Beauty Can Be Deadly

Chapter 4

Steve moved further into the shower.  She was lying close to the wall.  A bar of soap lay at her feet.  Pulling a pair of gloves out of his pocket he slipped them on before reaching up to turn off the shower.  As he moved to squat down, Cheryl joined him.  He placed two fingers against her neck and felt no pulse.  "I'm not getting anything.  Call 911 and go ahead and call the Crime Scene Unit as well."

Cheryl pulled her phone from her purse and made the requested calls.  "I'm going to gather up everyone who is still here and start the interview process.  These people should be getting good at it."

Steve nodded his agreement as he continued to survey the body in front of him.  She was lying on her stomach. Her face turned towards the wall.  Now that the water had been turned off blood had begun to pool beneath her head.  Until the crime scene photos had been taken he didn't touch her but he suspected they would find a wound to her forehead.  He heard a noise and looked up to see the ambulance crew coming through the door.  Their swift arrival prompted a questioning look from Steve.

"We were on our lunch break, and had stopped by to check out the ladies," was the embarrassed response.

Steve nodded his understanding, and stepped aside and allowed them to begin what he was sure was a futile examination.  His thoughts turned to Anthea Monroe.  Someone had tried to make her death look like an accident.  They were obviously trying the same thing with this death.  They wanted to make it appear as if she has slipped on the bar of soap and hit her head on the wall.  He was interrupted in his musings by the paramedic. 

"Sir, she's gone," he informed Steve.

"Ok, thanks," Steve responded.  "I'll notify the coroner.  Thanks for your efforts."

"No problem, I just wish we could have saved her, but she was gone when we got here," responded the paramedic.

Steve nodded his agreement and then pulled out his phone and placed a call to the coroner's office.  As he hung up the phone, the shower suddenly got very busy and crowded as the officers from the crime scene unit arrived.  Steve recognized the lead detective from the earlier murder.  "Lt. Burns," he greeted.

Katie Burns turned to gaze appreciatively at the homicide detective as he drew closer.  "Lt. Sloan," she greeted in return.  "Are you having problems keeping contestants alive?"

"It would seem that way," he responded distractedly.  His eyes had focused on a portion of Jordan Maxwell's shoulder.  He moved back towards the body and squatted down.

"You got something?" asked Katie Burns as she joined him beside the body.

Steve gestured towards the victim's shoulder.  "Look at those marks, don't they look like they were made by someone's fingers?"

Katie Burns motioned for the photographer to join them.  "That's what it looks like to me."

They both stepped away from the body to allow the photographer to get the shots he needed.

As Steve stood observing the room he saw what looked like a caterpillar lying close to the victim's right hand.  As the photographer finished he moved back towards the body and squatted down.  "Lt. Burns, you might want to take a look at this."

As she joined him beside the body she pulled her gloves on and extracted a plastic evidence bag from her pocket.  "Looks like somebody lost a false eyelash."  She leaned down to look closely at the victim's face.  "Could be hers but I would like to think they take them off before they shower.  Maybe we just got lucky."

"Can you get DNA off of an eyelash?" Steve wondered out loud.

"Maybe," came a voice from the doorway.

Steve grinned affectionately.  "Hello, Amanda, glad you could join us."

She moved across the shower to join them at the body.  "The water presents a problem as well.  Do we know how long she was laying here before she was found?"

Steve shook his head.  "Cheryl is talking to the group now she may have gotten more details.  I'll go check while you ladies finish up in here."

Steve moved out of the shower towards the auditorium.  He observed Cheryl as he approached her and thought he could read anger in the set of her shoulders.  "Cheryl?"
As she turned to face him he realized he had been correct.  Her eyes were blazing.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing I can't handle," was her terse response as she moved away from the group to join him.

"Cheryl, I'll ask again what's going on?"

She sighed.  "One of the contestants is demanding she be allowed to leave.  She doesn't have time for all these questions.  She has a final question to prepare for and she needs her rest so that she won't have bags under her eyes.  I was just getting ready to ask her how a black eye would look when you interrupted."

Steve smiled slightly.  "Would you like me to take over?"

"No, I most certainly wouldn't.  It takes more than some little debutante named Topaz Gem to keep me from finishing an interview I started," she responded angrily.

"Whoa, hey I'm a friend here.  I was just making sure you didn't need a break, and you are kidding about the name right?" he intoned with a smile.

In spite of herself, she felt a smile spreading across her features.  She looked up at him and the warmth of the smile spread to her eyes.  "No, that's actually what she said her name was.  Can you imagine?"

Steve gulped as he felt a flutter in his stomach.  Wow, what was that?  He didn't have time to analyze it any further as a high pitched voice separated itself from the group.

"I have had enough, I am going home.  This is ridiculous," exclaimed a blonde contestant.

Steve felt Cheryl tense beside him.  "See what I mean?" she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.  She then moved back towards the group and addressed the unhappy contestant.  "Ms Gem, we only need a few more moments.  You can either sit back and enjoy them, or I can take you to the precinct as a material witness.  That means I can hold you for 24 hours.  I'll give you a couple of minutes; you let me know what you decide."

"You wouldn't dare," exclaimed Ms Gem.

"Oh, but she would," Steve confirmed as he covered his mouth with his hand to hide the smile that had taken up residence there.

"Well, I never," she responded dejectedly.

"That I kinda doubt," Steve muttered under his breath.

Cheryl who was close enough to have heard him had to suppress the bubble of laughter that tried to escape.  "You're incorrigible."

He flashed, her a smile that made her knees weak.  She glanced down to settle her emotions.  When she looked back up the smile was gone and had been replaced by a questioning look.  "Let's get this done so we can get these people home."

"Sure, partner," he responded softly.

They completed the interviews and dismissed the group.  Amanda and Lt. Burns had joined them to share their preliminary finding.  The group was so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't realize someone else had joined them until they heard her voice.

"Lt. Sloan, can I have a moment of your time?" asked Topaz Gem.

Avoiding looking at the three women sitting around him Steve nodded his agreement.  As he moved towards Topaz Gem she hooked her arm in his and drug him over to a corner of the room.

Three pairs of eyes watched them covertly.  One pair of green eyes observed them intently.  The three women Steve had been sitting with wanted to blatantly stare but good manners prevented that.  Instead they pretended to carry on their discussion while stealing glances towards the couple.  The owner of the green eyes had no such qualms.  She was hidden from the vision of the others and she had a perfect view of her newest competition. 

Steve stopped abruptly.  "What did you want, Ms Gem?"

Topaz Gem giggled slightly.  "I just wanted to apologize for my earlier behavior.  It's a real tragedy and all that the woman died.  I just didn't want you to hold it against me in the competition."

"Believe me, Ms Gem, I've already put you out of my mind," Steve responded.

Her next movement took Steve by surprise she stood on tip toes and leaning towards him she placed one hand behind his neck and rested the other on his chest.  Before he could respond he felt her lips against his.  He grabbed her arms and disengaged her mouth from his but the damage was already done.  He looked over at the three assembled women to discover humor on Amanda's face, shock on Katie Burns face and what looked like anger…why anger? on Cheryl's face.  The look he couldn't see displayed cold fury and boded ill will towards Topaz Gem.  "Ms Gem, I think you need to leave."

"Sure, whatever I just wanted to make sure you understood," was her response.

Steve sighed as she walked away.  He hesitated briefly before he moved to sit down, and rejoin the others.  "Well that was certainly different," he tried to voice nonchalantly.

"Steve, Jesse would be so jealous," Amanda responded.

"Gee, Lt. Sloan, maybe you should ask for hazardous duty pay," was Katie Burns' response.

The third woman remained silent and refused to look at him.  "Your turn, Cheryl," he cajoled.

The look she shot him made him flinch.  "I'm trying to solve a murder.  If you are through playing with Malibu Barbie maybe we can continue."

Ouch, he thought. Well that certainly stung.  It's not like I asked her to kiss me.  "Ok, sorry for the interruption," he replied like a chastised child.

Cheryl began to sort through the statements she had taken.  "Sandra Phillips was apparently the last one to see Jordan Maxwell alive.  She said Ms Maxwell was on a phone call and didn't go to the shower room until after all the other girls had already finished.  She estimated that it was about 15 minutes later when Patricia Harper found the body.  Ms Harper had left her shampoo in the shower and gone back to retrieve it."

"Did anyone know who Jordan Maxwell was talking with?" Steve asked.

Cheryl flipped through her notes.  "One of the girls..." Cheryl paused as she scanned her notes.  "Katelyn Edwards said she thought Jordan was speaking with her mother.  We can verify that with cell records.  The rest of the group was together and wasn't of much help."

"They were all in the locker room?" Steve asked.

"Yes," was Cheryl's response.  "With that many people in the room it would be easy for someone to slip away and not be noticed," she continued.

Steve nodded his agreement.  "That's exactly what I was thinking.  Did you notice any security cameras when we were in there?"

"I doubt that there are any in the shower room and the locker room is questionable.  It could be construed as a privacy issue because people change clothes there," she replied.

Steve changed his focus to Amanda and Katie Burns.  "What did you ladies find?"

"Well it's another head injury.  From the fingerprints on her shoulders I would speculate that she was grabbed from behind and pushed head first into the wall.  The wound was on the side so she was probably trying to turn her head to see her assailant.  From a visual observation it appears that the impact with the wall fractured her skull and drove bone fragments into her brain.  Obviously, I will be able to verify that once I complete the autopsy."  She paused as she glanced at her watch.  "Which, I need to be leaving to do."  Looking at Steve and Cheryl she continued.  "I'll call when I have results," she stated as she moved out of the room.

"Thanks, Amanda," Steve responded.  "What about the eyelash Katie?"

"I don't think it was hers.  We only found the one and if it was hers we should have found the mate somewhere in the shower," she speculated.  "It's hard to tell if any of the other women were missing a false eyelash.  With the supply these women keep on hand I'm sure LA is experiencing a shortage.  The one we found, along with anything else, will be sent to the lab for testing."

Steve leaned back in his chair and looked over to Cheryl.  "I guess that's all we can do for tonight."

"I think you're probably right.  There's only one more day of competition right?" she questioned.

"Yes, it's finally over tomorrow with the evening gown competition," Steve gratefully responded.

"Are you coming to the precinct in the morning?" she inquired.

"Yeah, I want to check and see what the lab guys come up with overnight.  Do you think you'll have anything by then Katie?"

"For you, Sloan, anything," she responded with a smile.

"Well, ladies, lets call it a night and hope we can make it through tomorrow without losing another contestant," Steve responded.

~~****~~

Steve entered the beach house and paused briefly to listen for sounds of his father.  He heard a faint noise coming from the family room.  He moved up the steps and stopped at the threshold to the room.  A comment Jesse had made some time ago ran through his head "You know your Dad's not like other Dad's."  Steve smiled at the memory.  No truer statement had ever been made and Steve couldn't have been happier.  Mark was dressed in fencing gear and had created an opponent out of pillows.  The instructor that spoke from the television was directing his parries and thrust.  Steve couldn't help but chuckle.  "Dad, what on earth are you doing?"

Mark jumped slightly.  "Hi, Son, how was you're day?"

"It was going fairly well up till the point when another contestant was murdered," Steve replied.  "Now let's go back to my question.  What are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" Mark asked gesturing towards his clothing and the sword.

"Yes, that," Steve laughingly replied.

"Well you see I had a patient today who fenced.  We got to talking about it and viola before you know it, I had everything I needed to take up fencing," Mark responded with a smile. 

"That's great Dad just don't get carried away with that sword.  It looks dangerous."

"I'll be careful I promise.  Have you eaten?"

"I grabbed a burger on the way home.  Do you have time to talk about these murders?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Mark responded cheekily.

They settled on the couch and Steve opened the folders for his father to review.  The normalcy of the situation made him smile affectionately at his father and he silently counted his blessings.