No Lead

Tuesday, the 3rd of May.

11:06am.

The detective office was a lot busier than it  had been in the last couple of days and the busiest people were detectives Aiden and Tia. They had been to the Coroner, William Martin, on several occasions, joining him in studying the body of Pamela Neil. Seeing and touching a dead body was not so much of a task for Tia but Aiden did not exactly like it, and to make it worse, her body was three weeks old. Aiden could not stand it so he stood afar off, holding in his hands a note pad and and a pen, jotting down the things that Tia and William discovered while studying the body.

“So she died from bleeding out from the cut in her neck?” Tia asked as she leaned in for a much closer look at the wound which had long been cleaned but the cut was still very much visible as it was very deep.

“Could be.” William said, adjusting the glasses to sit properly on the bridge of his nose. “We sent some samples of her stomach contents to the lab for analysis, we can not ascertain her exact cause of death until all analysis is completed.” He explained.

“Alright.” Tia said and continued round the body. “What else?”

“Well, we noticed that there are no signs of struggle or bruises.”

Tia looked at him, a bit surprised. “None at all?”

“None.”

“Looks like she knew who killed her.” Aiden said from across the room, the hanky he had over his nose muffled his speech, Tia and William turned to face him.

“What did you say Aiden?” She asked him.

Aiden removed the hanky from his face and repeated what he had said. “I said, it would seem that sh knew who her killer had been.”

“How is that?” She asked.

“Well for one, there are no signs of struggle, and I do not think she would have easily given up her self to be killed, right?”

“Right…” Tia was following.

“So, if she knew her killer, then she would not have thought it possible that she would be on his hit list of someone he wanted to eliminate. She would not have even thought of him as a killer in the first place…”

“...making it easier for him to kill her without that much of a stress.” Tia finished his statement.

“Hence, the no sign of struggle.”

“Killer could be one of her friends then?” Tia asked, more to herself than to Aiden.

“Possibly.” Aiden shrugged his shoulders.

“Then we should get going.” She said, already walking towards Aiden and heading for the door. “Thank you William.”

“Heading to where? Where are we supposed to go to now?” He said as he made way for her to pass, then he followed behind her.

“We will be going to pay a visit to her family.”

*  *  *  *  *

01:22pm

Tia and Aiden pulled the Ford Fusion hybrid police cruiser up on 52, Stone Street, Tribeca, where Pamela used to live with both her mother and younger sister. The house was quite a simple one in between other simpler houses of the same colour and Tia kinda found the house to be really cute.  She adjusted in the car and turned to face Aiden then she gave him a half smile, Aiden side eyed her curiously and frowned slightly.

“What’s that look for? You are always up to something when you do that.”

“You will talk to them and break to them the news of Pamela’s death. It is really hard for me to do that.” Tia explained to him. Aiden smiled softly and nodded his response.

“I got you on this one Tia. Now let us go and do our duty.” Tia smiled back softly and released a breath slowly, then she and Aiden got out of the car, walking on to the porch and to the front door. Aiden stood in front of Tia and rung the door bell, he could hear it ring from inside and soon enough, he heard the shuffling of feet running for the front door. The door clicked open and swung in, revealing a very young lady, probably in her early twenties, standing at the door. Tia watched her eye both she and Aiden curiously with a slight frown etched across her brows. She smacked her gum once, then twice before speaking.

“And who might you be?” she asked.

“Well, I am detective Aiden,” Aiden introduced himself first before turning slightly to point his thumb at Tia, then he added and continued, “and this is my partner, detective Tia. Do you mid if we come in? We would really need to talk to you about your sister, Pamela.”

The girl cranked her head slightly to the side. “Cops? At my house? What is the problem officers? What did Pam do this time?”

Aiden briefly looked at Tia and sighed before looking back at the girl standing in the door way. “Could we come inside and talk to you Trisha?”

“Why am I not surprised that the cops knows my name.” she grumbled and smacked her gum repeatedly before turning to walk back inside. “Come in officers.”

Aiden went in first, followed closely by Tia. The house was more spacious on the inside than it looked on the outside, the open windows allowed all the sunlight of the afternoon hours to flood in, brightening the living space and the white furnitures in the sitting room added to its brightness. Trisha was already seated on the only single sitter and she extended her arm, gesturing to the other chairs for them to sit in. Immediately they were seated, Trisha threw a question at them.

 “So you are hear to talk about Pam? What has she done this time? It was quite bold of her to stay away from home all this while and then invite trouble for us.”

“Actually Trisha, this is not trouble…” Aiden started to say.

“Really? it is not?” Trisha straightened up, her attention more on the male detective that entertained her talks.

“Well… not in the way you are thinking of.”

“Then? What?”

Aiden looked over to Tia and adjusted in the chair. He looked back at Trisha and softened his voice. “We found a body half buried in the south cove park, that happened to be the body of Miss Pamela Neil, your sister.”

Tia watched Trisha freeze, she watched her struggle to understand what Aiden had just told her, she watched her struggle to make an sense out of it, more; she watched her choose not to believe it.

“Look officers, I know that some times Pam takes off for days or some times for weeks but that does not mean that she is missing or even dead.” Trisha said.

Tia leaned in forward now and held the gaze which Trisha was burning into Aiden, her gaze full of questions and doubts and pain.

“Right?” Trisha directed the question at her now.

“I am sorry Trisha. The body which was found was that of Pamela Neil, the body belonged to your sister.”

Trisha’s lips quavered, her hands trembled and her eyes watered. “But… but she was not missing in the first place… I mean, she only went to work… you really can not come in here and tell me that she is not coming back…” her voice cracked and she choked on the tears, trying so badly and unsuccessfully to hold them back. She hiccuped.

“Her body was recently found, half buried in the South Cove park. She had been dead for three weeks.” Tia said to her.

Trisha looked a bit alarmed. “For three weeks?”

“Yes.” Tia adjusted forward on the seat. “And I know this is hard for you to accept but if you do not mind, we would like to ask you a few questions to help us in the on going investigation surrounding her death.”

“I… I can not…” Trisha mumbled. She cried now, sobbing quietly and looking away from the officers in her living room, she turned and looked out the window as the tears poured down from her eyes.

Tia and Aiden exchanged quiet glances, contemplating whether to carry on with the questions or if they should leave her a while to let her calm down and digest the news of her sister’s death, but they both knew that this investigation was crucial to solving the case faster, they needed some information which her sister might be able to provide for them.

“Trisha, if you could at least tell us about where she worked or maybe the friends she was very close to…?” Tia continued, trying to urge her on.

“Skyline.” She sniffed, still remaining in her position, looking away from them and staring out the window. “She worked at Skyline clubs as a waitress.”

Aiden immediately brought out his small note pad and jotted that down while Tia continued with Trisha. “Okay, and do you know her friends? Some of the people she might have been really close to? Like her boyfriend?”

“I’m sorry… I…” Just then, Trisha’s phone rang and she looked at the screen, she sniffed once more to control her tears and hold them back, steadying her voice, before sliding on the answer button, bringing the phone to her ear. “Hello..?”

*  *  *  *  *

02:43pm

“So far so good, right?” Tia said to Aiden, sighing and lifting her cup yo her lips. Aiden smiled and nodded back with a reply.

“So far so good.”

 Sitting by the window of The Rain coffee shop, both Tia and Aiden slowly sipped on their hot cups of coffee. The visit to the Neil house had been, well… not entirely in vain, but it also had not gone according to how they had planned that it would flow. Tia had thought that it had been going quite well until after that phone call Trisha had received. Because it was after that phone call that she had just turned cold and did not want to continue with the interrogation any more.

“I am sorry, but I can not continue with this any more.” She had said, standing up and drying her tears. Tia and Aiden had stood up as well, both kind of surprised at her sudden change but they knew better than to pressure her, the girl had just been told about the death of her sister and yes, she would need some time to get over the terrible news,

Tia had, none the less, placed her card on a table. “Here is my card, feel free to reach out to me at any time Trisha.” She had said. “We would keep in touch and would come back later, at a much better time maybe.”

She had only nodded her response before walking them out the door.

“But what do you think?” Aiden asked her.

She took a sip and placed the cup on the table. “Nothing, we got nothing yet.”

“So what now? We wait for the medical and forensic reports?”

“Well I guess so, I mean they are crucial and very much needed.”

Aiden grunted loudly and stretched his arms out till they made a “pop” sound at the elbows. “I hate waiting, I hate suspense and I hate not knowing what to do. Who the hell is this unknown killer any way? Just started this and he is already really bugging me.”

“The killer is probably some one unknown that you do not know.” Tia said and glanced over at Aiden, then they both burst into laughter.

“Really Tia,” Aiden said, in between laughter. “You are making this kind of a joke at a time like this?”

“Relax Aiden.” She smiled. “We will nab him sooner than you know, just have a little bit of faith is all I ask. Hmm…?”

“I do have faith Tia, and you know that, but frustration is part of a detective’s emotions and feelings as well. I can not help it.”

“Let us finish this and head back to the office, maybe William already has something for us.”