She jumped out of bed and logged into her computer that morning and within minutes had hacked into the “locked” employee files that Lily kept in an obscure location that no one but she and her assistant had access to—or so they thought. She did a global search for the name “Gina” and discovered that there had never been an employee at the firm by that name. Next, she decided to search the main email server, then used Robert and Olin’s email addresses to narrow down the search criteria, but only noticed a few vague references to Gina. Never a last name, only the first, and always used by Olin as some sort of whip to control the actions of Robert.
Then she found it.
It was an email exchange from almost six years ago, as Olin had been planning his takeover strategies of the firm. He had been berating Robert about supporting his overthrow of Eric, yet Robert had been tip-toeing around giving him a firm commitment of his vote. That’s when Olin’s response had been “Nothing great is ever accomplished without a heavy price, Robert. Remember how heavy Gina was that night, right before we graduated? Oh, probably not, you were too drunk. I, however, do, and trust me, you and I accomplished greatness that night!”
Once Audra realized that Gina was tied to Olin and Robert’s college days, she decided to start her search by perusing the archives of the local newspaper near the university they had attended. When she entered “Gina” in the search button of the Summerset Daily, the first article link that popped up was dated three weeks prior and almost made her heart stop:
Body of Missing College Student, Gina Milligan, Possibly Found During Site Excavation
The presumed remains of Gina Milligan, the 20 year old sophomore from Tech, last seen at Cowboy Joe’s Bar on June 2, 1977, was unearthed today by construction crews at the site for the Shady Acres Way housing development, during site preparations. The remains have been sent to the State Crime Lab for further testing, but unnamed sources tell us that Ms. Milligan’s wallet, keys, and other identifying items were found in the shallow grave as well, indicating the remains are hers. Detective Steve Ronson with the Summerset Police Department issued a statement that once positive identification is made and all forensic evidence thoroughly catalogued, a press conference will follow...
She froze in her cold leather chair and stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity, overwhelmed by the dizzying thoughts that raced through her head. Something inside her whispered that this was the glue that had stuck Robert and Olin together, for she would stake her life on it that they were involved in this poor girl’s disappearance. Audra had experienced firsthand what Olin was capable of, but Robert? Did they kill her? Was it an accident? Cold blooded murder? A shiver of icicles shot down her spine at that thought. Once she finally collected her voice and steadied her resolve, she had called the police department and asked to speak with Detective Ronson and scheduled a meeting with him for later that afternoon.
She raced to the shower and quickly threw on some jeans and a white tank and was almost out of the driveway when she remembered that she had left the gym bag and the printouts from the emails on top of the kitchen counter. As she raced back into the house, she realized that she needed to calm herself down because she was so anal she never forgot things unless she was under great duress.
Bag and papers retrieved and a good luck smooch given to Purr Baby, she ran back out the door and jumped into the car and headed toward the freeway. Although Summerset was normally a three hour drive, she made it in less than two, weaving in and out of traffic and careening around the dangerous mountain curves, keeping the speedometer at not less than seventy-five the entire way. She found the police station easily, and, once parked, she grabbed the gym bag and papers and walked into the precinct.
“Hello, my name is Audra Tanner, and I have an appointment with Detective Ronson,” she said as she finally made her way through the hordes of people to the front desk.
The frazzled-looking woman behind the counter eyed her suspiciously; her miniscule frame sported disheveled hair and large sunglasses, and she was holding a huge gym bag. The woman replied carefully, “What is this about?”
Before Audra could answer her, she heard a deep, baritone voice boom out from behind her, “It’s okay, Mary Ann. I’ve been expecting her. Is interrogation one available?”
Audra turned around quickly to put a face with the voice. Standing directly behind her was a tall, lanky man dressed in street clothes with a badge around his neck, sporting a pair of exclusive looking cowboy boots and a huge belt buckle. His deep brown eyes reflected a serious look, but just below the surface, Audra sensed a bit of playfulness as well. His dark, curly brown hair was almost the color of a Hershey’s chocolate bar and had been clipped short enough to be manageable with just enough length to give the hint of curls. He reminded her of the television show Matt Houston from her youth.
“Yes, Detective Ronson, it is, and there should be fresh coffee and water as well, but you know how the boys are ’round here; it might already be gone,” Mary Ann said, her tone and mood completely changed as she spoke to the detective. “You just let me know if I need to come fill you…um, it…back up.” Mary Ann’s face immediately turned bright red at her faux pas. Audra did her best to stifle her smile at the woman’s obvious Freudian slip.
Detective Ronson extended his large, strong hand, which swallowed up Audra’s dainty one, and introduced himself. “Ms. Tanner, I’m Detective Ronson. My pleasure to meet you. Thanks for making it here so quickly. I hope you didn’t break any traffic laws on your way here,” he said with a grin, which Audra returned as she silently shook her head no. “Please, follow me so we can get started. Mary Ann, will you make sure we are not interrupted?” Mary Ann just nodded her head and turned her glowing cheeks the other direction, thankful that the phone rang and gave her something else to focus her attention on.
Audra followed the detective through a small maze of extremely bright hallways until he finally stopped in front of a small, steel door. He opened it and ushered her in, then motioned for her to take a seat at the metal table as he closed the door behind him. The room was so small that Audra immediately felt intimidated and closed in. This is one of the reasons that I chose not to go this route and press rape charges, she thought to herself. It was just like being in a movie, and she was even going to be questioned by her childhood heartthrob, Matt Houston.
Although she tried to fight it, she felt like a caged animal, and her heart started to pound as her anxiety level began to rise quickly. She couldn’t help but second guess herself as she began to wonder if she was wrong and way out in left field about all of this. She was about to reveal her shameful secret that had never crossed her lips since that night to any other living being, save for Purr Baby.
After countless interviews conducted over the years, Detective Ronson intuitively sensed Audra’s apprehension and tried his best to put her at ease. “Ms. Tanner, may I get you some water before we start? It sure is a hot one outside today, and I imagine after your long drive, you might be a bit parched? I know I am, and I haven’t even stepped outside since early this morning.” He reached over to the end of the table for the pitcher of ice water that Mary Ann had left and began to pour two glasses of water.
Audra forced herself to control her breathing and her frayed nerves by focusing on the task at hand. If she was wrong about this connection between Olin, Robert, and Gina, then she was just wrong—no harm, no foul, and no one would ever know except her and the detective. She could just go on her way and finish up with her other plans. Between the Sprigg audit debacle and the myriad of hidden sins of the other partners, she had more than enough gunpowder to blow the entire place sky high anyway. As she had done so many times in her life previously, she shoved the emotions that threatened to derail her from her quest deep down inside, allowing only the determination and anger to remain her driving forces. She released her death grip on the bag as she set it down on the floor beside her, inhaled deeply and began to talk.
“Detective, I�
�m about to reveal some very sensitive and extremely personal information to you that I have not uttered to another living being since it happened five years ago, so please, call me Audra.” The detective felt the energy that exuded from her now switch from apprehension to determination and silently nodded his head in agreement, unwilling to break her train of thought. “As I said in my phone call to you earlier today, I’m here to discuss the newly found and presumable remains of Gina Milligan. May I ask you a few questions before I delve into the reasons behind my visit today?” Audra said, taking a sip of water, her eyes never leaving Detective Ronson’s.
“You may.”
“Have you positively identified those remains found as Gina’s yet?”
“Through extensive forensic testing, yes, we have. However, those results just came in this morning, and I’ve yet to notify her family or the press,” Detective Ronson said.
Audra briefly shut her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose, then slowly let her breath out while her eyes were still closed and asked, “Extensive forensic testing? I assume you mean you found some usable DNA samples and compared them to her living family members? Did you discover the manner of her death?”
Detective Ronson was intrigued by her line of questions, but was also a bit leery of divulging too much information, so he responded, “Gina was positively identified through comparison of her dental records with the bones recovered from the scene. The blood stains found on her clothing were too degraded after being subjected to the enzymes in the ground for over thirty-three years, so we were unable to determine if the blood stains were hers or not. In regards to the manner of death, the medical examiner has given us a preliminary report of homicide, but again, that information has yet to be made public or passed on to the family.”
Audra’s heart sank. Homicide was what she truly feared would be the case, yet desperately had hoped she had been wrong about. She opened her eyes and stared at the detective, revealing pain and sorrow masked behind their beautiful hue. She took another sip of water and paused for a moment to gather her thoughts and said, “Then I guess that the evidence I brought you won’t be of much use, Detective.”
Thoroughly enthralled now, Detective Ronson leaned forward and said, “What kind of evidence is it that you think you might have that pertains to this case, Audra?”
Audra reached down and grabbed her gym bag and gingerly set it on the table. She had not looked inside of it since that heinous night so many years ago. She gently clasped the zipper in her shaking hands and opened it up, revealing her sealed, bloodied clothes. She didn’t remove them and just folded her hands back in front of her as she began to tell her story.
“Five years ago, on August 31, 2006, I was violently raped by my boss, Olin Kemper. I went, at his request, to his office to meet with him to discuss my promotion from partner to equity partner that night. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was all just a ruse to get me to his office for what he really wanted, which turned out to be sex. I, of course, was shocked and disgusted, and as I stood up and attempted to leave, he attacked me. I tried to put up a good fight and even broke several nails as I clawed and hit him, but as you can see, I’m a small woman, so I stood no chance against him. When I began to fight back, he became enraged and proceeded to beat the living daylights out of me.
“I screamed for help, but no one came, even though I knew some of the other partners were on the floor because I’d passed them on my way to the meeting with Olin. I remember wondering why they weren’t coming to help me as I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and then it dawned on me that they must have known what was going to happen, and just let me be. The more I screamed, the more he hurt me, so eventually I just stopped screaming and quit moving and waited until he was finished.
“After he climbed off of me, I remember him telling me that he was sorry for his ‘lack of decorum’ and said for my troubles, he would just go ahead and pay for my equity partner buy-in. I knew then that had been his plan all along. He’d had issues with me since I began my career there since I wouldn’t succumb to his advances, and this was his way of humiliating me.
“He then went into his bathroom and locked the door, and I saw my chance to escape. I don’t really remember much after that until about two hours later because I assume the shock of what had happened had turned me somewhat catatonic, but I sort of snapped out of my shock and found myself curled into a ball in the corner of my office, covered in ripped clothes and dried blood. After retching for what seemed like hours, I recalled I had this gym bag and decided that I would keep all the evidence of what he did to me until I figured out exactly what I was going to do.
“In this bag, you will find my clothes, as well as my old cell phone that has all the pictures I took of my wounds that night. I have not touched any of it since that night. It has been sitting in the back of my closet just waiting for the opportune time to come forth. I don’t know much about forensics, but I do know that his dried blood and his semen are on those clothes.”
Detective Ronson stared at the delicate creature that sat across from him, her features almost impossible to read as she retold her story. He was taken aback by her stoicism and bravery as she relived her traumatic rape and marveled at how she never shed a tear. What he couldn’t understand, though, was what she thought this had to do with Gina, so he asked, “Audra, what are you trying to tell me here? Do you think that your boss is the person responsible for Gina’s death?”
“Yes, Detective Ronson, I do,” she responded as she reached over and pulled out the papers she had brought with her, sliding them over to him. “These are copies of email exchanges between my boss, Olin, and another partner at the firm, Robert Folton, that occurred during the last six years. You will see that Olin refers to a ‘Gina’ as some sort of catalyst to provoke Robert into doing his bidding on issues that clearly, Robert does not want to do. The one that is the oldest, on the top there, specifically refers to a night in college right before graduation and how ‘heavy’ Gina was. It was that email exchange that lead me to search the Summerset Daily where I discovered the news article about the possible discovery of the remains of Gina Milligan. Because of that, I eventually called you.”
Detective Ronson picked up the printouts and began reading the first one, and his heart started to pound from the rush of adrenaline surging through him now. The entire force had been stumped on this case for years. This was a small, rural community, and everyone knew the Milligan family and the stories that had been passed down about Gina’s disappearance. Some were utterly ridiculous, as some old crusty coots had said aliens came and abducted her while others said she had run away to live in some crazy pseudo-religious commune in California. But mostly, what circled its way around the town was the story he had grown up hearing—poor Gina had been hacked into pieces by a “boogieman/date” as fathers would tell their teenage daughters, hoping to keep them close to home and safe from backwoods escapades with would-be suitors. When Gina had first disappeared, the officers working the case had concluded that she had just split town since all the leads they had worked had not panned out into anything substantial, and there was not one shred of evidence to point to foul play.
But when Audra mentioned the names “Olin Kemper and Robert Folton,” he had a strange feeling that he had heard those names before. As he briefly scanned the emails Audra had given him, he stood up and snatched the phone off the wall.
“Mary Ann, I need the Milligan case file on my desk right now in conference room one.” He sat back down and continued to read the emails and noticed that Audra was right in her assumption that Olin had been using the vague references to Gina to elicit the responses he wanted from Robert.
A gentle knock on the door preceded Mary Ann as she walked in and handed the tattered, ancient case file to Detective Ronson. He nodded his head in thanks as he immediately flipped it open, searching for the list of witnesses that had been interviewed as Mary Ann silently left the room. He knew Audra was intently watching
him, so he had to fight hard to keep his face from revealing his excitement as he flipped to the notes depicting the extent of the interviews with both Olin and Robert that had occurred several days after Gina’s original disappearance, along with numerous other patrons that had been present the last night she had been seen at Cowboy Joe’s.
Detective Ronson had not informed Audra that they did have DNA evidence of the perpetrator, just not extracted from the blood on her clothes. A few, small, fully intact hairs that had been embedded and sealed in the sticky duct tape used to wrap the trash bag that contained Gina’s personal effects had been located by the forensic team. They knew it was the killer’s DNA after the full sequence DNA panel had been run because the DNA belonged to a male. The samples were just sitting there, waiting for a match to come along. Detective Ronson looked back up and stared into the eyes of this incredible woman, wondering if she had just handed him the keys to solving this legendary mystery. Audra just stared back, waiting for him to say something, so he decided to tell her the truth.
“Thank you very much, Audra, for sharing your story with me, and for bringing me this treasure trove of evidence. When I said earlier that we had not been able to obtain a viable sample of DNA from the blood on Gina’s clothes, I wasn’t lying, but I was withholding a bit of information. We did discover a few stray hairs that we tested that had been sealed inside the duct tape, and they didn’t belong to Gina. They belong to an as yet unidentified male that quite possibly is your boss, Olin. He and Robert were two of the last people to see her alive and were questioned extensively a few days after Gina’s disappearance. And to completely answer your question earlier as to the manner of death, whoever killed her, bludgeoned her about her head and chest area, most likely with his hands, then snapped her neck.”
Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy Page 8
