Open it

Kim stared at the man who had stepped away from her again and put on a disinterested face.

Luke ended his call and came back to them.

"Okay, so let's talk things

through now." He sat on the couch, picked up his diary, and motioned for Kim to join him. Still completely stunned, Kim sat down next to him while Austin took a seat across from them in the armchair and also took a calendar out of his pocket.

"Since you've canceled quite a few appointments for the near future, I don't have a lot new for you right now," Austin said with an annoyed undertone.

“You know very well that I took the time off to work on my new album and recharge my batteries. The tour was pretty stressful, and I need a bit of rest. "

" Yeah, sure, "the manager muttered ironically," how it looks, in a few weeks the Grammy Awards are in Paris, for which you are nominated - Would you have the kindness to show up there? ”

Luke nodded. Dering gave him the exact date and he wrote it down in his planner while Kim watched him.

They discussed a few more things, Kim tried to listen carefully, but only caught half of it. For one thing, her mind was still occupied with the strange comment from Austin Dering, which had almost sounded like a threat, and for another, Luke's proximity made her nervous.

After a while the two were finally finished and Kim immediately jumped up.

Dering walked to the door without looking at Kim, and Luke escorted him outside.

Kim looked after the two thoughtfully, considered telling Luke something about his manager's remark, but decided against it. The man would calm down again, he was probably just angry because Luke had just hired her without talking to him beforehand. Besides, Luke was worried enough about the letter already that it was better not to cause unnecessary trouble.

Kim sat down at the desk and her eyes fell on a piece of paper on which names were written in random order.

"Ah, you've already found the list," Luke says when he came back in a little later, "These are the people I have contact with who could know which hotel I was staying in."

He came to the desk , stood behind her and went through the names with her. The members of his band and other professional contacts were listed, as well as a handful of private connections. While Luke looked over her shoulder and gave her one or the other explanation about the individual people, Kim made notes.

Her hand was shaking, she was struggling to write reasonably legibly, and wished he would stop bending over her like that.

"Well, I think that's enough," she said hastily after a while. "I'll pass this on to the Bureau, they should check each individual on the list and send me everything they can find."

To her relief, Luke took something again Step away and she took a deep breath.

"Okay, if there's nothing else, I'll be down in the studio first," Luke said, and went to the door. Then he turned back to her and smiled. "Thanks for taking care of everything, and don't blame Austin for being so rough, he's basically a nice guy."

"Yeah, I guess he is," Kim muttered, turning back to the list .

Kim carefully copied all the names to a file, added her comments, and then opened the mail program. She typed in Charlie's e-mail address, wrote him a few explanatory lines, attached the file and clicked "Send".

Then she looked at the list one more time. She stared at two names that she had immediately noticed without showing Luke, Stanley Garner and Lewis Ashton. Although these names did not arouse suspicion in her, they evoked memories all too clearly in her that she would rather have continued to suppress.

Both of them had been Luke's best friends back then, they had played with him in his band, and they had also been in the barn that afternoon when Luke had dismissed them so heartlessly.

"What do we have here, lovers?" Lewis's malicious words echoed through her head, followed by the gleeful laughter of Stanley and Caitlin.

She shuddered, banished the images of this scene again into the depths of her consciousness, it was all a long time ago and did not belong here in the present.

There was a knock on the door and Harvey came in. She quickly folded the list and put it in her pocket, giving the man a friendly smile.

"I'll bring the mail," he muttered, and put a couple of envelopes on the table.

"Thank you," Kim nodded, but he didn't answer, and shuffled back outside.

Kim sighed. Was there anyone in Luke's environment who could just act normal and nice?

Shaking her head, she looked at the letters on the table, wondered for a moment whether Luke would be happy if she opened his mail, and then decided that he should do it himself. It could be something private, after all, and she'd better keep her hands off it without his express permission.

As she was about to get up, her gaze fell on a white envelope, which protruded a small piece from the stack, and following a sudden inspiration she carefully pushed the letters over it aside. An envelope came out that had "Luke Summer" printed on it and looked exactly like the copy she'd sent to the lab that morning. This time only a detailed address was given and it was stamped and postmarked by Sunville.

Kim stared at the envelope, her stomach tightening. It took her a while to calm down, then she went over to her room, pulled out the suitcase, took out a plastic bag, a pair of rubber gloves and a pair of tweezers, put everything in her pocket.

She quickly hurried down the stairs, carefully opened the door to the studio, waited for the four men to pause, and waved to Luke, who looked at her questioningly. He put the guitar down and came over to her.

"What's going on?"

"I think you should come upstairs for a moment," Kim said softly.

He paused for a moment, but then obviously saw on her face that it was important and nodded. “Okay.”

Without further comment, they left the room and went upstairs.

When she got to the study, Kim pointed to the envelope.

"That was between the post office."

Luke turned pale.

"I was hoping nothing else would come," he said flatly. "Please open it."