Adeline Bellamy has lived most of her life watching everyone around her just make it by so when she finally succeeded she wasn’t about to let some sleaze bag attorney steal it from her. Maybe that’s what brought her to follow him. If she could just get some leverage on him or proof of what he was doing it wouldn’t matter what she said about him because it would just be true.

She saw him slip into the costume room of the theatre, watching as the door closed softly behind him. Flattening herself against the wall she pressed her ear to the costume room and pulled out her phone to record the conversation on the other side of the door.

“No. You said if I helped you you’d let him go.”

His voice had an air of urgency and desperation to it that didn’t sound at all like the man she had spent the last few weeks fighting with.

“Things change. I was just acting as a messenger. I'd have been harsher.” A calm and measured voice answered. The words seemed to flow like there was no thinking behind it...just instinct.

Adeline jumped and had to slap her hand against her mouth to muffle her breathing as a large body was slammed against the door she was standing next to. The phone started to shake in her hand as it vibrated announcing that somebody was calling her. As slick with sweat as her hands were she couldn’t seem to get her phone to acknowledge that she was trying to decline the call so it kept vibrating.

There was a thump on the other side of the door. All she could think was that it sounded like a body being dropped to the floor.

Sweat beaded at her brows and slid down to the creases of her eyes as she shrank into the shadows of one of the columns that held up the floor above her. Her throat seemed to freeze as if trying to choke her into silence. Her heart was beating so loudly she couldn’t even hear the footsteps coming from the costume room but she could see his shadow as he walked down the opposite end of the hallway.

The door seemingly stuck open or caught on the carpeted hallway gave her enough cover to look around to see if she was safe to go back down to her seat.

Perhaps if she had been more calm, more aware she would have noticed that her dragonfly hairpin had fallen to the floor near the door. That it had fallen out as she slid along the corners and columns in efforts to avoid the man on the other side of the door. But she wasn’t. Her heart was racing and she could feel the wetness under her arms from the sweat.

She didn’t even take notice of the fact that only one man had left the room. That a pool of blood was spreading out into the hallway. That her once diamond and emerald dragonfly hairpin was turning red.

The lights from the ambulance and police cars reflected off the theater’s stained glass windows. The black tinted windows of the luxury cars parked outside became visible to the two people who pulled up to the scene of the crime. Officers guard the area lifted up the tape as the pair walk to the door of the theater.

The lobby of champagne walls, crystal chandeliers, red velvet carpets, and people decked out in their finest attires and jewels. People milled around in the lobby, some being questioned by officers and some collecting their items from officers that had finished looking in their belongings for evidence. Expressions varied from muted confusion to

shock, anger, sadness, frustration, and boredom.

The groups were motioned to be silent for a few moments while one of the two women spoke.

The woman in forest green blazer, charcoal black pants, and ankle boots stepped forward brushing one of her long braids out of her face. Her dark brown eyes gave a soothing and serious look to the crowd in the foyer of the theater. Her dark skin reflected the light coming from the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

“I’m Detective Carter and this is my partner Detective Castello, we will be questioning you on the events preceding the incident. Please be patient and cooperative with us and the officers around you. If you have any information you believe may be pertinent to the issue at hand please find me, my partner, or one of the officers.” Her hands moved with a slow purpose in her effort to show the people around her that they could trust her and the people questioning them around them.

She turned around and motioned to her partner to follow her to the scene of one of the two crime scenes.

They entered the front mezzanine with one of the officers that first arrived on the scene.

The first thing they saw was the woman’s body slumped in her seat, her head lying on the rail that separated the seats from the air above the seats below it. Her blood ran down the rails and seeped into the red velvet carpeting blending in almost completely with color.

Detective Castello stepped forward pulling on her blue elastic gloves so she could touch the crime scene without contaminating it. Her hands pulled back some of the hair on the victim’s head looking at the bullet wound at her temple. Her pale blonde curls spilled into her line of sight as her head was tilted down.

“Do we know who the victim is?” She pulled back from the body and turned to face the officer standing near one of the entry points to the front mezzanine. Her almond brown eyes and light brown eyebrows expressed curiosity and interest in the victim.

“A Miss Adeline Bellamy. African-American, 37 years of age, and engaged. Her fiance was sitting next to her during the performance. He didn’t see who shot her but he says when she came back from intermission she looked anxious but she didn’t tell him what the issue was.” The officer was dragging his pen along his notes as he read what he had written just to have something to do with his hands.

Detective Carter turned from checking out the scene and scoping for evidence missed by the teams that had moved down to the second crime scene or left the theater altogether.

“Adeline Bellamy....that name sound familiar. Doesn’t she have something to do with FBI and Jasper Lebario?”

“She took over as head of the New York branch of the FBI when Lebario got demoted and transferred to the Florida branch. She was the runner up for the position back when Lebario first got the job. Lebario was ”rumored” to have bribed some people or something involving shady behavior with money. To be honest I wasn’t really paying attention when people in the office starting pushing the rumors through the mill.”

Detective Castello stood up after she had finished replying to Detective Carter. She rolled her left ankle and shoulders once she was standing.

“Hmm...well you were paying more attention than I was. I tend to give very little attention to things that have to do with the FBI. They act like they’re so much better than us because they’re federal and all we do is the local business.” Detective Carter brushed a braid of her shoulder as a sneer rose on her lips at the conversation of the FBI.

Castello snorted, “Let’s go check on the costume room before you blow a vein having to talk about the FBI.”

The costume room was filled with fur coats, long and short dresses, all types of shoes and fake jewelry, and a dead body. A certain scent of must and old fabric clung to the fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper.

“Damn...that’s a lot of blood.” Detective Castello looked around the room looking at the dead man on the floor laying in a large pool of his own blood.

“I suggest you examine the body before the room so the guys can take the body away and crime scene photographers can take the final pictures of the scene.” The police officer stood aside holding the door open for the two detectives as they walked around the face-up head and into the room.

“Who’s the deceased?” Detective Carter examined the body this time while Detective Castello looked at the officer who focusing on his notes.

“Mr. Kieran Di’Ode, 45 years old, Caucasian American, divorced, and he is a defense lawyer or attorney. I don’t know the difference.” The officer shot an apologetic look to the two women.

“Don’t feel bad Heath most people don’t know the difference and most people don’t know that attorney and lawyer are the same damn thing.” Her voice trailed off into an absent-minded tone as she inspected the victim's chest. Detective Carter trailed her hand down the victim’s torso and felt a bump near the fourth rib.

Not on the skin but inside the lining of the jacket. Her eyebrows scrunched together.

“He has a 21-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter.” Heath looked back at his notes as he had been speaking and watching what Carter was doing. “Adam Di’Ode and Josephine Di’Ode. According to friends of the victim who were at the show as well, Josephine has been in Japan for the last few months and was previously traveling around Europe, Eastern, and Western for about a year. Adam-”

Detective Castello cut him off, “Has been missing for four months. No leads as of late.”

“Not entirely true Kacey, there was a lead but our chief refused to follow because it was too sketchy. We had more important missing peoples cases like Amber Jaques and Lucas Xanders, missing kids.” Detective Carter motioned the crime scene photographer to come and take a picture of the inside of the victim’s jacket. “If we could have followed the sketchy lead we got on Adam’s disappearance we would have. If we had more people in the office who were capable of following it we would have...that’s what chief said.”

Once done she used a small pair of scissors to cut through the red thread that closed a tear. Reaching in she pulled out a diamond ring. Silver banded, a large diamond in the middle, and three small pearls on either side of the large diamond. Each pearl, (each was the size of a little less than half of a grain of rice), with a cluster of even smaller diamonds around them.

“An engagement ring most likely, but what was it doing sewed inside his jacket..especially a jacket of this quality?“Detective Castello voiced what Detective Carter had been thinking.

An evidence bag with the ring inside was passed it off to one of the members of crime scene investigators.

Both detectives scoped the room and Castello noticed blood on one of the sleeves of the costumes that had been worn by the cast of the show that had been playing that night.

Pulling it off the rack she examined it briefly before passing it off to a girl from CSI.

“Was anything found or noticed at the scene of interest before we arrived?”

“A partial footprint in the blood was noticed when the body was first found by theater staff, a Mikala Graff. No obvious weapons were found, but a few possible ones were taken from around the theater for testing. As the victim bleed out from a stabbing we are looking for sharp and medium-sized objects based on the size of the wounds. Nothing else of interest was found or noticed.”

They left the room and while Heath and Carter walked down the hall Castello stopped to talk to one of the guys who had come to take the body away.

“How’s Charlotte? Did she get over her stage fright?”

“Yeah, that advice really resonated with her. Thanks a million, it would have broken her heart if she would have missed out on performing because of stage fright.”

“No problem Jake, I was glad to help. I remember when I had stage fright. To be honest...still do.” She gave a soft smile and her eyes twinkled.

“I gotta go and take the body back to the boss so I see you again sometime. I know Charlotte and Eddie would love to see you again too.”

As he walked into the costume room she didn’t know it but her eyes were drawn to the very spot Adeline had been sitting at just a few hours before.

“You coming Kace?”

“Yeah, just had to say hi to Jake.”

“Let’s go talk to some of the witnesses and the fiance. Both victims came here with company so this is a good opportunity to learn some more about them.”

“Gee thanks for the tutorial on detective work.” Castello ran down the hallway to catch up with them and flicked Carter’s shoulder.

“I don’t know why anyone would do this!” Nicholas LaShay’s voice rose as he paced around the room being consoled by his friends who remained sitting. The group as a whole looked worried, sad, and angrily frustrated.

Detective Carter questioned Nicholas while Detective Castello questioned Mr. Di’Ode’s ex-wife, his daughter, and his business partner.

Detective Carter’s voice was calm and even as she spoke to Miss Bellamy’s distressed fiance. “Please take a seat or standstill. I just have a few questions for you at the moment. We’ll have a lengthier questioning at a later time.”

“WHAT ELSE COULD...you want to know? I told the officers earlier everything I saw. I told them all about all the nothing useful I saw or heard! I have nothing for you. Trust me I wish I did because I want to know who did it and why because no one hated Adeline enough to kill her.” He let out a shaking breath and stood tensely in front of the gold-framed mirror that made up a wall in the room before spinning around and walking back to the group.

“I could lie and say ‘everyone loved her’ but I want to help you find the bastard more than you can imagine.” He took a deep breath and dug his nails into his scalp.

“She had people who hated her and wanted her gone but you know when you are so angry at someone you want them gone but all you mean is that you want them out of your life? Not out of the world as a whole necessarily just out of your life? All of the people who didn’t like her were her ‘enemies’ like that.”

“Nick calm down.” She motioned for him to take a seat next to her. “Please just sit down. Let them ask their questions.” Allison Quartz, one of Adeline’s friends and co-workers pleaded for anything that resembled calmness from him.

“I can’t even breathe right now let alone sit down or calm down. Just ask what you want to know.” He briefly stopped pacing to look Detective Carter in the eyes.

“Okay well, while you may not think you heard or saw anything of importance but I would like to hear your recall of events. This will help us create a framework for how everything laid out this evening.” Detective Carter flipped to a blank page on her notebook before she asked her first question.

“So when you two were getting ready to come to the theater did you notice anything about her behavior or did she mention anything in the last few days that would better point us in the direction of the killer?”

Nick took a deep breath and spoke in a tense, shaking voice like he was just barely keeping the volume to his voice down. “She was normal. She was excited about the show because she’s been so busy these last few days at work and we haven’t had the time to do something just for the sake of doing something.” His eyes stared vacantly at the floor and Carter could tell he was getting lost in confusion over what happened tonight as his brain attempted to solve the puzzle before it.

“Sure she’s stressed...she was stressed, she’s always stressed. She has a lot on her mind; she has a very serious job that comes with a lot of pressure and weight. She didn’t tell me about anyone who made her fear for her life. Her safety? Definitely, she’s the head of the New York Branch of the FBI, of course, there are going to be people that make her fear for her safety.”

His exhale whooshed as if he had pushed it out of himself. “I can’t even breathe. It feels like I’m spinning and I can’t slow down. My mouth is so fucking dry”

Officer Heath spoke up from the space by the doorway, “You sound like you’re having a panic attack. I’ve never had one but I assume that not being able to breathe and feeling like you’re spinning would be symptoms of a panic attack.”

“I DON’T HAVE PANIC ATTACKS!” Nicholas’s voice boomed and echoed throughout the room scaring his friends out of their skin while Detective Carter stayed still, merely closing her eyes for a second longer than a blink, keeping her calm and serious aura intact.

So quiet was the room following the burst of noise that if felt like you could have heard Nick’s heart thumping in his chest.

Markus, one of Nick’s friends, took Nick’s shoulder and pulled him lightly down onto one of the red velvet benches that were numerous in the room. “You know I know how you feel right now but all you can do is help these people catch the bastard who did this to Lynn. Take a deep breath and tell them what they need to know. After you do that you should come and stay come and stay with me and Chris… there’s plenty of room in our apartment. You shouldn’t be alone right now.” He looked at all the people around him.

“I can’t even breathe right now..” Nick’s voice shook and he hung his head between his legs. “It feels like everything is just kicking me in the stomach. I can’t even think... I just keep seeing her face and thinking...” He trailed off and he laced his hands together over his head. His right hand was shaking and his knee jiggled, he was unraveling before their eyes.

He lifted his head up slightly but kept his hands laced behind his head. Exhaustion from the pure intensity of his emotions showing on his face. “She was wearing this dragonfly pin-brooch-thing tonight. It was emerald, yellow diamonds, and bronze. When she came back from intermission she wasn’t wearing it and I....didn’t get a chance to ask her about it before the show started again. She wouldn’t just lose it; it was a gift from her grandma.”

Officer Heath spoke up as he handed a bottle of water to Nick. “That’s really helpful. We didn’t find any jewelry around the theater but I’ll have the guys do another sweep of the place looking for this pin specifically. What would you say the size of this brooch is?”

“I think...it’s just over two inches.”

Detective Carter tapped her pen against her hand. “We have enough information for now so if we have any more questions we’ll contact you. Please give your contact information to Officer Heath. Do any of you have travel plans we should be aware of?” She looked at the group and waited for an answer.

Conner Fare spoke in a tense voice, “I’m planning to visit my family and stop by Adeline’s family’s place the following Tuesday to next Saturday.” Mr. Fare was one of Adeline’s friends from school who had met them at the theater and from his previous statement he had seen the silhouette of a masculine looking arm a what appeared to be a dark long-sleeved shirt.

“Thank you for telling us.” Looking around to see if anyone else had anything to say Carter wrote down the information next to the rest of the notes she took from Mr. Fare’s previous statement. “Well, if no one has anything else to add we’ll leave you to your night so you can go home and process and...I’m sorry for loss.” She closed her notebook and gave a serious and reassuring nod to the group before turning on her heels to walk out of the room and meet back up with Castello.

Reporters crowed around the edge of the police tape.

“Well, I gave a short and completely factual statement to the reporters so we can expect a conspiracy by tomorrow.” Kacey walked towards her partner.

“Not all reporters are skeevy or manipulative.”

“And you only say that cause you’re dating one, Dinah.”

Dinah snorted and stepped out of the way of two officers who were walking back to the patrol cars.

“Jace barely counts as a reporter. His website has 76 views per post...maybe.” Her eyes squinted a bit at the corners giving her speculative look before she relaxed her face and continued walking towards her car. “See it’s the job of a reporter or journalist to sell a story, a viewpoint. They report the world as they see it through their lens. It’s why I take my news from multiple sources. It allows me to get a...more....I’d like to say a reasonable point of view.”

Kacey opened the passenger door and looked at Dinah above the top of the car. “And that’s why I-”

A hand wrapped around Kacey’s bicep and nails dug into her arm.

Two officers started to move towards the group after Kacey’s shocked shout. They stopped a few feet away, waved off by Detective Carter who had walked to the other side of the car and around the passenger door to Kacey’s side.

“Fuck! Who...oh Miss Di’Ode. What made...why the fuck did you do that?!” Detective Castello had her hand in front of her putting space between her and the daughter of the late Mr. Di’Ode.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted to get your attention.” Josephine’s quiet and deep voice brought goosebumps to Castello’s arms with the nervousness and eerie coldness that came with it. The young woman’s dyed red hair caught and reflected some of the flashing blue lights from the police car and the yellow-white light that shined down on them from the street lights.

“I wanted to tell you something but I didn’t want to say it in front of my mom or that prick my dad was in business with.” Carter took Josephine lightly by the arm and moved her a little further away from Castello.

Josephine’s eyes seemed roll without her really thinking about having an attitude with it just happened on instinct.

“Whatever.” She pulled out her phone and started to swipe through her recordings, “Ever since my brother’s disappearance, stuff...has started happening a bit more regularly. People have come by the house and threatened dad which isn’t entirely unusual.”

Both detectives raised their eyes.

“Who has come by the house and threatened your dad? How exactly did they threaten your dad?” Detective Carter’s voice turned from the calm and measured tones it had been in most of the night to stern and questing voice that pressured Miss Di’ Ode to start talking.

Her shoulders tensed up and she tugged her dark blue coat closer to her skin. Words started to rush as she made in haste to explain what she had meant and to just get what she was trying to say in the first place over with. “My dad is a defense attorney. He defends many people some deserve it some don’t. Those that don’t can be...shady people who will pay a lot of money for someone who understands criminal law to be a loyal and discreet lap dog. When they are disappointed they throw major hissy fits to send a message.”

“Are you calling your brother’s disappearance the consequence of a hissy fit?”

“No...not entirely.”

“Do you have proof of this because if you do you could be charged with withholding information.”

“Look, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had him holed up and were waiting for my dad perform some fucking show of loyalty just to get their attention. To be even more honest I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed dear old dad before he could fulfill his end of whatever dumb deal they had him tied up in.”

“Miss Di’Ode if you have any clue as to who has your brother or who killed your father please tell us to know because not only is it in your best interest to tell us what you know but we want to find your brother and whoever killed your father just as much as you do.” Dinah leaned forward a bit causing Josephine to step back from the two a bit more than she already was in an effort to put distance of more than just space between her and the emphatic detective.

“Josephine! Get in the car!” Kacey and Dinah both turned to look at the man who called out for the young woman. Kacey recognized him as the man she had questioned earlier in the night, Madoc Parson, a criminal defense attorney who was the deceased, Kieran Di’Ode’s business partner. Dinah only saw a man in a fancy suit with a big bridged and bulbous tipped nose and slicked-back hair that looked way too greasy to be sanitary.

Dinah’s top lip pulled back in a mixture of discomfort and disgust, “Gross.” Her voice barely audible wasn’t able to catch the attention of either Kacey or Josephine who were more focused on what he was saying.

“I have to go but if you are going to look for suspects there was a guy my dad was about to represent, Aiden Sparks, who might know some of the bigger fish my dad was dealing with.” She gave the two detectives an almost uncertain look like she was unsure of how effective the two professionals who’d be at doing their jobs before running off to join her companion.

“So, that was a lot...:

“And not it feels like.”

“Yep...” Kacey pressed her lips together before ducking and stepping inside the car silently signaling for her partner to do the same.

Both car doors closed and the two just looked at the dashboard for a while the muffled noise of crackling voices from the radio the noise in the car beside the slight hum from the transmission and the sound of one of Dinah’s trinkets hanging from her mirror clinking against pine tree air freshener.

“Aiden Sparks...let’s add that to the list of people we need to talk to.” Dinah drove slowly through the people and police cars that we slowly trickling out of the scene.

“So we are starting our list”

“Please our list started the minute we found out she was head of the New York branch of the FBI

Silence filled the car.

“Withholding information?”

“Shut up.”

Dinah walked up the stairs of her red brick stone apartment at a slow exhausting pace. A headache building up as she walked slower and slower under the flickering and buzzing lights. Pushing open the door to the sixth floor she paused briefly taking in a breath feeling a bit dizzy as she leaned against the door frame.

The door clicked behind her and she passed by apartment F3, F4, F5, F6, and F9 stopping in front of F10. Apartments F7 and F8 had clear plastic tarps covering their doorways and construction/repair notices on the doors.

“That’s new.” She mutters under her breath spinning her set of keys around her fingers.

The door swings open after a few knocks revealing a man in his mid-thirties looking like he’s been up for days on end. Hair disheveled, a beard that has unevenly grown and untrimmed, a pair of smudged reading glasses hanging from a food and sweat-stained navy blue tank top paired with lime green sweatpants.

“Ina..I...I haven’t...wasn’t expecting you. Umm...what brings you to my floor?”

“Kingston...seriously....this is...I know you were laid off but I was hoping you were getting your shit together.”

“Aren’t you staying with Jason? She...Kace isn’t with you, is she? I saw her on the news giving the what’s what about the murder and her speaking...I mean, of course, she was speaking she was on tv.” His body blocked the entryway to his apartment.

“Why would you care?” Craning her head she attempted to peer into the apartment only to be blocked by Kingston’s body as he stepped out of the apartment and almost closed the door behind him keeping his hand on the knob to keep it from closing completely.

“You know how much I just love surprise visits but if you don’t mind...I have to get back to work. If you want to talk feel free to stop by but today, ya know, just ain’t a good time.” His disorganized and thick eyebrows crinkled and pushed together as he awkwardly scratched his forehead with his free hand.

“You know what I know?” Dinah put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. “I would like to be on my couch, eating some pizza and drinking some coke but instead I’m here checking on your ass, pardon my language when I could be typing up my notes on my computer. I could be getting my shit done, again pardon my language, so I could go to fucking bed. I’ve been up since 3 am and all I want to do is go to bed but no I’m here checking on your unbathed, unemployed, un...just everything.”

A light panic and anxiety started to hit her. Her breath sped up.

Why was she panicking? She was angry. She shouldn’t be panicking.

“You know what...I’m going to my apartment and when you get your shit together enough that you realize you need help..feel free to knock or call.”

Spinning around on her heel she walked back to the stairs and made her way to the fourth floor not turning around once to see Kingston’s response.

Walking into the office Dinah heard the end of a conversation that Kacey was having with someone on the phone.

“If you could let him know that we would like to talk to him please give this message to him.”

The phone clicked as she set it back in its receiver and looked at Officer Heath.

“Okay I get it he’s busy trying to prove he isn’t a shady ass mothereffer but he needs to pick up the fricking phone.” Her head dropped onto her desk and she groaned.

Dinah stepped up to the desk, her hair tied up into a top bun, in a green blazer and black pants. Her badge hooked to her belt and a bagel with cream cheese in her hand.

“Well, I have good news.” Carter’s voice had an upbeat and at the same time tired tone to it. “I’ve got a hold of Aiden Sparks through Madoc Parson. We can go talk to him in an hour at the court jail before his appeal.”

Kacey started flicking through the pages on her desk and pulled out a pink note on her desk. “I just got this from the archives. We pulled all the information we had on the victims in our records and we found a form that was filled out about five years ago about an anonymous suspicious person call around eight pm at the Di’Ode mansion. Sparks’s car was found a few blocks away from the scene and someone fitting his general description was seen breaking into the side of the house with two other people.”

Officer Heath tapped the top of Kacey’s computer with the case file that Dinah had pulled out of her bag to get her attention, “You should ask to do a briefing with Officer Jasper on what she saw when she was on the scene. She was the first officer to get on the scene and I think she did a sweep of the place and was the one who noticed the car.”

********

“Honestly I didn’t see think the car was anything at first and the only reason I looked at the car was because a woman came out of one the neighboring houses saw a kid with some sort of tool run from the car a few hours before. When I went to get a formal statement from her she wouldn’t answer the door. A few days later she wouldn’t give a statement about what she saw. She seemed pretty startled when I went to go talk to her a few days later.” Hia poured herself a cup of coffee as she spoke barely paying any attention to the two detectives.

“What was her name and where did she live?” Dinah stood straight up and tossing her napkin into one of the offices recycling bin. Her voice held a stern and focused feel to it as she spoke to her peer.

“Um...it was a while back but I think her name was Jessica Pearl.” Her lips pressed together and she tapped her fingers against her paper cup. “I don’t remember exactly which house she lived in but I think it was either 502 or 504 on Eden Cherry Street.” She tugged the cuffs of her button-down back to her wrists.

“Was there anything else you noticed on the scene, Officer Jasper?” Kacey let her head tilt towards the young woman as she questioned the officer.

“Jasper! There’s a signal 10 that we have to report to.”

“Got to go.” Darting off to meet her partner she tossed her cup in the garbage can.

“So...that’s something to check out and I think we should talk to Jasper again once we see her again.” Dinah spoke in a slightly distracted voice as her eyes followed the two officers that ran out of the office. “Do you want to check out the Di’Ode mansion tomorrow or do you want to try and cram it in later today after we question Sparks? We have permission to do an investigation of both victim’s houses. I would like to check out the houses together but on both sides, I feel like if we don’t make progress on both of these cases soon what we have to work with may drastically change.”

Kacey nodded and ran her hands through her hair. “On one side we have the FBI and whatever pressure and secrets they have and on the other side of this investigation, we have whatever shady fricking business Di’Ode was into. Both parties will want to have some control over where the investigation goes so we will have to work efficiently and probably a bit low key so certain parties can’t get ahead of us in the investigation.”

Dinah rubbed her forehead and swung her jacket around her hand, “Let’s go talk to Sparks.”

Aiden Sparks leaned back in his seat and tried to scratch his forehead with his cuffed hands. He would have looked like any other average man if he had not had the cuffs on his hands. His name would bring to mind images of tattoos, piercings, and gorgeous hair. In reality, he had short fluffy dust blonde looking hair and slightly chubby cheeks that gave his mud water brown eyes a child-like look.

“I was just looking for a place to break into and get some money. I got caught and Kieran took pity on me. I got pro bono help from his law firm. I was really surprised when Madoc told me that he had been killed. When I knew him he was a really generous person who sparred a lot of time to personally help me.”

Kacey who was taking notes of this questioning looked at Dinah briefly with a confused look on her face.

“That makes sense but based on the reports from the officers who arrived on scene first witness said that there were at least two homes that looked like no one was the and you chose the one that had a car in the driveway and a living room light on. If you had just been looking for a place to get some cash why didn’t you go into one of the houses that looked like it was empty of people?”

Dinah who had been leaning against the door frame of the room watching out into the hallway had only turned to watch what she was listening to when she heard the complication in what Sparks had said.

“I got caught, obviously I’m not the smartest criminal.”

“So you have no personal connections to Kieran Di’Ode or the Di’Ode family?”

Aiden peeked a glance at Madoc to be met with a look that said don’t say a fucking thing.

“None that I know of or remember. I hope you catch his killer but I have to go. I have to go to court in a few minutes.” He stood and made way to the doorway where Dinah was essentially blocking their path. Madoc who seemed frustrated and all-around done with the situation slid past Dinah but Aiden who seem to be very nonchalant about the whole thing was willing to wait for her to move.

“One more question before you go. Do you know a woman named Adeline Bellamy? She was the other victim found in the theater that night.”

His nose crinkled up and he shifted uncomfortably in his brown suit.

“African American woman...bit nervous and bossy from what I recall. Yeah, met her once about 7 months ago. She was testifying in a case about...I don’t remember what and was waiting for the verdict at the same time I was waiting for the verdict on whether or not I was guilty. Talking to a man she called Marcus the way across from me and looked pretty angry at him.”

“How did you know her name?”

He snorted, “I remember her name because the dude called her Adeline and then when she was called in for the verdict they said, Miss Bellamy.”

“So you had no personal relationship with her?”

“Not unless you count eavesdropping on someone’s conversation because you’re bored.”

“I don’t”

She stepped out of the doorway and into the hallway.

*****

The two detectives settled into the stifling hot care and started to drive towards their next location with the windows down.

“Well that took less time then I thought it was going to.”

“Yeah, and we got less information than I thought it was going to.” Kacey flipped through her notes looking less than pleased.

“On the contrary, we now have some more focused questions we can ask Makus Nolan about his work relationship and/or friendship he had with Adeline Bellamy.”

“I guess your right. Should we call him in to the station or make a house call?”

“I want him to be realized when we talk to him but I want it to be formal enough where we can record the investigation and not make the mistake we made this time.”

“Hey, I take good notes.” She crossed her chest and tilted her head up with an indignant flare.

“I’m not saying you don’t take good notes but you rake notes of what you think is important. He might’ve said something we dismissed but may prove important later in context.”

“Yeah...I’m glad we get to investigate a house next.”

“But I’d like to see if we can talk to Nicholas again if he’s a bit calmer.”

The living room of the victim’s home was an array of blues and grays with smidges of yellow that were present in the pillows and flowers clashed with the sadness that oozed from Nicholas.

Nick sat on the gray couch after letting them in and stared blankly at the bridal and wedding magazines that lay in an arc on the coffee table along with color samples for table clothes.

“It took so long to convince her that we would work...that we could work.” He clutched his cardigan closer to his body. His knuckles were white with stress. “It sometimes felt like we would only see each other for an hour or two in a week.”

Dinah was kneeling next to the lower rung shelves that adorned the wall next to the flat-screen TV.

“Did she mention any arguments or complications she had at work?” Kacey came back into the living room with a cup of tea with honey.

The tea shook in his hands and he continued to stare at the table. “I wish I could say that she was loved by all but by the time she got to a higher on the ground position she was competing with three other people for raises and promotions. All of this combined with some friction with her co-workers.” He took a deep breath and scratched his scalp. “Her and Markus were always at each others heels when it came to leadership roles and raises. I remember that while they were quite good at working with each other they don’t necessarily get along well due to their competitiveness.”

“Then why did you go to the theatre with him?”

“I was friends with him before I knew her. I met him during my last year of college when he transferred his credits from his previous college to NYU. I didn’t intend to date her but there was a bar close to their workplace where a lot of them would go and hangout. We would talk, she was smart, funny, and dedicated to her goals. She was obviously attractive and I was lucky enough that she thought I was attractive as well.”

“Can you give me the names of the people who were in her squad?”

“Markus Nolan, Allison Quartz, Lucas Brook, Layla Marina, and previously Christopher Williams. Chris transferred to the Seattle branch two years ago.”

“Could you give me the names of any friends she had outside of the office?”

“If she wasn’t working she was with me and if she wasn’t with me or at work she was visiting her family. Friends outside of work stopped being a thing for her once she graduated with her masters.”

“Did you two have any on-going fights or issues in the previous months?”

“The same arguments anyone about to get married would have, I guess. She was busy and I wanted her to spend more time helping pick things out for our wedding.”

“When were you planning to get married?”

“We were planning for February of next year. It was going to be a small thing but the more we started to plan, the more people we invited and stuff we added. I realized I cared more about that fantasy wedding than I thought I did.”

Dinah stood up, “Is it okay if I go check out the other rooms?”

“Yeah, of course. Whatever you need.”

There was a short respite from the questioning as the silence grew and popped like a balloon.

“We argued about wedding choices but everything else we already talked about years ago. We both want..wanted kids. Neither of us had any serious opinion on religion and she wasn’t put off by my issues.” He gulped down the tea and hid his mouth behind his sleeves.

Kacey looked around at the furnished house, hardwood floors, over at the marble island, and the pool just outside the patio doors.

“When did you and Adeline move into this house?”

“About four months ago. We used to live closer to the city but now that we are getting married there was a want to prepare for children.”

“Where did you live previously?”

“We lived in an apartment about six blocks away from Madison Square Park.”

“Could you write down the address?” She handed him the notepad with a fresh page turned.

*******

Dinah didn’t even have to announce her presence as she walked back into the room holding a gun in a clear evidence bag.

“Is this gun yours?”

Nick shook his head, “No I have no need for a gun. Any gun in the house always belonged to Adeline.”

“Do you know how to use a gun?”

“Yes, since we have one in the house she wanted me to know how to take one apart, use one, and disarm someone carrying a gun.”

“Does this particular gun look familiar to you?”

“No.” Shaking his head and standing up he told the two he was going to go to the bathroom leaving them alone in the living room.

“The serial number has been scratched off and based on my inspection it looks like it can hold six bullets but there are only 4 bullets.” Dinah passed the bag off to her.

Kacey set the bag on the coffee table after she finished inspecting it and passed her notes over to Dinah. “He works at home as a director of quality improvement for a computer software company which according to him is the income that made them able to afford this house with a pool.”

“Did you find out anything about the fight she supposedly had with Nolan?”

“Kind of. He didn’t know of any arguments in courthouses. He also wasn’t aware of any specific fights that she had with him. However, the two apparently had a tense and competitive relationship even though they were able to, for the most part, work together well.”

“Did he believe that there was anything in his behavior that could put him in the light of being a more serious suspect?”

“He and Markus were friends before he even met Adeline so I think this keeps any violent anger from joining Adeline and Markus’s relationships.”

Dinah picked up her jacket and twirled her keys around her fingers “We can’t talk to Adeline so we’ll have to make do with Markus’s opinion on what they fought about.”

“Are you two leaving?”

“Yes, thank you for answering our questions and letting us look around your house. If we need to look around more or have more questions we will let you know.”

Parking outside the precinct they sat there for a minute while gathering their stuff.

“You know Kingston asked about you.” Kacey stopped with her feet out of the car but while she was still sitting in the car.

The sound of traffic and sirens filled the space instead of Kacey speaking.

“He misses you.“Dinah didn’t get out but she didn’t make a move to get Kacey to look at her as she spoke.

“I don’t want to talk about this while I’m at work.” She closed the car door and walked to the building’s door. “We should go talk to Seargent Hugh about what we know so far.”

“He’s really sticking with wanting updates on this.”

“He has the press, the FBI, and his superiors all on him to have control over the investigation and to figure out what the hell happened.”

“He’s not the one who has to do the actual investigating so if he comes at us for a lack of progress I might scream.”

********

“Based on your report it looks like you’ve been doing the best you could’ve during the past three days but I am going to have to ask you to either speed up your work or ask for assistance in figuring this out. I need something to show my supervisors that we can handle this high profile case.” Sergeant Hugh’s brown eyes shifted between the two detectives. His pale skin and his buzzcut ginger hair made the contrast between the bags under his eyes and the just general exhausted and irritated set to his face far more prominent.

“Well, we might be able to get more things done if we could have the autopsy report or any of the reports from the crime scene investigation guys.” Dinah was sitting so formally almost to the point that it looked like her spine was made from stone.

He sighed, “They have a lot of cases but as this is quite an important case I’ve called and informed them of the circumstances. You should get the reports by tomorrow afternoon.”

“This should give us more information as to their deaths and give us more things to questions suspects about.” Kacey recrossed her legs and gave a slight smile. Her eyes shifting between Dinah’s formal and constrained behavior and Hugh’s exhausted but professional mannerisms.

“I hope I don’t have to tell you to be cautious about what you tell the press when it comes to this case. They will be breathing fire over everything and anything they can get their hands on.” Hugh pulled out a buisness card. “We have contracted a PR group this past year to deal with issues and the press so when it comes to giving them updates on what is going on pass everything by them first. If you can’t get in touch with them come to my office and talk to me. If you get targeted by the press on your own just say no comment.”

Dinah pulled the card out of his hand and passed it off to Kacey.

The East River Press Management Group

555-721-8760

On the back of the card was a name.

Gina Smith

555-321-8765

“Another thing I would like not to bring up but I am going to for the sake of clarity. Don’t share unnecessary information with the FBI just because they are government agents. As the head of the FBI has been killed we have to think of a major section of Miss Bellamy’s previous peers as suspects.”

“Who’s Gina Smith?” Kacey slipped the card into her wallet.

“She is going to be the person who is specifically going to be handling this case. If you ask for her or call her number you won’t have to explain the precarious circumstances.”

“It seems like we are going to have to be very careful but very efficient in our investigation.” Dinah’s voice had this almost bitter tone to it.

Sergeant Hugh raised his eyebrow, “I would hope you have this conduct in all of your cases.”

“We do but it is easier to do with less bitterness if we knew the FBI wasn’t going to be hovering over this case during its entire duration waiting for us to fail so they have a reason to take it over.”

“You are lucky. You won’t have to professionally and democratically deal with them on a regular basis. Don’t hold back in your investigation. If they want this case to be solved quickly then they have to be prepared to be questioned the same as everyone else.”

A slight smile flitted across Dinah’s face before falling back to her previous formality.

The phone rung in a shrill and loud tone.

“This is Sergent Hugh.”

....“Yes.”

“Okay.”

He pulled the phone away but he didn’t set it down.

“You may return to your work.”

Stepping out of the office the two stopped by Kacey’s desk.

“Do you want to get a drink after we write up our notes?”

“God Yes.” Dinah nodded and went to her desk.