UNSEEN

by Felicia Mires

  Destiny took a long drink then smiled her thanks. "You don't believe I did it, do you?"

  "I don't like to believe anyone's guilty, but someone is. I'm following the evidence, and right now, it's all over the place. Come on. I want you to see this."

  Once inside the lab, they joined Caleb and one of the technicians in the midst of a discussion.

  "Can you tell me for sure this is her handwriting?" asked Caleb.

  "Not yet, but there's a 60% probability."

  "Why aren't you positive?"

  "Because I don't have the original hand-written note. Certain pressure points would indicate whether or not it was a forgery."

  To avoid drawing attention to herself, Destiny stepped as far to the back as she could while still being able to see the computer screen. Caleb, Zack, and the technician were studying a scan of a document on Lorelei's computer. It looked like a threatening letter.

  "Did you ask Laurel about it?" Caleb turned to face Zack.

  "She won't say anything without her lawyer."

  "Why would she go to the trouble to scan a letter she'd written herself? That's…irrational."

  "Yeah, it's crazy." Zack turned to Destiny. "Would you remember Laurel's handwriting from high school?"

  Caleb backed up to see Destiny. "You said threatening letters were written in high school. Was this one of them?"

  Destiny stepped closer and peered at the screen. She didn't really need to read the words because she had them memorized, but the handwriting was different from what she expected.

  "I have something to tell you. I…I got this letter. From Lorelei. Penny got one, too. I mean…we thought they were from Lorelei, but they were written in our own handwriting."

  "What are you saying?" Caleb shook his head.

  "I'm saying that when I found this letter in my locker at school, it freaked me out because it looked exactly like my own handwriting. I knew I didn't threaten myself, so it was scary. Then Penny got one, too, in her handwriting. That was even scarier. How much time could Lorelei have spent perfecting our handwriting styles?"

  "That's nearly impossible." The technician shrugged. "It would require hours of study and practice."

  "I'm telling you…that's the kind of person Lorelei was. Very methodical."

  "There was nothing like this in Penny's house." Caleb's face burned with determination. "Have you got the originals?"

  "I have something better. The reason I went to see Penny was because I got a new letter…in my own handwriting."

  "Miss Knox, you do realize I could arrest you for obstruction of justice so many times over." Zack pointed at the door. "Let's go. I want everything you've got, and if you hold back one more thing, you're going in the system. Do you really want an arrest record?"

  "No," she mumbled as she moved past him. "I know how this looks. That's why I didn't tell you. It's my handwriting, after all."

  She heard Caleb's sure step behind them, but he hadn't said a word. Was he angry? If he was, he'd have to get over it. She'd done what she could to save her hide. She didn't know him. How did she know if she could trust him to look out for her best interests? But she wanted to trust him.

  They had almost reached the parking lot when she felt a pull on her arm.

  "Wait."

  She and Zack turned to face Caleb. His face was set with frustration.

  "Zack, she's not leaving here until we have an alibi. What if you're right? What if she and Laurel are in this together? What if they both wrote threatening letters? This could just be some bizarre plan to trip us up and get her out of the station. Who knows what will happen once we leave here?"

  "Caleb, no." Destiny reached instinctively for his arm but pulled back when she saw the fire in his eyes. She'd waited too long to tell him.

  "No, Destiny. You listen. I've given you every opportunity to come clean. I've even…"

  "Caleb, I think we should move this to a more private venue." Zack pointed down the hall.

  Caleb whirled on his heel and marched past them. He'd had enough of Miss Destiny Knox and her secrets. He kept giving her space to work this out, and all she did was feed him barely enough to keep him hanging. Not anymore. The captain would have to tell her grandfather they had no choice. Her behavior wasn't giving them a choice.

  He opened an observation room, a place where they couldn't be overseen or overheard, not even by security footage. Once again, he was thinking of her. What if there were some mastermind trying to discredit her and frame her for murder? That was just crazy, but he'd met up with plenty of crazy.

  "Get in and start talking." He waited in the hall until Destiny and Pemberly passed then followed them in and shut the door. "Well? And I want the truth this time."

  She looked more pathetic than ever, shrinking back against a chair, her gaze fixed on the floor. "I don't have an alibi." Her attention shifted to Pemberly, to Caleb, then back to the floor. "I was alone the entire time. I…I had my phone off, too, so you can't track it."

  "Why in the world would you turn off your phone? You know that makes you look incredibly guilty? Impossibly so. There's no way we can go without filing charges against you."

  Pemberly held up a hand. "Miss Knox, please tell me why you turned off your phone. We want to help you…if possible."

  "Is this good cop-bad cop? Cause I can't tell which of you is which. You keep switching sides."

  "There are no sides." Caleb stepped closer and stared in her green eyes, wide with accusation. How dare she act the victim when she was the one hiding the truth? "They are going to lock you up for a very long time, and then they're going to kill you. Do you get that? Death Row. Lethal injection. Because if this wasn't premeditated, I don't know what is. Where were you on the night of the murder? I want to know what you did from the moment you and Penny looked at the yearbook until the moment you walked in the station the next morning."

  "This is exactly why I didn't tell you, Caleb. I know it looks bad. You think I want to make you look like an idiot?"

  "Thanks. It's good to know how you really feel about me."

  "Stop it. Just stop it. You're twisting everything I say. That's what cops do, but do you really listen? This murderer is clever. There's misdirection everywhere, the same thing that happened in high school." She turned to Pemberly. "I turned my phone off because I went to the movies, at least, I intended to."

  "Who saw you?" asked Pemberly with a lot more forbearance than Caleb felt.

  "No one. After I left Penny's, I got a text from my grandfather. He asked me to meet him at the movies at seven. I said sure. We go to the movies once a month. It's tradition."

  "He never showed?"

  Destiny shook her head. "I waited until ten minutes after the movie started then I left."

  "You never went inside?" asked Caleb.

  "I waited in the car."

  Pemberly sighed. "You're still not making sense. Why did you turn off your phone and then not call to see why your grandfather didn't show up?"

  "That's the truly dreadful part. I did. I know I did, but there's no record of the call. Later on, when I got ready for bed, I checked my phone. You know…wondering why he never called. My phone was dead. I thought it was weird, but I didn't really get scared until I discovered Penny was dead."

  "And then you called your grandfather?"

  "Exactly. He said he never texted me, and he never got any calls from me. I asked him to contact the captain and get me on the case."

  Caleb ran his fingers through his hair. This was a mess. Her story was a mess, but it sounded just like her. Complicated. Either the killer was a clever person who knew Destiny and Laurel extremely well, or one of them was a homicidal maniac, maybe both.

  "Ok. This is what we're going to do. You are going back in lock-up and you're going to tell us where you hid those letters. Then Pemberly and I will see what we can do with this muddle. Maybe someone saw your car at the theatre. Maybe a traffic camera caught you driving around."

  "The letters are in a
safe deposit box. The key is in my purse." Her murmured statement could scarcely be heard.

  "It's not the end of the world," said Pemberly. "If you're in here, Miss Knox, no one can say you've been doing something else. You're safe."

  "Obviously, Zack, you haven't spent any time with the critters in lock-up."

  Caleb turned away to hide a smile. Destiny always managed to say something that caught him just right…until she said something crazy.

  "Pemberly, before you take her back…Did you find anything in Penny's work records? In her computer? Is there anywhere else we should be looking?"

  "Not yet, but there hasn't been time to go through it all. Evidence keeps popping up all over the place."

  Destiny nodded. "Misdirection. That's why I didn't tell you anything. No matter what really happened, it all falls apart."

  "You know, Miss Knox, Detective Forest and I are pretty good at putting things together. From this point on, I suggest you give us as many pieces of the puzzle as you have."

  Zack steered her out of the room, and Caleb dropped in a chair. He felt as if he'd been through a wringer. He glanced at his watch. After nine o'clock. There was no way he and Pemberly were going to get into that safe deposit box before morning. They might as well sift through Penny's records together.

  As he stood to leave the room, his stomach growled. He was starving. Destiny probably was, too. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a third set of eyes on Penny's records. He could go out for some food then bring her to an office with a long table and work until they found something.

  He stood stock-still with his hand on the doorknob. He was doing it again. No matter what harebrained idea she offered him, he swallowed it whole. What was that woman doing to him?

  Caleb strode to his desk to gather everything they had on the case and await Pemberly's return. When Pemberly walked up, Caleb was staring at the murder board.

  "Did you buy any of that?" Pemberly shrugged out of his jacket and pulled out a chair.

  "It's so ridiculous, it makes sense. From her, anyway. She's been cock-eyed since she walked in here."

  "I thought you'd say that."

  Caleb twisted to study Pemberly's face. "What does that mean?"

  "Nothing. I'm just not sure you'd believe all this falderal coming from anyone else."

  "You don't believe her?"

  "That's the thing. I do. The evidence is scattered across the lives of four people, but there's one thing that's constant. Someone's been pulling the strings for a long while. I can't see Laurel setting herself and her father up in high school. Even if she was misguided enough to do it then for attention, I can't see her making the same mistake now. She might want to get even with her tormenters from high school, but she wouldn't implicate herself."

  "It's like some sick, twisted game. Someone playing with us all."

  "Exactly. Someone sick enough to cut out Penny Weather's tongue and use it to write on her walls."

  "If someone else is behind this, we have to clear Laurel and Destiny so we can determine what's left. Laurel has to talk to us."

  "If you talk to her again without her lawyer, he's gonna have all our evidence thrown out."

  "Not if she volunteers the information." Caleb shoved his chair back as he stood. "We can't get at that safe deposit box tonight, and I'm hungry. I say we grab some food, confront Laurel again, and then get Destiny down here to comb through Penny's records. She's more motivated than all of us put together."

  "I was gonna say give it a rest for the night and hit it fresh in the morning. Besides, Destiny can't get anywhere with that evidence as long as she's implicated."

  Destiny's forlorn figure flooded Caleb's thoughts, wide-eyed with fear, stretched out on the metal cot in a cell, and cringing at the sight of the stainless toilet. "I can't leave her in there all night, Zack. We can handcuff her to a chair. If she's with us, she's out of the cell."

  "Laurel's stuck in a cell. I don't hear you crying over her."

  "Somehow, it's different. Laurel knows the system, but I guess I am a little cock-eyed. Whatever…I'm staying."

  "All right, buddy. I'm in…just don't let her near the evidence. And, you owe me."

  "I owe you. And Zack, thanks for letting me take lead on this. I hope I don't take you down with me."

  "Just 'cause I let you take lead detective doesn't mean I stopped using my brain. Go get something to eat, and I'll arrange to have Laurel brought back up for questioning."

  An hour later, Caleb found Zack, Destiny, Laurel, and her lawyer seated around a table. He set down the bags of fast food he'd bought and surveyed the room. The cameras weren't on, but he no longer trusted the system. He reached up and unplugged both of them.

  The lawyer twisted in his seat. "What's the meaning of this, Detective? Why hasn't my client been charged? You can't continue to hold her."

  Caleb took a seat beside Pemberly, ignoring the strong desire to gauge Destiny's well-being with a lingering look. "I think you know, I can, Mr. Stone. I have enough right now to charge Miss Blake with murder."

  "Then why haven't you?"

  "Because I also have enough to charge Destiny Knox. Now, either they're in on this together so they could cast doubt on both sides, or someone very much wants to eliminate them. It would help if your client cooperated so we could rule her out."

  "Miss Blake doesn't have to help you build a case against her. There's reasonable doubt. That's all we need to convince a jury."

  "Mr. Stone, I didn't have to tell you that I have evidence against Miss Knox. I did it so you could see we sincerely want to get at the truth. Laurel asked to speak with Destiny Knox without any live cameras. I've disabled the cameras. Start talking."

  Destiny pointed at the bags. "Do we get to eat that or is this some new form of prison torture?"

  Caleb passed her the bags then looked down the table at Laurel. "Laurel, I need you to trust me. Listen to what we've discovered so far. Maybe you can add to it."

  Laurel glanced at her lawyer then nodded.

  "Great." Caleb pulled out his notebook. "First, you were supposed to meet me for a date, but you cancelled. As far as I know, you have no alibi for the time in question. Same goes for Destiny. She was supposed to meet her grandfather for a movie, but he has no knowledge of their appointment made by cell phone. And before you ask, we pulled her records. There's nothing. So she's lying or someone broke through the cell provider's firewall and changed the records."

  Laurel's gaze darted down the table to Destiny then back to Caleb, but she didn't say anything.

  "Which gives credence to your claims that someone knows how to manipulate technology or else you're both guilty. Second, you have a scanned copy of a threatening letter on your computer in the lab. I can only guess that you were running an analysis." The lawyer cringed at that one, but Caleb kept going. "Why else would you have incriminating evidence? Once again, Destiny has a similar problem. She has threatening letters, but in her case, they are written in her own handwriting. Why are the two of you writing threatening letters to yourselves? If anything, I'd expect you to threaten each other."

  Destiny pushed a hamburger across the table to Caleb and smiled. For a moment, he lost his train of thought.

  "Thanks," he said before turning back to Laurel. "How am I doing so far? Is there anything you can say to clear this up, because what I have left is much worse. The murder weapon was found in Destiny's house. The missing yearbook was found in your car. Not to mention the fact that you've got a bang-up motive…your dad went to jail, where he died, and you changed your name."

  Laurel looked past her lawyer to stare at Destiny. Destiny stopped chewing and waited. Laurel glanced at her lawyer once again then back at Destiny. "I didn't write those letters."

  "Neither did I," said Destiny. "Neither did Penny."

  "I realize that now," said Laurel in a soft voice. "I never knew the letters you got were in your handwriting, the same as mine. I'm sorry for hitting your dad with the brick and the glass and fo
r shattering your mother's china cabinet."

  "I forgive you. I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

  Laurel choked out a laugh. "I didn't give you a reason to. I was extremely suspicious and responded...poorly. But I didn't change your grades or erase the recommendation letters."

  "Which does nothing to expose what's going on now," said the lawyer.

  "Actually, it does." Laurel picked the tomato from her burger and set it to the side. "I have an alibi…and so does Destiny. I had her followed."

  "You had me followed? Why?"

  "Because I didn't know who to trust. I got another letter last week. Before you, my life was simple. Lousy, but simple. You were always the common denominator for everything, so I wanted to expose you."

  Zack pulled his notebook closer. "Who did you hire?"

  Laurel gave him the name and number then turned to Caleb. "The day of the murder I was supposed to go out with you, but I got another letter. It looked exactly like my own handwriting. It said if I wanted to know the identity of the person responsible for putting my dad in jail, I should drive to a certain address. Alone."

  "You could have told me, Laurel."

  "Right. The handwriting was my own. For all I knew, it had been sent to someone else as if I wrote it, to lure them out in the open and make me seem guilty. What cop would believe a convoluted story like that? They didn't believe me in high school."

  "So, you had Destiny followed. How did that give you an alibi?"

  "The note said to come alone, but I wasn't about to. I couldn't prove my innocence in high school because I was always alone. This time, I had a cabbie follow me. I thought a cab driving around would appear more natural…in case someone was watching. Instead, the next day I find out that Penny had been murdered." She swallowed hard. "She was the only one I didn't think to…I should have had someone watching her, too."

  "No, Lorelei, this isn't your fault," said Destiny. "Don't blame yourself. Someone tricked us all, ruined our friendship, and killed Penny."

  Caleb cleared his throat. "It's all well and good that the two of you have decided to stop accusing each other, but now we have no suspect."