Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Poor girl. This Josh guy was a real piece. She´s not the first victim of this type I´ve come across. Handsome successful guys that think that they can have everything, even if it isn´t offered. These guys usually come to a bad end. Parker´s just one more.
I walk out the small meeting room where I´ve been talking with Paula Hawkins. I watch her closely from the hallway as I leave. Her bowed head with copious straight red hair hiding her beautiful face. I can see tears in those narrow green eyes. She shakes her head, runs her fingers through her hair and straightens her black pencil skirt. Elegant, feminine and majestic. She resembles an ancient Celtic goddess.
Paula raises her eyes and catches me watching her like a dope. I smile, trying to push out of my mind all the turmoil that swamps it. Building up my courage I walk towards the office where Charlotte, the deceased´s wife waits.
It looks like the pill she took has taken hold, quieting her down a bit. But her eyes are still screaming in despair. Madness and confusion lurk behind her glassy stare.
“Mrs. Parker,” I greet her. She stares at me and shakes her head in a weighty motion.
“She doesn´t want to talk,” says the white bearded man that has been beside her since they arrived.
“ I can understand Mr...” I want to know who this guy is.
“Heston. I´m her father, father in law to Mr. Parker.”
“Mr. Heston, I need to talk to your daughter.”
“What is it?” She mumbles, resigned. Her voice is velvety and enigmatic. Her blue eyes, burdened with grief, try to focus on me. She runs her bony hands down her cheeks nervously.
“Do you know if your husband was in any kind of trouble?” I coax, going to the heart of the matter, even if I know it´s a delicate question. I could lose this woman´s cooperation for good.
“Of course, not. Do you know who my husband was? The best creative advertising genius in New York. The best! I can take you to our apartment so you can see for yourself, all the prizes he has won.” She is upset and jumpy, with the total lack of humility that I was expecting.
“That won´t be necessary Mrs. Parker. We found traces of cocaine in his nostrils.
I want to put her on the spot. I want her to talk. She goes pales and stares into space.
“Sometimes he overdid it with the drugs... only at times,” she accepts, “but he wasn´t in any trouble with a dealer or anything, if that´s what you´re after. Forget about the drugs, be so kind to get off your butt and find who killed my husband.” That is not a request, it´s a threat.
Charlotte stands up staring at me fixedly and starts trembling violently. Her father, with a worried and serious expression, holds on to her. A few seconds later she begins to spasm uncontrollably and she falls heavily on the plush carpet. I run to her and struggle to take her pulse. The convulsion get even more violent and she is unconscious, if not for her racing pulse and the quivering, you would think she´d died.
“Call an ambulance, right now!” I call out loudly.
“Not again Charlotte, not again...” Her father mumbles, obviously in great distress.
I have spent two hours questioning most of the employees at the DIC agency and I can´t come up with anything. Not a single suspect, no one who would stand out, aspiring to take Parker´s important position.
Crime scene investigators continue to toil in the crime scene. Meanwhile the director of the agency begs us to get finished quickly so they can get back to normal. The employees are very upset and in the middle of an important advertising campaign, which, by the way, they wonder how it will be completed without their brilliant mastermind.
“Please try to get things done outside our premises, I beg you.” She´s a stocky forty-and-a-bunch year old. Her blue eyes host a glacial glare. Her nose seems to be too small in a face dominated by heavy cheeks and overly thin lips. I´ve never liked thin lips.
“We´re doing the best we can Mrs. Hemsley. We can´t overlook a single detail of the crime scene. We won´t be able to leave until we´re finished.” I reply gently, though I´m exhausted and in a bad mood. Every time I think about Ana and what she did to me, I feel like biting the head off whoever crosses my path.
Samantha Hemsley sighs and rolls her eyes, retreating to her office. I´ve been watching her all day, and I can tell she hasn´t been able to concentrate on her work the whole morning. For minutes at a time, she has been staring at a picture on her desk. In the picture, her younger self, a lot more attractive than in the present. She´s holding a cute five-year-old girl, both are smiling and carefree. The background is a not too realistic seascape.
After an absence of two hours, Steve is finally back. He´s soaked to the bone. I didn´t even realize it had started to rain. I hope he has good news for me, or has found out something that I might have missed.
“What a mess there with the corpses bride... “he mumbles.
“A little more respect there buddy. How´s she doing?”
“In a coma. An overdose of crack and cocaine.”
“What about Mr. Parker?”
“Oddly enough they haven´t been able to find any traces of drugs in the body, my friend. Cause of death: a longitudinal cut to the neck. The murderer is a real pro, the cut was very precise.”
I frown and shake my head. I could have bet on the victim being on drugs. I look towards the office where I know Paula Hawkins is. I remember her words; she thought Josh was high when he tried to get to her, minutes before the murder.
“The weirdest thing of all is that he didn´t seem to fight back, that he would let the murderer break the glass and slash his throat,” Steve continues, muttering to himself. I nod. “The people at forensics are going nuts, there are no prints except the victim´s, and none of the employees has a record. One of those complicated cases, boss?”
“Tell me about it. Which one isn´t? Remember the last case, the one with the model Patricia Larson? Who would have thought the murderer was her best friend, also a model ?
“And let me add, one angelical being, descended from heaven.”
“More like hell, Steve, ascended from hell.”
CHAPTER 4