"Where is the famous Walus Knight? He is supposed to the best on the team for the Knight Detective Agency. Why is he not here?" Breathless scanned the room just in case he would be hiding about.

Edwin took a deep breath as Miss Caroline tried not to roll her eyes too much at the mention of Walus.( It was always the usual question with new clients.) He brightly smiled, "My brother is taking some time with other clients. Additionally, he will be rest for a while as he has injured himself from our last case. I can assure you that Miss Caroline and I are just as valid as he is for cases. He will be giving him all the intake details as we go."

"Yes, we have done plenty of work on behalf of Mr. Walus," Miss Caroline grinned.

Breathless thought it over, "I just want to be sure that this case is handled well. It is of grave importance to me. I do not want it to be well. . . I just want it to be resolved swiftly."

"You were the caller, weren't you," Miss Caroline whispered.

Breathless nodded as she bit down on her thumb. Igor hobbled on over with the club soda and the brandy. He grinned at both Edwin and Miss Caroline as he placed them on the bar. He said in his rough voice, "I shall be here, if you require more of my services."

"Thank you, Igor," Breathless crossed her arms and then waved, "Come follow me to my dressing room as I must tell you about my request."

Edwin picked up his bandy and waited for Miss Caroline to tag along. She paused for a moment as she noticed the collection of photos on the walls. She raised an eyebrow for a moment and then joined Edwin. They were escorted by Breathless beyond the strange land of the Glass Slipper. The back rooms were less grand then the dive bar. It was a small room in back with the name plate of "Breathless" on it. The name plate was garnished with gold leaves and gem stones. It was clear someone was trying way to hard to impress others. Breathless was ashamed of it as she flashed away her eyes. She pushed opened the door in a hurry.

Breathless waited for both of them to enter into the small dressing room before she shut the door tight and locked it. Edwin and Miss Caroline came inside of the brightly lit dressing room. The overhead lighting made it almost feel like it was a bright and shiny day outside. No signs of records or awards were on the walls. In fact, hardly anything was hanging up. There were some generic paintings of trees and fields. The vanity area hardly had anything on it.  A few costumes hung up on hooks behind the door. A nicely made raincoat of jet black rested on a coat-rack with a dazzling silver umbrella. Small boxes appeared to be half packed on the ground. Edwin remarked, "Just getting ready to move on from here, Miss Breathless?"

Breathless dropped her smile as she gestured for them on her small stool. Edwin shook his head and Miss Caroline shrugged and took a sit. She put down her club soda and took out her palm. A digital screen appeared before him with a microphone icon. Miss Caroline pointed to it, "I will be recording the details of the case. Edwin will be asking you about the details and your concerns."

"Would you care to tell me what you require of our services?" Edwin politely smiled.

Breathless paced and started, "I need my involvement to be low key possible. I want this matter to be resolved swiftly and as privately as possible. I don't want a large media circus to come about it."

"I understand, Miss Breathless, or shall I can you by your given name?"

Breathless turned her eyes away, "I doubted it was that hard to figure me out here. The whole place serves as my life record before the accident. But humor me. Tell me, what you know about me? Answer me correctly and I will be sure to hire you. Then I will pay you handsomely for your services."

Edwin gestured silently to her voice box, "I remember the big piece of news about your unfortunate accident back three years ago. You were in the Final Rounds of Top Idol when there was the tragic hover car accident. You had your voice box sliced and had several damaged your facial features. You were unable to continue to sing or even speak. Your name back then was much different then Breathless. You were called Melody Sunshine. Both of your names are aliases of course."

Bitterly Breathless added, "Yes, you are right. Only singers who were unmodified of any technology from Palm Planers to any body modifiers were allowed in. Raw and pure humans were the requirement."

"A common mishap among raising singers in our city . . . Those who can make it to the top are set for the rest of their days. But in order to get to the top you either die playing fair or fight dirty. I almost die because I thought I could play fair in that world. Plus any good pop singer in our fair city has a stage name. Why don't you give me some more details?"

Edwin put his hands in his lap and scanned over the room again. He said, "You were original not just on the local level of Watts City. You were going to become national star with the competition. Your patron had been someone of great wealth. He adored your voice. He must still doted upon you based on the construction of the Glass Slipper and your finer items. He got you the best treatment his money could buy. He offered you a new face and new voice."

Breathless simply nodded as she unconsciously placed her hand over her vocal cords.

"But before you even got to the height of your career, you were hard working. You didn't just get to where you were by luck. You had a raw talent. A special gift that couldn't be wasted. I am betting based on your dialect you are not from Watts City. You are more than likely from the countryside. I would say from Eastvale, California. Your given name was more like Vivian or Vivi. You were more than like from a large family with income. I believe in the middle," Edwin said, "You don't talk to your family a lot nowadays as they wanted you to do a different trade."

"Yes, my mother wanted me to be law enforcement officer. I didn't want to stay in the small town forever. When Mister Parallax heard me sing in my church chorus, he wanted me to be his next singer," Breathless lowered her eyes to the floor, "We needed the money for our family. So, I accepted."

Breathless quietly said, "How did you know about my given name?"

"Over in one of your boxes there is a small chain with a name on it. It would make sense it would be your name," Edwin drank his brandy.

"But it could have someone else's name," Breathless reasoned.

"No, you requested that we not look up Kid Marshall. See how important your request was for you and the addition need for the case to be done quietly. I believe that Miss Kid is of grave importance to you. It would only stand to reason that the name Vivi or Vivian is important to you."

"I . . ."

"Based on the name change you were submitted to under your patron. I would say Vivian as Vivi would have been great for an Idol name," Edwin looked over to Miss Caroline. She nodded as he continued to record.

Breathless paused, "You could be conducting a live search right now. Prove to me that you know show me how you know that Kid is important to me."

"Miss Breathless, please. You contacted us to gain our services. You know that we have a sound record and we take our work seriously. If you did not value Miss Kid, you would have just cut to the point of this assignment. You clearly have romantic feelings for you. Based off of the secrecy and your boxes on the floor. You must have felt it urgent that you get away from here. You were going to take Miss Kid with you."

She leaned against the wall and bit her lip, "I need you to find her."

Miss Caroline shook her head, "I read up on Kid Marshal. She is currently being held by the police. You should surely check on her with them."

"They won't let me see her," Breathless covered her face.

"Surely, if you two are in a relationship she has called you," Edwin offered.

"The phone call was funny. Kid wasn't making sense. Her voice was off and her holo-screen had been turned off," Breathless said.

"What do you mean?" Edwin said.

"I know a lot about artificial voices," Breathless pointed to her throat, "I could hear it in the tone. The background noses did not sound right either. I swore I felt it was all wrong. I could not put my finger on it. So, I want over to see her at the station. Only I wasn't allowed in. I even hired a lawyer to find her, but they said there was no such person in the jail."

Breathless fidgeted a bit with her hands, "I tried going over the newspapers about the rally she supposedly had been at. There was nothing at the campus about it. Plus, I can't find Kid's best friend Olivia."

Edwin held his brandy and carefully peered into it, "I see."

"I want you to find out what has happened to Kid."

"Do you have any other information you can give us at the moment? Like when was the last time you saw her or her best friend in person."

Breathless nervously ran her hands in her hair. Her eyes started to tear up, "It was last week. We had started to make our plans to get away from Watts City. I was going to buy the tickets. She wanted us to wait until she finished this important assignment for her class. I agreed."

"Do you usually meet on a weekly bases?"

"Yes, she has classes and I have my job. It can be hard to arrange schedules."

"What time was it? What was the location?"

"We meet around ten at night over at a café. It was called Nersova. We usually go there for our dates."

"And when is the last time you meet this girl Olivia?"

"I received a few texts from Olivia on Thursday. She was just asking me about if I knew any good concerts for her to take her boyfriend out too. Olivia hasn't contacted me since. . . Otherwise, the last time I saw her in person was Monday. We were meeting up to make a going away party for Kid."

"Hmm, do you still have Olivia's number? And do you know the name of her boyfriend?"

"I have it here," Breathless flashed open her palm. The digital number floated before Miss Caroline and Edwin. Miss Caroline wrote it down. Breathless tried to search her memory, "I don't remember the boyfriend's name exactly. It was like Teddy or Tod. I never have meet the guy before."

"Do you anything else?" Edwin pressed on.

"I had gone by Kid's dorm. I wanted to leave her a paper note as nothing else seemed to be working. But I found the whole place had been blocked off. I asked what was going on and they said the dorms were going to be closed for termite inspection," Breathless shook and covered her eyes as tears started to roll down.

Miss Caroline took out some tissues from her pocket. She handed it over to Breathless, who blotted up her tears. She sniffled as she peered at Edwin and Miss Caroline. She took a shaky breathless with her robotic voice. The sounds crackled some as Breathless covered over her voice box. Breathless cried, "I don't know anything else that might be useful. Please help me."

"We will gather the information and do our best, Miss," Miss Caroline nodded as she shut down the recording.

Edwin finished up his brandy, "Indeed. We will inform Walus as well of all you have said."

"I am counting on you," Breathless meekly smiled.

Breathless cleaned up her face and saw the time. She quickly straightened herself up and turned to Edwin and Miss Caroline. She unlocked the door and opened it, "I am sorry. I must ask you to leave now. It is almost time for me to do my next show."

"Yes, we will be able to see our way out of here," Edwin stepped out, not wanting to talk about pricing. He would allow Walus to handle that bit of messy work. His brother had a nack for getting people to agree to their going rates. Edwin just wanted to help out as best as he could. Miss Caroline patted the poor singer on the shoulder. She felt rotten about leaving her in this state. But the Knight Brothers had trained her to be more professional about such tender moments. Miss Caroline quietly followed Edwin out of the back room.

Breathless waved them good-bye and return to her dressing room. Edwin stopped at the bar very shortly to tip a to Igor. Miss Caroline lingered on to whisper a few question tot the barkeepers and slide him over several credits.