Duplicity
By Divamercury
Hello, all! Apparently the writer's block is getting cured. Hope you enjoy Chapter 5! Please review! Love you all!
~DM
Chapter 5
I pulled up to the all-too-familiar building and an unusual feeling washed over me, like a combination of relief and apprehension. It seemed incredibly surreal: the one man left that had made my life a living hell, considering Dante was already dead, was finally goneit was just too good to be true.
Connor and I got out of the car and headed inside. A distraught woman whom I assumed was Gina met us at the door.
"Detective. I'm so glad to see you. We haven't moved anything, and the, umforensics team is here."
"Thanks. How are you holding up? It must have been pretty shocking, finding him like that."
"Oh, it was. If I hadn't known how demanding Mr. Irons was, I wouldn't have found him for a lot longer. He's usually calling me from the intercom constantly, so a two-hour break was just weird. I knew something was up."
"I see. Well, Connor, we'd better get in there and check it out." We continued down the hall and entered Irons's office, which was crawling with forensics guys.
"What've we got?" I asked the nearest one.
"We're not sure yet. Not a mark on him, either. We're dusting for prints. Could be natural causes but we don't know yet."
That would be too ironic, Irons dying of natural causes. With all the people who wanted to kill him, one of them had to have done something. The Witchblade perked up and, almost happily, it seemed, showed me a vision. All I saw was a glass of what I assumed was liquor of some kind clasped in Irons's double-ring scarred hand.
"Have you guys checked the glasses?" I asked.
"Prints or testing?" the forensics guy asked.
"Either. Both. Whatever."
"We're waiting for results. Shouldn't take too long."
"Great. Connor, go back out there and interview Gina. See if she can shed any light on what was going on earlier today."
"I'm on it, Pez." He jogged out.
I stayed in the office with the forensics team for a little while longer, trading theories and watching as they took Irons's body out of the office, when Connor rushed back inside.
"Pez, you'd better get out here. Now."
"What's going on, rookie?" I followed him out of the office and down the hall.
"Gina told me that Mr. Irons was in a meeting earlier this morning. With a woman."
"Hmmmunrequited love?" I mused.
"Don't think so. Her name was Avilla, but Gina doesn't know her first name. She described her as, and I quote, "scary."
"Not a good sign. Any other description?
"Nothing she gave me. She wants to talk to you."
We reached Gina's desk and Connor spoke up. "Detective Pezzini is interested in this visitor Mr. Irons had earlier this morning."
"Oh, right, the scary one. Her name was Avilla. Last name, anyway. No clue what the first name was. She was tall, with white-blonde hair and these freaky green eyes."
"Hey" I had green eyes.
"Not like yours, Detective. Yours are normalpretty, even." I colored slightly. "Hers were weird. Way too bright, poisonous would be a good word to describe them" Gina trailed off and her own brown eyes widened in fright. "I don't need to say any more," she said, gesturing discreetly behind us. I whirled and saw a woman exactly like what Gina had described coming toward us.
"Speaking of the devil," Connor muttered.
"I don't think you're far off the mark. She looks evil," I replied at the same volume.
"Miss, I believe I left something here," Scary' Lady said to Gina. "What on earth is going on?"
"And who might you be?" Connor wanted to know.
The woman raised an eyebrow and a somewhat disgusted look came across her features as she looked at him. It was then that I noticed an odd familiarity that I couldn't place.
"My name is Adair Avilla. What is the meaning of all this?"
"Ms. Avilla, did you meet with Mr. Irons this morning?" I asked.
"Yes, in fact I did, but I don't see how it's any business of yours. I believe I left a very expensive pair of sunglasses here and I want to go see if Mr. Irons has themand I don't wish to be interrogated any further for whatever reason!"
"Ms. Avilla, what happened this morning is very much our business. I'm Detective Pezzini and this is my partner Detective Connor. We're with the NYPD, Homicide. Mr. Irons was found dead in his office about half an hour ago."
Ms. Avilla looked stunned. "That's impossibleI was here earlier today and he was perfectly fine. How did he die?"
"We're not sure yet. We haven't finished testing yet and the results of the tests we have taken haven't come back yet," Connor said.
"You seem familiar. Have we met, Ms. Avilla?" I asked cautiously.
She eyed me carefully. "Surely notand you may call me Adair if you wish." She glanced down at the uncovered Witchblade. "That's a lovely bracelet, Detective."
"Thank you," I replied. Something didn't seem right aboutAdair.
"If I may, I will put your mind at ease about where you have seen me before, Detective. You knew my father."
"You mean?" Connor asked incredulously.
"Yes. My father is—was—Kenneth Irons."
"Hey, Pez," one of the forensics guys called as he jogged down the hall to the reception area. "You'd better look at this." He handed me a small bundle of papers held together by a paper clip. I flipped through it, my eyes widening. "This is Irons's will. And it's dated today!"
"Who's named in it?" Connor inquired.
"Just one persona Ms. Adair Avilla."
"Is it any surprise? He was my father, after all," Adair said haughtily.
"But he didn't even know who you were until this morning!" Gina piped up.
"Is this true?" I asked.
"Perhaps."
"Evasiveness will get you nowhere," Connor said. "Except a quick trip down to the station for questioning."
"Fine, it's the truth. Happy now? So what if he changed his will before he died? He just found out he had a daughter. I am his natural heir."
"Hmm" I hadn't thought that Ian would be getting anything after the way he pissed Irons off, and the same for Raven, but stillit seemed way too coincidental.
For fifteen minutes Connor pushed, prodded, and threatened Adair with interrogation at the precinct and finally got some results. We pieced together the meeting with him and together with Gina's statement we got a picture of what had happened on the last morning of Irons's life.
"Detectives," a man said, stepping out of the shadows. "I'm Timothy Barker, a security guard for Vorschlag. I signed that document as well, if you need to ask me any questions." Connor went over to talk with him and I went off by myself for a moment.
"I've got a question for you," I muttered. "What the hell is going on here?"