Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the characters that I create.
Where has everybody gone to? Well, anyway here is the next chapter. Please Review!! Enjoy!!!
"Hey, Vanessa! Wait up!" Flack says causing Vanessa to turn around.
"I'm on my way to a scene."
"Where were you yesterday?"
"That's the million dollar question, isn't it? I went for a long walk to clear my head…look can we talk about this later?"
"If I even get to see you later. Lately you've been acting a little weird around me."
"I promise we will talk about it later, Don." Vanessa says before leaving.
Vanessa gets in her car and heads to the scene. Her phone rings as she slowly pulls to a stop in front of her scene. Vanessa looks at the display that flashes Eric's name. She pushes the ignore button on her phone and grabs her kit and walks towards Angell who meets her halfway.
"Rough morning?" Angell asks seeing the look on Vanessa's face.
"Yeah if anyone acts I stayed at your place last night."
"That rough, huh?"
"What do we got?"
Crime Lab
"So did she tell you where she was?" Danny asks Lindsay.
"She completely avoided the question or avoided talking to me. I bet she would have told Veronica where she was."
"That just means you two are more alike then you thought." Danny says.
"I doubt that. I would tell her…"
"Would ya really?" Danny asks. Lindsay thinks about it.
"I guess not."
"There you have it. She's just like you when it comes to stuff like this."
"Brilliant deduction, Doctor Messer."
"Proud to be of service."
"Speaking of service, there's a particular service you have to perform." Lindsay says. Danny looks at her in a mixture of shock and confusion.
"I'm talking about closing your case, Messer. Get your mind out of the gutter."
"Yeah well choose your words carefully. Someone can take it differently."
"Someone …like you?" Lindsay asks.
Angell and Vanessa walk back into the building after a few hours at the scene only to learn that the body was all part of an elaborate practical joke to get back at a friend for a previous trick.
"Didn't someone tell them that April Fool's Day was weeks ago?" Angell asks.
"Guess not."
"Well the 500 dollar fine will tell them."
"I'll see you later I have to document this lapse in human intelligence."
"Ditto." Angell says as they part ways.
Vanessa's phone rings again and chooses to ignore it when she sees Eric's name on the display.
"You gonna get that?" Flack asks walking up to her.
"No."
"Does it have to do with where you were?"
"Not really." Vanessa says knowing it's probably a lie. "We need to talk. Let's go into my office."
"Ok." Flack says following her to her office.
Vanessa's office
"I know I've been acting a little weird around you. I'm sorry about that. Its just…"
"Just what?" Flack asks.
"Its just that I've been thinking…maybe this isn't going to work between us."
"This is about the other night when we went to my apartment, isn't it? I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."
"Its not about you. It's not your fault. I have trust issues particularly with men." Flack sits down to hear the rest.
"You asking me to come in triggered those issues. I know you don't deserve that. You've shown me time and time again that I could trust you …its just that…"
"Trusting something or someone too much can cause you to get hurt." Flack finishes. "I understand that."
"You do?"
"Yeah and I ain't going to walk away so don't try to push me away." Flack says with a smile.
"Thank you for understanding, Don." Vanessa says returning the smile.
"No problem."
Vanessa suddenly remembers the other thing that she needs to talk to him about involving Eric.
"There's one other thing I have to talk to you about and I don't think you could be as understanding."
"What is it?"
"I…" Vanessa starts but is interrupted when Danny knocks on the door and walks in.
"Need to borrow Flack here for a moment."
"Uh sure go ahead."
"Isn't what you were going to say important?" Flack asks sending a disapproving glare in Danny's general direction.
"No…it can wait."
And wait it did. Weeks had passed by and Vanessa had yet to talk to Flack. Partly because they were both busy with their collective cases and the other part because she didn't feel it was the right time to tell him.
Funny how time is when you have to tell someone you care for about a lapse of judgment on your part. No time felt like a right time then.
"We got a break in the case." Flack says triumphantly. Vanessa looks up from her desk.
"Does it involve who killed Angela and shot her family?"
"Actually it was two different people."
"Who shot the family?"
"Take a guess."
"I have no idea." Vanessa admits.
"It was our victim. It was Angela."
"Are you serious? How did you discover that?"
"Neighbor reported seeing a young woman matching Angela's description climbing out of a bedroom window with a gun in hand."
"Its been weeks why hadn't they come forward earlier?"
"Out on vacation." Flack shrugs her shoulders.
"That still doesn't explain why Angela's door was kicked in and Alexis claiming it was an intruder."
"Got an explanation for that." Hawkes says walking into the room.
"I pulled DNA from the pieces of wood collected at the scene. They came back to the father. He was trying to kick in her door. Vanessa was right he was abusive."
"Which would also explain why she would shoot him." Vanessa says.
"She probably shot the others to make it look like some stranger did it." Hawkes says.
"If Alexis was in on it she could face charges."
"What about murder?" Hawkes asks.
"You think that she could have killed her own sister?" Vanessa asks.
"She didn't." Flack says. "Wilma Weathers did."
"Who is she?" Vanessa asks.
"The mother of Angela's longtime boy friend."
"I didn't think she had a boyfriend."
"Neither did the parents."
"She admitted to killing her?"
"In front of witnesses. She's in interrogation room 4."
Interrogation Room
"Wilma Weathers is it?" Vanessa asks sitting down with a file in hand.
"Yeah. You can to book me for murder?"
"Not yet. I wanted you to tell me, for the record, what you did."
"You new at the whole cop thing aren't you?" Wilma asks.
"You could say that. So tell me."
"I killed the brat."
"I'm having a hard time believing that Ms. Weathers. Why would someone like you want to kill an innocent girl like Angela Williams?" Vanessa asks knowing that Angela was far from innocent.
"She wasn't innocent. That brat tried to bait my son into marrying her. Pretending she was smart to reel him in."
"Why would she do something like that?"
"Didn't you hear… she wasn't so innocent. A mother can always tell when things are not what they seem especially when it comes to their children." Wilma says. "Do you have any kids, detective?"
"A daughter."
"Yeah well take care of her now while she's little. Make sure she doesn't turn out like a no good waste of space."
"You're very active in your community, am I right?"
"Yeah."
"So you probably saw a lot of Angela."
"Sadly yes. All over my boy. She was shameless."
"She was study to be a doctor, Ms. Weathers."
"It was all a game to trap my son." Wilma says.
"It was no game. She was saving to pay for medical school."
"Says you. No self-respected girl would strip for money."
"She was only a waitress working to reach her dream." Vanessa says.
"Don't tell me you buy that story her parents threw at you. She was nothing more that a no good gold digger."
"The evidence doesn't lie. Like people do."
"Well aren't you wise beyond your years. Your baby girl should be proud of you." Wilma says.
"She's seventeen. Not really a baby anymore."
"I see…I see why you're so intent on making Angela the innocent one in all of this."
"And why is that, Ms. Weathers?" Vanessa asks.
"Because you were just like her when you were younger. You should be ashamed of yourself and your sinful ways."
"We're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about what you did and how you'll be paying for it the rest of your life."
"I'm being punished for doing everything I could to protect my son from a sinful girl." Wilma says, and then pauses before continuing, "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
"Corinthians 13:7" Vanessa says.
"I'm surprised that someone like you would know it. Even so it doesn't take the delight I feel now that the miserable little brat is gone."
"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." Vanessa quotes. "Take her away."
The officer in the room handcuffs the woman and leads her out of the room. Vanessa stays sitting down staring at the file in her hands.
"Angela was innocent." She repeats out loud to no one.
Vanessa stays in the room for a few more minutes then slowly leaves the room.
"…so there I was a few feet away when …Bam! The thing exploded and I was completely soaked from head to toe." The man relayed to the rest of the officers.
"You telling the soda story again, Johnson?" Flack asks walking up to the group of officers.
"It's a classic."
"Sure it is." Flack says sitting at his desk.
"Well how about you telling us a story to pass the time."
"Don't you guys have work to do?"
"Slow day. So what do you have for us?" The officer asks.
"I got nothing."
"Ya got be kidding. Ever since you've been seeing Vanessa you haven't been sharing any stories with us. She must have you well-trained huh Flack?" The officer asks as the others laugh.
"Yeah my buddy here can catch a Frisbee in his teeth." Danny says patting Flack on the shoulder.
Cemetery – Sometime later
Flack passes several headstones before spotting a figure dressed in black staring down at a red marble tombstone. He placed his hand on her shoulder once he got within distance of her.
"They didn't come." Was the first thing that came out of Vanessa's mouth when she felt his familiar touch.
"They must have known it was today. Didn't they make the funeral arrangements?"
"I made them. I paid for all of it. All they had to do was show up." Vanessa says solemnly, a single tear fell down her already tear-stained face.
"How long have you been here?"
"Several hours." Vanessa admits. "They never came to say goodbye."
"Come on let's get you home."
"That's the last place I want to be."
"Why?" Flack asks.
"No one's there. Lexie moved into the dorms on campus. It's just me. And I don't feel like going home to an empty apartment just to be confronted with thoughts about how things should not have happened the way they did. About how much it pain she must have gone through."
"We can go eat somewhere or do whatever you want."
"Sounds good, Casanova." Vanessa says with a smile as she wiped away her tears. "You know what to say to make me feel better."
"Can't be labeled a Casanova without knowing how to make a lady feel better, can't I?" Flack says receiving a playful punch in the arm from Vanessa.
"Maybe saying nothing at all is best." Vanessa says.
Crime Lab
"Hey Stella." Lindsay says knocking on Stella's door.
"Hey, what's up?
"I needed to ask you a question."
"Sure go ahead." Stella says motioning for Lindsay to take a seat.
Pretty big things are coming up in the next few chapters so keep on reading and reviewing. Anything can happen at this point, as this story gets closer to ending. But that's all for now. I'll update soon. Please send me your reviews. I like to know what you guys think of the story so far.
Until Next Time,
Ancient 85
