It is a large funeral and by request of Robert's parents a basket filled with rose rose petals is held at the graveside, for the mourners to throw onto the coffins. When Robert sees the red rose petals, he stops in his tracts and in his thoughts he again see the splattered blood and red roses from his parents murder scene an the note's message flashes around in his mind.
As he turns around a camera flashes but Robert does not take any attention of it, as his only concern have become to get back to his car and to get this gloomy day behind him. He feels a soft little hand pulling at his arm and when he turns around, he realizes that it is only Tracey and she looks into his eyes.
"Robert you can not run away from this cruel reality. Pull yourself together. You'll have to face this situation or later, you might regret not paying the last respects to your family." "It feels as if a special part of me has left me. I'll never be able to be a complete person again, before their killers are brought to justice."
"Don't be a fool. Leave it to the Police. They know what they are doing," Tracey pleads with him. "Please Robert? If not for yourself, do it for me?" "What will it help? Nothing that I do can bring them back to me. It is all so futile. All that's left for me is to find those responsible." Robert sees the love and care in her gaze and he realizes for the zenith time, how lucky he is that such a beautiful girl loves him.
Unexpectedly Robert hears the Lieutenant's voice behind them. "It is not that he does not want to pay his last respects to his family miss, mister Desmond is either a very cautious or superstitious person."
Tracey turns to the Detective and the Police officer tries to convey his sympathy, but he knows that what ever he says will sound inadequate and for that reason he only nods his head. "What do you mean Lieutenant?" Tracey inquires with a raised eyebrow. "Hasn't mister Desmond informed you miss? He apparently does not like red flowers or does it only pertain to red roses, mister Desmond?"
Understanding flashes into those big eyes of hers. "Not Charlene also?" Tracey wants to know. and the Lieutenant's nod is more than enough affirmation to her. A newspaper reporter, who hears a part of the conversation, approaches them interested in their discussion and is ready to shoot his questions at them.
"Why doesn't mister Robert Desmond like red flowers?" He inquires and the question is asked to Tracey and is so unexpected, that it caught her on the wrong foot. "He...He like...flowers," she stutters and looks the newspaperman firmly in the eye. "It's no business of yours or your newspaper. It's not proper to ask questions like these, at a funeral. I do know that my fiancé would like to get all of this behind him. Please do have some consideration," she rebukes him.
"And you?" Asks the newspaperman determined to get some kind of story for his paper. "What about me?" Asks Tracey. "Do you also feel like that?" "How mister?" "To leave this place as soon as possible?" "That's not what I said," the woman responds agitated and turns about to join Robert but the reporter's fingers pulls at her arm and she turns around to face him again.
"Please do me a favour miss. Please throw some of those rose petals, onto the coffins. I promised the editor to bring some photo’s back." Suddenly Tracey is reminded, that she herself hasn’t paid her last respects to the deceased.
"You're so insistent and persistent mister. I am not going to make a spectacle of this funeral. I cannot refrain you from taking any pictures, but please be considerate. I am going to pay them their last respects, for what they were to me."
Just as the newspaperman start taking his pictures, two bullets leave the barrel of a silenced pistol and Tracey is jerked into the open grave on top of the coffin of the girl Charlene. At first the newspaperman and Lieutenant Carr thinks that Tracey had lost her footing, but Robert starts running to the grave side and a woman starts screaming hysterical, while bullets fly around Robert like a swarm of angry hornets, sending dust up into the air.
The Police Lieutenant and the reporter who had been nearer to the grave side than Robert arrive there simultaneously with Robert and when a bullet ricochets from one of the tomb stones near to them, Lieutenant Carr's fist hits Robert just behind his right ear and sends him crashing into the open grave on top of the dead girl, who he loved so much and who lies there with her hair spread out among the red rose petals.
The Lieutenant and some of his colleague’s shouts: "Everybody get down!" It is almost a miracle when the hysterical crowd falls to the ground simultaneously and Lieutenant Carr disappears behind a tombstone, when a bullet sings away from another tombstone next to him.
Lieutenant Carr's pistol starts barking angrily and one of the two assassins; spin around from the impact of the bullets that hits him. The other assassin fires back at the Police officer and a bullet jerks at the Lieutenant's jacket.
When the remaining assassin tries to make a run for it, Lieutenant Carr fires at him hitting him in the head. For some time silence hangs heavy over the cemetery. Robert is jerked roughly out of the grave and Lieutenant Carr hits him again, when it seems as if Robert is regaining his consciousness, as the Police officer doesn't have any time for explanations and any resistance.
"She's dead," remarks a doctor who attended the funeral and had been rushed to Tracey's aid. The reporters take some pictures of the two slain assassins and of Tracey where she lies among the rose petals. For a moment the reporter that had spoken to her, feels guilty for the way in which he treated her just before her death and he drops some of remaining rose petals onto her saying softly: "Sleep softly miss lovely."
(1106 Words)
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