Major Crimes Mysteries

The Congressman's Wife

Chapter 3

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

10 am

Sharon stepped out of her police vehicle and walked quickly up to the crime scene. The breeze from earlier was quickly dissipating and the Los Angeles heat was quickly taking its place. As she stepped out, Sharon could hear that whirling of helicopters in the sky. Frustrated, she looked at Andy and took a long breath out. In the sky was not only the LAPD helicopter, but KTLA's helicopter as well. She could imagine Ginger Chan talking about the scene on a news break in. If KTLA was aware, soon numerous other news outlets would be as well. It was critical the team move fast to clear the crime scene.

Sharon and Andy walked to the crime scene. A white tent had already been placed over the body of Fiona Marquart to protect her from the elements and provide privacy for the victim. Sharon couldn't help but notice how beautiful Fiona was even though she was looking at her at a death investigation. While Sharon always thought the Congressman's wife was a beautiful powerhouse every time, she saw her on television or online, as she was looking down on her, she realized that it didn't even begin to cover her beauty. Even with giving birth to several children, Fiona was still no more than one hundred and twenty pounds at five feet five inches. She had the most beautiful brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders even though currently it was blood soaked. From what she had known about her from the papers and television, Fiona Marquart was no pushover either. While she was still the woman behind the man, Fiona Marquart had her own causes that she was fighting for. Domestic violence was one of the main ones she was passionate about and was frequently outspoken on lax laws, particularly as they related to orders of protection being ignored by police departments.

Provenza and the team had already arrived at the crime scene and were searching the area for possible items related to the incident. Sharon crouched down to look at the body of Fiona Marquart. It looked as though she had a bullet wound to the back of her head and no defensive wounds.

As Sharon expected, news reporters started to rush towards the scene crying out for updates and comments on the death of Fiona. Sharon could barely hear herself thinking with the reporters yelling out. Sharon reached out her hand for Andy to help her up. After he did, she touched his wrist lightly in a thank you gesture.

"MOVE THEM BACK!" Sharon yelled moving her arms in a pushing manner as she was walking towards the police officers guarding the perimeters of the crime scene. "I don't want them contaminating this scene."

"Can we get a statement, Commander? Who is the victim? Who died? Is it Fiona Marquart?" Several of the reporters were yelling at Sharon even as the police officers were pushing the line of reporters back. Sharon ignored their requests and returned to Fiona Marquart.

Fiona had never made it out of the women's shelter parking lot after her board meeting. It appeared her killer took her to an alcove off the parking lot of the women's shelter and shot her in the back of the head. Sharon was waiting for Kendall to simply confirm her theory.

Sharon jumped as a police photographer came up behind her to photograph the body. She quickly moved out of his way and walked to Andy and Provenza who were.

As they were talking, the coroner's van finally pulled into the crime scene. Kendall stepped out and walked up to the team. He carried his bag with him.

"Well, this is a rarity that we are here before you." Sharon said.

"I-5 was ridiculous. I had to go get the van and then to try to navigate here was just a nightmare. I swear there are days that I'd just love to head to some small town and live off the land. Never to deal with death or better yet, LA traffic ever again." He responded to her.

All three detectives shook their head and concurred with his assessment. Sometimes the worst part of being an LAPD detective was trying to negotiate the highway system and its never easing flow of traffic.

Kendall walked away from the group and towards the white tent to start the assessment on Fiona.

As the three were standing under a tree to get some shade from the sun, Buzz came from a back door to the shelter. It appeared he had a flash drive in his hand. He walked up to the group.

"As expected, the shelter has a surveillance system in place that picked up the abduction of Mrs. Marquart, but the area where she was shot and killed is not within reach of any of the cameras." Buzz told the team.

"Did you check every camera, Buzz?" Provenza asked his newest detective.

"Yes, Sir. Every single one. The majority of the cameras gave us no insight into the crime whatsoever. I can't even see which way the perpetrator fled after he shot Mrs. Marquart."

Above, the whirling helicopters and reporters calling out for a statement still affected Sharon's ability to think. The callout for this crime scene had been kept quiet. Sharon wondered how the reporters knew to come to this location. Normally, they don't get this type of reaction from a normal callout, so how did the reporters know this was a major crime and that Fiona Marquart was missing in the first place.

As she continued to ponder her questions, Robby Oderno walked up to her.

Like he was reading Sharon's mind, "How could the media have found out about this? We kept it off the police scanners. Is there a leak in our department? He asked her in a completely puzzled tone.

Without time to comment, Sharon's attention was directed to Myra who was briskly walking towards the group from the other side of the building. "Commander," Myra said almost completely out of breath, "while I was filming the scene, I came across a really creepy mask on the other side of the building. I don't know if it is important." Before Sharon could even answer, Buzz jumped into the conversation.

"Was it a creepy china doll mask?" He asked her in an excited tone.

"Yeah. How do you know?" she asked him.

"Commander, that is what our perpetrator was wearing in the video!" Buzz said excitedly. Before Sharon could even respond, Buzz grabbed Myra to take him to where the mask was. On the way, Buzz motioned to an investigator with an evidence bag to follow them. The reporters witnessing the interactions, tried to move to see what Buzz and Myra were going after.

Wes, Cami, and Amy walked up to the team. They had been in the shelter and confirmed what Christian Marquart had told Robby. Fiona had come to the shelter for a board meeting. She had been a member of the board and a very active member of the shelter for almost two decades. She volunteered while still in high school and college which then increased her involvement in the shelter and the domestic violence community as a whole. When she received notoriety by marrying Christian, she exploited that notoriety to further put the spotlight on the issue.

The team watched as Kendall led the coroner's team in loading Fiona Marquart into a body bag and then onto a gurney before loading it into the back of the van. The rest of the crime scene was then broken down. As soon as barriers were being removed, the news reporters rushed into the crime scene and surrounded the Major Crimes team and trying to get the perfect shot of the blood on the ground.

Andy put his arm around Sharon to navigate her through the crowd. Sharon was yelling that there were no comments by the LAPD at this time and that the victim had not been identified before Andy got her into the car. He quickly got to his door. He pulled the car away with reporters trying to stop the car from leaving. As he got through the crowd, he was happy the other team members got in their cars and out of the parking lot before the reporters had a chance to turn to them.

As they were getting onto the freeway to head back to PAB, Sharon looked out the window and asked to the universe, "Who told the media that Fiona Marquart was missing?"