Beauty to Die For and Other Mystery Shorts

by Lauren Carr

  He continued on his way around the cruiser to the sidewalk and on down the street.

  She felt her hip where his hand had seemed to grab her. Inside her jacket pocket, she felt a stiff piece of paper—a business card.

  She took it out to read the front:

  Victor Sinclair

  Public Relations Officer

  Pennsylvania State Police

  On the back, written in handwriting: For Info RE Burke, Call 412-555-8356. Say Vic sent you!!!

  Joshua hated the driving around the Mall at Robinson Town Centre near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He could never determine which way he was supposed to go in the multitude of access roadways around the shopping center. To add to his frustration, he seemed to almost always park near the entrance at the opposite end of the mall from where he wanted to go.

  For some reason that was foreign to him, his kids loved the place. They would go early and spend the day hanging out with their friends. At the end of the day, they would come home with shopping bags full of goodies and his credit cards maxed out.

  That was another reason Joshua hated the place.

  He was there for one reason and one reason only: to meet Susan Burke, Rachel’s twin sister.

  According to the witness statements Gina Robb had managed to uncover during her investigation, Susan and her twin were inseparable. They were the best of friends. Even though they were identical, they were easy to tell apart. Rachel was the beautiful and outgoing sister, while Susan was shy and more serious.

  As the father of twins himself, Joshua found that his two older sons, Murphy and Joshua Junior (J.J.) had developed such distinct personalities that they were no longer identical. Murphy, a recent graduate of the Naval Academy and now serving at the Pentagon, wore his hair short. He was fun loving and outgoing, which showed in every way. Meanwhile, J.J. was more reserved. A student in law school, he wore his hair longer, to the top of his collar like his father.

  The Burke twins attended the University of Pittsburgh. Both had graduated with Bachelors of Science in Business. Susan went on to get her masters, while Rachel used her celebrity as a beauty queen to open her upscale salon, Rachel’s. After her murder, Susan, who had inherited the salon, went on to turn it into a popular franchise.

  The home office and salon was in Robinson Town Centre, the same salon where Rachel Burke had been murdered.

  Joshua found it tucked in a corner near a major department store. Rachel’s offered everything for the woman wanting to be pampered from hair styling to manicures and pedicure to massages, facials, and other beauty treatments to soft relaxation soundscape music.

  Upon entering, he was directed to a woman sitting behind the reception desk working on a mini-laptop.

  Susan Burke was dressed in a low-cut, flowing ivory lace dress that reached down to her ankles, which were encased in white lace up boots with high heels. Her red hair fell in spiral curls all the way down to her waist in something that looked to Joshua like a nest. Her pink skin was touched by the ultra-violet rays of the tanning booth in the back.

  Her polish and attractiveness suggested that she had once been a beauty queen or was the twin of a beauty queen.

  “May I help you?” she flashed a bright white smile at him.

  “Are you Susan Burke?” he asked.

  She regarded the neatly dressed man in slacks and a sports jacket. With his silver wavy hair and blue eyes framed with crow’s feet, he was an attractive specimen. Even so, she wasn’t going to be so quick to answer. “May I ask who wants to know?”

  “Joshua Thornton.” After showing her his identification, he stuck out his hand for her to shake. “I’m the prosecuting attorney in Hancock County, West Virginia.”

  She refused to take his hand. “I don’t live in West Virginia.”

  “I’m here about your sister, Rachel Burke. I have a few questions about her murder.”

  “What type of questions could you possibly have?” She placed her hands on her hips. “You have no right or authority to be asking questions about it. I hate to be rude, but Rachel was my sister, my twin, and my best friend, and finding her body was one of the most horrific things that could happen to anyone.” She pointed to the mall entrance. “I’d thank you to please leave.”

  Without moving, he appealed to her sensitivity. “Billy Robb’s mother has been wanting to know what happened ever since her son, her only child, died. For years she has been trying to find out but no one will talk to her. Now she’s dying. Can’t you help me so that she can die in peace?”

  With her arms across her chest, she said, “What I know isn’t going to help her die in peace.”

  “Are you certain Billy Robb killed your sister?”

  “He threatened to come back and kill her after she fired him for not showing up for work,” she said. “There’s no reason on earth to think he didn’t do it?”

  “If he did do it,” Joshua replied, “then taking a second look at things won’t do any harm, will it? But if he didn’t, then taking a second look will give us the opportunity to catch who really killed your sister. So you have nothing to lose.” He flashed his most charming smile.

  “Her blood all over him,” she countered, “and they found the scissors he had used to stab her to death in his room. They still had her blood on them.”

  “All of it could have been planted,” Joshua said. “This will only take a few minutes of your time.”

  She glanced around the salon as if it had suddenly grown ears before asking in a low voice, “Have you talked to the police about this?”

  “Yes.” Technically, he had spoken to the police since his own wife was a detective. Though, he was sure that wasn’t what Susan meant. “According to my information, you came to the salon and found Rachel shortly after midnight the night of the murder.”

  Her voice shook. “I was in bed and I suddenly got this feeling.” She clutched her chest. “That would happen every now and then between us. I guess it’s the twin thing. I couldn’t shake it. I knew Rachel was working late that night. I called and she didn’t answer. So I came out to check on her. That’s when I found her.” With a toss of her head, that shook her long curls, she gestured toward the office in the back of the salon. “Back there.” Her voice hardened. “I knew it was Billy as soon as I saw her.”

  A boy, young teenager, swept in through the door. His book bag slung across his shoulders encased in an orange athletic jacket with Sewickley Academy, a private school insignia stenciled on the left breast, the earbuds of an MP3 player in his ears, Joshua guessed him to be about thirteen. His hair was a mound of golden blond curls.

  “Tyler, what are you doing here?” Susan blurted out when she saw him.

  Tyler tugged on the cord to pop one of the buds from his ears. “Doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Did you forget? The doctor has to sign my release before I can do soccer.”

  She cast a glance in Joshua’s direction. “I didn’t notice the time.”

  Tyler followed her eyes to notice Joshua. “Can I have some money to get lunch in the food court then while you’re talking?”

  Susan told Joshua, “I have to get my purse. We really don’t have much time. I need to get Tyler to the doctor. He pulled a tendon playing baseball. Now he needs the doctor to approve him playing soccer. It’s always something.”

  “I can wait.”

  Her expression when she hurried back to the offices in the back of the store conveyed that she wasn’t thrilled to hear Joshua say that.

  While waiting for his lunch money, Tyler looked Joshua up and down.

  Joshua startled him by noting, “I heard Sewickley is trying to get a football program going?”

  “Yeah, but I doubt if that will happen before I graduate.” Tyler frowned. “But I’ll be playing football at University of Pittsburgh, though. It’s a tradition.”

  Her purse under her arm, Susan came rushing back while counting out bills. “Here you go, Tyler.” She shoved a bill into his palm. “This should only take a few m
inutes with Mr. Thornton and then we can go.”

  “Thanks.” Tyler took the money and ran.

  After telling the receptionist that she was leaving for the afternoon, Susan led Joshua in the general direction of the food court. “I don’t know what you could possibly think I would know that could help you.”

  “You were here,” Joshua reminded her. “Say it wasn’t Billy Robb. Can you think of who else would have done that to Rachel?”

  “No. No one. Everyone loved Rachel.” She turned to leave, but he stopped her.

  “How did he get in?”

  She whirled back around. “What?”

  “Billy Robb,” Joshua said. “Rachel had fired him. I guess she forgot to get the key to the salon back.”

  “He never had it,” Susan said. “Rachel was kind, but she wasn’t stupid.”

  “But if he had threatened her when she fired him, then why did she let him in late at night when she was here alone.”

  Susan’s eyes narrowed to slits.

  “She had to have let him in,” he said. “There was no sign of forced entry.”

  “Maybe he was waiting outside and forced her back inside to kill her,” Susan said. “He did blow his own brains out.”

  “Maybe.” Recalling the semen found in Rachel Burke and at the scene, Joshua asked, “Was Rachel in a relationship?”

  While her face was blank, her eyes were wide in a show of innocence. “Why are you asking about that?”

  “You’d be surprised how many times when a woman is killed, it’s connected to a boyfriend or lover.”

  She glanced around before answering in a low voice. “Well, Rachel wasn’t a virgin, but she certainly wasn’t fooling around with a married man, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  He said, “I didn’t ask if she was having an affair with a married man, I asked if she was in a relationship.”

  Her expression changed to one of guilt.

  “Since you brought it up, could she have been having an affair with a married man?”

  This question resulted in loud laughter. “No.” She glanced around. “No,” she said more firmly.

  The more firmly she said it, the more Joshua didn’t believe her.

  Joshua met Cameron in a run-down shopping center halfway between Pittsburgh and the West Virginia state line. When he pulled his SUV into the parking lot, she got out of her cruiser and went around to his driver’s side.

  Joshua rolled down his window. After she kissed him hello, she announced. “I think I found a witness.”

  “You think?” The assurance he had felt upon reading her text to him dissipated.

  She showed the business card that Victor had slipped into her pocket to him. “I called this phone number and the old woman who answered seemed rather cagey about Rachel Burke, until I told her that Victor told me to call. Then, she invited me to come to her home.” She pointed at a narrow country road that maneuvered up a steep hill above the shopping center. “Her house is about halfway up the side of that hill. I don’t think the driveway is big enough for both of our SUVs.”

  “I guess that means I’m driving,” Joshua said. “Jump in and let’s get this show on the road.”

  They found the small two-story house to be literally built into the side of the hill.

  A plump woman with silver hair peered out the living room window at them after they knocked on the door. She looked them both up and down before opening the door a crack. The chain lock remained in place while she studied them up closer with one blue-gray eyeball. “Are you Cameron?”

  “Yes, we—”

  “Who’s that man?” She gazed at Joshua with fear in her eyes.

  “He’s my husband,” Cameron answered. “We’re investigating this case together.”

  “You said nothing about bringing a man here with you,” the elderly woman said.

  “I’ll wait in the car,” Joshua whispered to Cameron.

  “No,” she hissed before turning to the woman. “He’s here because we’re both investigating Rachel Burke’s murder. We’re doing this for Billy Robb’s mother. She’s dying and she wants to clear her son’s name so that she can die in peace. That’s why we’re here. We don’t want to hurt anyone. We only want to bring out the truth. Victor indicated that you might know something.”

  The woman was silent. “Billy Robb’s mother?”

  “Gina Robb,” Joshua said.

  “I didn’t know she was still alive,” the old woman said. “I guess—I never thought …” After hesitating, she closed the door. They heard the chain unlatch and she opened it again. After they went inside, she looked both ways outside to ensure the way was clear before closing the door and locking it again.

  “Want some sweet tea?” She led them through the tiny living room into an equally small kitchen that was dimly lit. The kitchen table only had three chairs. “Sit down.” It sounded like an order. She was clad in a faded housedress and wore her thin gray hair pulled back. It was held in place with a plastic headband. She poured three glasses of sweet tea.

  “How do you know Victor?” Cameron asked. “He’s the PR man for the state police in Pittsburgh. When I met him, he was having lunch with the captain, Ralph—”

  “Ellicott is an ass.” She set the glasses in front of Joshua and Cameron. “He buried my daughter’s murder. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with it. That’s the only reason Victor puts up with him. He keeps hoping that he’ll dig something up on Ellicott and his dirty bag of tricks to nail the bastard. When he called me, he said you were the one.”

  “The one?” Cameron asked.

  “The first one Victor ever met with the guts to go up against Ellicott and call him out for what he is,” she said over the top of her glass. “No one has ever done that before, in all the more than a dozen years Victor has worked for him.”

  “Who’s your daughter?” Joshua asked.

  “Angela Jarvis.” The old woman swallowed. “My name is Becky, by the way. Becky Jarvis.” Slowly, she lowered herself into the remaining chair. “Angela was murdered on September 11, 2001. Only she wasn’t in any airplane or in New York or Washington. She was right here in Aliquippa.” She pointed out the window. “Right down there at the shopping center. She’d been working late at the office on account of the terrorist attacks. So she stopped down there to pick up a pizza to bring up home and this SUV came flying out of the dark, flipped on its lights to blind her, and ran her down and kept on going. Witnesses said it was deliberate. Ellicott jumped right into the investigation—took it away from the local police—he swore it was a hit and run by some drunk. Never went any further. He buried it.”

  Cameron noted, “That was a week after Rachel Burke was murdered.”

  “And Ellicott was already a big wheel for having solved her murder.” Becky nodded her head. “Angela swore up and down that Billy Robb was framed. I told the police and everyone that she was killed because of the Rachel Burke case, and they threatened to do the same to me.”

  “You were threatened?” Cameron asked. “By who?”

  “One night when I came home, out of the blue, there was this man who came out of the bushes and grabbed me by the arm. I had a young son here at home then.” Tears came to her eyes. “He said I already lost a daughter. I didn’t want to lose my son, too. So I backed off. But Victor, he was with the Associated Press then, too. He actually quit his job and went to work for the state police, trying to get close to Ellicott to see if he could ever find anything. He called after you got Ellicott mad and told me to expect you to call.” She turned to Joshua. “He didn’t’ tell me about you.”

  “Sorry.”

  “What convinced Angela that someone else killed Rachel Burke?” Cameron asked.

  “The weekend before Rachel Burke was killed, she had a whole bunch of important people at her house for a cookout for Labor Day. It was real swanky. Linda Pryor was running for her first term as U.S. Senator and Angela was her publicist. So she was there taking pictures and doing
interviews.” Becky jumped up from her seat and went over to the kitchen counter. She returned with a brown padded envelope. “She recorded something during one of her interviews. She wouldn’t tell me what, but Linda, Rachel, and Rachel Burke’s twin sister got into a knock out drag out fight at some point and Angela got it. Then, the very next day, Rachel got killed. Angela said it was just too convenient and was convinced that Linda Pryor had killed Rachel.”

  “Why?” Joshua asked.

  “I have no idea. But with all the connections that Linda Pryor had, she’s now senator, she certainly has the power to have my daughter killed, and to have a boy like Billy Robb killed and cover it up. Don’t you think?”

  “And whatever it was that they were fighting about, it’s in here?” Cameron said.

  “I’m positive of it. But don’t ask me what.”

  After taking the envelope home, Joshua emptied the contents, which proved to be a thumb drive. While opening the drive on his computer, he listened to Tad’s update on Gina Robb’s medical condition over the phone. “Believe it or not, she came out of her coma. She’s hanging in there. We talked a little bit this morning. She keeps asking if you’ve found out anything.”

  Meanwhile, Cameron was taking a call on her cell phone from Lieutenant Dugan, her supervisor. “I got a call from the head of the state police,” he was saying in a strained voice. “He says that you tracked down Ralph Ellicott in Pittsburgh where he was having lunch with some of his high profile colleagues, and you accused him of being dirty. Ellicott says you insinuated that he covered up Rachel Burke’s murder and killed Billy Robb to frame him for her murder. Tell me you didn’t do that.”

  “I would,” Cameron replied, “but my mother always told me that when you tell one lie, you end up having to tell a whole bunch of lies to cover up that lie and then you end up being a liar.”