Page 11 of Protecting his Secrets

“No, it’s okay. We can wait,” Emily said.

Sally pushed herself to her feet. “Come on, Emily. Let’s grab some tea from the restaurant and leave these people to talk.”

Emily opened her mouth to argue, but a glare from her mother set it closed again. She stood and grabbed her handbag before leaning over Malachi. “I’ll be right back, sweetie.” She kissed his cheek, and he barely stopped himself from crying.

“Thanks, Mum.” He waited until they and the doctor left before focusing back on the Commissioner. “Okay?”

“The event you were at last night was a large event with some royal family in attendance. Do you remember that?”

Malachi nodded. “It was a dinner event for a charity.”

“That’s right. What we need to figure out is if what happened to you was focused solely on you, or…” Thomas grimaced, “if you were the wrong target.”

Malachi opened his mouth and then closed it again. Then he sighed, his head throbbing but beginning to ease. “Okay, ask your questions, but I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“Thank you, Malachi.” Thomas settled into a chair beside the bed. “What do you remember from last night?”

Malachi sighed again. “I remember arriving at the event and entering the hall. There were many people, which I expected. I remember sitting down to dinner.” He winced and rubbed his head. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Do you remember what you had to eat and drink?” Thomas asked.

“I had a bottle of water when I first arrived, and then at dinner, I had…” He closed his eyes, trying to picture sitting at the table with the other guests. “I had the chicken dish and…a glass of wine.”

“Do you remember if that wine was the one from the table or if a server brought you it?”

A wave of nausea flowed over him, and he breathed through it. “Sorry. Nausea is a bitch,” he muttered.

“It’s okay, Malachi. Take your time. Would you like some water?”

He nodded. “Yes, please.” The Commissioner stood and poured some water from a jug into a small cup and handed it over. “Thanks.” He sipped a little at a time, testing his stomach. When the nausea abated a little, he exhaled. “Um… oh, right, the wine. Um, the table only had red wine, which I don’t like, so I asked the server for a glass of white.”

Thomas’s mouth tightened. “Do you remember who your server was?”

Malachi closed his eyes again, trying to follow the image. He only had a distorted memory, something blurry and unhelpful. “No, I can’t remember. I can’t recall his face.”

“He? Why do you say he?”

Malachi blinked and thought hard. “I don’t know, but I get the feeling they were a man. I don’t know if that’s true or not, though. I’m sorry.” His stomach rolled again. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Thomas nodded. “I will tell you everything we know, but I’d like to get your statement first. I don’t want anything I say to change what you remember. Does that make sense?”

Malachi nodded and then wished he hadn’t. He breathed slowly again, sipping his water. “Of course.”

“What was the last thing you remember?”

“That. Sitting at the table, asking for some wine. After that, everything is fuzzy and distorted or completely blank until I woke up in here.”

“Okay, one more question and then I’ll answer yours.” Malachi nodded. “Can you recall anything else at all from last night? Scents, sounds, textures, tastes. Anything at all?”

“Flowers,” he said, licking his lips. “I remember the overpowering scent of flowers. The kind of scent when you go into a florist.”

“Anything else?”

Malachi closed his eyes again and rested his head back. “A flash of light. Just briefly. As if a light had flicked on and then went off a few seconds later. And a shout but sounding as if it was far away.” He opened his eyes and met Thomas’s gaze. “I couldn’t hear what they said.”

“Thank you, Malachi. That helps a lot.” Thomas put his notebook away and clasped his hands in front of him. “I know you will have a lot of questions, and I will answer what I can. I’m prefacing this with something you need to know. Other than being drugged, nothing else happened to you last night. Okay? I need you to remember that.”

Malachi swallowed hard and nodded. It didn’t ease his mind completely, and his heart rate tripled at the words, but that was more because he was worried about what Thomas was about to tell him.

---