Case 503

by Shiralyn J. Lee

  “Sounds like your father has a lot of issues,” Emily mumbled under her breath.

  “What does your father do for a living?” I asked him.

  “He used to be a mortician, but he had to give up his job when my mother became ill.”

  “How long has she been ill?”

  “He first mentioned it about a year ago. He came home one evening and my mother asked him who he was and if he’d come to rob her that she would phone her husband to come and arrest him. She thought that she was married to a police officer.”

  “That’s sad, I’m really sorry that she is ill, but he really should get her some medical attention,” I told him.

  “He feels as though he has enough medical experience that he is capable of taking his own care of her.” He looked saddened by his lack of fight for his mother’s welfare.

  His room, plain white walls, dark blue carpet, a single bed and a walk in wardrobe, held no secrets to Melissa’s whereabouts.

  “How close were the two of you, what I mean by that is, were you sexually intimate with her?” I asked him bluntly.

  His face reddened with embarrassment. “I don’t think that has anything to do with Melissa’s disappearance,” he quickly bit back.

  “I think that’s for us to determine.” I began to flick through his journal that he’d left open on his bed.

  “That’s personal. You can’t read through my journal without a warrant.”

  “I could have one here within the hour if you want to be that particular,” I cautioned him.

  “Yes, we did have sex, on several occasions. She was a virgin before we…”

  “Before you what?” his father interrupted him as he entered the room. “I’m sure that my son has been more than obliging to your requests. Now if you’ll forgive us, we have a meal to prepare.”

  He stepped aside from the doorway with his arm held out toward the hallway, gesturing that it was time for us to leave.

  “We’ll be in touch, Mr. Moody,” I said as I walked by him.

  “I’m sure that you will, just be sure to call before you surprise us with another of your visits.” He followed us down the stairs and directed us straight to the front door, shutting it quietly behind us without saying another word.

  I looked at Emily as we walked down the steps back to the car. She had the same look on her face as I had on mine. We were both suspicious of David Moody’ involvement in Melissa’s disappearance.

  ♦♦♦

  Lee-Anne Walker lived just a few minutes’ walk from Melissa’s house. Dickens drive ran adjacent to Abbey Hill and the back of the two friends houses could almost be seen through the dividing trees. To walk the distance, it would take exactly 4 minutes, to drive, it was merely seconds.

  We rang the doorbell and again waited on the doorstep for someone to receive us.

  “Yes, oh you must be the FBI agents,” a tired looking woman said, opening the door.

  “News travels fast,” I responded sharply.

  “I just spoke with David. He called to speak with Lee-Anne. Please come in, I’ll go and let my daughter know you’re here.”

  A few minutes later Lee-Anne graced us with her presence. She was a shy girl and remained fairly quiet whilst we asked her if she could think of anywhere that Melissa could have gone or anyone that she could have hooked up with. She shook her head no to all of our questions. Again, we did a bedroom search. The only information that we came away with, was the fact that she had left Lee-Anne at 8.30pm and that was the last she saw of her.

  It had been a frustrating day.

  “I’ll get the DNA test on Melissa’s brush put through tonight. I’ll text Mandy now to push it to the top of her list,” Emily said, dropping me off outside my house.

  “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow. Drive safely and say thanks to Richard for me.”

  “Will do,” she replied, and then drove off down the street.

  Chapter Six

  The house was in darkness when I entered. The curtains were closed, the lights were off and Kate was sat on the couch with her head buried into her hands. She was crying hard and hadn’t heard me come in.

  “What’s happened, and why are you sitting in the dark?” I knelt down beside her and gently prized one of her hands away from her face to get a better look at her.

  “I’m sorry, Paige. I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

  I stoked her hair away from her wet face. “You’re scaring me, what is it?”

  “When you left me at Ed and Rachel’s barbeque, Ed offered to come over and give us an estimate for some renovation work. I thought that it would be a great idea to change a few things around here.”

  “And did Ed come over?”

  She nodded her head yes. “He tried to force himself on me,” she cried out.

  “Kate, tell me exactly what he did.”

  “He came in and began to tell me about all of the different options that we could go with. He even came up with some interesting ideas with the staircase. We were standing at the top of the stairs when he looked over my shoulder and asked me if that was our love nest. I told him, that was an unwarranted remark.” She raced her words, trying to tell me so much information all at once.

  “Kate, take a deep breath and tell me what he did to you.”

  “He…he touched my cheek by brushing his fingers down it and then he winked at me and said that he could show me something that you couldn’t. He said that lesbians always succumb to needing a man at some point in their lives. I told him that he should get out of my house immediately and that his advances should be kept for his wife. He said, what she doesn’t know, won’t hurt her.”

  “What a fucking disgusting pig!”

  “He stood in the bedroom doorway and tried to encourage me to join him in our bed. I yelled at him to leave and he said that I would come begging for him to fuck me.”

  “You stay here. I’m going to pay that bastard a visit.”

  I stormed out of the house and paced fast toward Ed and Rachel’s. I could hear a group of males laughing in the back yard so I took it upon myself to join them. Seeing three men seated around a patio table all drinking bottles of beer, I walked right up to Ed. He had a smug look on his face, as if he had accomplished taking my trophy wife away from me.

  “Hey, Ed, you didn’t tell me that you’d invited such a pretty looking lady,” one of his friends said in an attempt to be charming. “Would you like to join us and have a beer?”

  I looked directly at Ed, my antagonism was showing. “If you ever go near Kate again, I’ll make damn sure that you regret that decision.”

  “Kate can make up her own mind what she wants,” he said in a low firm voice.

  “She already has, and it doesn’t involve a scumbag like you.”

  He stood up in front of me, thinking that he was using his size and weight to intimidate me. “I’m going to suggest that you turn around little lady and leave my home before you cause anymore damage. I think you’ve said enough, now go.” He wagged his hand in front of me, showing off in front of his friends.

  My fists were clenched. I had to make a decision and walk away before I caused him any physical damage.

  He turned to look at his friends and laughed. “See, this is what you get when dykes live in the neighborhood.”

  When he turned back to face me, still smiling, his eyes met with my fist. I punched him hard, so hard that he fell backwards and landed on the glass table behind him. His friends turned silent.

  “Stay down if you know what’s good for you,” I growled.

  I turned and began to walk away. Rachel came walking out of the back door, not realizing what had just occurred.

  “Oh, hi, Paige. I didn’t realize that you were here. Did Ed tell you about our wonderful news? We’re pregnant,” she giggled, her entire being seemed to be filled with contented joy.

  “My condolences,” I replied angrily, and carried on walking past her.

  I could hear her call out to Ed when
she saw him getting up from the table.

  Kate had managed to stop crying when I returned home. “What did you do, what did he say?” she asked quickly.

  I hugged her tightly. “He got what he deserved.”

  When I met Kate, I fell in love with her almost immediately. I had a thing for girls with long brown hair and olive skin tone. She fitted my criteria well. I promised her that I would look after her and that no harm would ever come to her. Now I was being made to feel as though I had let her down. Her past was filled with turbulence before we met. Her father was Greek and hot tempered. He had married an American girl, her mother, and because he had married against his parents’ wishes, he began to resent her over the years. He beat her daily in front of his children. Kate grew up with three brothers and a sister. Not one of them escaped his cruel nature. Kate was the eldest, and she had it the worst. If his meal wasn’t on the table when he came home, she would be his first target after he had dealt with her mother.

  She would flinch at the slightest movement I made. It didn’t take me long to recognize that she was a victim of domestic violence. But now, she knows that I would never raise my hands to her and that I would do everything in my power to protect her.

  She is my Kate.

  Chapter Seven

  Two days later the DNA results came back.

  “They’re a match for Melissa. We’re now investigating a murder,” Emily said, walking into my office.

  “Let’s get a press conference set up. We need to pay her parents a visit and give them the sad news, and I need to call Kate.”

  “Kate? You sound concerned, is everything ok with you two?”

  “Yes, yes everything’s good. I’m just making sure that she’s all right.”

  I called her at the art studio where she was getting ready for her first exhibition. She’d been trying to get a local artist to feature his work at her studio for a while. She’d been employed to host events in the past for other artists and dealers in their studios, but this was her own business that she had set up a few months ago.

  ‘Hi, sweetheart. This is so exciting, James has been supplying me with coffee all morning and Stella has been fretting about getting enough invites out. James just shouted to say hi to you,’ Kate said with an energized voice.

  “Say hi back to him. Did you get my gift?”

  ‘The flowers were beautiful, thank you, it was a nice surprise. You’ve made me go all tingly inside.’

  “Well I just wanted to wish you luck, you deserve it. I’ve got to go now but I’ll see you tonight.”

  ‘Ok. And maybe I’ll have a little something waiting for you tonight.’

  “Love you.”

  ‘Love you too.’

  “Well you seem to have a big smile on your face, good news I hope,” Emily said as she came back into the office. “I’ve set up a press release for this afternoon.”

  “Ok, good. Now let’s get over to the Bowden’s house and inform them of their daughter’s demise.”

  “You never really get immune to it, do you, that sick feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach before you have to say those words. I can’t imagine how it would feel to endure that kind of pain,” Emily said, bringing me to a sudden shot of reality.

  “No, I don’t suppose you can, all we can do, is be sympathetic when we have to notify them of such dreadful news.”

  ♦♦♦

  Mrs. Bowden answered the door and the look on her face, told me that she knew we were about to tell her that her daughter was dead.

  “My husband is inside, please come in,” she said quietly.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Bowden, we’ll try not to take up too much of your time,” Emily said politely.

  She directed us into the family room where her husband was sat at his desk with his laptop open in front of him.

  “Mr. Bowden, I’m agent Bleu and this is agent Swanson.”

  “Yes, I know, my wife told me all about you.”

  “Maybe it would be a good idea if you both sat down,” I suggested.

  Mrs. Bowden pulled her handkerchief from the cuff of her sleeve and slapped it to her mouth. Her husband guided her to the couch and sat next to her with his arms holding her tightly.

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?” Mrs. Bowden whispered, her eyes searching mine for any miracle that I might be here to tell her that we’d found her daughter safe and well. I wish I could.

  Mr. Bowden squeezed his wife’s hand and closed his eyes, waiting for those words to enter his ears.

  “I’m so sorry to have to inform you that your daughter’s DNA matches that of some body parts that have been found…”

  “Body parts!” Mrs. Bowden screamed out, looking at her husband in disbelief.

  “A few days ago a foot and a lower arm belonging to a female were found in Coyote Creek. There were also clothing items found, a brown top and a pair of sandals.” I showed them both photographs of the said clothing.

  “That’s my daughter’s top, I bought her that when I travelled to France. She liked a brown top that she’d seen in a magazine and I thought that it would make a nice gift for her,” her father told us.

  “She was wearing that top and those sandals the night that she went missing. I remember that because she came and asked me if she looked cute.” Mrs. Bowden whimpered, trying to remain calm.

  Inside, I was dying but I had to remain stoic and prepare them for a press release.

  “We’ve arranged to have a press release this afternoon. Will you be up to doing it? I know this all sounds so clinical but we have to plea to the person responsible and also jolt anyone’s memory. They may have seen something and thought nothing of it at the time.” I suggested that Emily should make some strong coffee whilst the Bowden’s let the news sink in.

  “So basically you are saying that our daughter is dead,” Mr. Bowden asked me.

  “I won’t lie to you. I doubt very much that she could be alive.”

  “I’ve been searching on the internet ever since I got home, looking for anything to do with missing girls, reported murders, runaway children. I hoped that she had just run away,” he said and then he burst out crying.

  “David. Has anyone told David,” his wife frantically asked.

  “Not yet, Mrs. Bowden, we needed to speak with you two first.”

  “Here you are,” Emily said softly as she passed them a mug of strong black coffee. She disappeared into the kitchen again and shortly returned with a bowl of sugar and a small jug of cream.

  Mrs. Bowden put her mug down on the coffee table in front of her. Tears were constantly rolling down her cheeks and she had to keep blotting them with her handkerchief.

  “Just tell us what we have to do. Our daughter has been taken by some maniac and god only knows what he did to her, but I will do what I have to, to catch him,” Mr. Bowden said bravely.

  We briefed them on what they needed to do and say. Mrs. Bowden was far too frail to make a public appeal so her husband took charge and an hour later they were standing on their front lawn faced with news reporters and cameras flashing at them.

  Mr. Bowden made a heartfelt plea for the person responsible for his daughter’s disappearance to come forward. He also asked that if anyone else had seen or heard anything, even if they thought that it wouldn’t be helpful, that it would be a good idea to let the authorities decide on it.

  I gave a description of Melissa and what she was wearing and where she was headed to the night that she went missing. I also mentioned her car had mysteriously vanished from where she last parked it, which was just a few yards down from Lee-Anne’s house. They had been drinking wine and so she chose to leave her vehicle where it was and would have collected it the next morning. I refrained from saying that she had been murdered.

  “We won’t be answering any questions at this moment in time, but we will do our upmost best to keep the public informed of our investigation into this case. Thank you,” I said and then joined the grieving parents inside their house.
>
  “We can’t promise that the media will leave you alone. It might be wise to screen all of your phone calls and answer the door to no one unless you know who they are,” Emily advised them.

  I had made a few calls to some of their relatives who were now on their way over to comfort the grieving parents. We had to leave them and delve further into Melissa’s disappearance.

  “So Richard has questioned everyone at Lady Belle, where Melissa worked at. All three of her work colleagues have a tight alibi to their whereabouts on Wednesday night,” Emily informed me.

  “What about her laptop, did they find anything on any of her social networks?” I asked.

  “Nothing yet.”

  We were just driving out of the Bay area when David called us. He had been given my number by Mrs. Bowden and when he spoke, he said he may have something for us. We turned the car around and speedily drove to his house.

  He was sitting on the steps at the front porch when we arrived. He looked nervous and excited at the same time. When he saw us, he jumped up from where he was seated and came running up to the vehicle whilst it was still in motion.

  “I think I have something, I’m not sure,” he said, brushing his hair back over his head and taking a large gulp of air in.

  “What do you have for us, David?” I asked him, still suspicious of his behavior.

  “I came across this message on one of Melissa’s friend’s posts.” He showed us his phone. He had gone into Melissa’s personal internet accounts and came across a private message that she had been sent. It read…I’ve been watching you. I think you should be with me. I want to ravage your naked body and take your mind to places that you never knew existed.

  “I need your phone. Emily, get Donald to track who this account belongs to. David, get in and come with us.”

  “Why, where are we going?” he asked, but still jumped in to the back of the car.

  “To catch a killer,” Emily revealed.