Friday, June 22nd, 2018
Seated in conference room two, the team gathered around a large box of donuts and a tray of coffee from the coffee shop across the street.
After replenishing her sugar levels, Kate looked at the handful of portraits pinned to the cork board and addressed the other detectives. “No unmatched prints came back from the Bible, the thermostat, the front door, the night stand, the stupid blue rubber band on her hair, or the chair. Still no toxicology report. Nothing suspicious in terms of calls on either her cellphone or the family’s landline. Everything adds up to a time of death after 10:00 a.m. on Sunday until possibly midnight on Monday. Several friends have confirmed the fact that she often screened calls, so we can’t use unanswered calls. Her last public whereabouts were Sunday mass. Nobody saw her leave after church, but she obviously made it back home.”
She took a sip from her coffee before continuing. “While we aren’t positive on the actual motive behind the murder, the religious theme, her being a member of the chastity club, and her recent loss of virginity point toward that incident being important. As far as we know, the only people who had access to that information were the victim, the boyfriend, the BFF, and possibly Father Coffedy, the priest she confessed to. Who’s to say whether or not gossiping would have spread out the news?”
She took another sip. “Wang, Chainey, based on the neighbors and other people you spoke with, can you narrow down the estimated time of death?”
Both shook their heads.
“Financial records? Does anyone stand to gain from an insurance policy on Lori Davis?”
“The parents, but we all know they weren’t even in the country.”
Kate exhaled loudly. “Did you look at the parents’ financials? Anything suspicious? Could they have paid someone to kill their daughter?” As the words left her lips, she realized she didn’t buy that scenario one bit. The parents had seemed truly devastated. Even if they had learned that their daughter had lost her virginity—a possibility she highly doubted—she didn’t buy the possibility that they would have hired someone to kill her.
“Nothing.”
“Chainey, give me something,” Kate begged.
“I talked to the officers we had canvassing the neighbors, and nobody saw anything suspicious. I talked to friends from church, from work, from the school she last attended. Nothing.”
Kate took another sip. “We considered the boyfriend, but he’s been eliminated. He attended mass at a different location that Sunday, followed by a baseball game and an evening with friends. His whereabouts on Monday all day are also accounted for. His work supervisor confirmed his presence. Unless he did it in the middle of the night on Sunday night and somehow showed up looking sharp at work the next day, he’s not our guy. Plus we found nothing in his house. No suspicious drugs, no rosaries.”
“If I may…” Wang started.
“Go ahead,” Kate said.
“I still think Amanda McCutcheon could have something to do with Lori’s murder. She would have had access to rosaries through church. Amanda’s part of the chastity club. She knew Lori had lost her virginity—and done so with the guy she likes, I think. When I saw her with the boyfriend, I sensed some sort of weird vibe between the two of them.”
Kate straightened her back. “When did you see them together?”
“Tuesday morning. She came in to talk with you and Rosebud, but I met with David so he could sign his statement from the previous day. I had everything typed up and ready to go, as you asked me. I watched the two of them interact for a few seconds.”
“Interesting,” Kate said. “So you think she could have killed the vic because she was jealous? Love triangle?”
“Would she have the strength to pull it off? Lifting a passed-out woman isn’t easy,” Rosebud said.
“We’re not sure that happened. She could have drugged the victim after getting her in her bedroom,” Wang suggested.
Rosebud shook his head. “Undressing and redressing a body requires heavy lifting.”
“Know that from experience?” Chainey chimed in.
“Ha-ha,” Rosebud said, digging into the donut box once more.
Wang shrugged. “They could have played ‘dress up’ or whatever. She could have dared her to wear the awful nightgown.”
“For what purpose?” Kate asked.
“No clue,” Wang said, shaking her head. “Lost a bet or something silly? But we know Amanda and the vic were close. Amanda wouldn’t have had to force her way into the house. They could have gone up to her bedroom to chat.”
“There’s only one chair and one desk,” Rosebud said.
“One could have sat on the bed.”
“Okay, I’ll buy that,” Kate said. “Except there’s one tiny detail that doesn’t add up. Lori was upset at Amanda. They had a fight. And based on everyone we talked to, all her friends knew to avoid her for days afterward. The vic needed a lot of time to calm down, or so it seems. Why would she have let a person she was angry with come into her home?”
“Maybe Amanda came with a big apology?”
Kate tilted her head. “Maybe.”
“I can’t think of anyone else,” Wang said.
“Me neither. Wang, continue that scenario for me. Let’s assume Lori forgave Amanda, or at least had cooled off enough to let her in. Then what?”
“Then Amanda went up to Lori’s room, somehow got her to dress up and then drugged her. She could have carried a drink with her that was already roofied—”
Kate interrupted her. “Amanda did mention that Lori’s parents have quite the liquor cabinet. Wang, did you find anything in the garbage? A drink bottle or something we could test for drugs?”
“Nothing at all. The large bin just outside the house was empty. But so much time elapsed after the murder. Garbage would have been picked up. The small garbage cans in the house were almost all empty, except for one with nail polish-related trash and a few used tissues in one of the bathrooms. I’m having the contents analyzed for DNA. There was some stale bread in the kitchen garbage along with some granola bar wrappers, also in for fingerprint and DNA testing. Just in case someone licked the sucker. Unlikely, though.”
“Get all bottles in the parents’ liquor cabinet analyzed for drugs,” Kate added. “Maybe it’s been sitting there all along, under our nose. Wang?”
“On it. But maybe she had a pill or something that she slipped directly into her drink. Then she washed the glass. I’ll canvas the neighborhood with Amanda’s photo, ask neighbors if they saw her on Sunday or Monday.”
“Good.” Kate turned her attention to Chainey. “Any leads from the church friends or chastity members you spoke to?”
“Nope. Everyone says she was closest to Amanda. I asked—out of curiosity, I claimed—what would happen to a member of their club if they were to defy their one rule.”
“And?” Kate asked, surprised.
Chainey muffled a laugh. “Every single one of them asked me to share who it was and swore they would keep the secret to themselves.”
“What a gossipy bunch!” Wang said.
“Don’t miss my school years for that exact reason,” Rosebud added.
Chainey rammed his fist into Rosebud’s plump shoulder. “Come on. I bet your curly hair, thick glasses, and love handles made you very popular with the ladies.”
Kate watched Rosebud’s nostrils flare. “Chainey, enough of your silly jokes. We’re all exhausted. We’ve done as much as we can physically do this week, and I hate that we have nothing to show for it. Now I have to go and brief Fuller.”
Rosebud grabbed one more donut before he spoke again. “Try to come out of it alive.”