Authors: Andrew Hess
Scorned (21 page)
A sick sense of nausea gurgled the pit of Claire’s stomach. She knew Dr. DeMarco had something planned. But Claire was resolved to put her own plan into action.
The next morning was one of the hardest to deal with. The last twenty-four hours had been a rollercoaster of immense proportions. My boss ordered me to work multiple homicide cases with one of them being high profile, a partner that believed I was honing in and taking over his cases, another partner that was trying to get in my pants, and my relationship of one year imploded, leaving me a sobbing mess.
“Ali,” a woman’s voice shouted from my doorway. “Ali, your alarm’s going off.” I refused to move from the cocoon of sheets. The voice came closer as the woman began to shake me. “Ali, get your ass up.” I knew it was Amanda’s from the moment she entered my room, but could care less that my alarm was inconveniencing her. “Fine, you wanna do this the hard way?” Her voice trailed off.
Great, maybe she’ll leave me alone. That’s what everyone else decided to do. They get mad at me for being me and walk away
.
Amanda grunted as she re-entered my room. “I warned you Ali.” Her icy cold fingers peeled back the covers from my head. A droplet of water hit my face.
What the hell? Was there a leak in my ceiling?
I looked up just in time to see a glass pitcher tipping towards me. Cold water hit my face, splashing around my hair and soaking my sheets and pillows.
“I’m gonna kill you,” I screamed as I scrambled to get out of my bed.
Amanda ran back to her room shouting; “Next time get up when you’re supposed to and shut off your damn alarm.” Her door slammed shut before I could get to her and heard the deadbolt slide across it.
I guess this was her version of payback for the mornings I woke her up after she spent all night out at the bars getting drunk. Damn, a drink sounded good after the night I had. I’d rather have woken up with a hangover than waking with a broken heart. The only things I had left in my life were my job and my sister. But if she woke me like that again, I’d have one less sister.
Considering there was no chance of going back to bed, I decided to strip the sheets and get ready for work. I wasn’t looking forward to going to the station, but I had to check in before going back to the tech department to view more tapes.
When I got to work, the Lieutenant stood outside of his office waiting for me. The look on his face told me we were about to have a conversation I didn’t want to have. He pointed one of his long crooked fingers at me and curled it towards him. “My office, now.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I haven’t been around for most of yesterday and had been working the Ambrose case. How the hell could I be in trouble? Reluctantly, I entered his office and flung myself into a chair across from the Lieutenant.
“What did I do now?”
“Don’t take that attitude with me Ryan.” I nodded my understanding and kept my mouth shut. “I ordered you to check out Highland Fitness yesterday. I come in to find out you never showed up or checked in with the team.”
“Rodney was all over the case. Besides, I was working with the tech team to go over the Ambrose tapes.”
“Regardless, I ordered you to check out the crime scene. I needed your opinion to see if it was a homicide or accidental death.”
“Why? Don’t you trust Rodney enough to figure that out on his own? I mean, that’s why you made him detective, wasn’t it?”
Detective Johnson is a fine officer, but he does not have the experience in handling cases on his own yet.”
I got up from my chair and leaned over the desk. “Rodney has been my partner for years. He’s been with me on every one of my cases in this department and is the next best thing to having me work the case.”
“Be that as it may Detective, he still has a lot to learn about controlling a crime scene and taking every minor detail into consideration.” The Lieutenant grabbed his phone and dialed a number into it.
“Who are you calling,” I asked.
“Dr. Woo said he had something important to share with us.”
I racked my brain wondering why Dr. Woo required a meeting with both me and my Lieutenant. I was hoping it was good news, something we could use in our investigation to solve the Ambrose murder.
“Hello,” Dr. Woo said as his voice boomed over the speaker phone.
“Good morning Dr. Woo,” the Lieutenant replied. “I am returning your call from this morning and am presently joined by Detective Ryan.”
“Ah it’s good to hear from you sir.” He paused as if turning his head towards me. “Good morning to you too Ali.”
“Morning Fred,” I replied. What’s going on? The Lieutenant said you had some big news to share with us. I’m kind of hoping this is good news about the Ambrose case.”
“Yes and no,” he replied. “Yesterday afternoon, one of the officers working the Highland Fitness case brought in a bottle they found at the crime scene. He didn’t think it was anything big, but submitted it for evidence anyway. Thinking of the strange circumstance over the victim’s death, I tested the bottle for any toxins and DNA.”
“And what did you find,” Lieutenant Esposito asked.
“The sample obtained matched the victim’s DNA, but that wasn’t all we found. Apparently there was something mixed into the water, something specific.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense Doc. What was it?”
“I can’t be sure of the exact chemical compound used to create it, but it seemed like a version of Rohypnol.”
This was the second case where a man was drugged in less than a month. “So you’re saying the victim was drugged before he went into that steam room?”
“Yes, but that’s not all I found.” I was glued to the phone, eying it up intently. I was hanging on Dr. Woo’s every word. “We ran tests on the vials you found at Blake Ambrose’s house. It turns out they have the same chemical compound as the bottle that was found at the gym.”
“So you’re saying both men ingested the same drug?”
“I can’t confirm that. If Mr. Ambrose had ingested the drug, it had worked its way out of his system before we were able to run the tests. We’re still waiting for the tox screen to come back on Mr. Lee, but I assume the drug had passed through his system thanks to the intense heat of the steam room.”
The news was an absolute shock. Two victims, both men were in their mid to late thirties. They were drugged and left for dead. “Do you think the cases are tied together?” It was a stupid question to ask. Of course I believed they were. There were too many coincidences for it not to be tied together. But I needed more opinions, one from a M.E. point of view and the other as confirmation.
“In my professional opinion,” Dr. Woo replied. “The evidence shows both victims perished in similar situations. I highly suspect their killer is one in the same.”
The Lieutenant looked up from the desk and met my gaze. “As of this moment, you are the lead investigator for both cases. Whatever you need, it’s yours.”
“For starters, I need Rodney working the Highland Fitness case. He needs to get the necessary warrants to search the records and video feeds from the night Mr. Lee died. I want to know who was there that night, and who Mr. Lee was with before he went into that steam room.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I have to update Detective Thornton and finish going over the Ambrose tapes. Maybe they can turn up a possible suspect.”
“Dr. Woo, thank you for updating us. Please keep us posted when the test results and autopsy results come in.”
“Sure thing Lieutenant. I am putting a rush on them as we speak.”
Lieutenant Esposito hung up the phone and stared at me. Fear consumed his muddy eyes. “What are you thinking Ali?”
“I’m thinking we need to work fast before the killer strikes again.”
I hung out at the station for another twenty minutes before heading over to the tech department. Detective Thornton was supposed to meet me there by nine and it was already ten after. He was late which was spiking my annoyance levels. The one time I actually couldn’t wait to see him and the jerk was running late. I sent him a text;
It’s 9:10. I’m at the tech dept. Where are you?
I waited another five minutes outside in the humid morning air before walking inside. I walked up to one of the techs and left a message with him for my supposed partner. “When Detective Thornton gets here, let him know I started without him.”
“Detective Thornton’s already here.”
“What do you mean?”
The tech brought me to the room I spent most of yesterday in. We peered inside to see the screens still on, the laptop frozen on an image of a woman from one of the videos, and Detective James Thornton sprawled out on three chairs. He looked uncomfortable yet peaceful. So of course I couldn’t resist trying to scare the hell out of him.
I took control of the computer and searched in the music and sounds folder on the hard drive. Just as I thought, the tech had some crazy police noises and sound bites on it. I queued one up and clicked play. A police siren blared loudly in the room causing Thornton to fall out of his chair bed.
“What the hell,” he shouted as he pulled his gun.
“Whoa, calm down partner. It was only a joke.” I laughed as he was slow to holster his weapon. I skimmed the makeshift bed and nodded. “Did you sleep here last night?”
Thornton rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. “Yeah, I’ve been going through all the video trying to find something we could use.” I didn’t like that he was watching the videos without me. Thoughts of him finding something and keeping it to himself flashed through my mind. “Don’t worry; I was going to share everything with you today.” It was almost as if he could read my mind.
For a brief moment, I considered holding onto the information Dr. Woo shared with me. But as much as I hated to admit it, I needed his help with these cases.
“We need to talk.” I closed the door and sat down next to Detective Thornton telling him everything. He was just as shocked as I was.
“You still think it was that girl from the club?”
“I think that’s our best lead.”
Thornton laughed. “Ali, she’s our only lead, and we still don’t have a name or a physical description of her other than her dark hair.”
He was right. The description of the woman at the club was so vague that it could be any woman that was a brunette or had black hair. “I just wish we knew why. Why was this woman attacking men? And why did she target these men specifically?”
“I looked through most of the videos. I didn’t see anything unusual apart from Ambrose and his sick sexual exploits. None of the women that we identified from the videos had any kind of record. I have a list of names that we can check out if you’d like.”
“Let’s hand it off to Rodney and his team to check out. We’ll have them run extensive background checks on them. Maybe they can turn up something.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Let’s pull up the video feed from the bar while we look at Ambrose’s collection again. Maybe seeing them side by side might help us identify our suspect.”
“You sure you want to do that? It’s going to take all day, maybe even all night.” Typically the thought of spending that much time with Detective Thornton would make my stomach turn. But today was different.
I didn’t want to go home. I had nothing but my sister to come home to. And I didn’t want to work side by side with Rodney. He could read the look on my face and would ask too many questions. It would be too much of a distraction, and that wasn’t something we could afford to have.
“Yeah, let’s get started.”
Claire spent most of her day working out of her office while occasionally checking on her patients. One could say she was hiding out. Avoidance was a better term. Claire knew in a few short hours her boss would be taking her out for a “platonic dinner” or his version of a “business dinner.” It was bad enough she would be forced to spend hours with him that night, but did everything possible not to interact with him at work.
Sheila knocked on the door and poked her head inside the office. “It’s almost time to head out. You got any big plans for tonight?” Claire didn’t want to tell Sheila about the dinner date with Dr. DeMarco. Any promotion she would receive would forever be tainted if anyone found out about her going out with him. There was also the possibility of the dinner falling into her plan B, and that wouldn’t be good for her either.
“Um yeah, I have something going on tonight.”
Sheila’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Really? What are they? Who are they with?” The barrage of questions were being flung at her with Claire doing her best to dodge each one.
“I’m meeting someone for dinner, and it’s none of your business.”
“Like hell it’s not. Is it a guy?” She paused and thought about the conversation they shared several days ago. “Is it the guy from the other night?”
“No, it’s definitely not the guy from the other night.” Claire’s lips twitched a half smile at the thought of Tyson Lee lying on the slab at the morgue.
“Come on; tell me. I’m your friend. I need to know.”
“All you need to know right now is that it’s none of your business.” Claire shuffled a few files on her desk and grabbed her purse. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” She pushed past Sheila and exited her office.
Claire’s heart beat faster with every step she took. It was getting just as bad as it did the morning after she killed Blake Ambrose. She was sweaty, her heart was racing, and could hardly catch her breath. All the symptoms pointed towards a panic attack. But identifying what was happening didn’t seem to make things better. Claire needed to calm herself before she did something stupid and reckless.
Claire hurried home and checked her calendar. There was a meeting scheduled for the night and would surely end before her supposed date. It had been a while since Claire attended a meeting, but the notion was calling out to her, drawing her in. She had always felt a sense of peace when she went to one. Maybe that would get her through the night. After showering and picking out something nice to wear, Claire jumped back into her car and took off.
A half hour later, Claire parked her car and walked into the crowded building. There were more people there than usual, but that was because there were several meetings taking place. There were defensive driving courses, AA meetings, self-help seminars, and small market business meetings. Claire found the room in which her meeting would take place. The familiar rows of metal chairs lined the tiled floor with a wooden podium facing out toward them. A small cluster of regulars huddled around the table in the corner where the coffee and stale cookies sat.
Claire took her seat in the middle row. She wasn’t dressed like she usually did. She purposely wanted to stand out to the presenter, to make him know she was there.
“All right everyone; please take your seats,” a man called from the back of the room. Mr. Lewis was standing there in his designer suit looking devilishly handsome.
He strutted to the front of the room, hung his jacket on one of the chairs and addressed the crowd. He began his typical speech about his past where he felt like a loser outcast in high school. He moved away for college and decided to reinvent himself. It was such a routine for him to run through that he could recite the speech word for word without ever having to think about it, and he did. Mr. Lewis’s eyes scanned the crowd, settling his eyes on Claire. A smile warmed his face as he admired the beauty that held his attention. His eyes traveled up her legs that were nicely tanned and glistened from the lotion she put on. There was a slit up the front giving him a better look from his podium. His eyes continued to travel up her body to the tight green button down blouse that clung to her chest. There were a few buttons missing from the top and salivated at the sight of her cleavage.
Claire knew she had his attention and he had hers. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Every word, every sound was drowned out as she stared at the man she wanted to be with.
The last time they saw each other, they had been out on a date. He had taken her out to dinner to a nice restaurant and offered to bring her back to his house to talk over some coffee. But Claire assumed this meant he wanted more of a physical relationship with her and that was something she wasn’t ready for. Claire told him she had a great time, but that this was as far as she was willing to let this go. Defeated, Mr. Lewis told her to call him when she changed her mind.
That was the last time Claire had gone to a meeting. She couldn’t bear the thought of seeing him and facing the humiliation she’d felt for saying no to the one guy that was absolutely gorgeous and wanted her for more than just sex. At the time, Claire couldn’t see herself being with anyone at all. She was too broken inside. Now, she was the one in control and she was ready to claim what was rightfully hers.
As the meeting concluded, Claire straightened herself up and strutted towards Mr. Lewis. “Fancy seeing you here,” he said with a self-assured smile. His eyes took in Claire’s new appearance. “You look amazing.”
“Oh, this old thing? It was just something I had, you know, lying around.” She took a step back to admire how sexy he looked in his suit. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
Her words were catching Mr. Lewis off guard. He wasn’t used to Claire acting like that. It was thrilling to see her oozing with confidence. It was like he was talking to a completely different person.
“So what brings you down to the meeting tonight?”
“You.” The hunger in her eyes indicated he was the object of her desire. “I came down here for you.”
“I’m guessing you changed your mind about us.”
Claire grabbed Mr. Lewis by the tie and pulled him closer. She smashed her lips against his and slipped her tongue inside. The move surprised him, but he enjoyed every minute of it.
Claire broke the kiss and let go of his tie. “Pick me up tomorrow at my house for dinner. Let’s say seven.” His head bobbed up and down as he watched the satisfied smirk spread across Claire’s face. She turned on her heel and strutted away letting Mr. Lewis stare at her perfectly sculptured body sway from side to side.
*************************************************************
Claire returned home with minutes to spare. Dr. DeMarco was scheduled to pick her up from her house at any moment. Her heels clicked against the pavement while hurrying up to the front door. Two beams of light illuminated the siding, startling her. She could hear the car door open and watched as a shadowed image of a five foot eight, clean shaven, fit hunk of a man approached. The lights dimmed allowing Claire to see who was in her driveway. DeMarco looked stylish in his black suit, blue dress shirt and gold tie. He was out to impress Claire and was off to an outstanding start.
He held out a large bouquet of flowers. “This is for you.”
For the first time since they met, Claire didn’t have chills when she saw Ron DeMarco. She was filled with warmth as she smiled and graciously accepted the flowers. “They’re beautiful; thank you.” She unlocked her door and hurried inside to set them on the counter. She rushed back to find her date waiting patiently for her return. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I wanted to.” He bit his lip shedding his arrogance. “I wanted you to know that I’m not a bad guy. Consider it part of my apology.” He stuck out his arm in a gentlemanly way.
Claire blushed and took his arm. “You have a lot to make up for.”
“I plan on it.”
They arrived at the restaurant twenty minutes later. Dr. DeMarco had been on his best behavior. In fact, he was being a complete gentleman which was the opposite of what Claire had expected. She expected him to be hitting on her, degrading her with his eyes as he thought of her as nothing more than a sexual conquest.
They sat at the table. Tension was at an all-time low. The waiter hovered over them as he took their orders vowing to put them in immediately and would return with their drinks. But Dr. DeMarco stopped the waiter before he left.
“Can we get a bottle of wine for the table?”
“Sure thing,” the waiter replied as he slipped a wine list from the pile of menus. DeMarco pointed to the one he wanted.
“You didn’t have to do that Dr. DeMarco,” Claire said.
“Please, call me Ron. And I wanted to. I haven’t had a chance to celebrate my promotion yet and I couldn’t think of a better way to do so than with a vibrant beauty like yourself.” He took Claire’s hand gently. “You do look incredible tonight.”
Claire’s cheeks flushed with a rosy pink color. She was flattered by his words and let her guard falter some more. “I thought this wasn’t supposed to be a date.”
“This is whatever you want it to be Claire.” The waiter interrupted them by bringing over a bucket full of ice and the bottle of red wine Dr. DeMarco ordered. The waiter poured a glass for each of them before departing with a slight bow. Ron raised his glass in a toast fashion. “To me not being an asshole and to you forgiving me for acting like such a fool.”
Claire smiled and raised her glass. “To your promotion and to putting the past behind us.” They clinked glasses and sipped their wine. Claire licked her lips. “Oh my god, that’s amazing.”
“I thought you might like it.” Ron inched closer to Claire. His eyes were fixated on hers. His fingers walked towards her thigh touching the silky smoothness that was exposed from the slit in her skirt.
She jumped, startled by the unexpected groping. Her wine spilled over the top of her glass and landed on her skirt. “Shit, that’s going to stain.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ron said flatly while using his napkin to dab at the spot. “I think club soda helps get it out.”
Claire took the napkin from Ron and brushed his hands away. She took her eyes off of him for one minute, but apparently that was too trusting. Dr. DeMarco moved a hand to his pocket and squirted something into Claire’s wine glass, never letting her see his true intentions.
After the distraction, Ron sat back in his chair and kept watch over Claire as she continued drinking her wine. Each sip brought a bigger smile to his face. Claire wondered what he was so happy about. After her second glass of wine, she was beginning to understand why.
“I think I need to slow down the drinking for a bit.”
Ron pulled his chair closer to Claire. His eyes were now predatory. The kindness that he showed earlier had disappeared. His hands were back on her legs rubbing them sensually. Claire bit her lip as she enjoyed the attention.
Ron grabbed the bottle of wine and poured Claire another glass despite her tongue tied objections. “Come on; help me finish the bottle.”
“You just wanna get me drunk.”
“Can you blame me?” Ron’s hands were sliding up her legs and rested under the slit of Claire’s skirt. “You’re so fucking beautiful.” Claire could feel the heat rising within her. “I knew I wanted you the moment we met.” His hands continued their journey under Claire’s skirt. “I knew when I first laid eyes on you last year that I had to have you.” Ron’s fingers were almost touching Claire’s underwear. If he had the chance, Ron would’ve taken her in front of everyone.
The bone chilling feeling returned. The memory of their first encounter flooded her thoughts. They met at a conference last year. He was with a pack of men that eyed up all the female doctors, secretly ranking them in their minds and whispered the numbers to the rest of the frat pack. She thought they were disgusting and wouldn’t give any of them the time of day. Her mind drifted into thoughts of the club that night with the same pack of guys. He was there when she went up to the bar for a drink. Again she tried to ignore him. That was the last clear memory she had from that night.
Refusing the urge to vomit, Claire pushed her chair away from the table and stood while grabbing her purse. Her legs were unsteady, but she knew this was her only chance to get away. “Excuse me; I need to freshen up a bit.” The room spun violently around her as she made her way through the sea of dining patrons.
What the hell’s going on? Three glasses of wine never gets me this drunk
. She knew something was wrong. Her hand hit the door to the women’s bathroom and barely pushed it open.
Shit not again
. Claire stumbled into an empty stall and collapsed to the floor. She was content with staying there for the rest of the night, but there was no telling what would happen to her. Without hesitation, Claire plunged two fingers down her throat. She heaved several times until a small amount of vomit escaped, but it wasn’t nearly enough. She knew her safety was in jeopardy unless she expelled the drug from her system. She shoved her fingers down her throat again.