Chapter Six
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"Look, it is not against the law for adults to take off and not tell anyone, it happens all the time lady. I am sure your son is just blowing off steam somewhere – you said it yourself, he lost his job and was in danger of being sued by some big shot." The desk sergeant groused dismissively.
"I know all of that – the problem is I only know about what was going on with his job because I got in touch with his boss, Ian would have called us and told us what happened, that is why I know something is terribly wrong. I am just asking for help to enter his apartment, his car is missing from the parking lot of his complex and his phone goes straight to voicemail. It is unlike him not to check on his father – he takes him for dialysis on alternate days and he has not called or answered his phone in almost three weeks, I am telling you – something is wrong." Helen Skinner pleaded.
"Alright, fine. We will send a unit over to his apartment building, you will have to meet them there along with the super or building manager, understood?"
"Yes, thank you."
Helen Skinner knew something was wrong – she knew before her son's building super opened the door and the overwhelming odor hit her that something had to be wrong if her son Ian had not called in over two weeks. She fell to her knees and had to be assisted outside as she was not allowed to enter the apartment while police determined what was going on. She was later told it would be some time before she could enter the apartment as it had been declared a crime scene.
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"What are you doing two Fridays from now?" Ray asked handing Carla a package of Twizzlers and placing the bowl of hot buttered popcorn on the coffee table of his media room.
Ray and Carla were dressed in their pajamas and slipper socks as they enjoyed a relaxing Saturday afternoon of lazing and watching movies – they had chosen the Godfather trilogy for a couple of reasons. One, they both loved the movies, and secondly since they had both seen them many times they wouldn't be missing anything should they become...distracted.
"That popcorn smells sooo good. I don't know what I'm doing that day, why?"
"I thought we could go to the courthouse and get married." Ray says grabbing a handful of popcorn.
"What?" Carla asked barely above a whisper.
"You heard me woman." Ray laughs, pulling the ring box from his pocket.
"I'm not a big words guy Carla – but I do know I love you, and I want to be with you. We're old enough to know what we want, and I want you with me every damn day. Will you marry me?"
"Yes. I love you too Ray." Carla replied tearing up.
Ray placed the two carat solitaire set in platinum on her left ring finger and pulled her in for a kiss that rendered them both breathless.
"You're serious about two weeks from Friday?" Carla asked after they finished making out like teenagers.
"Damn straight, we have to go and get a license and it takes a week."
"I figure we could get married on your lunch break and then head to a bed and breakfast over the border until Sunday afternoon and then back to work on Monday. We can have a big reception shebang once we have time to plan one – but I don't want to wait for all of that – I hate not waking up with you every morning."
"About that – where are we going to live?" Carla owned her home outright and could not imagine leaving or selling it for that matter.
"I thought about this – and I would like for you to move in here, but I know you want to keep your house, so how about we talk to Caroline about renting your house?"
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"She walks around here like she owns the place now, clearly she was pretending to be nice at first."
"Oh Leila that is not true, Ana is a lovely person, I enjoy working for her very much, she is tough – but very fair and she knows her shit." Ana hears her assistant Hannah and who she now realizes is Leila Williams one of the staff accountants talking about her just as she was about to enter the expansive supply cubicle.
The article in the Nooz had been bad enough, but after Christian had flown her to Portland for dinner at the fabulous Beast restaurant for her birthday – where they had been spotted and photographed, they became an internet sensation of sorts, well at least as far as Seattle residents were concerned anyway.
She had been surprised the day before her birthday when she received six round suede boxes of Eternity Roses by Venus Et Fleur in pink, white, purple, yellow, blue and red, all designed and packaged to last for an entire year. She stood there listening while fingering the diamond bracelet Christian had given her as a birthday present – she had to reach out to her mother because she felt so weird accepting such an extravagant gift – she had been stunned when her mother told her to get used to it as part of dating a man of means and to be mindful of his feelings. Her mom had also shared that Ray was incredibly generous and she had to make adjustments as well.
"You're just saying that because she likes you – she is so snobby to everyone else." Ana is jolted from her wonderful memories to this nonsense with Leila.
"Funny, you seemed to like her before you learned she was dating Mr. Grey, you are just jealous."
"That is not true, I…"
"Oh please! Everyone in this department knows you have been trying to get Mr. Grey's attention since the day you started working here. The way you push out your chest and get all breathless when he visits the floor is just embarrassing." Hannah chides.
"Well, I do not deny that I find him attractive, I have eyes Hannah – I haven't done anything wrong."
"Oh no? Leila, I am incredibly observant, I have seen you attempt to cozy up to his security staff to get info on his schedule but they shut you out, I wouldn't be surprised if you were on some proscribed list of annoying, desperate chicks." Hannah adds with a smirk.
"That is such a lie…"
"Is it? Like the time you just happened to end up at Mirage when he and his brother were there?" Hannah queries before lowering the boom.
"Did you or did you not tell Tammie that you overheard his assistant Olivia mention that she needed to make a reservation there for a Friday night, while in line at the café? Yes, you said you were devastated when he walked past you as if you were one of the barstools – cubicles have no doors Leila and they are open at the top by the way." Hannah points to the top of the cubicle they now occupy to illustrate her point.
"I…I…"
"Yeah, exactly. I suggest you stick to your job – their relationship is none of your business, or mine for that matter. Do yourself a favor and move on, it could only end terribly for you."
At that moment Ana made her presence known to Hannah and Leila. She already felt Hannah was a great assistant, she now knew she was also a friend.
"There I was poring over an endless list of my priorities for the week when I realized I was all out of Post-It notes. I guess when you're busy concentrating on actually doing your job, you forget trivial minutiae." Ana remarks with first a smirk at Hannah and then glaring at Leila.
"Miss Lambert…"
"Save it." She quietly admonished before collecting her Post-Its and leaving the cubicle and a stunned Leila in her dust.
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"Mia noooooo! How on earth do you get catfished in a Facebook group dedicated to fantasy couture design, and how does that work anyway?"
Ana and Mia were enjoying a girl's night – opting not to join Christian and Elliot for dinner and drinks at the Mile High to spend time getting to know each other better. Ever since Labor Day weekend they had been texting and had chatted a few times – Ana really liked Mia's bubbly personality and found her to be genuine and fun to be around. Neither Ana nor Mia had had much luck with friendships with women, so they found it comforting to spend time with someone with whom they had a lot in common.
After Christian and Elliot shared details of their encounters with Kate, she had spilled about her friendship with Kate. It was Mia that helped her to understand exactly who Kate was, according to Mia she had seen her type a million times.
"True story. Turns out she had like three online identities, that we know of. The way it works is each designer uses bits and pieces of designs by famous designers, or just inspiration and sort of make them their own, while giving the original designer or designers credit of course – it was supposed to be entertaining and fun."
"How did you find out she was not who she said she was."
"Well, it all started because soon after she joined the group – all of a sudden, there was constant drama, drama she always seemed to be at the center of. I mean while the rest of us talked endlessly about our love of lesser known designers and artists she droned on and on about alleged nasty messages sent to her profile and the profiles of her friends.
Most of us ignored the incessant buzzing and kept on about our mission for being in the group in the first place, I mean it was so high school. Suddenly some of us began getting criticized for our fashion interests and commentary – mostly those who were very popular, or getting the most likes and comments to our posts. The common denominator of course was this one chick – it was always happening to her too and she seemed to know about it even though we were not bringing attention to what had basically become online bullying. The group stopped being about fashion and devolved into a forum for grievance and petty mean girl cliques. For a while it worked I guess if that was her mission – I am still not sure what motivated her, perhaps attention, who knows?
At any rate, I figured it out because we had a private chat once where she mentioned among her favorites was one designer in particular. I did not comment, but I thought that designer was a bit of an over embellisher, but rather than criticize a fellow designer I just shared with her designers I liked instead of commenting negatively.
Eventually she came out with her fantasy line she called Ashe. When we asked about the name she simply stated she liked that spelling versus ash and that the name was fitting because of her love of earth tones – I thought nothing more of it, the line was decent, just not my cup of tea, I did not follow her line and she was not part of my all stars. It was preference not personal." Mia stated with a shrug of nonchalance.
The drama seemed to ratchet up after that with one of the other group members being accused of stealing designs and sending hate mail – causing a lot of the group to turn on her, she eventually pulled all of her designs and left the group altogether. I was very upset because she was extremely talented – I reached out to her with words of encouragement, she responded, thanking me for my kind words but she never returned."
"Good lord, this makes those housewife shows sound tame in comparison, in terms of childish ass drama that is." Ana intoned, shaking her head in disbelief.
"I know right?" Mia shook her head.
"When I asked one of the group moderators if we could tone down the drama and stick to the art, I suddenly started receiving critical messages, nothing huge, just backhanded compliments, and then just outright criticism, I believe designed to discourage me, no pun intended. She had ingratiated herself into the group so thoroughly that even what was shared offline, by members wanting to opt out of the drama was somehow relayed to her. She was very clever – to a point."
"Wow."
"Wow is right. So I just ignored the petty comments, because I am awesome. But it made me wonder about the drama queen and what I found blew my mind. I decided to check out a few profiles, including the woman she named as her favorite designer and promoted frequently. That person while a part the group was almost always quiet and rarely engaged in the group discussions – while this person constantly promoted her when new members asked which designers they should check out. Turns out the person she told me was her favorite designer had children, and one of them was named…?"
"Ashe." Ana guessed, blown away by the level of crazy.
"Same spelling. I knew then we'd all been had – I had Barney, Chris' IT guru do some digging around IP addresses and found out they were one in the same."
"That's insaaaane!" Ana laughed.
"Tell me about it!"
"Did you confront her?"
"Nope." Mia responds popping the p.
"Why not? I think I would have outed her at least."
"I told a few of the ladies I had grown close to and we laughed about her and swiftly moved on with our lives. Our full and happy lives – to be perfectly honest I had not thought of her until you mentioned your crazy, miserable assed friend. Besides, judging from her online profiles her life was clearly trash, no need to compound her misery by exposing her for the mean spirited, hate filled troll that she is. My revenge is being happy."
"I think I didn't want to see Kate, or anyone for that matter as a bad person. I just could not fathom a person being so evil.
Oh well, enough about bitch trolls, what do you want to do tonight?" Ana asked feeling the need to fill her head with something other than thoughts of pathetic, disturbed women.
"Let's go Dimitrious Jazz Alley, it is literally just around the corner. We can listen to music, have a little dinner and a few cocktails – I started going to jazz clubs in Paris, the atmosphere is so chill, what do you think?"
So this is what a grown up friendship feels like, Ana thought to herself. Spending time with Mia was so effortless, she did not have to be on her toes at all times, she appreciated that Mia made an effort to build a friendship, and that in spite of the fact that she came from money, lots of money - she was incredibly down to earth. Ana now realized that she had been too eager to become friends with Kate, it was all part of her college immersion coming from a place of yes crap. With most of her friends attending college out of state she felt anxiety and rushed into the friendship without measured thought, it was one of the few times she did not do the math.
"Sounds like a plan."
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"You are fucking kidding me!" Elliot quiet shouted incredulously.
All Christian could do was nod, he almost did not believe it himself.
"What has it been, like six weeks you two have been together and…nothing?"
"I never said nothing, but as far as actual sex goes, we are taking it slow. And I know you of all people are not going to believe this, but I will wait until she is ready, no matter how long it takes."
"You're right I don't believe you man, you love pussy more than I do and that's a tall order. What have you two crazy kids been doing with your time?" Elliot teases.
Christian shook his head at his big brother, he was right, sex was just the thing to do in his past relationships – he honestly never gave it much thought. His experience with Elena likely caused him to be somewhat callous about the act, but in all fairness to his feelings about Ana, he just never wanted to do more than that before.
"We have been getting to know each other. I know for Elliot Grey, Vagina Slayer the concept seems foreign, but we spend a lot of time just talking."
"Well I don't have to ask if you're attracted to her, I just don't know how you're doing it."
"Strangely I would not change a thing."
"I'm just fucking with you, you know that right – I am very happy for you Chris, someday I know I will meet the one. I can tell you two are very compatible, she's a bad ass."
"What the hell does compatible mean as it relates to me?"
"You know exactly what it means, like Mia and I used to say when we were growing up, you would have a nerdy wife, with whom you could have little nerdy babies, and live in a nerdy house on Nerd Lane."
"Well considering being cool is primarily an adolescent preoccupation – I think I am okay with that." Christian smirks.
"Seriously man, the two of you are all books and figures, I'll bet she loves crosswords and the history channel."
Christian roars with laughter.
"Stop thinking you know me!" He playfully fusses at his big brother.
"Get real, you have dated successful women before, but from what we talked about they were no brain trusts and you know this. Ana is your intellectual equal – and it doesn't hurt that she's hot as fuck!"
"Hey!..."
"Not blind." Elliot states pointing to himself.
"Keep those beady baby blues to yourself." Christian playfully admonishes.
"I am glad you two met for more reasons than one." Elliot says seriously.
"What does that mean?"
"Well, when I look in the mirror after meeting her – if I have that look on my face – I will know it's real for one." He says pointing to Christian.
"What look!?"
"You look content and peaceful. And I can't really put my finger on it – but you're actually more youthful somehow. You have no idea how long it has been since I have seen you laugh with the family. Dude you were frolicking."
"I do not frolick." Christian scoffs.
"Yeah okay."
Christian checks his text messages and shows him a text from Ana.
"I had no idea our little sister was into jazz, who knew?"
"I did, she sent me a lot of tracks of local jazz musicians during her time in Paris. I am very glad Ana and Mia are becoming friends – both could use some genuine female companionship. Kate and Lily were like a fucking two headed demon, they deserve it."
Elliot starts laughing.
"Do not say it."
"I can't help it – every time I see that girl I think about her climbing into your bed naked and grabbing your dick only to wind up slammed to the floor after a vicious punch to the nose. I mean, shit I never want to see a woman get hit, but that shit was funny as hell."
Christian had never talked about this with Elliot before because he could never understand why he wouldn't just fuck Lily but Christian knew if he did that it would have been like feeding a stray cat he would never, ever get rid of. The truth of the matter was that in spite of the fact that Lily is a beautiful girl with a smoking body, she is a terrible person. She is a spoiled entitled brat who threw herself at him shamelessly and it was a turn off as he hated that kind of aggression in women – especially those with whom he had nothing in common and no chance for any kind of meaningful dialogue.
"I freaked the hell out – I mean I was kind of still drunk, not to mention asleep and she grabbed my junk and was working me up before I fully grasped what was happening, then she tried to mount me. I woke up and just took a wild swing and kicked her off of the bed. For a moment I had no idea where the hell I was I forgot we were all at Mom and Dad's – I did not mean to hurt her, but…"
It finally dawns on Elliot…Elena.
"Shit."
"No, don't do that." Christian admonishes.
"No Chris, I'm sorry, I never thought about why you flipped out. I guess I thought you were fully over all of that."
"I am now, but I did have nightmares for a while."
"How come you never told me about that?"
"I honestly don't know – I think I wanted, no I needed for everyone to move past it so I could. I didn't want you all to worry about me. Especially you." Christian emphasized.
"If I had told Mom and Dad that she made me uncomfortable, it would have never happened to you…"
"Don't do that, she was responsible for her behavior, and you only had a feeling – she never did anything overt so…" Christian interrupted.
"Yes, but…our parents would have been vigilant in checking her out and would have never let you anywhere near her."
"Maybe. Doesn't matter, you are not to blame, and I don't have nightmares anymore."
"Suzanne."
"What about her?"
"She's headed this way."
Great, that's all I need Christian thought with a deep sigh.
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"I'm so glad you suggested coming here – it's so relaxing."
"I'm glad you like it."
"I can tell Chris really likes you a lot." Mia beams.
"Well I hope so because he is incredible, and I enjoy what we have, very much."
"Good, it is nice to see my brother happy for a change. I mean I know he has everything he could ever want materially, but Chris is always so buttoned down and stuffy. He is so young, but acts like an old fuddy duddy – I haven't seen this Chris since we were kids. It's nice." Mia beams.
Ana giggled at the notion of Christian being a fuddy duddy. He was so present with her – he seemed to savor every moment, he made her feel…alive.
"While I doubt she would use the words fuddy duddy, I think my mother likely feels the same about me – she has always genuinely worried about my making friends, she felt as though I was all work and no play."
"Well that sounds like the two of you are perfectly matched. Ana I heard my brother belly laughing repeatedly for the first time in a very long time, he worries constantly about GEH and its forty thousand employees, and while I think that is still the case, I recognize that he is on his way to finding both happiness and balance and that is because of you. I am grateful." Mia states emphatically reaching out and squeezing Ana's hand in gratitude.
"Oh Mia, I think you are giving me much too much credit…"
"Trust me Ana." She interrupts.
"It is all about you." She adds with a wink.
The two budding friends sit back and enjoy Norman Brown's performance while sipping cheesecake martinis and taking a few selfies to send to Christian and of course for Mia's Instagram.
They call it a night and head back to Escala where Mia is spending the night at her brother's place since she has an early spa appointment in the morning at the Four Seasons.
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"Your father is being an absolute asshole about this whole thing. Your allowance and bullshit salary is not enough for the two of us to live off of."
"Well you would have had access to a lot more if you had not decided to fuck the dean…"
"You ungrateful little tramp, if I hadn't screwed that moron, you would not be a college graduate. With honors I might add."
"Oh, please! You did him because that is what you wanted, do not try to make this mess you are in my fault. You are the reason Ethan will not even take my damn calls. You ruined us!"
"Whatever Kate, you aren't one to talk, you threw yourself at Jack Dorsey even though you knew he had a girlfriend – he flew you out to California and had fun with you for a weekend then tossed you aside. After that it was Steve Huffman right? Same story – the only thing those two have in common is neither ever was even seen with you in public. You were really racking them up and you weren't even nineteen yet…"
Kate stood in stunned silence wondering just how her mother knew of her escapades. She had been both hurt and disappointed at how things turned out, especially with Jack Dorsey, she was sure they had made a connection but after their weekend together the phone number he used to contact her was disconnected. Steve Huffman had met her at her hotel after she breezed into town on her own dime and dm'd him shots of her breasts. After he screwed her hard and fast, she had been devastated when he went to the gift shop to buy toiletries and did not return.
"Oh, you thought no one knew!? Stupid little girl. Christian Grey has you on a proscribed list – and if it was not for that little wallflower you once lived with you would have never found yourself in the same room with him, he thinks you are pure trash. You put in all that time just to get him to look your way and where did that get you, he chose the bookworm and from what I can tell he seems to really like her."
"You could always live elsewhere Joyce." Kate chastised.
"When are you going to get it through your thick skull little girl, I am all you have and vice versa." Joyce groaned giving Kate a stern look.
"Now, write a check for the cleaning service, they will be here in the morning while you are at work."
"I never agreed to pay for that, I don't make…"
"Get over yourself! You either write the damn check or get to cleaning, this place smells like ass."
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"This is Ethan, leave a message."
"Ethan, please you have to believe me – I had no idea what Mom was doing. She cheated on Dad and I…I, please Ethan, I miss you – I don't have anyone, you know how horrible she is. Please call me Ethan. I need you."
Kate sobbed, as she left Ethan yet another voicemail message. She felt horrible that she had told her mother about the two girls that Ethan had impregnated, she had no idea her mother was gathering data to be used against her.
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"Yes?" Ana called out after the light tapping outside her door.
"Ms. Lambert, my apologies, Hannah is not at her desk…"
"How may I help you Ms. Williams?"
"I just wanted to come by and apologize for the other day, I was way out of line. There was no call to speak about you in that way, I…"
Ana had noticed just how coolly some of the staffers had regarded her once the news broke about her relationship with Christian, Leila had been one of those staffers. She was not at all surprised by the supply cubicle commentary, she had grown accustomed to pettiness…sadly.
"Let me just stop you right there Ms. Williams and let you know that I have zero interest in an apology you would not be making had I not overheard your conversation."
Leila began looking green around the gills. Ana could tell she was visibly shaken, but gave her a little credit for having the guts to at least make an attempt to confront the situation.
"My personal life does not affect my work – so I have very little understanding of why it is such a concern of yours." Ana had considered showing her mercy, but thought better of it.
"I had planned to meet with you later today to inform you that I have requested you be transferred to mergers and acquisitions..."
At this news Leila perked up, ever so slightly – after all, that meant reporting to Ros, who of course reports to Christian, directly.
"You will report to Bill Payne on the tenth floor beginning on Monday."
At that Leila's perkiness left the room. Checkmate.
"Bill Payne? Why not Ms. Bailey?"
"I spoke with Ms. Bailey and she does not want you in her group. It turns out Hannah is not the only one who has noticed your unprofessionalism as it relates to Mr. Grey. Ms. Bailey in fact recommended your termination. I however, felt your exceptional work deserved a second chance, Bill will not hesitate to get rid of you should you not perform well."
At this revelation Leila looked crestfallen.
"You should give Tina, Bill's assistant a call so that you can figure out logistics before next week."
Leila stood stunned by what had just transpired. Who the fuck did she think she was? First they put this little bitch in charge of the long serving staff, now this – this was all her doing. On top of it all, she was fucking Christian Grey – one day…
"Was there anything else?"
Ana pulled Leila from her thoughts.
"Um. No…no. Thank you for your time."
Ana nodded as Leila turned and walked out of her office door, nearly colliding with Christian on the way out. Ana wanted to laugh out loud as Leila lowered her head and practically ran away, after Christian scoffed at the near miss.
"Hey baby." He said kissing her cheek.
"Ready for lunch?"
"Yes, I am starving."
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"So why would they need to talk to me? I have never even been in the same room with Ian Skinner."
"Well, apparently he told his parents that you were quote 'gunning for him' and that you had a lot of influence and he was afraid."
"Bullshit!"
"Of course it is – but they have to speak with you as a matter of protocol sir." Taylor informed Christian.
"Fine."
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"Mr. Grey, Detective Polk, thank you for seeing me today."
"Certainly, no problem. Please, have a seat."
"Can you tell us where you were on the evening of September third?" No foreplay, just straight to banging Christian thought uncharitably. It was clear Detective Polk wanted to get the hell out of his building as soon as possible.
"I was at my parent's home in Bellevue from about three in the afternoon, until about eleven that evening. I was there for their end of summer party – afterwards I returned home to Escala with my girlfriend and her mother, and we did not leave until the next morning when we met my family for brunch."
"Your girlfriend is Ms. Anastasia Lambert?"
"That is correct."
"And her mother is Carla Lambert?"
"Correct."
"Have you ever had direct contact with Ian Skinner?"
"Never, I spoke with his editor, David Ryan."
"Why did you contact his editor?"
"Because of the article Mr. Skinner wrote concerning my relationship with my girlfriend."
"Why was the article problematic for you?
"The article while not necessarily problematic for either Ms. Lambert or myself in any tangible way was insulting and potentially libelous. Mr. Skinner was attempting to tarnish my girlfriend's reputation and mine adjacently. I would rather not repeat the details of the article – my head of security will provide you a copy should you require it."
"That won't be necessary, we received that information from Mr. Ryan."
"What was the outcome of the discussion with Mr. Ryan?" Detective Polk inquired.
Christian failed to understand how any of this was connected to him – he had never even met the guy, sure enough he was ultimately responsible for him losing his job, but he had nothing to do with his murder.
"The site printed a retraction and an apology, that same night in fact. I completed the purchase of the site a few days ago and have sold off the pieces."
Detective Polk was taken aback, he wondered why he felt the need to take it that far if this Ryan guy had handled it.
"Why did you shut the site down?"
"I believe in a free press, but I do not believe in a fictional press. Organizations such as the Nooz cause harm to people and unfortunately most people have no recourse because they lack the resources to fight, and while they have written many unkind and speculative articles about me in the past, this time they went too far and in this case an apology would not suffice."
"I see."
Polk knew this thing was a waste of time, but he had been admonished for leaving Grey out of his report altogether, and they were becoming desperate because there were no leads whatsoever.
The autopsy had shown that Skinner had died around nine in the evening on the third of September. He had sustained one fatal stab wound to the neck that nicked his carotid artery – but it was clear that he had taken a beating before his death.
The coroner found the bruising on his body curious in that it seemed to have been very precise given the blows were landed in places that would have caused him excruciating pain likely meaning he would have lost consciousness at some point given the severity of the bruising of his liver, sternum and his scrotum. The fatal wound however did not appear to happen at around the same time of the beating as the victim's body showed bruising. Dr. Baden determined that he had sustained a beating and then was killed hours later by what appeared to be a hap hazard stab wound.
Further, Dr. Baden stated that whomever, struck Skinner's artery was considerably shorter than him because the wound's trajectory was from an upward stabbing motion. Skinner was about five foot ten, so the coroner determined the person who stabbed him stood about five foot five at the most, most likely female. He further determined that the severity of the bruising to his liver could not have been inflicted by a woman, even one well versed in martial arts.
Police were desperate to solve this one and get Skinner's parents off their backs, they had gone to the news media, they were angry but wisely stopped short of accusing Grey of being involved after the coroner's findings were shared as well as being shown time stamped Instagram photos of Grey and Ms. Lambert along with his family and security in the background on the day their son died. Helen Skinner in particular was a pain in the ass, and although her son was a real sleaze ball, he deserved justice as much as the next guy.
The only promising lead was a number he called on the day of his murder, seemingly in the right time frame – the number turned out to be a disposable phone and it was going to take some time to track down the owner. Fortunately they could use the number to find other numbers that it was used to call, hopefully those people could be contacted. It was not much – but it beat a dead end at this point.
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Christian and Ana were sitting by the fireplace enjoying a quiet Saturday evening after finishing dinner.
"Dinner was great, I don't think I have had homemade chili since I lived at home."
"Thank you, it is one of my favorite one pot dishes to make." Ana said snuggling into Christian's side.
"Ana, it looks like you have not opened mail in a week." Christian said lifting the small stack of mail from her coffee table.
"I mostly get junk mail, so I don't pay attention to…"
Ana stopped mid-sentence when she noticed the light blue envelope with her name in beautiful script, with the name Steele along with a Vancouver address on the flap.
"Oh my god!" Ana squealed, making Christian jump.
"What is it?"
"You and I are invited to a wedding reception." Ana giggled with glee.
"Oh yeah, one of your friends got married?"
"You could say that." She grinned.
"The invitation is from Mr. and Mrs. Steele, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Steele."
"Wow, that's fantastic." Christian smiled, genuinely happy for Carla and Ray.
"I cannot believe Mom eloped!" Ana remarked already dialing her mom with the phone on speaker.
"Well it took you long enough." Came Carla's voice over the speaker.
"Mom! You eloped! – Congratulations, I am sooo happy for you two! When did you get married? What did you wear?"
Carla giggled at Ana's excitement.
"Okay one thing at a time. First, thank you, we are very happy, secondly, we got married last Friday and third it was casual Friday and we got married on my lunch hour and I went right back to work."
Ana was floored by the admission.
"Don't worry Nana we will be all dressed up for our reception in three weeks. We are going to take a honeymoon for about two weeks after that, but Ray will not tell me where we are going – I have been waiting for two days for you to open that invite, Nana you have to open your mail every day." Carla laughed.
Ray talked to Christian in advance of the invite being sent to ask for his help – after Carla explained to him that Ana would often grab the mail and place it down, but fail to read or look through it, even when she was expecting a letter or mailing. Since Ana paid bills online, she usually just received junk mail which she waited to pile up, Carla knew her baby girl well.
Christian had taken the opportunity to offer Ray his private jet for their honeymoon and after some prodding Ray finally agreed, he so looked forward to taking Carla to Europe for their honeymoon, and could not wait to surprise her.
"So Mom, what is the color scheme, what do you want me to wear? Have you found the dress? The invitations are just beautiful that shade of blue is just…"
Ana's exuberant voice trailed as she bounced out of the room to grab her IPad so they could Facetime on a bigger screen with Carla and Ray, leaving Christian in the living room tickled by his girlfriend's excitement and happiness.
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A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing.