Sorry its been so long! I will try to update this story more regularly! Thanks so much for the continued reviews-its nice to see new readers! :-D Hope you all enjoy this chapter. I will get another one up soon, promise promise!
Christine.
Christine sat at the bar and sipped her coffee, checking over her text messages while she waited for Rusty to wake up. All the doors and windows were shut and locked-thank God for her mother's central air conditioning. Of course, James had text messaged her last night after she left him, but she didn't much feel like talking to him. All the details he knew about his mother's latest case was unsettling. On the other hand, she wondered if she might be able to get anything out of him if she struck up another conversation about it. Hell, it was worth a shot, she thought.
C: Morning sunshine. Sorry I didn't text last night-was visiting w/Mom after I got in. How's you?
James responded almost immediately-he must have been waiting for her text.
J: No worries, I was just worried when you didn't tell me you'd gotten home safely. Sleep okay?
Christine saw this question as her opportunity to mention the Dahlia murder.
C: No! Had nightmares after that terrible film, and I couldn't help but think about the murder here in LA. So weird…heard any more about it?
J: Nope, it isn't on the news yet. Why so fascinated? Don't you know curiosity killed the cat? ;-)
C: Good thing cats have nine lives! Just want to know more about it. Seems like it was a totally identical killing to the original. Tell me more, tell me more.
J: Don't know more. Girl was drugged, killed, and left I guess. Bad day for her. Off to work, Chris. Chat later.
Christine thought it odd he ended the conversation so abruptly, but decided to leave it alone. Drugged-that was something he hadn't told her the night before. She made a mental note to tell her Mom as soon as she could get ahold of her, then moved in to the kitchen to make breakfast for herself and Rusty.
Sharon.
Sharon leaned against Andy's desk in the murder room; black circles peaking through the make up she'd applied at two o'clock that morning. They still had twenty minutes or so before the rest of the squad arrived and Sharon wanted to be sure they had every detail properly laid out before everyone got in. Andy rubbed her leg absent mindedly as she spoke. She didn't mind it-if anything it relaxed her. She watched Andy as he stacked the papers on his desk neatly in three separate piles-one a stack of information on James, the other two stacks of information on both his father and brother.
"Alright, captain. Everything is in order. As soon as everyone gets here, its go time." Andy grinned at her, patting her thigh as he spoke. He knew he shouldn't be so close to her in the office, but he didn't much care.
Sharon nodded and rest her hand on top of his, humming in agreement. "Great. I'm going to go call the kids really quickly, then I'll be ready to brief everyone." She squeezed his hand and sauntered in to her office, shutting the door behind her. A quiet yawn escaped her lips as she reached for her phone, dialing Christine's number.
"Hey Mom." Her daughter sounded cheery, all things considered.
"Hey Christy. Rusty up yet, or did he roll back over when you told him no school?"
Christine laughed and flipped the pancakes she was making, cradling the phone between her ear and her shoulder. "No, he's up and happily accepted his impromptu day off school."
"Good, good," Sharon muttered, yawning again. She was exhausted but she couldn't afford to lose any more time on this case. "You're keeping the house locked, right? Have you heard from James?"
Christine sighed. The whole thing made her uncomfortable. "Yes, I heard from him this morning, but he's working at the hospital today. All doors and windows are locked down tight, Mom. Promise. There is one thing about James, though…" she trailed off, focused on plating the breakfast she'd just made.
"Yes?" Sharon asked, her attention peaked.
"Well, he mentioned this morning that the girl who was killed last week- Amelia-she'd been drugged. I can forward you the text… I need my phone, so you can't have it as evidence if you can help it, please."
"He knew her name?" Sharon snapped. They certainly hadn't released that.
"No, no. Just said the girl had been drugged, killed, and left, or dumped, or something to that affect. He wouldn't say much else. After that he said he had to work and quit talking to me."
Sharon sighed. Well, knowledge of the fact that she was drugged was still solid gold in her book. "Alright, umn... let me talk to lieutenant Tao when he gets about how best to handle the phone thing. I promise you, if I have to take your phone, we will get you another ASAP. Please, please, please don't leave the house or do anything today. Make sure Rusty stays inside, too."
Christine rolled her eyes. She'd heard this how many times growing up? Every time a case hit close to home her mother put the whole family on lock down, whether it was necessary or not. Still, better safe than sorry she supposed. "Alright, alright, Mom. We will not go anywhere. Scouts honor."
"Okay. Thank you. Everyone is just starting to arrive and I need to brief the team, but I will call you in a couple of hours. I love you." Sharon hung up the phone as soon as she'd heard her daughter's reply and strutted back in to the murder room. James wasn't very intelligent for a murderer. He'd pulled off the perfect crime if you only looked at the scene, but he may as well of turned himself in with everything he'd told Christine over the last couple days.
"Lieutenant Flynn, a word please?" she asked quietly, pointing to her office. Andy got up and followed obediently, keeping a safe distance between them now that both lieutenant Provenza and lieutenant Tao were at their desks.
"What's up, captain?" he asked calmly, crossing his arms over his chest. Sharon had to commend him-his transition from smitten potential boyfriend back in to her subordinate officer was seamless. She appreciated the simplicity; there was no need for strife over what they were in the office. She nodded approvingly before refocusing on the case, snapping her fingers as her thoughts came back to her.
"James Reynolds seems like he's ready to all but confess with the things he keeps telling Chris. This morning she got a text from him saying the girl had been drugged, killed, and dumped."
Andy raised an eyebrow. "And? We already knew those things, ma'am."
"Yes," Sharon grinned, "but no one who isn't a part of Major Crimes should know that, lieutenant Flynn."
"Ah," Andy smiled as recognition washed over him. "Well, add that to the pile of things we'll be interviewing Christine's lovely new boyfriend about… good move on Christine's part to ask him more."
"Yes-can you make a note of it so I don't forget to ask Tao about it? We need to dump her phone, but seeing as its my daughter, I'd like a very, uh..limited access to her texts." Sharon shook her head, having a maternal moment.
"Of course, captain. I'm on it. Looks like everyone is here-lets get started?"
"Lets." Sharon smiled, walked out of her office in front of him. Luckily, she always kept a spare suit in her office so she looked professional despite having shown up at the station at 2 am in jeans and a hoodie. Hopefully the suit was enough to distract from the fact that she'd forgotten both her brush and her make up.
Andy and Sharon.
"Good morning, everyone." Sharon greeted her team as she approached the white board, grabbing a small stack of photos off the table next to it. "I'm sorry to rush you all this morning, but we've got to get started right away. I have reason to believe we have a pretty solid lead on this Amelia case."
With that, Sharon had everybody's attention. She slapped three photos on the white board next to the few of Amelia already hanging. The faces of James Reynolds, his brother Joshua, and their father Christopher stared back at the team as Sharon hung them with magnets.
"The Reynolds-family of three, mother is deceased. Her death certificate, which lieutenant Flynn pulled earlier this morning, says natural causes. Unfortunately for Mrs. Reynolds, she was only thirty-four when she died. All three Reynolds men are naturalized citizens from the UK. James-" Sharon began pointing at the individual pictures, "is a surgeon in his father's medical practice. Christopher appears to be in retirement, but we need to double-check that. Joshua is a budding director who has a much longer list of credits with the LAPD than with any production company in Hollywood."
Sharon grabbed a marker and began to write the facts down for the team, glad to be passing off the individual tasks she could to get this taken care of today. "Joshua and Christopher are possible persons of interest-James is our main suspect as of this morning. Now, if you all don't mind, lieutenant Flynn is going to take the rest of it from here."
Sharon nodded at Andy and took a seat among the team, waiting for him to approach the white board. "Alright-I know this is a little different from how we normally do things, but Captain Raydor has asked me to step in as the lead on this investigation. James Reynolds, our primary suspect, is romantically involved with her daughter, so to avoid conflict of interest, I'm taking it from here." Andy gave the team a once over, looking for objections. When everyone kept quiet, he continued.
"Last night James disclosed some information about this case to Christine, which she then reported to her mother. Reynolds not only knew about the murder, but knew where the body had been dumped, when it had been dumped, and that she had been drugged and uh…" Andy swallowed hard, forcing images of Abigail out of his head. Sharon gave him the opportunity to lead this investigation because she needed him and she knew he could do it. Now was not the time to start thinking about his sister. "Uh, that she had been drugged and dismembered, just like the Black Dahlia. Given this, and his occupation, we have reason to consider him as a primary suspect in the murder of Amelia Michaels."
Both Provenza and Tao shot sympathetic looks towards Raydor. Having your kid involved in a murder case couldn't be easy. Tao didn't even like bringing his kid to the station; he couldn't imagine the worry Sharon must be going through. Sharon nodded back at both of them, recognizing their concern. She would wait until the end to address them.
Andy continued, reciting the orders he and Sharon had laid out earlier, together.
"Tao, Christine Raydor has offered to relinquish her phone to the LAPD as evidence so we can monitor text communication, as well as record the texts there already are involving this case. Can you get the paperwork ready for that, and Captain Raydor will accompany you to her home to get the phone.
Provenza, we need to find some connection between Reynolds and Amelia Michaels- right now we know he's got info about her death, but don't have anything linking her to Reynolds before she died. Look for anything, starting with seeing if she was a client in the Reynolds clinic. I'll stick around here with you to help with the legwork.
Sykes and Sanchez, we want surveillance on the clinic. We want to keep track of everything James Reynolds does for the next day or two while we get the rest of this information in order. Work with Buzz to get taps, trackers, whatever you need. Without a direct link to Amelia, we can't bring him in. Lets find that link."
Amy raised her hand, always one to have a question about her orders. "Well, as much as I hate to bring this up as I'm sure this is a sensitive and painful case for Captain Raydor, if Reynolds is willing to talk to Christine, shouldn't we consider using her in our surveillance? She may be the key to getting Reynolds to talk at all. I mean, if he's already told her this much, maybe she can get him to brag about it some more."
Sharon closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. The last thing she wanted was for her daughter to be in the middle of this mess, much less in continued contact with a potential deranged killer. Still, she had to agree that Amy was right, whether she liked it or not. Andy looked at her, waiting for some sign of approval before responding. Sharon let out a long sigh and stood next to Andy, feeling like she needed to address her team herself.
"You are right that my daughter could be instrumental in getting information out of James Reynolds, detective Sykes. As your captain, I have to recognize that. As her mother, it's the last thing I want. I want to assure all of you that I am willing to do what it takes to solve this murder. Somewhere out there, Amelia's mother is grieving her daughter. We have a responsibility to bring her killer in and to put him away. For life. Because of this obligation and my daughter's involvement, I have to take a step back from this case. As lieutenant Flynn is the incident commander, I thought it best to place him in the position to make most of the decisions. Given that, I am going to excuse myself and allow you to discuss this as a team. I will be in my office when you're ready to go, lieutenant Tao." Sharon gave one of her typical nods and excused herself, shutting herself in her office before anyone had the chance to respond to her.
Andy puffed his cheeks and sighed, leaning against the blackboard. "Sykes, I have to agree that Christine being involved is almost compulsory. Lets get this first round taken care of and we will reconvene here at 12:30 to see if it is necessary to bring her in today. Tao, if you can-allow her to keep her phone but pull her messages and put some kind of bug or something in it so we can record her texts."
"Sure thing, lieutenant." Tao nodded, already formulating a tech plan.
"Alright, lets break and get this over and done with. I want Reynolds in that interview room with a confession as soon as we can get him there."
Everyone scattered to complete their respective tasks, each one of them hoping that by the end of the day they'd at least be a couple steps closer to putting Amelia's murderer behind bars.