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 ]
