SEE PART ONE FOR DISCLAIMER AND INFO
"I boxed up all her stuff and put it down here. She ain't got no family
to speak of, and I figured I'd give it to Good Will if no one ever showed up to
claim it." Edith and Frank nodded at the elderly woman as she opened a storage
room in the bottom of Harriet Connor's apartment building. The super placed the
keys back in the pocket of her bathrobe, and shuffled back down the hallway past
them. "Just come get me when you're done."
"Thanks, Mrs. Mason!" Edith called after her. The aging super waved a
hand to dismiss it as she disappeared up the stairs.
Frank eyed the five large cardboard boxes. "You've got the police
inventory?"
"Yeah."
"Let's get started, then."
"Got anything?"
Edith leaned back against the wall and sighed. "Not anything that's
jumping out at me. You?"
Frank frowned at the box he was sifting through. "Some photographs, but
not much to go on. Just her and a couple of friends, none male. Doesn't seem
to be the type to wear a lot of makeup, or clothes that are too 'improper', so
that rules out the blatant Jezebel thing." His frowned deepened. Edith sat up
straighter. "Wait a second..."
She got up and walked over to him. "What?"
He pointed at the photograph he was holding as she peered at it over his
shoulder. "This is a photograph of the interior of Hadley's Grill. I know,
I've been there with Jim before. Look towards the upper right."
Edith looked. There was a man, intently staring towards Harriet Connor,
who in the picture was leaning against a jukebox. Around his thirties, she
thought, with short, curly black hair. Non-descript looking, really, around
average, except for the none too pleasant expression dragging down the corners
of his mouth. "Frank, I can't really be sure, but..."
"You think it's him, too?"
"Yeah."
"Hadley's Grill is the last place Harriet Connor was seen alive."
"I know."
"Let's go talk to the owner, and then go get this analyzed."
Edith stood and scratched the back of her neck. "Let's take this stuff
with us. There's got to be some kind of connection between Harriet Connor and
Claudia Brown."
"We may not need to worry about that now, Edith."
"We still have to find him even if we identify him, Frank. And we may
be too late. Pack the stuff up, okay?"
"Right."
One Week Later...
"So the owner of Hadley's confirmed that the photo was taken on the night
Harriet Connor was abducted?"
Edith groaned and slid farther down on the sofa. "Yeah."
Donna took another bite of her macaroni and cheese. "But he couldn't
confirm the guy's identity?"
"Nope. You know, I shouldn't even be discussing this with you."
"I know. But you are."
"Yeah." Edith pushed her reading glasses back up on her nose and reread
the same pieces of paper she'd been scanning for the last half hour.
"You sure you don't want any macaroni and cheese?"
"Yeah."
Donna was silent for a few moments, trying to concentrate on her late
dinner and Conan O'Brien. Edith was frowning fiercely at the papers and
muttering under breath. They must've been an interesting sight, the two of
them. One blonde woman still clad in her work suit, eating a bowl of Kraft
macaroni and cheese, and one brunette in pajama pants and a Dave Matthews Band
t-shirt, reviewing something related to a violent murder case.
"Damn."
Donna looked up. "What's wrong?"
Edith took off her glasses and set them on top of the manila folder on
the coffee table. She waved the papers she was holding. "Inventory lists of
the two women's apartments. I can't find any correlation between them. They
were two totally different women, Donna. There's nothing to link them."
"It couldn't have been just two random women he happened to see in
bars?"
She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "It could be, but I doubt it. With a
killer this obsessed, there's usually something in particular that sets him off;
that brings his attention to a certain victim. Why the crosses on the doors?
If we don't find him this time around, I have a nasty gut instinct that he's
going to strike again. Actually, I'm almost certain he will."
"Maybe you just need to take a break for a little bit," Donna said,
getting up to take her bowl to the kitchen. "You know, give your mind a little
rest. Then when you come back to it you'll see something you missed before."
"Yeah." Her cell phone rang. "Toss that here, will you? It's
probably
Frank."
Donna picked it up off her end of the coffee table and tossed to Edith,
who flipped it open. "Agent Lyman."
The conversation faded out of Donna's hearing as she entered the kitchen.
She set her bowl in the sink and poured herself a glass of Coke as the phone on
the wall rang. Donna muttered something under her breath and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Donna, is Edith still around? I couldn't get her cell."
She took a sip of her drink. "That's 'cause she's on it, Josh.
Sounds
important, too. Why, what's up?"
"Nothing, I just..." he sounded a little odd. Come to think of it,
he'd
acted a little odd today, as well. Well, not really odd, just more quiet than
usual. Donna didn't think it had anything to do with Josh feeling bad for
calling her in to work on a Saturday. Never stopped him before.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," he said, but he still sounded odd. "I just...I found
something
Edith should have, that's all. You care if I bring it over to her?"
"No, of course not, Josh."
"Thanks. Tell her not to go anywhere for a little bit, okay?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Bye, Donna."
"Bye, Josh." She hung up the phone. Now that was definitely weird.
What the hell was going on? "Hey, Edith..." Donna trailed off as she entered
the
living room where Edith was no longer in her pajamas and sitting on the couch.
Edith instead came rushing out of her bedroom, back in her suit, fitting
her gun into its holster at her hip. "I gotta go, Donna. Frank talked to a
witness cops found at the Georgetown bar where Claudia Brown was last seen."
"You got an ID?"
"Yeah, a pretty positive one." She stuffed the file back into her
backpack and slung it across her shoulders. "I'll be back late, just so you
don't worry. I have the feeling it'll be a long night."
"Okay..." Donna said. Wait...there was something she was supposed to
tell
her. "Oh! Edith!"
She turned around at the door. "Yeah?"
"Josh was coming over to give you something. Do you want me to tell him
to stick around?"
Edith frowned. "To give me something?" She shook her head. "No, like I
said, I'll be late if I don't just end up sleeping on Frank's office couch
again. Tell him I'll find him tomorrow."
"Okay. Be careful."
She smiled. "Yes, Mommy." And she was shutting the door behind her.
Donna went back to the kitchen to wash out her bowl, and didn't even
realize that she'd forgotten to call Josh until he knocked at the door.
TBC
Lilac - 4
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