“One more thing,” the medical examiner continued, “here’s where the really off the record stuff comes in. You know those prints that we pulled off the inventor’s sheets a week or so ago? I had the guys in evidence trying to match them to the database, but nothing was coming up. Which, as you guys know, means that the perp’s fingerprints weren’t on record anywhere. Our killer has been a good girl before. Until something interesting the other day, they matched the prints that you brought in from the Olberman murder.”
David spoke very slowly. “You’re telling me that the bloody fingerprints we found on the sheets match those that we took from Lila Patterson?”
“I didn’t tell you that,” the medical examiner said. “I just gave you the facts in the case and you figured it out on your own.”
David and Joe looked at each other wide-eyed. “Hot damn,” Joe said under his breath.
David smiled at his partner. “What do you say we go for a ride and find Ms. Lila Patterson? I think she has more than just a few routine questions to answer. And I want to get her before Rosetti gets this info.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Amber woke up in a daze. She didn’t remember much from the past few days. She remembered being with David in his apartment, but the events since then were nothing more than a hazy blur. She knew that he had made her lose control once more. It concerned her that a man could make her question everything in life. And it terrified her that she wanted to be with him. The last time she had wanted to be with a man, she had been double-crossed.
She remembered waking up in his apartment, the world spinning. She managed to get dressed, find her purse, and make her way back home. Once back in her own bedroom, she passed out yet again. She woke hours later, still feeling the dizzying effects of the drugs that she had tried to give David.
Going into the kitchen, she made herself a huge pot of coffee, hoping that the caffeine would help this sluggish feeling pass. Amber hated this overwhelming tiredness. Again, she lost control of herself, and it pissed her off. She thought back to David. She hadn’t wanted to be with a man in such a long time. The last one she had trusted had betrayed her, and she vowed that it would never happen again. She knew that if she didn’t do something about David, she would risk everything and break every rule she had in place for herself.
Amber dragged herself and her huge mug of coffee back into her bedroom, where she opened up the window and looked out. She saw Lila pull up and get out of her car. Lila slammed the car door shut and Amber wondered what was up. It wasn’t like Lila to be mad about anything. If anything, Lila was a severe pacifist. It irritated Amber. But her curiosity was a bit piqued when Lila came storming in the house. She really wanted to go find out what Lila was angry at. But she felt so sluggish, she didn’t want to take the effort to walk out into the other room.
Amber sat there in a daze listening to Lila lumber around the house. This was the most noise that Lila had made since Amber moved in three years ago. If Amber had been sleeping, she would have been angered. But since she had done nothing but sleep for the past day and a half, it amused her. Part of her wondered why Lila was home from work early. But again, she was too tired to really care.
Amber continued to watch the lazy traffic. A brown sedan parked across the street and Amber looked at it with interest. A man wearing a suit got out of one side of the car, and Amber instinctively knew that she was looking at a cop. Keeping one eye on the window, she searched for her shoes. Then she saw David get out of the other side of the car. Amber got wide-eyed, and knew that she had to escape out the back door. How had he found her?
She ran out of her bedroom and into the living room passing a very cloudy looking Lila. Lila looked shocked at Amber as there was a knock on the front. Amber continued into the back yard. She knew that she had to wait on the side of the house until David had left. She heard Lila open the front door.
“Can I help you?” she heard her roommate ask.
“Miss Lila Patterson?” she heard David’s voice now.
“Yes,” Lila answered. “I met you yesterday.”
“You’re being arrested for the murder of Carl Olberman,” Amber heard the other man speak.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” David’s voice was clear in reading Lila her rights.
“What, where … ?” she heard Lila sputter. “I haven’t done anything. I never would have killed Carl. I liked him … ”
“You have the right to an attorney,” David continued.
Amber heard David continue the Miranda rights as they led Lila towards the car. She heard Lila’s sobbing as she was being dragged away. Amber exhaled a sigh of relief; they weren’t after her or what was in her closet at all. She wondered what evidence the police had in placing the blame on Lila. She couldn’t recall doing any framework.
Amber wasn’t sure how she should feel about Lila taking the rap for something she had done. Part of her was relieved that she was in the clear and that they were after someone else. But Amber also felt guilty. That sweet girl had never done anyone any wrong. And Lila kept to herself, making Amber’s lifestyle simple. Amber tried to shut out the guilt that ran through her head while she decided what she was going to do next.
Amber knew that she needed to leave town for a while. She quickly went back inside the house to grab a few things, and then she ran out to her car. She wasn’t sure where she was going to go, but she knew that she needed to leave quickly. She started up the car and began to drive.
*
Lila had never been so terrified in her life. She wasn’t the type to ever contemplate being in jail, and now she was being arrested. She cried. It wasn’t fair, she had never even made it to dinner with Carl Olberman. How could they possibly arrest her? There had to be some mistake.
Lila knew that this had been the worst day of her life. First she had lost track of her days. She wasn’t sure how she had missed all of Tuesday. Maybe she had unknowingly become an alcoholic and fell into a drunken stupor for 24 straight hours. Then, she had shown up late to work. Way late. Then, she had been fired. Way fired. The manager had told her the fact that she was supposedly had gone out with Carl that night was suspicious enough. They didn’t want any notoriety with the upcoming murder investigation. As it was, the company was already going to go through a rough patch with their leader gone. It would be bad business to have the number one suspect still working for them.
Lila had cried and packed up her things. She had liked working there and was sad to go. She knew that she would have a hard time finding work. The economy wasn’t great and she couldn’t remember her work history. She still wondered how she had come to work for Olberman Holdings in the first place. Maybe the girl in Human Resources would let her have a copy of her resume.
She had came home and cried some more. Now she was being arrested for a crime that she didn’t commit. She knew that she was going to have to tell them what Amber had done to her Friday night. She didn’t want to get Amber into any trouble, but she knew that it might be her one way to escape the situation at hand.
They arrived at the station and removed her from the back of their police sedan. At least she hadn’t had to ride in a conspicuous black and white. They took her inside, where she was placed in an investigation room. They let her sit for a while. Lila was frozen in fright. She had never been so scared in her life.
TWENTY-NINE
David looked at the girl sitting in the interrogation room. He was waiting for Joe to come back with the necessary paperwork and equipment before they started talking to her. She looked so much like the girl he had spent the night with a few days ago. And again, he was swept with a feeling that he needed to protect her. He knew that the following actions of this case would be extremely difficult for him.
Joe walked up next to him. “You’re not going to fuck this up are you?” he asked.
David looked at Joe sharply, “What do you mean?”
“No offen
se,” Joe said, “but you have a special affinity for this girl. I can tell by the way you look at her.”
“It’s weird,” David said. “She looks so much like Amber. The resemblance is uncanny. And I feel this need to protect her.”
“The evidence doesn’t lie, David,” Joe said quietly. “Her prints were found at a murder scene.”
“I know,” David agreed. “It just seems fucked up that someone I have feelings for has a twin of sorts who turns out to be a murder suspect.”
“Do you want to step this one out?” Joe asked. “It’s ok, I can handle this one by myself.”
“No,” David said, calmly, “I need to do this. For me.”
Joe turned on the recorder and the guys went into the interrogation room. David was to ask the questions and Joe was going to record the results; the way their operation as a team always went. David sat across the table from the dark haired beauty. He saw the fear in her eyes, and he wanted to reach out and touch her. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t Amber. This was a cold-blooded serial killer he had sitting in front of him. A cold-blooded serial killer who hated men for some reason. And it was not in his favor that David just so happened to be a man.
“We’re going to ask you a series of questions,” he told her. “I want you to answer them honestly.”
Lila shook her head in agreeance.
“Is your name Lila Patterson?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Was it true, that on May 3rd, you were supposed to meet Carl Olberman for dinner?”
“Yes,” Lila answered, “but I never … ”
“Please just answer yes and no Ms. Patterson. Is it true that you were told that Carl Olberman was a womanizer?”
“Yes.”
“Ms. Patterson, did you have a particular reason for wanting Carl Olberman dead?”
“No,” Lila cried. “Why would I want that? He was a good man to work for.”
“Ms. Patterson, do you know Adrian Russell?”
“Who?” Lila looked confused.
“What about Gary Elrod?”
“I have no clue what you are talking about.” Lila answered, shaking her head.
“Ms. Patterson, can you explain why your fingerprints were found in the hotel room of Ted Paulson?”
“Listen, I have never heard of these people before in my life, I have no idea what you are talking about. I know that I was supposed to go out with Carl last Friday, making me the perfect suspect, but I swear to you I never made it there. Amber hit me over the head with a vase and I passed out. You have to find Amber, she had a reason for hitting me. But if you find Amber, you’ll know that I didn’t go out that night. She can vouch that I didn’t go. I promise. Just find Amber.”
“Did … did … did you just say Amber?” David stuttered.
“Yes, Amber is my roommate.” Lila looked up at him with tears still streaming down her face.
“Amber?” he asked again incredulously.
“Is it so hard to believe that I have a roommate named Amber?” Lila asked.
Joe grabbed David by the shoulder. “Ms. Patterson, we need a minute,” Joe told her. He pushed David out the door so that Lila couldn’t hear what the two men were saying. “David, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“She knows Amber,” David said mindlessly, as if he had seen a ghost.
“Yeah,” Joe said rolling his eyes, “cause there’s only one Amber on the face of the earth. Snap out of it. It can’t be the same girl you’ve been boffing.”
David shook his head. “You’re right. It has to be a different Amber. What do you think Joe? It seems as if either Lila Patterson is a good liar, or she really doesn’t know anything about these cases.”
“Yeah,” Joe agreed. “Only one way to find out. We have to go find her roommate. See if she knows anything. Also I have that rookie digging into Lila’s past. Maybe she really is that good of a liar.”
David shook his head. “No, she is telling the truth. I can feel it.”
“Man,” Joe said shaking his head. “When did you get so in touch with your feelings? It’s almost sickening. I’m beginning to think you’re a woman.”
David punched Joe in the arm. “Fucker. Let’s leave Lila here in the holding cell and find this Amber of hers. And have that rook see if he can find out anything about Lila or her roommate.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Joe said. “But one thing, David.”
“What’s that?”
“Leave your feelings out of this. And I mean more than your gut instinct.”
David sighed, “I know, I know …”
THIRTY
David and Joe left the station deciding where they wanted to go first. They decided to take the rookie, Mike Cummings, along for manpower. They had a picture of Carl and another of Lila with them, so that they could show people, in hopes that someone had seen either one of them. It would be great to know where Carl had gone Friday night and better to know if he had been with anyone. They knew that Rosetti had gone to scope out some places with no results, but not where David would look for someone like Carl Olberman.
Not sure where to start first, they drove downtown, thinking that the influential Olberman would want to impress his date by taking her somewhere expensive. The three of them each took a picture of the victim and the suspect and decided to split up. David walked into the first restaurant. While waiting for the hostess to come back, he grabbed the menu looking at what was offered. There were no prices. He knew the old saying, if you have to ask, then you probably can’t afford it. David knew more than likely he would never eat there in his lifetime.
The hostess came back and David showed her the pictures. She had seen Carl Olberman in there before she told him, but not for a month or so. She took the picture to the back to see if any of the other waitresses or staff had seen him lately. She came back to shake her head no. She had never seen Lila before. David thanked her and walked out the door.
He headed for the next restaurant. Again, he had to wait a few minutes, so again, he checked out the menu while waiting. This one had decent prices and David thought about what it would be like to bring Amber here. He smiled dreamily as he thought about his dark haired angel. He hoped that she would contact him again soon. First thing after this case is over, he thought, I’m taking a vacation. Gotta get closer to this girl before I lose her. He was snapped out of his reverie by the hostess.
“Can I help you sir?” she asked.
“Yes,” David said. “I am wondering if you can tell me if you have seen either one of these people in here recently.”
He pulled out the pictures of Carl and Lila. The hostess bent down to look at them more closely and a customer came up to pay for her lunch.
“I won’t be much longer,” he told the girl behind him.
“No big deal,” the girl answered back. “Just means I have one less minute to work, darn.”
They laughed. The hostess looked up. “I’m sorry detective, but I have never seen these two people before.”
“Hey,” the girl chimed in. “I know that girl.”
David perked up and turned his attention to her. “You do?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “That’s Amber. She and I had a good time the other night.”
“Amber?” David said stuttering. “You know Amber?”
“Yeah I do,” the girl confessed.
“Can we go sit and talk for a minute?” David asked her.
“Will you make sure that I don’t get into trouble at work for being late?” she asked.
“Of course,” he told her. The two of them went back into the restaurant and sat down in a booth. It really was nice here.
“Tell me how you know Amber,” he started.
“You promise not to judge me or think anything?” the girl said timidly as she bit her lower lip.
“I promise,” he said. “You can tell me the truth.”
The girl let out a deep breath. “Ok. A few of my friends thought it would be
neat to go to the Fluff ‘n Stuff a couple of weeks ago. You know, the lesbian bar? They wanted to hang out without being harassed by a bunch of rude drunk men. I met her there that night. She danced with me.”
“Is that all you know about her?” David asked, a little crestfallen that she didn’t have any more information.
“No,” the girl said hesitantly. “There’s more. I went back the following week and met her there. She and I had a couple of drinks and then went back to my apartment.”
“Are you telling me that Amber is a lesbian?” David asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “But she did show me things about myself that I didn’t know existed.” She started to turn a shade of red.
“Did Amber leave you any way of contacting her?” David asked hopefully.
“No, I wish she had. I had fun with her.” The young girl turned an even darker shade of red. “But I do have something else to tell you.”
David looked at her interested in what she had to say.
“The second time I met Amber, I had the weirdest thing happen to me earlier in the day. I was down the street headed back to work after lunch. There was this girl standing on the sidewalk and she looked just like Amber. I kissed her on the mouth, and was totally embarrassed when I realized it wasn’t her.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah,” the girl said. “But the more I looked at her, the more I realized that she was too subdued and stuffy to be Amber. She was cool about the whole thing though.”
“Here’s my business card,” David said, getting out his wallet. “Call me if you think of anything else that might be important about Amber or this other girl. And let me know if you hear from Amber. It’s important that I talk to her.”
The girl fingered the card thoughtfully. “Amber’s not in any kind of trouble is she?”
“I don’t think so,” David answered. “But I think she has a key piece of information that I need. You still have time to get back to work without being late. Thanks for talking to me.”
Dual Harvest Page 14
