"Passion"
Summary: Lilly re-investigates the 1997 murder of a 20-year-old woman, killed on Valentine's Day. Post-"Time to Crime". (There'll be some Lilly/Scotty/Christina drama)
Disclaimer: I don't own the original Cold Case characters. Only the characters I created for this case are mine.
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe.
A/N: This is my first attempt at writing a case fic, so please tell me what you think. The college featured in this fic – "Philadelphia City College" – is supposed to be fictional. Also, since I'm not from the USA, my writing of American college life was based on what I've seen on TV and movies.
Chapter 1 – The case
February 14, 1997
(outside a dorm building on Philadelphia City College)
It's about 11 p.m. A 20-year-old girl leaves the dorm room. She takes a shortcut behind the building in the direction of one of the faculty buildings. She looks concerned and focused. Someone comes running after her.
Person: You're not doing this to me! Not again!
Girl: Oh God, you scared me. We're not going to have this conversation again.
(The girl n keeps walking, the other person follows her)
Person: You don't get it. I mean it.
(The person grabs the girl by the arm and pulls out a gun)
Girl: What is this? Have you lost your mind? Let me go!
Person: No. It's over now.
The girl's body lay on the floor, with a puddle of blood around her head.
A few weeks later, at the Philadelphia Police Headquartes, someone files another box at the unsolved cases shelf: "Hayes, K. – Feb 14,1997"
Philadelphia, 2005
Outside the Police Headquarters Building, Detective Lilly Rush is buying a hot dog from a street vendor. She seems to be waiting for someone. A few moments later, she spots her partner, Detective Scotty Valens, and waves to him.
Scotty: Hey, Lil. Sorry I'm late. Got stuck in court.
Lilly: Don't worry. I just arrived.
(Scotty buys a hot dog too. He smiles to Lilly, in a mock face.)
Scotty: What, Detective Lilly Rush late for work? This world isn't the same anymore. What happened?
Lilly (coldly): Personal problems.
Scotty (slightly embarrassed): Oh, sorry. Is everything OK now?
Lilly (shrugs, and starts to walk to the building): It has been worse.
(At the office, Lilly and Scotty are talking to Detectives Nick Vera and Will Jeffries. They're expecting instructions from their boss, Lieutenant Tom Stillman)
(Stillman walks out of his office with a young African-American man, appearing to be in his late 20's. They walk to the detectives.)
Stillman: This is Ian Tyler. He's an ADA, started last month. He heard we were working cold jobs and asked if we could take a look at a 1997 murder. Ian, these are detectives Rush, Vales, Vera and Jeffries.
Ian: Nice to meet you all.
Stillman: Ian's friend, Karen Hayes, was killed outside a dorm building 8 years ago.
Lilly: You got any new information, Ian?
Ian: Two weeks ago, I was going through all my college stuff. You know, I kept all the pieces of paper in which I wrote something during college. Now I'm leaving my parents' house and I wanted to throw some useless stuff away. And then, I came across an article that Karen had written to the paper where we worked.
(Ian hands Lilly a piece of paper)
Scotty: You worked on a college paper, even though you were actually a Law major?
Ian: That was way more than just a college paper. It was an opportunity to voice our dissatisfactions and beliefs, and to try to gather help to our causes. Everyone there had a cause. Mine, was the fight for real equality between black and white people.
Scotty: And what were Karen's causes?
Ian: Many, actually. Her favorites were women's rights and animal's rights. At that time, our college had a very active Medicine research department. Animals were being used on tests for new drugs and new surgery techniques. As far as we knew the animals were being tortured on those tests, so this cause was taking most of Karen's time.
Lilly (reads from the paper): "The fight for the right to fight."
Ian: Karen talks about how the society tries to suffocate any dissonant voices. And how the people who have beliefs that are not the ones established by our society have to endure two fights: the fight for cause itself, and also a very harder one: the fight to have the right to speak your thoughts, and act accordingly to them.
Scotty: Why didn't you show this during the original investigation?
Ian: Karen handed me this article on the morning of the day she died. I was her proofreader. I was busy that day and I could read it immediately. After she died, I just packed away everything that was related to her. I just found it while cleaning up my college stuff. I read it, and believe me, this is not Karen's usual style. Karen was tough and she was never intimidated. But this article, it seems like a cry for help.
Lilly: Maybe she was afraid she couldn't put up one more fight. We'll look into it and we'll get back to you.
(Later, Lilly and Scotty are going through the case's file)
Lilly (reads from the file): Karen Hayes, 20 years old. A Journalism major at Philadelphia City College. Worked on an alternative college paper, called "Freedom of Mind". She was reported missing on the next day by her roommate, Lucy Van Holt, a pre-Med student. A few hours later she was found dead behind her dorm building. One shot to her mouth, bled to death.
Scotty (also reads from the file): Main suspects at the time were Karen's boyfriend, Christopher Edwards, 22 at the time, a Law major; and Ian Tyler, 21 at the time, also a Law major. Christopher was the one who pointed out Ian as a suspect. Both had solid alibis and no other leads were found.
Lilly: It was quickly ruled as a crime of passion. No one thought politics.
Scotty picks up Karen's picture from the box. She was very beautiful, with long dark hair and stunning green eyes. Her skin was white, but with many freckles on her nose and on the upper side of her cheek.
Scotty (shows the picture to Lilly and laughs): A pretty girl like that, killed on Valentine's Day. I wouldn't think politics either.
Lilly (coldly): Well, newsflash: women do worry about other things besides men.
(Scotty, a little taken aback by Lilly's harshness, doesn't answer and goes back to the box's content. A few moments later, Stillman approaches them.)
Stillman: I just got off the phone with the Journalism department. They closed Karen and Ian's paper three years ago.
Lilly: So it seems like they were really bothering someone.
Scotty: Is there someone there who we can talk?
Stillman: The Professor responsible for the college papers died last year. His substitute came from an Arizona University and the only thing he knows about the "Freedom of Mind" is what's in the official reports.
Lilly (disappointed): Which certainly won't help us at all.
Stillman: So, who do we have here to see?
Scotty: Parents, roommate, the boyfriend, paper co-workers… and especially ADA Tyler, who failed to tell us that he was a suspect back in 1997.
Stillman: Let's not jump to conclusions, especially if it involves our friends at the DA's office. You two, go talk to the parents. I'll tell Vera and Jeffries to go talk to the roommate. We'll leave the boys for later.
To be continued
