The Pregnancy Ship
Chapter 9: Red Herrings
Andy let Sharon have a good cry as he sat on the couch with her on his lap. He ran his fingers through her hair and stroked her back. Finally the tears stopped, she had cried herself out. "Are you ready to go home now?" he asked gently and handed her some Kleenex.
She nodded, hiccuping, sniffling and mopping the tears away. He gathered their things to take her home to rest. Between being up half the night worrying about her father's radioactive seeding procedure that morning and now Andrea, her best girlfriend was about to lose one of her babies. And not being able to be there for either of them because of her own pregnancy and the demands of her job, Sharon was feeling guilty, vulnerable, and just plain worn out.
Andy understood, he wrapped his arm around her and maneuvered her down to the parking garage and into the passenger seat. She buckled her seat belt, while he put her stuff in the backseat of her car. It was late afternoon and starting to get cooler. There was another of her favorite fleece blankets and a travel pillow in the corner of her backseat, he grabbed it and covered her with it. He put the pillow behind her head, gave her a peck on the lips, and then went to the drivers seat to drive them home.
"Andy, I'm so sorry! I've been such a blu...blubber baby lately. I've always been prone to being emotional when I'm pregnant, but this is beyond..." she moved her arm to relate the idea of over the top and, "I can't seem to stop!"
"Sharon, it stands to reason that whatever you're feeling is doubled, by the fact that you have not one but two babies growing inside you. You never have to apologize for being emotional especially when you can't help it." Then he asked her, "did...Jack call you that? A blubber baby?"
She nodded and wiped her face with the Kleenex. "Yes, he would accuse me of t...turning on the t...tears to keep him from having fun with his friends and manipulating him into st…staying home to help me w…ith the children."
Andy felt as if he'd been hit in the solar plexus by an invisible fist. The reason was two fold, that Jack had said that to Sharon and that Andy remembered having a similar argument with his ex-wife, Valerie when he'd been drinking so many years ago. At the time Valerie had been pregnant with twins. Hearing it from Sharon's point of view made him wish he could apologize to Valerie, but speaking to Valerie wasn't a good idea.
Too much had happened between them over the years. They could barely stand being in the same room together!
He decided not to comment. Instead he drove to the house and parked in the garage. When he got out, and went to her side of the car, he was surprised to see her awake.
"Hey Beautiful, I thought you'd be sound asleep by now."
"Too much on my mind, I guess." He kissed her, helped her out of the car, and they walked into the kitchen, hand in hand.
Emily was just putting a piece of pizza in her mouth she put her hand over her mouth while she chewed and then started to swallow. "Hi, Mom! Hi, Andy!" She said after swallowing.
"Hi, Em, where are the boys?"
"In Rusty's room playing chess. Ricky's trying to beat Rusty. I told him it's never going to happen, but he keeps trying."
Sharon nodded and smiled a little. Emily looked at Andy after realizing her mother had been crying. "What's wrong, are you okay? Did something happen?"
"Something happened, but not to your mother. It's your Aunt Andrea. You know that she was pregnant with triplets?"
"Did she lose them all?" Emily looked shocked and saddened.
"No Em, she lost one. There were twins and a single she lost the single. Apparently it was iffy to begin with," Andy said, rubbing Sharon's back in circles to comfort her.
Emily listened to Andy, then turned to her mother, "I'm so sorry. It upset you huh?"
"Yes, um..." the tears started to fill Sharon's eyes again and she waved her hand in front of her face. "I can't t...talk about it okay Em. I'm...I'm going to go change into something more comfortable, I'll be out soon."
Em looked at Andy, wide eyed at her mother's uncharacteristic tears. Andy shrugged, "your Aunt Andrea's situation upset her. Yes, and pregnancy hormones, don't help. Not to mention the fact that she's over tired and she's probably hungry." Emily nodded in understanding.
After getting ready for bed, Sharon padded in her slippers, knee length nightgown and fluffy robe, into the dining room and sat down and started eating some of the pizza.
"Mmmm, I don't remember when I've tasted such good pizza!" Sharon enthused.
"Well, you were probably very hungry, plus it's vegetarian. Andy warned us away from the meat lovers kind." Emily said smirking.
Sharon chuckled, "I'm glad. Wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly good pizza by throwing up all over it!"
Em grimaced, "Mom! Don't put that picture in my head! It's gross!"
Suddenly Sharon's phone started ringing. Sharon put up a finger, to indicate I need a moment. "Hello, Captain Raydor speaking. Oh good! Thank you for letting me know, Paul. That was quick. Give my love to Andrea and tell her, I'll be in to see her tomorrow morning before I go to work. Oh no, it's no trouble! She's my best girlfriend and like one of my sisters, of course I'll visit her. How is she? Really? I mean is she depressed ...or is she okay? Good, I'm so glad! Well I've got to go I'm getting another call," Sharon pulled back and swiped the screen then put it back to her ear. "Hello Amy, what's going on?" she yawned.
Amy was concerned to hear how tired her boss sounded and asked, "Did I wake you? Captain?"
Sharon settled back in her chair to help support her back. "No, just eating some pizza before I go to bed. What's up?"
"Captain, are you sitting down?"
When someone asked her, if you are sitting down, instinctively made her want to stand up and pace, but her aching feet kept her in the chair. "Um, yes actually I am. What is wrong?"
The young detective started, "the girls knew, everything and if they are pregnant, which I sincerely doubt it's not with their brother's babies."
"Oh well, that's interesting, go on define...everything."
"They knew Will was their brother, apparently both girls had seen a picture of their father as a young man and knew right away who he had to be and they cooked up the scheme together to make their father think the alleged babies were Will's. They were also there when he killed their parents they were in the kitchen." Taking a quick breath before continuing with her explanation. "They were supposed to meet there to confront the parents, but they got there too late they said. It was their idea to mix things up a bit and have both the parents in the bed, instead of the bedroom and the living room like the original Borden murders.
"But, if they moved the body how was there no blood from the living room to the bedrooms? I'm sure Tao checked and I would have remembered him saying there was blood." Sharon asked
Amy was ready with an answer. "The Borden's kept a plastic couch cover on the couch and the chairs in the living room. This weekend there was also one over the carpet, because Saturday there was supposed to be repairs done on the living room ceiling. It had a watermark from the toilet in the upstairs bathroom overflowing recently. They wrapped him up with it and carried him upstairs. Will had already put the woman in bed and covered her up. They just did the same to their father, and then they buried the plastic couch cover, the ones for the chairs and the rug, far from the house. The girls buried their clothes, in still another place. Then they went back to town and came back to the ranch the next day to discover the bodies."
Sharon Raydor liked to know all the details so she asked, "I've heard this place referred as a farm and a ranch, which is it?"
"It's both Ma'am." Amy said as she quickly looked through her notes for the facts. "The farm part is actually a large vegetable garden, some farm animals like cows pigs, chickens and goats, a field to grow hay for the cows. There's one for alfalfa and one for oats all that was close to the house and mostly the girls responsibility. They had some help from two of the youngest ranch hands, Billy and Bobby on the weekends when they were away. The ranch part was about a mile and a half away from the house and was the Foreman a mister Chad Rodgers and the ranch hands responsibility."
"Back to the moving of the bodies. How come Dr. Morales didn't catch the fact that they moved the body? Or Tao?"
"Remember, Dr. Morales was on vacation in Hawaii? His colleague Dr. Lewis was knee deep in bodies from a car crash. Since it was clear what had killed them they were put in cold storage for Morales to finish when he came back. He came back this morning and caught the lividity right away. He came up to talk to Lieutenant Provenza, right after you left and Tao said there was no blood from the living room to the upstairs." Sykes, who was sitting at her desk, glanced up at the murder board to the pictures of the sisters that were hanging up there. "Oh and by the way, those girls dropped the dumb hick persona pretty quick, once they knew we knew about the bodies being moved, and the fact that we knew Will was their brother. During the second interview, they started bragging about how they fooled us with the dumb hick act. They wanted to pull lot of red herrings across our path. Even the body odor thing was supposed to like, cement the idea that these girls were too poorly educated to even keep themselves clean. So consequently they'd be too dumb to have figured out how to outsmart the police."
Sharon was glad she had already eaten some pizza because now she had lost her appetite as she listened to Amy mentioned what they had missed. "You said, you doubted they were pregnant at least not with their brother's babies. Find out for sure whether or not they are pregnant, and whose children they are. One last point, the trucks odometer should have revealed the extra mileage, why didn't it?"
"Yes, Ma'am I'll get right on that. As for the trucks odometer it has been broken a long time. It's an old truck."
There was one more thing Sharon needed to know, "Did they get a deal?"
Amy looked at the file she had ready on her desk. She knew the captain would want to know everything that had happened when she wasn't there. "Fifteen years imprisonment, no parole for conspiracy to commit murder, and obstruction of justice, with special circumstances of financial gain."
Sharon yawned again, "Sorry, Amy."
"Oh, no problem Captain, I understand. You've had a rough day, first with your father, then DDA Hobbs situation and being pregnant with twins…has got to be rough."
Though she didn't say "at your age," Sharon heard it just the same and sighed. "Goodbye, Amy thanks for the update, I'll see you in the morning."
"Bye, Captain."
Sharon hung up the phone and looked at Andy. "I take it the girls were in on it the whole time?" asked Andy.
Sharon nodded, "I feel like I screwed up somehow," she said sadly.
Andy wrapped her in his arms, "Sweetheart, if you screwed up we all did. We all believed their little charade and felt sorry for them."
"But if I hadn't been so focused on other things..."
"Life happens Sweetheart, none of it was under your control and this case was so convoluted we were all trying to navigate through the red herrings and coincidences verses deliberate acts, that even Tao wasn't sure whether he was coming, going or just left. But even with all that we still solved the case, within 72 hours and got signed confessions, it's a win, win situation. Now, let's get you to sleep, you are so tired, Sweetheart." He turned her toward their bedroom.
"But Andy, it's so early!" She grumbled, but yawned. As they started towards the bedroom Sharon saw Emily looking wistfully at her and realized how little time she'd been able to spend with her daughter. "Andy, would you mind very much if Emily came with me?"
Andy gave her a kiss on her forehead; Eskimo kissed her nose with his and then gave her another kiss on her lips. "Not at all, you two girls have a nice chat. Not too much talking though, I want to hear that cute little snore you do when you sleep," he said and tapped the end of her nose.
"I do not snore and I'm not cute!" Sharon said indignantly.
"Yeah, you do Mom," giggled Emily, "not loud but you do snore."
"And you are adorable! Is that better?"
"I do not snore!" She said stomping her foot. Sharon looked from Andy to Emily giving her amused stares and gave an annoyed huff, "oh okay, I snore! Are you happy now?" She said and yawned hugely. In the back of her mind Sharon knew she was acting childishly, but she was so tired she couldn't seem to stop herself. That was one of the few things she hated about being pregnant. Emotions overwhelmed her, without her usual ability to keep them under control. With this pregnancy, anger, tears, and laughter were all just under the surface and doubled in intensity.
Andy chuckled, Em giggled and nodded. Emily put her arm around Sharon's back as they walked back to hers and Andy's room. Sharon went to use the bathroom and brush her teeth, and then crawled in bed beside Emily who turned toward her. She reached out and ran her fingers through her mother's long auburn hair, from her forehead to the ends, several times. Sharon hummed in appreciation.
Emily had always loved her mother's hair. The silkiness, the smell of her shampoo, which smelled like fruits and flowers. She knew her mother loved having someone run their fingers through it, scratching her scalp with their nails. It relaxed her, just like Emily liked having her back scratched. "So Mom, dish! I want to hear all about your silverfox." By the time Emily got the sentence out of her mouth, she heard the little snore her mother did not wish to acknowledge, and knew her mom had fallen asleep.
The next morning Sharon and Andy got up very early, showered and dressed. Sharon wore a white loose fitting dress with a royal blue blazer and matching low-heeled pumps. Andy wore a dark blue suit with a white shirt, royal blue suspenders, and a royal blue tie. They walked into Andrea's hospital room at 7:00 am. Andrea was sitting up and was looking at the sonograms they had done before and after the surgery, which had removed the lost embryo. Paul was nowhere to be seen. "Hey!" said Sharon.
Andrea looked up and smiled at her friend. She looked a bit better than she had the day before. "Hey," said Andrea.
"You're looking better. How do you feel?" Sharon asked as she came up beside the bed.
"Sore, but happy that the twins have survived...so far."
Sharon smiled at her friend, and squeezed her shoulder with affection. "Do you know what they are? I mean, boys or girls?"
Andrea rubbed her stomach, "two little boys, they couldn't tell what the one that didn't make it was. It wasn't formed enough," she looked away and blinked.
Sharon reached over and hugged her friend and Andrea hugged back. "What are their names?" she asked as reached out to touch her friend's stomach, her raised eyebrows asking silent permission. Andrea nodded smiling through misty eyes.
"Jacob Benjamin and Jared Daniel." Andrea answered smiling.
"Those are great names." Andy said.
"Thanks. So you're still calling yours Eggbert and Eggberta?" Andrea asked, amused.
"Well, yes we'll call them that until we find out what they are, then we'll figure out real names for them. They'll be born near Christmas so we're leaning in the direction of Natalie and Noah if they are a boy and a girl, if they're two girls, Natalie and Isabella. I'm pretty sure at least one is a girl, I could be wrong, but usually I tend to have nausea and dizziness for girls, and with Ricky I had bleeding at the fourth month," mused Sharon.
"I know, I remember. It scared the shit out of me!" said Andrea. You stood up in the restaurant..." Andrea shuddered. "I thought you were dying or that you had lost him."
"Me too," Sharon nodded remembering. "Hopefully that won't happen again," She said rubbing her own tummy. It had gotten slightly rounder in just the three or four days, since her parents had shown up. "Are you going to be on bed rest?"
"Yes, complete bed rest for two weeks, than partial bed rest for the foreseeable future," she groaned.
"Well, I'll try to come visit some and maybe Patrice will too," Sharon said "and there is always Skype."
"When you go on maternity leave, we could have a three month long continuous slumber party!" Andrea said with a mischievous grin.
Sharon giggled trying to imagine three fiftyish pregnant women having a very long slumber party, sitting around Andrea's living room in pajamas watching girly movies and giving in to their pregnancy food cravings. Her giggles seem to come from her toes, low, contagious and pretty soon Andrea joined in, and having a pretty good idea where her friends mind had gone.
Andy shook his head laughing also. He loved hearing Sharon laugh. "What's so funny?" asked Paul as he came in bearing food for him and his wife.
Andrea stopped laughing to try and answer her husband, "It's...we were thinking about having a…oh never mind, I'll tell you later, Honey. What did you bring me?"
"Pancakes, Nutella, with strawberries and bananas." He said smiling as his wife's face light up.
Sharon's stomach rumbled. She and Andy had talked about stopping at IHOP. Now it was a necessity. The smell of the pancakes was mouth watering. She was so glad these bracelets were getting rid of the nausea. The dizziness still happened if she got up too fast or turned too quickly. "Andrea, we'll be going now, I'll see you soon. How long are they keeping you?"
Between bites she said, "until tomorrow, I think."
"I'll try, the operative word being try and Skyping you tonight, after I Skype with my father. I fell asleep at 6:00 o'clock last night and didn't wake up till 6 am this morning. So, I'm not making any promises," Sharon said giving her friend an apologetic look.
"I totally understand," said Andrea rubbing her own stomach to remind Sharon they were in the same boat. Or ship.
Sharon gave her friend a peck on the cheek, said goodbye to Paul then she and Andy left for IHOP. An hour and a half later they walked into the murder room. It was quiet with everybody at their desks doing paperwork, except Amy who was dismantling the murder board. "Good Morning everyone, Great work!"
"Thanks Captain," said Amy.
"I must confess, I was beating myself up because we didn't catch on very fast to the girls involvement, but Andy reminded me that in spite of all the red herrings, drawn across our path and my..." She looked down and touched her stomach. "My...distractions we still closed the case within 72 hours. So again, I say great work!"
"Thank you Captain." Mike spoke up, "I must confess I've never come across a case like this before. The situation was so eerily similar and yet so different. It kind of got in the way at times. Things were so convoluted and yet simple too. The first thing Lieutenant Provenza said was it was a copy cat murder which it ended up being, but with twists and turns meant to confuse us, which it did for a bit. It was almost like a twisted version of Groundhog Day." Tao mused.
"Groundhog day? The movie, how so Lieutenant?" Sharon rolled her eyes as she heard Provenza moan. The both knew they were in for a long explanation.
Mike was happy to tell the team all that he had coma across. "Well, if you'll recall Captain, with the premise of the story of Groundhog Day Bill Murray was forced to relived the same day over and over until he learned a lesson or something was accomplished and then time went back to normal. In this particular case, the original Borden murders were never solved. Although the original Lizzie Borden was suspected, they couldn't prove her guilt, and the charges were dropped. One hundred odd years later another family related to the original Borden's with oddly similar circumstances, even to the names suffers the same tragedy. This time we figured it out."
Holding up a finger to indicate he wasn't done when Provenza started to speak, "But, I can't help wondering if we hadn't solved it this time would it all happen yet again, one hundred odd years into the future? With another family experiencing the same tragedy, and so on and so forth until the crime was figured out? I also can't help wishing we could somehow go back in time to see if the way our Borden murders played out is the way it really happened, ie, the illegitimate son did it with the help of his half sisters. Unfortunately we can't go back in time, so we'll never know." Tao took a breath after his long speech and shrugged his shoulders.
"E'gads was that the short version, Tao?' Provenza complained but was still fascinated with the similarities of the cases.
Ignoring the other lieutenant, Sharon blinked as she said, "interesting ideas, Mike. I...um never thought of this case along those lines. I can tell you have given this situation a lot of thought."
"Thank you, Captain for listening," Mike said with a tip of his head."
Amy took that moment, to add her two cents. "Captain, I just have a few last minute details about the case to wrap it all up and close it."
Slowly turning to look at the eager detective. Sharon smiled and said, "Go ahead, Amy."
"Thank you, Captain we found out Emma is not pregnant, but Lizzie is. The baby's real father is Chad Rogers, the foreman. Lizzie would sneak out to be with him at night. At first she was going over his place to read his Sherlock Holmes mystery novel collection. They shared an interest in reading but since her father wouldn't allow anything but the bible in the house, he offered to let her read at his place. I believe Sherlock Holmes is where she got her idea for the red herrings. Then they started, well um...being intimate. She found out she was pregnant really early on, right before Will showed up."
Julio spoke up, "Ma'am, DDA Rios changed the charge to first degree murder with special circumstances of financial gain, because the girls told Will about the hatchet in the tree stump ahead of time."
"He didn't bring one of his own because he knew there would be one to use on the premises." Amy piped in.
By know Sharon was sitting in Andy's chair, which just happen to appear behind her. She turned to offer Andy a smile as he held the chair for her. "So basically the girls manipulated him into doing their dirty work?"
"Yes Ma'am," said Amy.
"Did the deal change?" asked Sharon. "For him, or for the girls?"
"Basically the girls get thirty years, fifteen years for each of The Borden's. No possibility for parole, no appeals. He gets life, because he actually killed them," Provenza told her. He didn't like making deals, but at least all that were involved would be in jail for quite a while.
"It doesn't seem fair that he would get life and they get 30 years, but we all know life isn't fair. So how did Jack react when you told him his clients were guilty of being accessory to murder and obstructing justice? "
"Jack is no longer their lawyer Ma'am. He fell off the wagon and moved back to Vegas," said Tao.
Sitting up straighter in the chair Sharon asked surprised of what she heard. "What? When? In the last two days?"
Amy answered even though she was worried that the news would upset their boss. "Between interviews, he just up and left. He showed up drunk, last night after you left. He said some inflammatory things and when he saw you weren't there to be hurt by them he left saying the girls had a new lawyer. He was going back to Las Vegas. I'm sorry, Captain we weren't sure how to tell you "
"The best way to tell me Amy is straight out. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you trying to protect me and believe me when I say that, I do appreciate it more than you'll ever know. It shows me how far we have come since four years ago, when I took over Major crimes." She smiled at her team remembering those early days when they hated her. Now she was sure everyone of her team would take a bullet for her, in a heartbeat.
"However, in the future I want to know immediately, if Jack shows up drunk if I'm not here at the office call me or Andy. I hate being blindsided when it comes to Jack or anything really, especially now in my current condition. He 's never been violent, but things could change. I'm learning to never underestimate Jack's ability to go beyond what I expect from him and not in a good way." Standing up slowly with Andy's help, Sharon added, "Now if you all finish your paperwork feel free to go on home. Unless we catch another case, I'll see you on Monday."
"Yes Captain, thank you." Came from the rest of the team.
