Chapter 3

'So, what is it, doctor?' Garrett asked.

Doctor Green stood in front of them holding a clipboard in his hands. He wore his long white lab coat which had his ID tag clipped to the front pocket. 'I removed the victim's clothes before I began the autopsy and I found something inside his pocket, I will get to that in a minute, but I would just like to inform you that I found no other cause of death and I have concluded that the victim died from the cut to the throat.'

'So, what was with the other cut?' Daphne asked. A smile tugged at Green's lips. He had the same smile that Daphne and Fred had when they were about to crack a case wide open, 'Something was put inside the cut.' He spoke.

'Say what?' Garrett asked, 'Something inside it?'

Green nodded, 'This.' He turned to the cabinet behind him and pulled an evidence bag off the top and showed them.

Inside the bag there were smears of blood, but something else too. A doll? It was about the size of a small hand but other than that, they could not make out any other details of it.

'Is that a doll?' Fred asked.

'Hmm. Its stuffed.' Green said and he looked at the doll as if he'd like to do an autopsy on it to find anything else about it.

'And that was inside the man?' Daphne asked, unbelieved that this was happening. Green nodded.

'Pretty unusual place for a doll to be.' Garrett commented and Green nodded again.

Fred felt a shiver down his spine, he hates dolls, always has and always will. He was pretty sure that Daphne didn't like them either, but that was purely because of her upbringing – instead of playing with dolls and dress-up tea parties Daphne would have her face in a book, or she'd be out on long walks with her family.

Green took the doll to the lab to be tested for DNA, it took a while, but he finally came back with the results.

'Only Chester's DNA on the doll?' Fred asked.

'Yes, whoever your killer is, he probably wore gloves.' Green replied.

'There's absolutely nothing else?' Garrett asked.

'Not DNA wise, but I did find something, the label on the doll has been cut off.' Green spoke.

'The brand label?' Daphne asked.

Green nodded, 'Most dolls like these have labels that show which company made the doll, what year it was made and where it was made.' He explained, 'Whoever this doll belonged to, didn't want you to know where it's come from.'

'Or maybe to throw us off track?' Fred muttered.

'What do we do now?' Garrett asked.

'I think we should bring Mrs Chester in for questioning. She wasn't all that upset about her husband's death – though can't say I blame her.' Daphne spoked.

'Hmm…that's a good idea.' Fred replied.

'I'll give her a call and ask her to come down later.' Garrett said, he flipped through the file in front of him before he grabbed the phone and dialled.

Fred was flipping through the crime scene photos, 'Something isn't sitting right with me.'

'What's that?' Daphne asked, she stood from her desk and went over to Fred, she leant over his shoulder looking down at the photos.

'The killer has been extremely careful. There are no footprints at the scene or anything else left behind by the killer, apart from this doll. And that's another thing, he killed the doctor, cut him open and stuffed a doll inside him. Why? And how did he do it without making such a mess or leaving footprints behind?'

Daphne put a hand on his shoulder, 'I dunno Freddie, but we'll find out.'

'Mrs Chester has agreed to come in for questioning, she'll be in later.' Garrett spoke as he put the phone down.

'There's something else we need to do as well.' Daphne spoke, 'The girl this morning said that Chester had been disrespecting his patients. I think we need to get Jessica Hancock in for questioning too and find out who these patients are.'

Garrett nodded, 'I'll give her a call.'

'We'll need to speak to the other doctor as well, if she knows something then she can help us, but if not then the least we can do is clear her name.' Fred explained, Daphne hummed in agreement.

'I'll call Jessica Hancock, hopefully, she can come down.' Garret spoke.

There was a knock on the door, Captain Silverman pushed the door open, 'I've had a few calls from various news reports and I will be giving a press conference tomorrow morning. How are you doing?'

'We're going to bring Jessica Hancock and Lillian Chester in for questioning.' Fred spoke, 'And we were planning on speaking to the other doctor at the clinic.'

Captain Silverman nodded, 'Ok that's good. Keep me updated.' He gave a thumbs up to the three before he returned to his own office.

'Hello, my name is Jessica Hancock, I'm here to speak with Detective Jones and Detective Blake.'

'Ah, yes we're expecting you.' The receptionist said, she picked up the phone and pressed the number 4, 'Detective Jones I have Jessica Hancock here…ok that's great.' She put the phone down, 'He's coming for you now.' She smiled sweetly.

'Will you be ok?' Jessica's husband asked. Jessica nodded, 'Yes, I'll be ok.'

'You can wait for her right over there.' The receptionist smiled as she pointed at a row of chairs, an elderly woman sat in one of them. Mr Hancock nodded, 'I will do. I'll be right here when you're done.'

Jessica smiled at him.

'Jessica Hancock?' She turned when she heard her name, she saw Detective Jones standing a few feet behind her, 'Ready?' He asked.

She nodded, giving her husband a quick kiss before she followed Fred to the interview room.

She had left her bag with her husband, but Detective Garrett offered to take her coat for her, she wanted to keep it on, but they insisted on checking her pockets first – protocol.

Then Detective Garrett led her into a room where Detective Blake and Detective Jones sat at a table waiting for her.

She saw a recording device on the table and Detective Blake a notepad in front of her, Jessica sat at the table and Detective Garrett stepped out of the room.

'Hello, Jessica, I'm Detective Blake and this is Detective Jones, you can call me Daphne if you like, and this is Fred.' Daphne smiled, Jessica smiled back nervously.

'We're just going to ask you a few questions, whatever you have to say whether you think it is relevant or not, just say it.' Daphne explained, Jessica nodded.

Daphne pressed the button on the recorder and Fred began by stating the names of those present and the date and time.

'What time did you arrive at work this morning?' Fred asked.

'I arrived at work at 8 AM, I did every morning.' Jessica spoke, she shivered a little as she recalled the events of the morning.

'And you found the doctor?' Daphne asked.

Jessica nodded, 'Yes, I saw his car this morning and I assumed that he had arrived earlier to set up for the day. But I saw his body and…and I called the police.'

'You didn't go near his body?' Daphne asked.

'No.' Jessica said, shaking her head.

'How did you know he was dead?' Fred asked.

'From where I stood, I could see the color of his skin and the blood on his shirt.' Jessica explained.

That's what Fred and Daphne wanted to hear, Jessica didn't stutter or look nervous as she explained the events of the morning. She looked exhausted, clearly, she had been crying - and she just wanted this to be over so she could go home.

'What did you do before the police arrived?' Daphne asked.

Jessica inhaled deeply, 'I sat outside the clinic, I didn't want to wait by the gate where people could see me because I was crying. I waited by the clinic for them to come. I walked around the edges of the parking lot so I wouldn't have to go near his body.' She gulped, 'I didn't want to look at him so I waited by the clinic. I sat on the ground with my back to the doctor's body and just waited for them to come. I pinched myself a few times hoping that I was just having a nightmare, but it was real.' She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes.

'This morning you said that the doctor had been…unkind to his patients.' Daphne began, 'Can you tell me more about it?'

Jessica squeezed her eyes shut, 'A few months ago, one of the patients, Mrs Woodworth asked if she could change her doctor, she wanted to be seen by Doctor Barlow instead.'

'Doctor Barlow is a female doctor?' Fred asked.

'Yes,' Jessica replied, 'I asked her when she wanted to see Doctor Barlow, and she said it wasn't for an appointment, she didn't want to be a patient of Doctor Chester's anymore. So, I gave her Doctor Barlow's office number and that she should call her as she is out of office for the day.'

'What did she say?' Fred asked.

'She took the number thanked me for my help and she left.' Jessica replied, 'The next day when Doctor Barlow came in, she asked about Mrs Woodworth and I said that she didn't want to be Chester's patient anymore.'

'What happened then?' Fred asked.

'She said not to say anything to Chester because Mrs Woodworth was the third patient who has asked to swap.' Jessica explained.

'Any they were all female patients?' Daphne asked.

'Yes.'

'I'm curious, if they didn't want to be Chester's patients, why did they continue to go to his clinic, why not just find another clinic?' Fred asked.

'The clinic is owned by Doctor Chester, his medical history is impressive and he was one of the best in the city. The patients were either loaded with cash or desperate for medical attention.' Jessica explained.

'Can you tell me about a patient named Rose Coller?' Daphne asked, 'You won't be breaking any doctor/patient confidentiality rules here, it's all legal stuff and we need to know.'

Jessica nodded, 'She came in a while ago. She looked scared, I'm pretty sure she's my age as well. She came in to get an abortion. She said that she and her boyfriend had one drunk night and she got pregnant but neither of them wanted kids at least not for a few years.' Jessica explained.

'She confided in you?' Daphne asked.

Jessica nodded, 'She did.'

'What happened?' Fred asked.

'She went in to see Chester regarding an abortion.' Jessica shrugged, 'Then the next day her boyfriend came in threatening Chester, nobody called the police. It was another patient who calmed him down, and when the boyfriend left the patient reassured everyone that he was probably at the wrong clinic or was on drugs or something. But some of the patients in the waiting room left.'

'How long ago did this happen?' Daphne asked.

'Not that long ago, maybe two or three months ago.'

Daphne and Fred exchanged looks.

'Did her boyfriend say what had happened between Rose Coller and Doctor Chester?' Fred asked.

Jessica gulped, 'He said that Chester touched her inappropriately and that Rose wanted an abortion, but she was too scared to even come to see Chester again. Doctor Barlow contacted Rose and offered to help her but neither of them came back to the clinic for follow up appointments.'

'And neither Rose nor her boyfriend contacted the police?' Fred asked.

'I don't know what afterwards, I never saw them again, but nothing happened at the clinic after the incident, so I assumed they didn't.' Jessica explained.

Fred looked down at Daphne's notepad before he looked back at Jessica, 'Did Chester ever…do anything to you?'

Jessica gulped, 'He said some inappropriate things, but I was behind the reception desk all day. No, he didn't physically do anything to me, aside from making my stomach turn.'

'What do you mean?' Daphne asked.

'He would just say things that weren't inappropriate in a workplace, especially not from a man who was that much older than myself. Doctor Chester was always so serious at work and when he acted like that it was just creepy.'

Fred terminated the interview.

'Thank you for your time, Jessica, we'll be in touch.'