Disclaimer: Not mine.
Author's Note: I'm not trying to make Caroline a superhero. She's actually a slightly modified (as in smarter and prettier) version of me…and I speak those languages, too. So people like us do exist J Also, as you'll soon find, she has her fatal flaws. Oh, whoops, have I said too much?
CHAPTER EIGHT
DOINK-DOINK
Caroline, Munch, and Olivia walked into the English as a Second Language school. All around were students of all nationalities and backgrounds in classrooms, learning English as best they could. A teacher greeted them.
"Are you here about Antonia Mendez?" she asked.
"Yes," said Olivia. "Detectives Benson, Munch, and Schmidt. We were hoping to talk to some of the students."
"That's perfectly fine. When I heard about her…well, it was just terrible. She was about the sweetest thing you'd ever meet. Just a darling girl. I already told some of the students you'd want to talk to them…but just so you know, their English is very poor. They're still just learning, and most of them have just enrolled because it's fall, and our autumn session just began."
"That's fine. We're all language proficient, especially Schmidt here. Who can we talk to?" asked Olivia, putting her badge away.
"If you speak Russian, there are two girls here who knew her. Four Spanish-speakers were good friends of her, and there's quite a few Middle Eastern students."
"Well, none of us speak Arabic, but Schmidt and I can take on the Russians, as long as they don't offer us any of that pepper-flavored vodka they seem to love so much," said Munch in his usual dry way.
"Who are the Spanish-speakers?" asked Olivia.
"This way," said the teacher. "The Russian girls, Yuroslava Toumanova and Lana Karnovich, are in that room to the left."
Caroline and Munch walked to the room and peered in. A teacher was instructing a class of about nine students of all ages, all speaking Russian and broken English. Caroline leaned over to Munch.
"My Russian's my worst," she muttered. "It's probably going to have to be all you."
"Thanks for telling me ahead of time," said Munch.
"Well, if they have any French people, I'm more than capable."
"Doubt it. Okay, let's do it."
Munch knocked on the door and opened it. The teacher stopped talking and looked inquiringly at him.
"Мы поговорить к Yuroslava Toumanova и Lana Karnovich," he said quickly.
Two pretty blonde girls got up and came to the door. The smaller of the two, Lana, did not look at Munch, but drifted immediately to Caroline. The detectives led the young ladies to another room, an empty one, and sat down.
"Вы знали Antonia Mendez?" asked Caroline. Lana nodded. "Были вы друзьями?"
"Она была сладостной девушкой. Я полюбил она много. Мы поговорили бы на английском языке совместно полностью время," said Lana all in one breath. Caroline felt overwhelmed.
"Я плохо говорю по-русски. Говорите, пожалуйста, медленнее?" Caroline said, requesting her to speak more slowly. Lana looked angry.
"I try to speak to you in my language. You say you speak. Now I speak slower?" she burst out. "A man kill Antonia and maybe kill me!"
"Your English is pretty good," said Caroline. "You were close with Antonia?"
"She is sweet girl. We speak in English often. I go to her bakery."
"Fluffy's?"
"Yes."
"Did Antonia ever say anyone was bothering her?"
"No. She is sweet girl. No one ever bother her. Everyone like her."
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure! You are supposed to be police worker. You find the man who kill Antonia!"
Caroline was getting visibly annoyed. Munch, who had been having a feverish exchange in Russian with Yuroslava, decided to rescue her.
"Пойдите back to ваш класс. Спасибо, Lana," he said.
Lana got up in a huff and left, slamming the door. Caroline ventured out after a moment, leaving Munch alone with Yuroslava. She had been very helpful so far, and then she said something that made Munch's heart skip a beat.
"Stephanie будет славной девушкой, слишком. Справедливо как Antonia."
She knows Stephanie? Munch thought. How in the world? Stephanie speaks English fluently.
Munch thought."Как вы познакомлены с Stephanie O'Neil?" he asked.
"Она будет волонтером здесь," said Yuroslava.
Munch thanked her and let her go to her classroom and ran to find Caroline. She was standing there with Olivia, asking how it had gone.
"Everyone said the same thing. Antonia was a sweet girl and there's no way anyone would ever want to hurt her," said Olivia.
"Stephanie O'Neil volunteers here," said Munch.
"What?"
"Yuroslava just told me that Stephanie is a volunteer here. If Stephanie comes here and Antonia came here, do you think Hayley might as well?" he said, his head reeling with this new, random connection.
"I'll go check," said Caroline, clearly desperate for something constructive to have done, having failed the language portion of the day.
The teacher from before smiled at Caroline as she approached, her braids tossing from side to side as she walked.
"Anything else?" she asked.
"Yeah. Do you have volunteers often?"
"Yes, we have many."
"Can I see a list or something?" asked Caroline.
"Sure. Here," said the teacher, showing her to a welcome desk. "This is our sign-in."
Caroline stared. Surely enough, there was Hayley Wernberg's signature, five spaces blow Antonia Mendez's and eight spaces below Stephanie O'Neil's. Each girl had been there on the same day.
"Does that help?" asked the teacher.
"Yes," said Caroline. "We may have just solved a crime."