It's a Beautiful Life, Rachel Goldstein part 2

Details and disclaimer given in part 1.

~~~
It's a Beautiful Life, Rachel Goldstein
by Hilde
~~~

Part 2
~~~

David didn't say much the next day. Neither did Rachel. She tried to start a conversation, but only got one word sentences in reply. She just didn't know what to say to him. She knew they should be talking about it, it wasn't good to shut it away. But she felt she didn't have the strength to go through last night again. Not yet. So she tried to avoid the subject after a while. She knew that wasn't right either, but it couldn't be helped. It would have to wait.

Just after breakfast the telephone rang. David rushed to get it, still hoping that it would be his father. Rachel saw his disappointed look as he got back and announced it was for her. She ran a hand through his hair on her way out in the hall. "Goldstein," she said into the receiver.

"Rachel, it's Helen," she heard her friend's voice. "Look, I'm terribly sorry for having to do this, but we need you back at work as soon as possible."

"What!?" Rachel sighed heavily. "Can't you manage without me?"

"I wish we could," Helen replied honestly. "But this is a small crisis, and we really need you here."

"Oh, Helen. I was hoping to spend some time with my son!" Rachel complained.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But it's not my call," Helen told her. "How is he?" she added, referring to David.

"I think he's accepted it," Rachel replied. "But he's not saying much. He's still in shock."

"It's so sad when these things happen," Helen said quietly, then raised her voice a little. "Are you coming in?"

Rachel sighed again. "Yeah, sure. If you can't do it without me."

"I'm really sorry, Rach," Helen excused herself again.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there in half an hour," Rachel told her and hung up. Deep inside she was actually glad Helen called. She was obviously not getting through to David, and she needed to get it on a distance, get her mind settled on something else. Suddenly she realised how she really felt, and she could have kicked herself for even thinking the thought. But she had to admit it - it was the truth.

~~~

Twenty five minutes later Rachel arrived at the station after letting David off with her father. Felix loved his grandson very much, and never turned down Rachel's request for 'babysitting,' something Rachel often took advantage of. She didn't know how many times she had left David with his grandfather while she went to work. Like now. Funny, really. How she managed to forget about her other problems when she was working. Maybe that was why she took her job so seriously. It made a good excuse for not thinking of her personal life.

Rachel went out of her car and entered the station. She was met by Frank in the stairs, just on his way to Hawker's office.

"G'day, Rachel," he said with a smile as usually, but Rachel noticed that the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Hi, Frank. Something wrong?" she asked as if she didn't know the answer.

Frank looked surprised. "No, no, nothing's wrong. I just thought." He trailed off.

"Don't think, Holloway," Rachel said firmly. "It doesn't suit you. Now, what's the big emergency?" she asked before Frank got to answer her remark.

"Jeff's waiting for us in his office," Frank replied as they walked up the stairs. "He'll fill you in."

~~~

"Rachel, thanks for coming in at such short notice," Jeff said when Rachel and Frank entered the Chief Inspector's office. Helen was already there.

"Yeah, no problem," Rachel replied lightly, realising that it really was no problem. She forced herself to shove the thought away. She was here to work, not examine her personal feelings. "What's this all about?" she asked, wanting to get her mind settled on something else.

Jeff gestured for her and Frank to sit down, and then started talking. There was a body been found at Elizabeth Bay that morning. It was a woman in her early thirties, no ID. She had probably drowned, but they couldn't be sure until they got the autopsy report, which, by the way, should be finished soon. Maybe Frank and Rachel would go down to the morgue and check it out?

"Yeah, sure," Frank nodded. "Anything else we ought to know?"

"Nope, that's all we've got so far," Helen told him.

"Not much to work with," Rachel commented.

"No, but I believe it's your job to find the clues?" Jeff sent her a meaningful gaze, and she nodded.

"We're on our way. You coming, Frank?"

"You betcha."

~~~

"Oh, there's no point in this!" Rachel exclaimed annoyed. "We're not getting anywhere." She tossed the file she was going through down on her desk and closed her eyes.

Chopper Lewis down at the morgue couldn't tell the detectives anything more than that the girl had been dead for about 48 hours, and that she was hit in the back of her head, but the cause of death was drowning. He guessed she had been hit unconscious and then dumped in the harbour, where she drowned before she could get out of the water. She also had red marks around her wrists, indicating that she had been tied up for a while. But they found nothing on her that could tell them who she was, no papers, cards or photos. Frank and Rachel had to go back to the station and start going through the missing persons files, to see if she was reported missing in the last few weeks. But they had went through all the files without luck, and Rachel was starting to get restless. She hated it when they got stuck like this.

"I agree," Frank sighed from behind his desk. "We have absolutely nothing."

Rachel opened her eyes again and glared out the window. What could they do? It was getting late too, and she decided to call it a day. Besides, she wanted to pick up David and have a quiet night at home. She got up from her chair as she said to Frank: "I'm heading home now. No point in staying here any longer."

"Yeah, you're right," Frank replied and got up too. "I think I'll go home as well."

They were just about to walk out the door when Helen suddenly barged in. "And where do you think you're going?" she asked, glancing from Rachel to Frank and back to Rachel again.

"Home," Rachel replied lightly. "There's nothing more we can do today, we're totally stuck."

"Well, now you've got something more to think about," Helen told them, and paused for a second when she saw the puzzled looks on the Detectives' faces. "There's been found another body at Elizabeth Bay."

Frank and Rachel looked at each other. They were both thinking the same. A coincidence? Or a serial killer? Neither of them really believed the first one.

"Oh, great," Rachel muttered. "OK, let's go down there," she said to Frank. "Let me just call my father first and tell him I won't be home yet."

Frank nodded. "I'll wait for you downstairs," he said, leaving the office with Helen following behind.

Rachel went over to the phone and dialled her father's number. David answered. "Hi, sweetie," Rachel said softly. "Listen, I won't be home for a while yet. I have to stay at work a bit longer. But you and Grandpa are fine, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she heard David's disappointed voice in the other end. "When will you come and get me then?" he asked eagerly.

"I don't know yet, honey. It may take a while. I'll call you later, OK?"

"OK," David muttered. "Bye."

"Bye, sweetheart," Rachel replied, but David had already hung up. She felt awful for letting him down like that, but it wasn't the first time. He'd be alright with her father. Besides, she was needed at work. Again she shoved all her dark thoughts to the back of her head, and went downstairs to catch up with Frank.

~~~

The new body didn't reveal anything more than the other one. This too was a woman around thirty, with no wallet, papers or other ID. The coroner estimated the body to have been in the water for 15-20 hours. He couldn't tell them more until the autopsy was done.

Rachel was starting to get frustrated. "Hell," she told Frank in the car back to the station. "How are we gonna find something to work with?"

Frank just shook his head, and the rest of the drive was in complete silence.

When they entered the station, Helen told them that a certain Mrs. Ashley Rowan was waiting in their office. Rachel and Frank glanced at each other and went up the stairs to the Detectives' office.

Mrs. Rowan was standing in front of the window, staring out on the harbour. She turned around when she noticed Frank and Rachel coming into the room, and measured both of them with her eyes. She had grey, almost white, short hair, and she was rather tall for her age. Frank assumed she was somewhere around sixty.

"Hello, Mrs. Rowan," Rachel said and held out her hand. "I'm Rachel Goldstein, this is my partner, Frank Holloway." She nodded over to Frank.

Mrs. Rowan shook her hand quietly, and turned to the window again.

Rachel sent Frank a puzzled look, then asked: "Is there anything we can do for you, Mrs. Rowan?"

Mrs. Rowan slowly turned around to face her, and Rachel saw the sadness in her eyes. Finally, she spoke. "My daughter is gone. I can't find her. And I heard about the body from Elizabeth Bay on the news..." Her voice trailed off, but Rachel and Frank had already understood what she was thinking.

"I see." Frank started. He went over to his desk and opened his drawer while asking: "How long has your daughter been missing?"

"I'm not sure." the old woman told him. "I haven't seen her since last Thursday. She always comes to dinner at my place on Sundays, but not this time. I went over to her yesterday, but no one was home. Oh God, she can't be dead!"

Rachel put her arms around the woman and told her to sit down. "We need you to identify the body," she said after Mrs. Rowan had sat down in a chair. Frank gave her a picture of the dead girl, and Rachel showed it to Mrs. Rowan. "Is this your daughter?" she asked softly.

Mrs. Rowan stared at the picture, and her face went pale. "Yes," she whispered. "Yes, that's my Claire."

"Mhm," Rachel muttered to herself, and quietly told Frank to take over the rest of the formalities, while she went to find Helen. Frank nodded reluctantly, and Rachel left the office.

When she came back ten minutes later, Mrs. Rowan was gone, and Frank was sitting behind his desk, looking rather impatient. "It wasn't very nice of you to leave me alone with a grieving mother," he said sarcastically as she entered the room.

"I know," she replied, "But we're in a hurry now. If we're dealing with a serial killer, which we probably are, then we don't have much time until he strikes again. And I'd like to prevent that," she stated firmly, and let no room for discussion.

Frank didn't bother to answer, and changed the subject. "What do you have on this Claire?" he asked, still a bit miffed.

Rachel decided to ignore the tone of his voice, because she knew this wasn't the time to argue. She opened the file she had brought with her, and started reading. "Claire Rowan, age 33, divorced, one child in custody with its father, bank employee, no close family besides her mother, no record with the police. An exemplary citizen, I guess." She handed the file over to Frank, who scanned through it.

"Well," he sighed as he put the file in his drawer and stretched his arms up in the air. "We're not gonna get any closer before we find out who the other body is, so we may as well call it a day, what do you say?"

"Yeah, you're right," Rachel agreed and started tidying her desk.

"You wanna take a beer at the Cutter Bar before going home?" Frank suggested, and Rachel nodded.

"Yeah, sure." Then she suddenly remembered David, and told Frank that she probably shouldn't. But after thing a few seconds she made a hasty decision, and picked up the phone to call her dad. She was sure he wouldn't mind having David over the night. And Rachel really didn't feel like talking about death to a ten-year-old boy tonight. She was beat, and all she wanted was to relax and enjoy a beer and Frank's company.

Of course Felix didn't mind, just as she had predicted, and soon she and Frank were on their way out of the station.

~~~

Rachel didn't get much sleep that night. Her head was full of thoughts concerning the case, and she hated being stuck like this. But the main reason was David. She felt guilty about leaving him with her father when he needed her the most. But she really didn't feel up to dealing with Jonathon's death just yet. She tried to convince herself that David would be fine with Felix, and that it was actually more important to catch this killer before another body appeared.

She almost succeeded. But not quite.

~~~
End Part 2
~~~

[ Part 3 ]