Chapter 3
Stillman sat stiffly on the worn green couch and glanced at his surroundings without trying to appear like he was snooping. It was a run down but comfortable white-walled grey carpeted living room, with two armchairs that matched the couch's darky mossy green tone. A small TV and entertainment set lined the far side of the room beside the dusty brick fireplace. On the wall to his left sat a wooden coloured cabinet filled with pictures of Victoria at every age imaginable. A few of the pictures were with friends and or family, but for the most part it was Victoria by herself from the curious wide-eyed baby to the intelligent looking teenage girl dressed up in a cap and gown for her high school graduation.
Stillman quickly got up and shook hands with Mr. Huang. Though he still wore the same clothes, a pair of worn sweatpants and a tattered sweater, an astonishing amount of grey and wrinkles had crept into his appearance in the past year. Even though he was considered to be a smaller shorter man, his daughter's death had caused him to shrink even more from the grief. If Mr. Huang and Victoria had sat side by side, the whole world would have known they were father and daughter.
"Lieutenant Stillman." Mr. Haung said warmly. "Thank you for taking the time to come here personally." He motioned for Stillman to sit back down again while Mrs. Huang appeared with a small tray of refreshments and set them down onto the dark brown square coffee table. The couple each sat in an armchair.
"It is the least I can do: I just wanted to know that we've had a new lead and the team is going to take another look at Victoria's case." Stillman said.
"A new lead?" Mrs. Huang repeated. "What exactly are you implying? That Joshua Phillips did not murder our daughter?"
"That may be the case."
"Then who exactly is a suspect this time around?"
Stillman took a mental breathe before he continued. "Our theory is that Thomas Granger may be a possible candidate."
Mr. Haung leaned back in the armchair and closed his eyes while Mrs. Huang leaned forward and pursed her lips together.
"That might be better." She said quietly, unable to meet Stillman's eye. "Joshua always seemed like a nice boy."
"Have you ever met him?"
"Him? No. I've never met any of her classmates from Philadephia State." Mrs. Huang replied.
"Anybody else you know that might have wanted to hurt her? Any problems she might have had?"
"No, nobody at all." Mrs. Huang said quickly. Her tone gave off her disbelief. "So there were times when she wasn't happy, but never anything out of the ordinary. In general she was one of the happiest people. If there was anything or anyone bothering her she would have let us know."
"It's been almost two years...she would have been twenty-one by now." Mr. Huang said suddenly, opening his eyes. "And after all this time…all this grieving you're telling us that the man I had grown to hate because I thought he murdered my daughter, may not deserve my hate after all?"
"Yes." Stillman said. He could not think of anything else to say.
Mr. Huang closed his eyes again and took a deep breathe. "Then I pray Lieutenant Stillman, that your team finds the absolute truth."
"Don't worry." Stillman assured him. "We're following every possible lead and angle. We'll find your daughter's killer."
Lily sat on the hard white bench while Scotty paced around the metal cage of a room trying to calm his nerves. Nothing could happen to them there, not in the prison, guards would be watching over them on full alert. Yes, Thomas Jefferson Granger was a convicted serial killer, but he wouldn't try to hurt him or Lily, would he? Neither one of them wore the deadly bright orange band. Though maybe the mere mention of that accessory would be enough for Granger to kill again. Scotty shuddered at the thought. No, he had to be more like Lily. Cool, calm, collected.
The metal gate swung open and in shuffled Thomas Jefferson Granger in a bright orange suit, handcuffs and leg shackles. To Scotty's surprise Thomas didn't look like the aging, elderly man with grey hair and a wrinkled face that he had originally pictured. Instead, Thomas seemed to be in his mid 20's, crew cut light brown hair and a tall, slightly bulky physique. He seemed more like somebody's charming associate professor, teaching assistant or grad student rather than a serial killer. He seemed like anything but a serial killer. That was probably how he managed to kill so many.
"Thomas Granger? I'm Detective Lily Rush and this is my partner Detective Scotty Valens." Lily said calmly.
Thomas slowly sat down on the hard white bench. "You police put me in here for life, I always thought you'd just close the door, lock it and throw away the key. Never imagined I'd have officers visiting me again."
"Well we're here because we have more questions to ask you."
"Such as?"
"Did you ever come across the girl in this picture?" Lily opened the file folder and took out the picture of Josh and Victoria that Allison had left for them.
Thomas glanced at the picture and stared at the young girl. "Nope, I never saw her before."
"You sure?"
"I don't see how this has to do with anything."
"You might want to take a closer look at what she's got on her wrist, Thomas." Scotty advised as he strolled around the room. "Are you sure you don't recognize her face?"
Thomas stared at the picture that was still in the fingers of Lily's outstretched, unwavering hand. His eyes stopped at the wristband for a few seconds. Lily and Scotty both saw the muscles in his jaw tighten.
"No I don't recognize her face." Thomas said at last.
"Oh don't play dumb with us, we know you're special signature is killing all those who wear that identical orange wristband." Lily said sharply.
"Victoria died in April; the next girl died in June of that year. The only connection between those two girls was the fact that both wore that same wristband. If that doesn't look suspicious, I don't know what does." Scotty added.
"It's a coincidence, that's all." Thomas insisted.
"Come on, you're already in here for life, another confession's not going to make much of a difference." Lily said sweetly, leaning forward and resting her chin on the palm of one hand. "What was Victoria to you? Just some naïve girl that ticked you off because she was wearing the wrong bracelet? Maybe that classified her as a bitch? A snob? So by that logic you had to get rid of her?"
"NEVER!" Thomas screamed.
Slightly caught off guard by the single sudden outburst, Lily involuntarily jerked backwards and found Scotty's reassuring hand on her shoulder. She caught the eye of a tense guard standing just past the metal fence-like door and gave him a small nod to reassure him that everything was still under control and that the two of them were alright.
Across the table Thomas struggled to bring his heavy breathing back down to normal. He looked at Lily with wild eyes, trying to shoot spitfire and fury from those brown irises.
"I told you." Thomas said wearily as his breathing returned to normal. "I never saw her in my life."
Lily knew that was all she was going to get out of Thomas. "Thank you Mr. Granger, that will be all for today. We'll have another chat soon." She signalled for the guard to come and escort Thomas back to his cell. It was only after the door had banged shut that Scotty realized he still had his hand upon Lily's shoulder.
"Uh, right, that was…uhm, somewhat productive." Scotty said a bit sarcastically as he quickly yanked his hand back, praying she hadn't noticed the lingered presence.
Lily gathered up the files and closed her notebook. "Well at least we know he's more than capable of snapping." She said calmly.
The two exited the interrogation cage and made their way back to the front desk. "I don't think we're going to get anymore out of him Lil." Scotty said. "He's not going to admit anything to the police anymore, not even what he had for breakfast. We've hit a dead end with this one."
"Then we'll just have to continue on with our other leads." She replied.
"I know he's hiding something." Lily continued confidently. "We just have to find out what."
Author's Note: Of course, a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, kawaii-peach14, Mysterious Meli, Pen and MaryRose! Please keep those reviews coming guys! New reviewers are always welcome! ) It lets me know people are actually reading my story.
Pen: Hopefully this has been a good sliver of Lily time. Though I'm not too good at slipping in comedy, I'll try my best to give Vera some good lines. Hopefully I can pull it off.
Mysterious Meli: Yeah I'm trying to make this case somewhat complicated. But hopefully I won't confuse everyone with the complications (including myself!) lol.