Chapter Ten
Daniel's notebook was full of interesting things. Though he might have been taciturn, Daniel's mind was far from inactive. Nick didn't consider himself to be an expert on poetry by any stretch of the imagination, but he thought many of Daniel's poems were quite good. He conveyed deep thoughts and hidden meanings in each line while simultaneously creating vivid pictures in the mind of the reader. There were also some entries that started off as the typical journal entry but then transformed into a mini-thesis on the human existence - addressing issues such as the meaning of life, the search for happiness, and the search for true love.
The most depressing aspect of the notebook was what it represented - the promising life of a creative mind vanishing before its time. Nick saw nothing in this notebook to indicate that Daniel had spent a lot time dwelling on his own death or death in general. Usually with suicides, their thoughts are turned towards death or they give some sort of indication as to what they're planning to do. Nick saw nothing like this in Daniel's writing, which made him believe that something horrible must have happened to him the night he died. Something so life-shattering that it forced him to take drastic measures, feeling that there was no way to overcome what he had suffered except through the sweet release of death.
What's more, Nick had been unable to find anything that would establish a connection between Daniel and Jack's death. Daniel never even made mention of Jack in his notebook. Indeed, nothing seemed to be standing out at all.
Except...
"Wait a minute." Nick muttered, sitting up poker-straight in his chair.
Instantly, Warrick was at his side. "You got something?" he asked eagerly.
"Maybe." Nick began to flip through the pages he had already read. "Daniel dated every entry, every poem. Starting in December of 1986, he started writing poems about the same girl. At least, I think it's an actual girl as opposed to a fictitious character. In his poems, he refers to her as a queen, how majestic she is. It's your basic love poem verbage. However, there's more to it than just that. He actually gives a clue in each poem as to who this mystery woman is. Taken individually, the reader might not figure it out, but when you add them together, things start to become clear."
"So what are these clues?" Warrick asked, trying to peer over Nick's shoulder.
"First, she's a monarch. Second, he makes reference to her reign over the isle, which I take to be Great Britain. Third, he refers to her Diamond Jubilee. Fourth, he states his desire to be her 'Albert.' He's talking about Queen Victoria, only I don't think she's the Victoria he's in love with." Nick said with a smile and a knowing look.
"You think Victoria Winston is the object of his affection." Warrick returned Nick's smile with one of his own. Now this was the kind of connection they were looking for.
"And given what we know of Victoria, I don't think she'd take too kindly to someone like Daniel confessing his love to her, especially since she was in love with Jack. That's assuming she even acknowledged his presence." Nick continued. "What if Jack and his buddies played a prank on Daniel and he didn't take it well?"
"There's no way Rebekah would have let them do anything like that if she had known about it." Warrick said, shaking his head.
"But Jack and Rebekah had a falling out so Rebekah was no longer around, guiding Jack with her good influence. She said it herself that Jack could be swayed by his closest friends when he was depressed, and we know that he was after what happened with Rebekah. Maybe Freddie convinced Jack that it would be fun to mess around with Daniel regarding his feelings for Victoria." Nick said with mounting confidence.
"What about the money though?" Warrick asked. "How does Freddie getting paid off tie into all of this?"
"Assuming Victoria was in on it, and I'd figure she'd have to be since she's the one Daniel was in love with, she wouldn't want to sully her reputation. Being linked to a group that teased a fellow student to the point of committing suicide would not make her look good. I bet that it would have negative ramifications on her upcoming television show." Nick pointed out.
On a roll, he continued. "I'm guessing that what they did to Daniel weighed on Jack for the past fifteen years. When Rebekah called him, I think that changed everything for him and he realized it wasn't too late to make things right. Remember, she told us that he said that things were about to change. I'm thinking that he decided to come clean about what they'd done to Daniel. He let Victoria know about it and she didn't like the idea. I bet it would have been easy for an intelligent woman like Victoria to say just the right thing to Freddie to get him on her side."
"So she'll pay someone to commit murder for her in order to cover up the fact that she was part of a group that teased a boy to the point that it drove him to kill himself. Yea, that makes sense." Warrick said sarcastically, shaking his head.
An idea suddenly occurred to Nick. "Perhaps this is the reason why Jack and his friends drifted apart after graduation. Excluding Rebekah who had already left the group, there's a good chance that they were all in on it. Being together all the time would have been a constant reminder of what they'd done. They didn't want to admit to anyone outside of their group what had happened and they probably didn't want to talk about it, but it was just too hard to stay together with that knowledge hanging over them."
Warrick patted Nick on the back. "I like that. It makes sense to me. That would make Linton's murder more than just an attempt to frame him. Freddie and his financial backer, most likely Victoria, were tying up a loose end."
Nick nodded. "I bet if we had known about the connection to Daniel before Linton's death, he would have told us everything without hesitation if he thought it would have helped us solve the case."
Sara chose this moment to burst into the room with her own revelation. "Freddie McFarlane deposited a check for $250,000 into his checking account last month."
"Was it from Victoria Winston?" Nick asked eagerly.
"No. It was a third party check. I'm working on getting an actual name for you. Did you already crack the case?" the brunette asked, a trace of disappointment in her voice.
"In theory, most likely, but we have no physical evidence so we need that name." Nick reassured her and then switched his gaze to Warrick. "And we need to get Dr. Winston to come in and talk to us."
"What about Stella Barnes?" Warrick asked. "Victoria's a cool customer and is most likely not going to crack under our assumptions, but if Stella knows anything, we might be able to get something out of her or at the very least, get a feel as to whether or not we're barking up the wrong tree."
Nick chewed this thought over. "I have a better idea."
Nick's idea had been to ask both Victoria and Stella to come down and discuss Daniel Motz. He wanted to get both women in the same room, at the same time, and then observe their behavior. He was interested to see if their body language or the way in which they interacted with one another would tell them anything.
From a distance, Nick and Warrick stood watching them.
Victoria had arrived before Stella and had seated herself on the couch. She pulled out a magazine and sat patiently, acting as if she were merely waiting to get her hair done. She looked as cool and as calm as she had appeared the first time they had met her and not as anxious as one would be expected to appear after being called in to answers questions regarding her involvement in a murder. Nick was beginning to wonder if the woman possessed a moral conscience at all.
When Stella arrived, she sat on the opposite end of the couch that Victoria was occupying. Unlike her friend, Stella was unable to sit still. She kept fidgeting in her seat, shooting glances every now and then at Victoria but made no effort to actually speak to her. Victoria appeared not to have noticed Stella's arrival or was doing her utmost to ignore her.
The CSIs let the women sit in this manner for a few minutes before going out to get them. As one, they walked out into the lobby. They had decided to split up, each taking one woman. Nick was in charge of Victoria and Warrick was in charge of Stella.
"Dr. Winston? If you'll please follow me, there are a few questions I'd like to ask you." Nick addressed the woman as politely as he could.
She told up and followed in Nick's retreating footsteps, while Stella nervously watched her depart.
"Ms. Barnes, if you would come with me that would be great." Warrick nodded to Stella, who stood up quickly at his request.
Warrick led her to the interrogation room that was next door to the one Nick and Victoria were occupying.
"You wanted to ask me about Daniel Motz?" Stella asked, somewhat uncertainly.
"Yes. We have reason to believe that there's some connection between him and Jack's death." Warrick told her as he monitored her facial features.
"Oh?" she asked, playing with a strand of her black hair. "Why do you say that?"
"Right before he killed himself, Freddie confessed to the murders of Jack and Linton. He then told me and my partner that Daniel Motz was directly related to his death. He did not do this on his own. He had a partner, someone who provided him with the financial incentive to do it." Warrick was past the point of trying to spare Stella's feelings. He figured by her behavior that she knew something and he wanted to impress upon her the seriousness of this situation in hopes that she would tell him what he wanted to know.
"Freddie killed Jack because of Daniel? And Linton too?" Stella sat up straight in her chair.
'We have reason to believe that Jack and Freddie indirectly played a part in Daniel's suicide." Warrick told her.
Stella shook her head in disbelief and began to fidgeted with her hands, which were resting on the table. "How's that possible?"
"We think they told Daniel that Victoria had feelings for him because they knew that he was in love with her. We think they played a prank on him in that vein, which he did not take well and he killed himself." Warrick paused for a moment, allowing his words to sink in before asking, "Do you know anything about this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Stella told him, not meeting his eyes. "If they played a prank on him, I didn't know about it."
Warrick leaned forward and said rather delicately, "We know that it was a woman who paid Freddie to kill Jack and we're assuming that's because Jack wanted to come clean about what happened to Daniel. We think that woman is Victoria Winston. She wouldn't want to risk the exposure of her role in a prank that lead to a suicide. Ms. Barnes, if you know anything, now's the time to say something."
For a split second, Stella seemed about to say something, but instead, she gave a small chuckle. "Can't tell you something when I don't know anything."
In the next room, Nick was attempting to break Victoria's cold exterior, but it was proving a difficult challenge.
"Dr. Winston, did you know that Daniel Motz was in love with you?" Nick asked bluntly.
"Daniel Motz? You mean the quiet, dark-haired boy? The poet? No, I had no idea that he had those kind of feelings for me." Victoria told him.
Nick's look of disbelief told her clearly that he thought. "I think Freddie and Jack knew. I think they took advantage of those feelings and played a prank on him. A prank that had such drastic effects on him that he killed himself. What's more, we think that you had a role in the prank. You were, after all, the object of his affection."
"Look, Freddie was my friend and I cared him, but he could be a real jerk. He had a tendency to pick on kids, even Linton, when Jack wasn't around. Jack really kept Freddie in line. I suppose it's possible that Freddie teased Daniel to the point of suicide, but I had no part in it. I don't know anything." Victoria's tone was calm but incredibly forceful, her eyes showing no sign of weakness.
Nick scoffed a bit at her reply. "Come on, Doctor. You did everything together. You knew each other's business. You think that Freddie and Jack would be involved in something this serious and you wouldn't know about it?"
It appeared that Victoria had grown tired of Nick's questions. "Mr. Stokes, do you have any evidence that would prove your theory? Do you have one shred of proof to link me to this case? Anything?"
Nick kept his eyes locked on hers but remained silent. He had nothing and she knew it.
She smiled coolly and stood up. "Then I guess we're done here."
She marched out of the room, brushing past Warrick who had just let Stella leave. Warrick entered the interrogation room and sat down next to his partner.
Taking in the expression on Nick's face, he said, "So I guess your interview went about as well as mine."
"Honestly, I didn't really expect her to crack, but I was kinda hoping she tip her hand a bit." Nick admitted. "You got nowhere with Stella, huh?"
Warrick shook his head in defeat. "I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that she knows something if not everything, but she's not spilling. Not right now anyway."
"We're not going to get anywhere without that name." Nick said, massaging his stomach as it gave a rumble. "Man, I'm starved."
"When was the last time you ate?" Warrick asked.
"I dunno. What's food?" Nick said with a thoughtful smile. When was the last time he ate? Sometimes the thought of food completely escaped his mind while he was working on a tough case like this one.
"Go get something to eat and I'll see if I can give Sara a hand." Warrick told him.
Nodding in appreciation, Nick left the interrogation room.
Sometime later, Nick was waiting his turn in the drive-thru at the local burger place. It was eight o'clock, but the line was still ten cars long. He had to smile at the wonder of it all. Nothing comes between people and their fast food.
Except for maybe one thing.
Nick's cell phone began to ring and he grabbed it. Not recognizing the number, he answered, "Stokes."
"Is this Nick from the crime lab?" the female asked.
"Yes, who is this?" he asked.
"This is Stella. Stella Barnes. I need to talk to you. It's urgent." her voice conveyed extreme worry.
Nick wondered vaugely how she had gotten ahold of his cell phone number, but instead, he asked, "What is this about?"
Stella ignored his question. "Please, I need your help! She's gonna kill me!"