the hallway before she paused, wrinkling her nose in confusion. The door to JC’s dressing room was sitting wide open. Crew members were not allowed inside of the dressing rooms and it sure as hell wasn’t JC. He was in a meet ‘n’ greet. He’d asked her to come and pick up a couple of papers that he needed to give over to Johnny.

So who the hell was in his room?

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest wildly as she stepped closer to the open door. She wasn’t sure what she was going to find when she finally stepped inside… but she was not prepared for what she saw.

Standing in the middle of his room, hunched over his bag, was Melanie.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Alana barked. She watched as Melanie immediately turned upright, and spun on her heel to face Alana. She could see the reddish tint to her face. Her hand flew to her chest and she let out a nervous laugh before she spoke.

“I was looking for some Tylenol,” she said, holding the bottle up. “I know he always has some with him and I figured he wouldn’t mind.”

“You think he wouldn’t mind you being in here, snooping through his things?”

“Not really. We’re friends,” she said.

Alana crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow in Melanie’s direction. Perhaps it was the jealous girlfriend side coming out in her, but she didn’t appreciate this woman going through her boyfriend’s things.

“I think you’d better go,” she said coolly. She watched as Melanie nodded and practically bolted to the door, pushing past her on her way out. She turned and watched her scurry down the hallway, shaking her head. Something didn’t feel right.

She turned back to the room and looked around, seeing if anything was out of place. Aside from his duffle bag that laid open on the chair in the room, everything was exactly how it was when he left an hour ago. But something was still off. Perhaps the dancer had really only come for the Tylenol.

She would have to talk to JC. She let out a sigh and walked over to the open bag before pulling out the papers that he’d requested. Deciding that she was cold, she also grabbed his hoodie and pulled it on over her head. What she didn’t notice, however stupidly on her part, was the small envelope that fell from the bag, landing on the floor beside the chair.

~*~

Catching Melanie in the dressing room had troubled Alana all night. She was watching from the side of the stage, her eyes never leaving JC’s thin form. She needed to talk to him, to ask him about Melanie being in there.

The thought of Melanie caused Alana’s eyes to drift towards the dancer. There was something off about Melanie. Although they hadn’t been on the friendliest of terms, the way that the dancer had behaved earlier in the evening when Alana caught her in JC’s room made her somewhat suspicious. She knew that her boyfriend was friends with her, but would he really permit her to be in his room unsupervised? Especially with all the drama going on surrounding these letters he was receiving? Surely he wasn’t that stupid.

She let out a sigh and decided to push it out of her mind until she got to talk to JC about it. There would be no point in asking herself a million questions that she couldn’t answer until she talked to him.

~*~

He was a hard man to speak to! She had made up her mind to confront him about Melanie being in his dressing room as soon as he stepped off of the stage. But he was surrounded by a million people and it was something she did not wish to discuss in public! So she simply followed the small crowd through the backstage hallways until they finally reached the dressing room area.

She exhaled the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding as soon as she closed the dressing room door behind her. Finally, she was alone with him.

“Josh, we need to talk.”

JC had opened his mouth to reply but before he got the chance, his eye caught the small white envelope on the floor beside the chair.

Wondering what had caused him to stop so abruptly, Alana allowed her eyes to focus on his line of vision and she too saw it. Another letter. Her heart sank in her chest.

“I think it’s Melanie, Josh.”