Chapter 13
Friday, August 16th, 1985
"Good morning Angels. How did it go yesterday?" Charlie's voice echoed through the speakers.
"It was rather slow." Kamili said, shrugging her shoulders as she poured coffee into her cup. "I thought it would be more of a party, but people were just sitting around talking."
"So they actually had the meeting even though the building burned?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah, they have been given clearance to enter the building again, some of the walls are still standing but the roof is gone. From what I could tell, they just put lights up and proceeded as usual." Kamili said. "There was a collection box to pay for the damages."
"Did you catch any good conversations?" Sandra asked, sitting in the couch with her feet up underneath herself.
"Well there was a lot of good conversations but not much to keep the case moving forward." Janet smiled, having joined in on this morning's get-together to talk about last night, sitting in the couch next to Sandra. "I did talk about children with a lot of people, I was rather surprised at just how many there had kids. The women there seem to be such independent people which makes it's hard to picture them as mothers, but I guess that's just my prejudices talking."
"I was talking to quite a bit of people about Alicia's columns, telling them that I had gotten the interest and heard about the meetings by reading the columns. A lot of people seemed very open about them but there were a bunch that were immediately put off, telling me how annoying it had been that she would write about their conversations, the talk inside those walls were not meant for the public. They seemed really upset with it. Annabelle told me that she had even gotten a visit from the police after Alicia had written about her farm and how they sometimes ate stuff and did drugs to free themselves. Alicia never mentioned Annabelle's name but the police must've put two and two together at some point. Annabelle said that they hadn't found anything, and she had been let off the hook. But she was very upset." Kamili said. "I also have a feeling that she has quite a bit on that farm that she's not supposed to have, even if the police didn't find it."
"Was she upset enough to kill?" Charlie asked.
"I don't know." Kamili answered, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well I did some snooping around on my own." Kris said, sitting in the couch opposite Sandra and Janet, opening her briefcase and pulling out some files. "Kelly mentioned the old articles that you found in the safety deposit box, along with the black and white photos, so I dug a bit more in it. I looked amongst the cold cases and found four cases with missing woman, all four of them disappeared without a lead, and all four said to be invested in the occult community. Kelly told me she already knew about two of them."
"Alicia was burned to a crisp, but they did find enough remains to do an identification. The other victims might've been burned as well but the remains scattered by the wind or wild animals before found." Kamili said, thinking out loud.
"Now, if Alicia was digging in this story and coming too close to the truth – " Kris continued, looking around amongst the women in the room.
"That's a motive." Janet said, the others all agreeing with her.
"That also means, to find Alicia's killer, we need to get close to the truth about those four women." Kelly added, looking up to her angels.
"I have been trying to find a connection of the four women, except the fact that they were invested in the same lifestyle choice. I don't think being a witch is enough for you to get killed, maybe in 1692 Salem but not in Washington D.C and in this day and age. But I have been pulling my hair out trying to find a red thread amongst them. I thought at first that they were all writers or journalists, but no, one of them were while the other three had different professions. They all came from different upbringings, the lived at different areas of Washington and they didn't seem to know each other."
"We will definitely have to dig into this." Kelly said, nodding. "It sounds like we have a serial killer on the lose."
"I don't have any kind of evidence that it's the same person performing all the murders, I don't even have evidence to show that four women are dead. I talked to my supervisor, but he doesn't want to take the case unless I can prove that there is in fact a serial killer out there and not just women who has disappeared."
"We'll get on this." Kelly nodded. "Kam and I can look into that; we'll take two women each and see what we come up with. We have to be able to find a connection."
"I'll keep digging, and I also talked to Agent Donner at the CIA." Kris said, turning to Kamili. "He will look into those four as well. If there are any clues to find, we will find them together."
"Great Kris, thank you so much for helping out. This could be a great step forward and God knows we need it. I do have a feeling that this is definitely the right path to thread though, there has to be something about those women." Kamili said, nodding along.
"Then maybe that should be my next storyline for the Prospect. Maybe not a top priority as that might seem suspicious but I could absolutely talk a bit loudly about it, leave notes in the open and stuff like that. If someone at the Prospect is watching me, they'll see it." Sandra said.
"You're placing yourself as bait." Charlie stated.
"Yeah. Someone might have to if we're to catch the killer."
"I don't like it." Kamili said straight away. "There should be an easier way to find the killer than to place yourself as bait, especially since someone is probably already watching you considering you had your head bashed in."
"Well, let me know if you can figure out another way." Sandra smiled, looking at her watch. "I really should be heading that direction. I'll see if I can check in on Madison, maybe lure Eva out of her office to give Madison a chance to sneak in there and have a look around."
"You need to be ridiculously careful. Know that you are watched." Janet said, moving Benjamin from the buggy up on her shoulder while keeping eye contact with Sandra.
"I know. I will keep my eyes open to see if someone is surprised to have me back or if they feel awkward around me."
"Call us immediately if you feel that you need help." Kamili said, looking at Sandra with seriousness in her eyes.
"Of course. My plan is to just be there until lunch, drop some things off before the deadline and then take the remainder of the day off to rest."
"That sounds good." Kelly smiled. "Do you just wanna run through the list of suspects before you take off?"
"Sure." Sandra nodded, bringing up a notebook from her purse as Kelly grabbed papers, rummaging around a bit with all the files and folders in front of her.
"Who do we got?" Kamili asked, bringing up her notebook as well.
"Well, from the first witch meeting we have Joanna, Josie and Annabelle, those three were sitting next to Madison that evening she was drugged."
"Did you ever get the test results from that evening? You did drop by the hospital in the morning to leave samples, right?" Kamili asked, looking over to Kelly.
"We did." Kelly said. "It did show traces of some drug that I can't recall the name of, which could cause nausea and vomiting, so at least we know that she was definitely drugged."
"So one of those three people are a very likely candidate."
"Unless someone else put something in the lemonade. There is a possibility that more people got sick, but we just don't know about it." Sandra said, shrugging her shoulders. "I did drink the lemonade as well but that doesn't mean that other pitchers weren't bad."
"What do we know about that trio?" Kelly asked, turning to Kris.
"Well, when it comes to Annabelle she appears to be a hard-working woman, spending all her time on her farm basically, and except the rumors of her growing illegal things I can't find anything on her. We haven't been able to find much about Josie, at all actually. We're not even sure of her real name, but that might not mean anything. Josie is probably short for something; we just need to find out her full name."
"That will be my mission on the next meeting." Kamili nodded to Kris, taking notes.
"Good. Joanna is nothing special on paper, no record, no bad history. She's a history teacher and has been for many years."
"She is the one though who made Madison a bit uneasy by saying that Alicia was dead before Madison said so. The fact that she's dead and how she died is not something that's been revealed in the press, it's not supposed to be common knowledge." Kelly said, remembering what Madison had told her earlier.
"So one of them is the most likely suspect?" Sandra asked, looking around for confirmation.
"Or all three of them." Kris added, shrugging her shoulders, making the others look up at her. "I mean, Alicia was a woman, but she was rather tall and strong built. All three of these women are average height. It would take quite a bit of strength to drag Alicia up on that platform to set her on fire. It's just a theory, but there might be more than one of them."
"That's true." Kamili said, leaning back in the couch. "It could also mean that one of them is the unsub and her friend doesn't even go to the witch meetings."
"No, the partner could be from the Prospect. Someone over there read Alicia's work and told one of the witches." Sandra said, her stomach turning a bit.
"Then, what suspects do we have over there?" Kelly asked, turning to Sandra.
"Well we have Eva, the editor-in-chief. I'm assuming now, which might prove to be wrong later, that someone got upset about something that Alicia wrote. Maybe she was doing an article about the missing women. But no matter what she wrote, someone must've read it. Eva gets all the material, reads and organize it, but I do believe that she also leaves all the material to Martin Howard, the president of the magazine. I'm going to hand in some material when I go there today and I will ask Eva who reads it before it's published, but I do believe Martin reads it."
"We have profiled this to be a female unsub, but it's absolutely not impossible that there's a man mixed in there as well. That would make up for the strength it takes to move a body like that." Kelly said, nodding.
"Well, I think those are the ones to watch, but there might be someone else there as well who just hasn't come forwards yet. I will go down there and have a peek around, see if I can find Madison and somehow get her into Eva's office to look for those old drafts."
"Be careful Angel."
"Always Charlie." Sandra smiled towards the speaker box before looking up to Kelly at the desk. "I'll meet you guys for lunch. Rory's?"
"Sure." They all agreed.
Sandra put her shoes back on, got to her feet and walked around the couch, stopping for a second to give little Benjamin a kiss on the head before walking outside. Halfway down the stair she heard rapid footsteps behind her and turning around she saw Kamili catching up with her. She stopped, looking up at her friend. Kamili was wearing her trusty old combat boots, jeans and a hoodie, and her unbraided afro wrapped into a shawl. Now she caught up with Sandra, walking down a few steps, stopping with Sandra in the stair.
"Did I forget something?"
"No, I… I just want to make sure that you're alright."
"I told you guys that I'm fine."
"I know, I'm sorry, it's just… I just want to make sure. Both physically and psychically."
Sandra sighed, leaning back against the wall, meeting Kamili's eyes.
"I'm okay. Physically I'm tired and the head is still a bit sore." Sandra answered, a hand moving up to the back of her head. "Still a bit lightheaded on and off, body's sore in general. But not too bad, I feel fine to be up a couple of hours. I got the whole weekend to rest."
Kamili nodded, allowing Sandra to keep going.
"Psychically I'm alright as well. I have talked a lot to Mary and sure, I'm a bit uneasy but I'm not scared. I want to do this. I want this person caught. At the moment I am angrier and more determined than sad, angry with myself for getting hit but also with the person thinking they will get away with this. We need to get this person caught."
"We will get this person caught. Just… Just be careful, will you?"
"I will. Don't worry Kammy, I'll be fine. I'll see you for lunch."
"Okay. Are you okay driving?"
"No, not really, I'll take a cab." Sandra smiled. "I took one here this morning. See, I know my limits."
Kamili smiled, reaching over to brush Sandra's upper arm before heading upstairs again, Sandra going the other direction.
"Rosie!"
Sandra turned around as she was met by Martin and Eva who was walking down the hallway, Martin's assistant Ellen with her nose in a book behind them.
"Hi." She smiled, greeting them all.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Martin immediately asked, hurrying up as he saw her.
"I- how much did you hear?"
"Well your friend called and said that you had been in a car crash and hurt your head." Eva said, coming up close, her eyes moving over Sandra's head, looking for signs of injury.
"Yeah." Sandra said, wondering if her friend was Kelly or Kamili, moving her hand to rub the back of her head as if to underline Eva's words. "I'm fine, it was just clumsy of me. A small concussion but I'll rest during the weekend and will be back on track come Monday."
"Are you sure you're healthy enough to be here today?" Martin asked, forehead in deep frown.
"No, not really. But today is the 16th and I have some written stuff that I wanted to hand in before the deadline passed."
Eva smiled widely. "Why don't you join me at my office, and we can have a look at it together?"
"Happily. I just hope I wasn't interrupting the two of you?"
"No, absolutely not. Come on."
"I'll talk to you later. It's good to see you back on your feet." Martin smiled to the two of them before heading off into another direction.
Sandra and Eva walked towards Eva's office, Eva chitchatting on about something that had happened to her last night. Sandra was pretending to pay attention, but she was looking around without being too obvious about it, looking in through windows to the different offices, looking for someone who might have a bit of a taken back reaction to seeing her.
Upon seeing Madison cleaning up in the hallway, Sandra turned to Eva.
"By the way, when we get to your office, I would like to show you the columns I written."
"Oh, have you had time to write some of those?"
"Yeah, I focused on that a little bit, curious to see if that would be of interest to you."
As Sandra and Eva walked through the hallway, Sandra caught Madison's eyes, giving her a short smile and polite nod. Madison begun packing up, ready to follow the two without being too close. Eva and Sandra walked into the office, Sandra leaving the door open behind her on purpose, smiling within as Eva didn't mention it. Eva sat down behind her desk and Sandra on the other side of it, Sandra opening up her purse, pulling up a pile of paper which she handed over to Eva, before sitting back while Eva started rummaging through the papers. Sandra gave her a couple of minutes to read before she begun looking around in the office.
"Do you mind if I take a cup of coffee?" Sandra asked, pointing her thumb over her shoulder towards the coffee maker.
"Of course not, go ahead." Eva smiled before burying her nose in the papers again, Sandra getting to her feet and making herself a cup of coffee while looking out into the hallway. Madison was close by, peeking into the room but staying out for now. Sandra smiled, turning to the coffee maker again, pouring herself a cup of coffee, sipping it while walking around in the office. Finding a door slightly ajar, she peeked in a bit, seeing shelves with binders.
"That's where I keep stuff that hasn't made it to the paper yet. Red binders for stuff that won't be used, yellow for the ones that need to be rewritten or edited, green for those ready to go but hasn't fit in just yet."
"I see. That's very organized of you."
"I like it that way, easier to find what you're looking for." Eva grinned.
"Can I have a look?" Sandra asked, tilting her head and flashing a wide smile.
"Sure." Eva said, her nose back into the papers as Sandra walked inside, turning the light on, having a small peek around. Making sure she was out of sight of Eva, she got up onto a chair and unscrewed the lightbulb just enough for it to go out and the room to turn pitch black.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, hurrying out of the room.
"What happened?" Eva said, looking up as Sandra entered back into the office.
"The light went out. I think the bulb broke."
"Oh no." Eva sighed loudly, putting the paper down for a second.
"The janitor is just outside. I'll talk to her, she can probably fix it in a heartbeat."
"Thanks." Eva smiled, picking the papers back up again, focused on her reading.
Sandra walked out into the hallway, walking up to Madison with a smile on her face.
"Hey, excuse me?" Sandra smiled gently, Madison turning to her.
"Hey." Madison smiled, playing along. "What's up?"
Scared of being overheard, and scared of giving Madison's cover away, Sandra decided to just play the part.
"There's a broken lightbulb in the office, in the room with all the binders. Do you think you can fix it?" Sandra smiled, one hand holding the coffee cup and the other hand discreetly gesturing how she had unscrewed the bulb.
"Of course, right behind you." Madison smiled, walking over to her bag and picking up a box with new light bulbs in it, putting her ladder onto her shoulder before following Sandra into the office, Sandra showing her in. Madison nodded to Eva who barely made an effort to look up from the papers, Sandra showing Madison the room with the binders, walking all the way into it, pretending to show her where the light bulb was in the dark room.
"Red binders are no go, yellow for editing and green are ready to go. They seem to be stacked alphabetically so I assume they are sorted after the person who's written them." Sandra whispered. "I'll try to get Eva out of here so you can get some time to rummage around. I'll make sure to forget something in here, so I have to come with her back, I'll try to be loud on my way in. Lunch at Rory's."
Madison nodded, taking a deep breath. Sandra gave her a reassuring pat on the arm before walking out of the room, back to where Eva was reading, putting down one of the papers just as Sandra walked into the room. Eva smiled, nodding as she put it down.
"These are good."
Sandra lit up, a wide smile on her face.
"Really?"
"Yeah. They are really well written. Interesting, capturing and well worded. I'll happily include one of these in the upcoming paper."
"Woah, that makes me happy."
"Me too. It's always difficult with new people so it's nice when one is surprised." Eva smiled.
Sandra smiled happily back to her. "Oh, there's one more thing I would like you to have a look at. It's not finished yet, but I would love to have your input on it, to see if I'm heading down the right path with it."
"Sure." Eva said, looking up, ready to take it from her.
Sandra rummaged a bit through her purse before sighing loudly. "Oh, it's probably at my desk still."
"Let's go get it." Eva smiled. "We can step by Martin's office as well to let him have a look at these columns. I might be the person pulling the strings and making the final decisions, but I know he likes to the read the stories before they are published to have a say as well as it's his name on the line in case something happens."
"That's fine by me." Sandra smiled, before the two of them left the office, Sandra leaving her purse in the chair before the two of them walked down the hallway to pick up the paper that Sandra had dropped by her desk earlier, before meeting Eva and Martin.
Rummaging a little at her desk, trying to use up more time, she soon enough pulled out the sheet of paper that she had begun writing last night. Handing it over to Eva, Eva sat down at Sandra's chair and begun reading it through, giving her pointers and ideas on how to proceed.
"Hey."
The whole table looked up and smiled, greeting Madison as she sat down by the table where Sandra, Kamili and Kelly were already sitting.
"How did it go?" Sandra smiled. "I noticed you were already out of the office when we returned, well done."
"I had a good rummage around at all the binders where her work should've been located, all of it very neatly organized so it was fast work. And you guys took your time, I saw you from the conference room as you walked back."
"Did you find anything?" Kamili asked, looking between her two coworkers.
"No, nothing."
"That's a shame." Sandra said, leaning back in the seat of the booth.
"That's suspicious." Kelly said, frowning as she looked up at Madison. "You did find other stories, articles et cetera?"
"Yes, loads of them, all neatly organized as said. I couldn't find anything under Alicia's name, and I did have a good look around in the other binders as well to see if it had been misplaced but I couldn't find anything."
"That sounds like someone disposed of it. There should be some at least. Not even one sounds very suspicious to me."
"I agree." Kamili said, nodding towards Kelly as their food was brought in. "It certainly sounds like someone didn't want it found, whatever it was."
"Eva reads all of it, and so does Martin. So at the moment I guess they are on top of the list of suspects."
"But what do they have to do with the witches?" Madison asked, the others remembering that she had not been in the office during the morning, and they quickly filled her in on their theory about partners and the four missing women.
"I did have time to write some notes about the four dead women, purposely leaving them on my desk. We'll see if something takes off, then we'll know the murderer hangs out at the Prospect. But just because Eva and Martin read it, doesn't mean they are the only ones to do so. I have left things out on purpose, I'm sure Alicia sometimes left notes out as well. She could've discussed the cases with anyone there and there are plenty of people sitting by those open desks. I do think we need to keep an eye on Eva and Martin, but I don't think they are the only ones to look out for at the Prospect. We need to keep our eyes open." Sandra said, looking over to Madison.
"Does that mean I'll keep staying there, having a peek around?" Madison asked, turning to Kelly.
"Yes, I do believe that's the best way to proceed." Kelly nodded.
"I think that would be great Mads." Sandra agreed. "If nothing else, I do feel safer knowing I have someone who's watching my back."
Madison nodded. "I can walk into the rooms and do random work. My ears are wide and my mouth small, so I can easily keep an ear to the ground and listen in, see if anyone mentions you or is talking about Alicia."
"Great. Just melt in, be that person in the background. Make sure they don't seem bothered by you. Most people don't notice the janitor." Kelly said. "Always keep an eye on Sandra, and whomever may be watching her. You don't act unless you have to, but if you notice something weird you contact me or Kamili. We can move in without ruining your cover if we have to, I especially haven't set foot amongst the witches or the Prospect, and I have stayed out just in case I have to step in."
Madison nodded, hearing what Kelly said. The four of them ate their lunch, the conversation moving along to discuss all things about heaven and earth for a while before Kamili and Kelly exchanged glances as they saw their blonde friend yawning, gently rubbing her head a bit. It was easy to tell that Sandra was not fully recovered yet and Kamili knew she needed some rest.
"I'll drive you home." Kamili smiled, nodding towards Sandra, Sandra's head popping up before smiling gratefully.
"Thanks."
"Do you mind stopping by at the hospital to say hi to Tara or do you want me to drop you first?"
"I'll happily go by Tara."
"Give her our love." Kelly smiled, Madison nodding in agreement, as the four women split in different directions, Kamili and Sandra getting into Kamili's car and heading down to the all too familiar hospital, both of them saying hi to Martha who was at her regular space in the reception before moving their way through the corridors to Tara's room, this time knocking before peeking inside. Sticking her head in, Kamili noticed that Tara was on the phone and stayed back, but upon seeing her sister and friend, Tara waved them inside, putting the phone towards her shoulder.
"Why did you give her this number?" She mouthed to Kamili. "She's been lecturing me for 20 minutes now."
"You were supposed to call her yesterday, but you didn't. She called me four times and she threatened to come." Kamili whispered.
Tara rolled her eyes as she put the phone back towards her ear, now and then humming a yes or a no. Sandra sat down in a chair in the room and looked over with a questioning eyebrow towards Kamili who sat down in Tara's bed, grinning.
"It's Mama." Kamili said.
Sandra and Kamili talked for a few moments before Tara suddenly held out the phone for Kamili, gesturing for her to take it, a wide grin on her face. "She wants to talk to you."
"How did she even know I was here?"
"I don't know, because you talk loudly. Or maybe because I told her."
"Dammit Tara, that's just mean." Kamili sighed before taking the phone, turning on a sugary sweet voice, making Sandra laugh. "Hey mama, I … No, I did tell her to call you! I did!"
Sandra smiled towards Tara who leaned her head back into the pillow, coughing a bit into the bend of her arm.
"How are you doing?"
"A lot better, thanks." Tara smiled. "Feels so odd being the one in the bed, I'm just not used to this."
"It's rather odd seeing you here as well." Sandra smiled. "But I am happy that you are feeling better. When can you go home?"
"They'll let me out tomorrow, I think, I haven't seen the x-rays yet." Tara smiled, a small cough escaping her lips, but quickly settled. "How are you?"
"All good." Sandra smiled, a hand going up to rub the base of the skull, Tara instantly looking at her with an eyebrow up. "Well, a bit tired and a lingering headache but Kamili is driving me home after we've been here, I plan on taking it easy the whole weekend."
"Well that sounds good. You do need some good rest; it was quite the blow you took." Tara said, and Sandra was just about to answer as Kamili suddenly stretched the phone to Sandra. Sandra looked confused at Kamili before getting to her feet, walking around the bed and taking the phone as she leaned back against the wall.
"Yes, hello Mrs. Sow..."
Tara looked at Kamili who just shrugged her shoulders, before putting her head to its side, smiling.
"You look much better. It's nice to see you without all those tubes and wires."
"All vitals stabilized, now I'm just here for observation. I do feel much better. They did new x-rays earlier today to see if there's a difference and as long as it looks better, they'll sign me out tomorrow." Tara said, taking a lot of pauses as she talked as she became out of breath. "I was a bit out of it as you came by yesterday, they had done a bronchoscopy, but that looked alright, considering. Mark is not holding back, he's testing for everything, but everything has looked alright."
"But that's good though, making sure you're alright. He really does care for you."
Tara nodded, blushing slightly. "Yeah. He does."
"And everything really did look alright? You're not holding out on anything?"
"I promise. The oxygen level has risen to safe numbers at least so hopefully I can go home tomorrow. Home and rest."
"Do you want me to pick you up?"
"I can take a taxi."
"Or is someone else picking you up?"
A wide smile spread across Tara's face.
"I'm taking that as a yes." Kamili laughed. "How long have you been seeing each other?"
"Quite the time. It's been growing but we've both been careful as we work together, I've been pushing him more than the other way around but as I said, he's been careful as I'm his supervisor. But I think him seeing me sick made him make up his mind, wanting to take another step."
"I'm so happy for you. He seems like a great guy. I know he's a great doctor at least." Kamili smiled, thinking back at the times he had helped them out before. "And Martha didn't seem surprised?"
"Martha knows everything that's going on in this hospital. She probably knew about me and Mark long before the two of us did."
"I bet she did." Kamili laughed. "If you want to know anything that's going on, you turn to Martha no matter what."
"For sure. This hospital could not make it without her."
"Oh, I'd love that Lulu. It would be absolutely wonderful. I'm sure the rest will think the same. Yes of course..."
Kamili and Tara's eyes widened, looking at each other for a second before both of them turned to look towards Sandra, wondering just what their mother had tricked her into now. The sisters sat quiet for a moment while Sandra ended the call and turning, she was met with two sets of chestnut brown eyes staring at her.
"She invited me over!" Sandra exclaimed happily. "I said we'd all come down as soon as we can."
Tara and Kamili met each other's eyes and sighed loudly, Tara leaning back heavily into the pillows. They would never hear the end of this now.