Detective Sparks hung up the phone a little harder than was necessary. Officer Bailey looked up from his desk where he was busy going over the evidence they'd collected so far on the case. "The mayor again?""It seems Mr. Davis put in a call to his good friend the mayor to get him to ask us to back off." She threw down the pen she'd been twirling around in her fingers. The phone rang on her desk and she picked it up."Sparks!""Detective!" It was the medical examiner who handled autopsies for the three surrounding towns. "Your victim was three months pregnant." The news made her sit back in her chair with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Two victims and another cog in the wheel!"Is there any way to tell who the father was?""Sure, we can run that test but we'll need the father's DNA to match it to." Her first thought was that if the man didn't want them going through his wife's things he damn sure wasn't about to give them any blood to test."I'll see what I can do." Af
Niall sat alone downstairs for a while after the cops and Valerie left. He was trying to make sense of the detective's words that had left him with even more questions now than before. Why had Sonya changed her code? What was she trying to hide?He tried to recall if there had been any changes in her behavior the last few months but nothing came to mind It's true that after baby Abigail was born they'd both sorta spun out of control a little bit.His psychiatrist had put it down to him having a midlife crisis and it was obvious that she'd been suffering the after effects of the birth. But things had smoothed out a lot here lately, and he refused to believe that his loving wife of almost seven years had been doing anything behind his back that would warrant the need for such secrecy."No, they must be wrong." He left his seat and took the stairs two at a time and headed for the room they'd shared as man and wife. The nightgown she'd worn the night before she was killed still laid acr
"What do you think Pete?" She asked as soon as he got into the car beside her. "I think we're going to check out the old barn." She nodded her head feeling a real sense of excitement for the first time since she stood over what had been left of poor Sonya Davis the day before. No matter what the woman had done she didn't deserve what had been done to her.She drove out to the broken down old barn in the middle of nowhere, thinking that maybe Mrs. Ivory was right. She couldn't see the esteemed Niall Davis coming to a place like this. Unless he'd come here to catch his wife in the act. The women hadn't seen any other vehicles on the road that day though, and there had been no mention of anyone else being in the car with her.So that leaves the only other alternative; that Mrs. Ivory had been wrong in her assessment that it had been Niall Davis' car following his wife and it had indeed been whoever she was having an affair with."The grass is trampled here, and look at that." She point
Detective Sparks had gone back to the station with the new evidence, which she'd asked to be rushed. She knew it would take at least a couple of weeks to get any DNA results back from the cigarettes and she was hoping the blanket would give them something as well.In the meantime she wasn't about to sit at her desk twiddling her thumbs though. With the new evidence and the statements from the widows Connors and Ivory she needed to get the ball rolling. "We're going back to Niall Davis.""He's going to complain to the mayor again.""Let him!" She was always amazed at how afraid her subordinates and others were at just the mention of the mayor's name. Where she came from people weren't so deferential to their local politicians; at least not on the surface.The two of them went over the new evidence and their hopes that it would lead them somewhere. They were both tentatively crossing their fingers that this would be the boost they so badly needed to hold on to their case.The Davis
Bridgette had heard it all and was now wondering, as she heard the door close behind the cops if she could use this to her advantage. Would it seem too forward of her if she went down now like she'd planned to, or should she put it off until tomorrow?She wasn't too pleased that she had to put her plan on hold, in her mind if she didn't move now it might be too late. A man like him wouldn't stay single for long even though he'd loved his wife, not with three children to raise. And she had no doubt that there were any number of women waiting in the wings.The phone had already been ringing off the hook and she was sure that well meaning friends would soon be throwing women at him to take his wife's place and it was a sure bet that none of them would think of her for the job.She went back to her room and sat on the bed biting her nails and listening with ears pricked for every sound that came from downstairs. It was hours later that she finally heard him coming up the stairs and from
Niall knew he'd had too much to drink but who could blame him? As if dealing with the death of his beloved wife wasn't enough, he now had the doubts that the cops had planted in his head to deal with. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember any red flags, nothing to say that his wife had been having an affair.Granted, he spent long hours at the bank, but surely he would've noticed something. She was always there when he came home and he couldn't remember a time when he called her that she didn't pick up the phone.It's true that they'd hit a rough patch almost two years ago, but she'd been dealing with post partum depression while he was going through his own issues with the onset of a midlife crisis. But they'd both weathered the storm with the help of their individual therapists and a marriage counselor. Not to mention the support of their friends.As his mind went to their closest friends he thought of Riley and the bond that had seemed to form between the other man an
Detective Starks answered her phone the next day. It was Saturday yes, but she didn't foresee herself having another day off for a long-long time. She planned to work right through the holiday if she had to, and that's why she'd rushed the guys in the lab the day before.For as small as their precinct was, they had a network at their disposal that could get them results faster than some places in the big city. That's one thing she could say for the mayor, he sure did have his resources.The D.A's office was a very big help in getting things moving quicker as well. They didn't want news of the first murder in the town in more than fifty years spreading too far and wide. Tourism was very big here after all, with people coming from all over the country not to mention the world, to enjoy their classic settings and historical sights.If news of an unsolved murder made the rounds on one of the biggest holiday weekends, one that the town relied on for an uptick in revenue, let's just say i
By the time the police showed up at their door the O'Rourke's were at their breakfast table digging into the meal Eileen had prepared for them. The housekeeper slash cook was glad to see her mistress enjoying her food with such relish again.These last few days since the murder the other woman has been off her food, barely picking at her meals. Now it looked like she was coming to terms with what had happened.Riley wasn't too pleased to see them back at his door. He'd been hearing whispers even here on the farm and had had to dress down a couple of his guys for letting their tongues get away with them.Somehow the rumor mill had got it into their heads that Sonya had been some kind of loose woman who was having an affair and that that's what had led to her being murdered. He blamed the two people who were now standing on his doorstep asking for entrance."I don't know how much more we can tell you detective." He moved out of the way and let them in but leaving no doubt that he was