Case 537 Read online

  We knocked on the door. This part of the job never seemed to get easier.

  “Mrs. Parker, I’m agent Bleu and this is agent Swanson, I spoke to you on the phone earlier. Please could we come in and talk to you?”

  A frail looking woman opened the door wider and invited us in. She held a handkerchief to her face, covering her sorrow and desolation. “My husband is in the yard. He hasn’t moved from his chair all day. He just sits there staring at the bushes. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Parker. Please accept our condolences.” I followed her through the house to the back yard where her husband sat by himself. Emily quickly snooped around the lounge and then joined us before Mrs. Parker realized that she was missing.

  “Harvey, these are the agents from the FBI,” she quietly told him.

  He remained motionless. His eyes, filled with tears, were fixated on some shrubbery at the end of the yard.

  “Hello, Mr. Parker. I’m…”

  “I know who you are. I don’t have anything to tell you. My daughter is dead and I’ve been told that she killed herself.”

  “I’m not sure who told you that, but it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet,” I said softly. “May I sit here?” I motioned to Emily to take Mrs. Parker inside the house where she could speak to her separately, maybe she would have some information that she wouldn’t want to offer in front of her husband.

  “She used to dance just over there, just by that bush. She was about six years old. I had an old stereo that I plugged into an extension cord so that she could play her music and dance. I would watch her from the kitchen window. She was a good performer, perhaps she could have been a ballet dancer,” he said. His voice was croaky and his words slow. He was a broken man.

  Emily returned to the garden. “Paige. I just received news from the pathologist. Yes, she was…”

  “Thank you, Emily. Can you bring Mrs. Parker out here? I think it would be best to inform them together.” It was hard to tell any parent that their child’s death was suspicious, let alone their unborn grandchild’s. “We’ve just received confirmation that Victoria was also pregnant. Her death has given us cause to believe that it is suspicious. We can’t rule out murder.”

  “She was around nine weeks,” Emily informed them.

  “Murdered, our Victoria was murdered and she was pregnant?” Mr. Parker cried out.

  “I’m so sorry, truly I am. We will do everything that we can to find out the truth,” I said, applying a comforting touch to Mrs. Parker’s hand.

  “The suicide note that she left. I know she didn’t write it,” he said.

  “What makes you think that?” I asked her.

  “I don’t think it, I know it,” he snapped. “She would never sign her name Victoria. She always wrote Vicky when she applied anything in writing to us.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Parker. I shall have someone analyze her handwriting. You’ve been through enough, both of you have. Is there anyone that we can contact to be with you?”

  “We wish to be left alone, don’t we, Doris.”

  She nodded her head yes. Blowing her nose on her handkerchief, she showed us the way out.

  The flight home was spent with very little conversation between us. I went into deep thoughts about Kate and how precious she was to me. Although the job entailed not being biased, my sympathetic nature had evolved over the past few months. Sophie had been the key to unlocking my emotional baggage, making me feel slightly human again.

  The jet landed and after a brief conversation with Emily, I headed off home to be with Kate. I was mentally exhausted and driving through the city, I gave a lot of thought about this case. Who would want to kill such a compassionate natured girl? Her closest friends had nothing but adoration toward her. I had my Bluetooth on and decided to call Emily. “Hey, are you still at the office?”

  ‘Yes, what’s up?’

  “Can you go through Victoria’s social networks, see if there’s anyone who stands out? Call me if you find anything.”

  ‘Sure.’

  I ended the call and then called Kate. She didn’t answer. She hadn’t told me that she was going out tonight so I tried calling her a few minutes later, she still didn’t pick up. I put it down to her being in the shower with her music on loud again and figured that I would surprise her with a night of sexual play.

  Pulling up in the driveway I noticed that all of the lights were off. It was too early for her to go to bed. The house was silent when I entered.

  “Kate, are you here, Kate?” I shouted. There was no reply. She had always kept me informed on her whereabouts if she was leaving the house but she hadn’t left any message of any kind.

  I turned the lamp on and sat in the armchair and whilst waiting for her return I called her a phone again, I was surprised to hear her it ringing in the kitchen. She had left it on the counter top. An hour went by and my frustration was growing.

  “Where the hell are you Kate?” I ranted.

  ♦♦♦

  The morning sunlight hit the window. I had been awake all night. Not knowing where she was, I called everyone on her phone list. Not one person had a clue to her whereabouts. I was beginning to get pissed off when my phone rang with an unidentified number.

  ‘Paige.’ Kate yelled. I could hear panic in her voice.

  “Kate, what’s going on, where are you?”

  ‘Hello, Page. How does it feel to have someone you love, suddenly taken away from you?’

  “Who the fuck is this? Put Kate on the phone now!”

  ‘It’s me, Rachel. I have decided that you deserve to suffer, just like I am, only worse.’

  “You sick fuck. If you harm her, I’ll fucking kill you.”

  ‘Don’t yell at me, Paige. I could slit her throat at any moment and you’ll only have yourself to blame.’

  “Where is she?”

  ‘Where she’s been all day and all night. In my house, tied to a chair. I slapped her a few times, but I think she actually liked it.’

  I got up and went to the window. Rachel was standing behind hers, waving at me.

  “You fucking bitch…” She cut me off.

  I called Emily and told her that Kate was being held hostage. Within fifteen minutes a raid team had arrived and set up outside her house, ready for action.

  I felt totally useless. Although my training had taught me to remain calm, I was able to do that when I had no connection to the victim. But this was Kate, my Kate and I wanted that bitch dead for holding her against her will.

  Mike was the first to approach me and ask if I was all right. That was a bit of a redundant question. Who in their right mind would be all right when the person they love was behind a closed door being treated inhumanely.

  I had my raid jacket on, my gun was loaded and when Emily arrived, I readied myself to take this bitch on.

  “Paige, I can’t let you go in. I’ll take over,” Mike said firmly. He gathered the team around him and gave them instructions on what he expected to happen.

  I knew he was right with his judgment. My ability to make a decision under these circumstances would be tainted by the fact that this was personal. I had to stand back and let the team take charge.

  “I’ll make sure that she’s ok, Paige, I promise,” Emily said, patting me on my back. I gave her a short smile.

  My emotional state had to remain rational and when I watched them enter the house, I thought that I was going to run in after them. The silence that followed was insanely frustrating. My feet wanted to move toward the house but somehow I managed to remain in position. A scream followed by two shots suddenly filled the air.

  “Kate!” I screamed.

  A few moments later, Emily came running out of the house. “Mike’s been shot,” she yelled to me.

  “Fuck, fuck. Kate, what about Kate?”

  I looked behind her to see two agents coming out of the door. Kate was in between them. She looked badly shaken by her ordeal.

  I
ran to her and held her in my arms. “Kate, baby, I love you. Are you ok, what did she do to you?” I rambled.

  “I’m ok, Paige. She just slapped me a few times. I’m sorry to have put everyone out like this,” she said apologetically. She was taken to a waiting ambulance and checked over by a paramedic. I joined her to make sure that she was ok.

  “How did you end up in the house with her?”

  “She rang me and said that she was in a lot of pain from the baby and that she had no one who was close enough to help her. She sounded desperate.”

  Emily came over to the ambulance and told me that Mike’s injury was just a surface one. “How are you doing, Kate?” she asked.

  “Thank you, Emily. I feel really stupid for falling for her lies, and just look at all of these people. You could all be on a real case and I have taken you away from that.”

  “Nonsense. You became a victim today. Just remember that,” Emily replied.

  “Is she ok?” I asked the paramedic.

  “She has a cut on her cheek and some bruising on her face but nothing to cause any worry.”

  I threw my arms around her, holding her tight and afraid to let her go.

  “Paige, I can hardly breathe,” she managed to say.

  “I was going out of my mind through the night. Your phone was in the kitchen and I began to fear the worst. Kate, I love you.” I kissed her gently, trying not to irritate her injuries.

  “I love you too, you’re my hero.”

  “What happened to Rachel, I heard a second shot?” I asked Emily.

  “She’s dead. She fired a shot at Mike but he managed to fire back at her. She won’t be bothering anyone else again.”

  Chapter Four

  “How’s Kate doing today?” Emily asked when I arrived at the office, thirty minutes late.

  “She’s good. I didn’t let her out of my site last night and now Mel’s with her until I get home.”

  “I never knew that you lived in such a shady neighborhood,” Emily joked. “So I came across something very interesting on one of Victoria’s networks. Bailey Lawson was blocked from that network the very same day that Victoria made it official that she was with Simon. Not only did she do this, some of her friends also blocked Bailey on the same day, all within the same time frame.”

  “Bailey Lawson. Did you do a search on her already?”

  “Yes. She’s a student taking the same course as Victoria. Her grades aren’t as high as Victoria’s were but she did start the course with higher than average grades and then they suddenly fell. She began to not turn up for classes. This is all after Victoria formed her relationship with Simon.”

  We needed to find out what happened between Bailey and Victoria. Maybe there was something that we had missed.

  “I think that we should pay another visit to the complex. Victoria’s entourage may have some explaining to do,” I suggested.

  ♦♦♦

  Shelby Hubbard was sitting on a low wall next to the entrance steps to building two. She seemed to be preoccupied with her phone. She had been questioned on the day of Victoria’s death and the statement that she had given was consistent with what we had heard already. She was one of Victoria’s friends who had blocked Bailey Lawson from her networks, so it would be interesting to find out why she and the others had banished this girl in such an abrupt manner.

  “Shelby Hubbard?” I asked her.

  “Yes.” She looked up, brushing a strand of her long blonde hair out from her mouth where a slight breeze had just caught it.

  “Hello, Shelby. I’m agent Bleu and this is agent Swanson, we’re here to investigate the death of Victoria Parker, would you mind if we ask you some questions?”

  “Um, no not at all, Victoria was my friend. I was just talking about her with Cathy, my sister. It hasn’t sunk in yet, you know, Victoria’s death.”

  We sat on the wall next to her. She was holding her phone tightly in her hand after just sending a message to someone.

  “So you’re FBI agents?” she asked.

  “Yes we are. So can you tell us anything about a girl named Bailey Lawson?”

  “Bailey. What is it that you want to know about her?”

  She began to look uncomfortable at the mention of Bailey’s name. The pleasant smile that made her appear as an innocent individual, left her face and was replaced with a nervous twitch to her eye.

  “We found that you and Victoria and a few of her friends, blocked Bailey from all of your social networks, all within the same time period. Can you explain why you all did this?”

  “That girl is crazy. She was stalking Victoria on a daily basis. There was one day last week when I sat next to her in class and she told me that Bailey had been standing by the pool just staring up at her bedroom window. It freaked her out. There’s no way that Victoria took her own life and I bet Bailey had something to do with it too.”

  “That’s a strong accusation, are you sure that she was stalking Victoria?” I asked her.

  “Oh yes. She had sent Victoria quite a few messages, all of them asking her to meet with her. Victoria said that she was constantly being harassed by her.”

  “Did she show you any of these messages?” Emily asked her.

  “No, she never showed them to me anyway, she just told me about them.”

  “Why would she ask to meet with her, when Victoria was so adamant that she wanted nothing to do with this girl?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t go into any details about what Bailey had done to upset her, but if Victoria wanted her friends to have nothing to do with this crazy bitch then we didn’t question it. You might want to ask her roommate Melanie about it, she was close to Victoria.”

  “Thank you, Shelby. We’re going to do that right now.”

  I was beginning to get the feeling that we were being given the runaround. No one could be this clean and flawless. If Melanie Thomas knew of any reason why Victoria wanted Bailey out of her life, she would be wise to tell us about it.

  ♦♦♦

  “Hello, Melanie, do you mind if we come in?” I asked as I stepped inside her apartment again.

  “No, sure, come on in,” she said coyly.

  We seated ourselves. Emily got her notepad out and I began the questioning.

  “I think you know more than you’re telling us, Melanie. If you have any information, the best thing for you to do is tell me about it now. We’ve just spoken to one of your friends, Shelby. She informed me that I should come back and talk to you. Do you know why that is?”

  Melanie began to shake her head slowly. Her eyes focused on the floor as she bit her lower lip. Guilt was written all over her face.

  “You do understand that if we find any information out, vital information in this case, and you knew about it, you could end up in trouble for perverting the course of justice…”

  “She killed her!” Melanie suddenly butted in. “Bailey, she pushed her over the balcony after they’d had an argument. I was in my room. Victoria thought that I’d already gone out so she didn’t know that I heard them.”

  “What was the argument about, can you tell us that, it’s very important, Melanie that we get to the truth?” I asked her firmly.

  “Bailey was her girlfriend. They’d been together for about a year. Victoria kept her relationship with Bailey a secret. It would have killed her parents to know that she was a lesbian, let alone her future career.” Tears began to stream from her eyes as she emotionally conveyed her statement. “Victoria wanted to be with Simon because his father has his own firm. She thought that if she got pregnant by Simon, but still carried on with her studies, that they would soon marry and she would be able to work for his father. But Bailey wouldn’t go away. She loved Victoria and the sudden breakup gave her cause to keep harassing Victoria. We, I mean a few of Victoria’s friends who knew that she had been seeing Bailey, decided to tell her that Victoria had been killed in a car crash. We told her that her body had been taken back home to her parents for burial. I kno
w that was an awful thing to tell her but we thought that it was the only way that she’d leave Victoria alone.”

  “So is this why everyone blocked her from their sites?”

  “Yes. We thought that if she stayed connected, that she would see our comments and know that Victoria was still here.”

  “But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there was no accident. How did you get her to believe you?”

  “We designed a page and made it look like a local newspaper that was reporting the incident on the internet. It looked authentic enough when we finished it and then we sent it to her. But a few weeks later when Victoria found out that she was pregnant, Bailey got word of the news. When we found out that she was carrying Simon’s baby, we were all sworn to secrecy, but the news leaked and gossip spreads like a wild fire. It didn’t take long for Bailey to figure out what was going on and somehow she had managed to sneak into the complex without being seen. I heard the knock on the door and got up off my bed but before I got any further, Victoria had already answered it. I heard Bailey’s voice raised above Victoria’s so I opened my door just enough to peek out. Bailey was angry and ranted about how much she had invested into their relationship and that Victoria had said yes to her marriage proposal. She asked her, where did it all go so wrong. Victoria’s reply was, money, it all has to do with the wealthy ladder and that Simon was her meal ticket.” She paused for a moment and took a deep breath whilst she was re-enacting the scene in her head.

  “Carry on Melanie, you’re doing fine.” Emily said.

  “Bailey stormed around the apartment, her rage intensified after Victoria made her comment so callously. She told Victoria that she was no better than a whore. In fact that she was cheaper because whores don’t mislead what they have to offer. Victoria told her to take that back, but Bailey persisted in her aggression. She shoved Victoria up against the wall next to her bedroom door. I thought that she was going to harm her so I began to step out when I noticed that Victoria had mellowed to her treatment. She was actually enjoying Bailey’s rough handling so I stayed back but still maintained my position at the door. Bailey’s hands were all over her and she responded by removing her top and allowing Bailey to kiss her breasts through her bra. They shuffled into the bedroom leaving the door wide open. The sex went on for over two hours. I couldn’t leave, they would have seen me.”