"Passion"

Chapter 5 – The Boyfriend

(Earlier that same day, Vera and Jeffries are on their way to meet Christopher Edwards. After a while they arrive at a very fancy office building. They take the elevator to the 10th floor, they get out and approach a receptionist.)

Jeffries: We're Detectives Jeffries and Vera. We're here to talk to Christopher Edwards.

Recepcionist: Do you have an appointment?

Vera: Tell him it's about Karen Hayes. He'll talk to us.

(The recepcionist makes a call.)

Recepcionist (hangs up): Mr. Edwards office is down the hall.

(Jeffries and Vera walk to Christopher's office.)

Christopher: Please, Detectives, come on in, sit down. I'm glad to talk to you. Can I get you anything, water, coffee?

(Jeffries and Vera shake their heads and sit down).

Vera: Well, Mr. Edwards, I must say I'm touched, we don't get that kind of warm welcome that often.

Christopher: I'm just really thrilled that the mystery of Karen's death might finally come to an end.

Jeffries: Does that event still haunt you?

Christopher: Of course. How would you feel if the woman of your dreams got brutally killed on the day you proposed to her?

Vera: We heard that proposal didn't actually happen.

Christopher (annoyed): Karen and I had a fight earlier that night, but I still intended to propose. But when I came back to her dorm room, Lucy told me Karen had left, saying she wasn't going to come back that night.

Jeffries: We also heard you weren't supportive of Karen's causes.

Christopher: Karen was so intelligent and had so much potential. All that activism crap, along with that useless paper, was just holding her back and putting her in danger.

Vera: Danger? Karen said anything to you about being in danger?

Christopher: Once she mentioned about being threatened, and being betrayed. But she never talked to me very much about that part of her life, knowing that I disapproved of it.

Jeffries: Do you have any idea of who could betray Karen?

Christopher (thinks for a while): She never mentioned any names, but on the weeks before her murder, she was always disturbed. There was one specific day, about a week before she was killed, that got me really worried.

(Flashback to 1997)

(Karen and Christopher are having drinks in a bar. Karen looks distraught.)

Christopher (reaches for Karen's hand): Is everything OK, baby?

Karen (smiles): Sure, everything's fine. Why do you ask?

Christopher: You look worried lately.

Karen: We've been working on some new stories for the paper. It's been some stressful weeks, we've met with some unexpected obstacles.

Christopher: What are you looking into?

Karen: You know I can't tell you anything until the story is printed. Confidentiality rules.

Christopher: Meaning, you don't trust me.

Karen: Sorry, Chris, but we can't trust an outsider with our stories and our investigations.

Christopher: OK, OK. But you said you came across some unexpected obstacles.

Karen (trying to sound casual): Oh, just some threats. The usual.

Christopher (shocked): Usual? A threat can't be treated as "usual"! Who's threatening you?

Karen (annoyed): It's just stupid letters and e-mails, Chris. No big deal, it happens all the time. Now, let's talk about something else, please?

Christopher: I'm just worried that something serious might happen to you.

Karen: Don't worry, I can take care of myself. Plus, I'm not alone on this, there's the whole paper crew, we are watching each other's back too.

Christopher (sarcastically): Oh, well, I'm pretty sure that Ian guy is watching your back very carefully.

Karen (sighs): Here we go again.

Christopher: You two are working late together every night, and then he walks you to your dorm room. It's pretty obvious that you're his favorite cause.

Karen (surprised): Christopher! Have you been following me?

Christopher (slightly embarrassed): I hired a private detective.

Karen (angry): You have to be kidding me. (pause) You know, Christopher, one day you're going to regret these things you do.

Back to 2005

Christopher: Then we kept on arguing about Ian and her lack of time for me. I wished I had pushed her about those threats. They were definitely what got her killed.

Jeffries: Why do you believe that?

Christopher: Well, at beginning she said she came across some "unexpected obstacles", and then she said they were "usual threats". That doesn't make sense.

Jeffrey (nods): If they were usual, they couldn't be unexpected.

Christopher: Exactly.

Vera: Back in 1997, you pointed to Ian as a possible suspect.

Christopher: I was in the middle of a jealous rage. I wanted a to blame someone and I was angry at the guy. I didn't have any real reason to say he was the killer.

Vera: What about Karen's relationship with her parents? You believe her father could be threatening her?

Christopher: Well, Mr. Hayes was definitely unhappy with Karen's career choices, but I don't think he could have killed her.

Vera: But could he have threatened her?

Christopher: Maybe, I guess. He always threatening her to stop sending her money or paying her college tuition. That wouldn't be unexpected. However... there was this little interesting thing that happened maybe a couple of weeks before the murder.

Jeffries: And what was that?

Christopher: One morning, I go to the Hayes' house to take a book that my father was lending Mr. Hayes. And then I run into Lucy coming out of the house.

Jeffries (surprised): Lucy Van Holt?

Christopher: Yes. She had brought Mr. Hayes a copy of Karen's latest printed article. I believe it was an article about Medical research. Mr. Hayes was really angry when I talked to him, I suppose it was about that article.

Vera: And you believe whatever was written in that article could have set fire on the problems between father and daughter?

Christopher: I don't know what the article was about, but if it talked about Mr. Hayes new teaching hospital, then Karen was in serious trouble.

(Vera and Jeffries share a look, confused with the new information. They get up and leave.)

(Later, Vera and Jeffries have just parked their car on the Police Headquarters parking lot. They are walking back to the office.)

Vera: So, who would say. It looks pretty good for the Dad.

Jeffries: Or the roommate. Karen's articles could affect her interests too.

Vera: She definitely wanted to put Karen in trouble, but the harm on Dad's situation would be pretty worse.

(Vera and Jeffries walk inside the building, and find Lilly and Scotty staring very awkwardly at each other.)

Vera: Hey, Rush, Valens. Waiting anxiously for us?

(Silence. Vera and Jeffries share a look.)

Jeffries: Should we go to the office, compare what we got today? Boss should be waiting for us.

Lilly (angrily): I forgot my cell in the car. You go ahead, I'll be right there.

(Lilly walks away harshly. In her way she shoves Scotty slightly to the side).

Jeffries (watches Lilly go, turns to Scotty): Something wrong?

Vera (to Scotty): She found out, didn't she?

(Scotty looks down. Jeffries still looks confused.)

Vera (to Jeffries): Our friend Valens has been banging Rush's sister, out of consolation for his girl's death.

Jeffries: Are you out of your mind, Valens?

Scotty: It wasn't like that, you make it sound like I'm using the girl, and I'm not!

Jeffries (shakes head): Oh, man, you don't know what you're getting into.

Vera: You've been working with Rush for a year, you should know better than doing something like that behind her back.

Scotty: Look, it's not that serious between me and Christina. I was already thinking about breaking it up.

Vera: Yeah, right.

Jeffries: Look, Valens, I won't stick my nose into this mess, but don't expect anyone around here to your side on this.

(At this point, Lilly gets back.)

Lilly: You're all still here?

Vera: We were just chatting while you were out. We couldn't start without you anyway.

Jeffries: Shall we go up, now? We had a pretty interesting talk with Karen's boyfriend.

Lilly: Sure, let's go. Stillman already called on my cell while one minute ago, asking about us.

(Lilly, Vera and Jeffries start to walk. Scotty follows them, but slowly.)

Jeffries (turns to Scotty): You coming?

Lilly (with a cold look towards Scotty): He has a phone call he needs to finish before.

(Scotty stands still, in silence. The other detectives go up to the office.)

(Scotty picks up his cell phone and dials a number.)

(Someone picks up the phone on the other side.)

Scotty: Christina, it's me, Scotty. I need to see you tomorrow morning. First thing. We'll have breakfast together.

(Christina says something on the other side.)

Scotty: Yeah, I can't wait either. We have a lot to talk about.

To be continued
A/N: Again, thanks for all the reviews. Next chapter will the last, so I'm starting to wrap things up – I hope it's still not obvious who the killer is. Next chapter should be up tomorrow, since I'm back to college on Monday, and not sure when I'll be able to write again.

Now:

A very very special thanks to AndreaB, who noticed a very stupid mistake of mine on the previous chapter and warned me quickly enough so I could fix before everyone noticed. Thanks so much!

Snow Ivy – Glad to know the personal stuff is going ok. Writing the personal part of the story turned out be harder than writing the case.

Bella-Dawna – It's really great to hear the script style is good! As I've mentioned I never wrote script style, and I was really afraid to of the results. Oh, and I'd like to hear your suggestion anyway (please?).