Dine In..Or Take Out "Death ruled as?" Alex Lynne asked. "Um...homicide."The chubby policeman stuttered as he quickly scanned over his notes. Obviously new at this line of profession, Lynne thought as she looked him up and down. Alex herself had worked as a detective for nearly six years now.She owned and ran her own agency in downtown LA. Right now though she and some members of the LAPD were investigating a recent murder case. Lynne sighed and continued railing off the usual questions. "The victim's name?" "Sheryl Collins." The chubby little man huffed, quickening his stride in order to keep up with her's. "Time of death?" Lynne asked. "Umm...let's see...well a tenant upstairs, Josh Manders, said that Sheryl always came home from work at 5:30. And then ate dinner at about 6:30." He noted the dining room table," and since it looks as though she was about to start dinner, we're guessing the time of death to be at about 6:30." The policeman finished, obviously proud of himself for getting it all out in only one breath, without tripping over his own shoelaces. Lynne thought that she detected a bead of sweat above his right eyebrow. Poor man, he nees therapy, she thought to herself, shaking her head. "Let's see...Ms. Collins was stabbed to death, and we have the "smoking gun" as you may say. But..now we just need to find out who was holding it. Unfortunately that's a bit hard. Considering that the knife has no fingerprints." She concluded as she circled the body. "And I'm guessing that she knew the person who killed her since there's no sign of a forced entry." Next Alex turned her attention to the dining room table. "Hmm..looks like she ordered chinese takeout. And from the Chopstix restaurant down the street." She observed noting the restaurant's signature red and yellow boxes, with a gold dragon on the front. "Table set for one..so she wasn't expecting anyone..."Lynne mumbled mainly to herself, but she caught her little sidekick scribbling down every word anyways. She rolled her eyes, and was tapped on the shoulder by an unknown policeman. "Detective Lynne, we have some close friends of the victim. We thought you might want to speak with them." He reported. She nodded her thanks, and made her way to a small group near the apartment's doorway. "Oh,uh, I do believe that I can handle this myself. Just go fill the coffee maker or something, ok?" She called over her shoulder to the officer who had been trailing her all night. He hurried off, as though given a top secret assignment. Lynne turned her attention back to the group of people. "Hello, I'm detective Lynne, and I'd like to ask you some quick questions If you don't mind. I was informed that you are all some close friends of the deceased? Yes, well, why don't you just introduce yourselves?" She said, scanning the four faces among her. She turned to a solemn looking man on her right. " My name is Ron Donalds. I'm...I mean I was Sheryl's boyfriend, we had been going out for about two months. I just got the call from the station about 15min ago, and was told to come here."He explained. Lynne eyed a fragile looking woman who had been crying hysterically. "And you are?" She asked gently."I'm her best friend, Elavia Donaldson. We'd known eachother for..well forever." She sniffed." Oh!Who would do such a thing?" She demanded, as another round of tears started up. The woman next to her sympathetically patted her arm. "I'm Mindi Culkins. I went to college with Sheryl, we were pretty good friends, and I'm also another tenant in this building." She said, and then glanced at the man beside her. "And I'm Rob Henderson. I worked with Sheryl down at the advertising agency across town. I'm not sure if I knew Sheryl as well as the rest of these people though," The man said waving his arm around the group. "Do you know of any enemies Ms. Collins might have had?" Lynne asked hopefully. Rob shook his head, "No, none that I can think of. Besides Sheryl was a wonderful, good hearted person, everyone loved her."Ron nodded his agreement. "And, you all have alibi's for the time of Sheryl's death? Oh, I didn't mean for it to sound that way, but I have to ask." Lynne apologized." Yes, we had them checked out with the head of the police department, a few minutes ago." Mindi replied helpfully." All right, well thank you for your cooroperation. And, I'm so sorry for your loss."Lynne said moving away from the group. She mentally marked them from her list of suspects. She yawned and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "You sure look terrible, long night I suppose?"The familiar voice asked. Lynne smiled, and turned to see the welcome face of Bert Atkins. A member of the LAPD, as well as her friend. "Ya Bert, a very long night. I'm getting nowhere, and fast." She said. "So far I'm...just stuck. I have nothing to go on." She finished, accepting a cup of coffee that was offered to her. "Well, we did happen to track down this Aunt of Sheryls, I forget her name. Anyways, it seems she's the victim's only living relative. Sheryl's parents died when she was young, so she was raised by her mother's sister. If you want I can get her to call you tomorrow morning, and you can try to squeeze some useful information out of her." Lynne nodded sipping her steaming cup of coffee. " Oh, ya, that'd be great, how does 11 am sound?" Bert nodded. "Ok, thanks, I'd better be getting home, 'night."Lynne headed for the door. She was defiently ready for bed. Besided, she needed a good nights rest for tomorrow morning. Sheryl's aunt was her only hope so far for cracking this case. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Lynne yelled at the phone as it rang for the fourth time. She was just finishing up a late breakfast before her scheduled conversation with Sheryl's aunt. "Hello?Alex Lynne speaking." She said chipperly as she answered the phone. "Why, hello, this is Mary Lou Collins, Sheryl's aunt." A sweet, very grandmotherly like voice replied. "Hello, Mrs. Collins, I'm so sorry about your neice. I'm sure you two must have been very close." Lynne said, licking jam from her fingers. "Thank-you my dear, yes we were close. We knew so very much about eachother." She said sadly. " And, please, just call me Mary Lou." she added. " So far, I'm afraid I don't know too much about Sheryl. Except that she works in advertising, has a boyfriend named Rob, and ordered cashew chicken the night she died." Lynne said remembering what had been in the Chopstix boxes. There was a strange pause, and then Mary Lou cleared her throat. "Ah, yes she did work in advertising, actually she got a promotion just last week. And Ron, what a lovely young man. But..I'm sorry my dear, it's impossible that Sheryl would have ordered anything with cashews in it. You see, she had a highly allergic reaction to them. Even the tiniest of bite would cause her to break out in hives."The woman explained. Lynne stopped mid-licking her fingers, and tightened her grip on the phone. "Umm..Mary Lou..thank you for your help, but I'll have to let you go. This new information has shed some new light on the case." She said trying to bring the conversation to an end polietly. " Oh yes, I understand. I'm just glad that I could be of some help." They said their good-byes, and afterwards Lynne quickly called her good friend, Bert Atkins. He answered after the second ring. "Hey, Bert, It's me Alex. I think I might be able to solve this case, I'll call you back in an hour or so." Lynne took a deep breath as she looked up at the faded numbers painted in black on the door of the Oaks and Vines Apartment building. It was a run down place in a bad part of town. She lifted her finger to the old door buzzer and pressed it firmly. After a couple of seconds the door opened . Lynne quickly pasted a smile on her face, and her eyes locked with those of Rob Henderson. "Hi, I'm detective Alex Lynne, remember?We met yesterday.Anyways I'd like to ask you a few questions. Don't worry though,it's just routine stuff." She said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. Rob visibly relaxed and motioned for her to come inside. "Nah, that's ok. I can only stay for a minute. Now to the point. Do you own and use a visa?" Rob nodded "ya...well I actually do, why?" he asked souding confused."Well, um..yesterday at ...oh say..about 6:15 did you order Chinese takeout?" a look of understanding registered on his face and he made an attempt to shut the door. But 3 police hidden from view in the hallway burst through. They had him pinned down, cuffed, and had read him his rights all in 35 seconds. Lynne smirked, "let me guess, you were jealous that Sheryl got a promotion and you didn't right?And I'm guessing you set up the food in her apartment to fake the time of death, that way you'd have an alibi, right?" There came an inaudible grunt, which Lynne took to mean yes. "Tsk, tsk, you shouldn't have paid for the chinese with a visa, they can be traced you know. Which is especially good for tracking crazy phycotics just like you. But for everyone else, there's mastercard.
Copyright © 2001 D Donely |