AN: Here you go again! Enjoy!
Chapter Eight
Aletheia Gerold had been a teacher at a public high school in Brooklyn.
It seemed like they arrived during a break as lot of students were outside milling around in the schoolyard.
When Stella and Flack got out of the car, most of them stopped what they were doing and stood staring at Stella.
Stella bristled at the strange looks.
They think I'm her. They think I'm Aletheia.
Stella felt uncomfortable here with all these people staring at her.
This wasn't her world anymore, it was Aletheia's. She kept her head down she followed Flack to the entrance.
They stood in a long hallway with lockers lining both walls. Just like outside there were students everywhere just standing around talking or retrieving things from their lockers.
Stella saw a brown-haired girl wearing what looked like a cheerleading uniform making out with a tall boy. She thought back about her high school time. You really did miss a lot of stuff in the orphanage, making out against a locker would have never occurred to her back then.
Flack walked over to a boy who was opening his locker to their right.
"Can you tell me where I find the director, please?", asked Flack.
"Yeah, just follow this hallway and then it's on the left side", answered the boy without looking up from his books. When he finally did he visibly paled.
"Mrs Gerold?"
The "central park murder" as the press was calling it, had been in the TV a few hours ago. No one knew how they found out about the identity of the victim, but they had.
Stella winced. What did you expect Stella, sooner or later someone would ask that question!
"No, I'm Stella Bonasera with the crime lab", answered Stella after finally snapping out of her temporary shock.
"I know they look a lot alike, but this isn't your teacher", Answered Flack.
Wondering again if bringing Stella had been a good idea after all.
After a lot of other stares from the students, Flack and Stella finally found the office of the director.
They stepped into a office with a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk.
She seemed to be on the phone with someone, but hung up as soon as she saw that someone had entered her office.
"May I help you?", she asked in a friendly voice. Or in Stella's opinion with a voice that was way too friendly.
Even though she didn't really know the woman, she completely disliked her.
She was the kind of woman who was your friend, but as soon as you turned away she would stab you in the back.
"We are here to see the director", said Flack.
"He's busy at the moment, can you please come back later Mr and Mrs...", she answered in the sweet voice that was starting to drive Stella nuts.
"Look, I don't care if he's busy, we want to see him now", said Stella glaring at her.
What was it this about this woman that she didn't like? And why didn't she recognize her?
Not that Stella minded, she was a little unnerved by everyone staring at her like she was a ghost. But this woman didn't seemed to be new around here so why didn't she show any sign that she recognized her as Aletheia Gerold .
Flack flashed his badge to the woman casting a confused glanced at his colleague.
What the hell was up with her and why was she taking it out on the woman in front of them, after all as far as he could see the woman hadn't done anything to warrant Stella's anger.
"Were NYPD. I'm Detective Flack this is Detective Bonasera with the Crime Lab. And we really need to see the director", Flack smiled at her what he hoped was a charming smile.
"I see what I can do", she smiled at Flack and got up.
She walked to one of the doors knocked and then opened it carefully as if she expected the door to explode in her face.
"Didn't I tell you not to bother me with anything", the angry voice of what seemed to be the director was heard.
"I'm sorry, but there are two people from the police here to talk to you."
"OK, send them in", came the answer in a voice that left no doubt, that he was anything but happy about it.
The woman came out again and sat behind her desk as if nothing unusual had happened. "You can go in now."
Stella and Flack exchanged confused glances, before they stepped into the office.
The office wasn't very big and it looked like no one put any effort into making it seem nice.
"I'm Detective Flack and this is Detective Bonasera with the crime lab", introduced Flack for the second time that day.
"Mr Coop, I think you know why we are here", said Flack looking at the man, who hadn't even bothered to look up from what he was doing.
"It's Director Coop and I imagine one of my students is in trouble again."
Who does he think he is? Such an asshole!
Stella knew the director had been informed of Aletheias death, shortly after the husband.
"Actually no, it's about one of your teachers. Aletheia Gerold", Stella jumped in.
Henry Coop eventually bothered to lift his head and opened his mouth to reply, but it got caught in his throat when he looked at Stella.
"Is this some sick joke or something?", he finally asked.
"No it's not. As you may have noticed since you got a call from the NYPD this morning and since she hasn't been to work lately Mrs Gerold is dead, so we would like to ask you some questions."
"Yeah right, and you are what her ghost? You know I really feel like firing you right now", he barked at Stella angrily.
"I'm not Mrs Gerold ", Stella's tone matching his exactly as she shoved her badge into his face.
"How long has she been working here? Did she have she any enemies?" The questions were fired rapidly at the confused director.
Flack took a deep breath groaning inwardly. He really was regretting bringing her along.
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Mac sat in the lab, he tried hard to concentrate on the evidence in front of him, but it seemed pointless.
He had reviewed everything they had found on the first crime scene, the evidence from the body and the autopsy report. Yet there seemed to be nothing that could bring them any closer to finding the killer.
Sure they had the DNA, but they had nothing to compare it too, they still had to ask the husband for a sample. And then there was the shoe print, which seemed to fit to no known type in their data base, so that was a dead end. Well at least until they could find something to compare it with.
He opened another evidence paper bag, this one contained the nightdress that the victim had worn .
He stopped what he was doing frowning how long had it taken him to switch back to calling her the victim again? Her name was Aletheia he corrected himself.
How could he be so emotional earlier as he sat around waiting for DNA results then in the next minute he was back to calling her thevictim again.
Mentally shaking himself he pulled his thoughts back to the task at hand.
Carefully he scanned the nightdress for fibers, stains or anything else that could be used as evidence. He found the sperm stain Aiden had talked about earlier, but there didn't seem to be any other trace material...
As he was about to put it back in the evidence bag when something caught his eye. He had nearly overlooked it, but there seemed to be some kind of powder on the straps.
With rising hope he examined what he had found, but his excitement disappeared quickly as he looked at the substance under the microscope.
It seemed to be normal building dust, plain old building dust that could have come from every building site in the city.
Maybe it could narrow down the point of the original crime scene if it wasn't the house. But it wasn't any evidence they could use in court.
Damn it! Mac sighed as he placed the nightdress back in the bag.
He would send it off to trace non the less.
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"So Miss Spender, you and Mrs Gerold were friends?", Flack was talking to a short Asian looking woman who was one of Aletheia Gerolds fellow teachers .
Stella and Flack had given up, learning anything from the director after a few minutes.
All they had gotten out of him was that he didn't care the slightest about any of the teachers in his school, and that as far as he was concerned all that Aletheia had caused him was trouble.
In his opinion it was a crime to care for the students and the only reason he cared about Mrs. Gerold's death was the fact that now he had to search for a new teacher.
Stella had been ready to strangle him with her bare hands then and there. It was at this point that Flack had decided to end this interview.
If they wanted to know anything about Aletheia, they would have more luck talking to the other teachers.
"'Yes", Carol Spender answered. They were sitting in one of the class rooms.
Carol Spender seemed very upset and her red eyes indicated that she had been crying earlier.
"Do you know if any one would want to hurt her or if she had any enemies?", asked Flack.
"Well, there was the director for one, no one here likes him, but no one would risk their job in saying so. They fought the day before... you know", she whispered.
Flack strained to hear what she was saying.
"Do you know what the fight was about?", Flack didn't bother lowering his voice he wasn't bothered about offending anyone, not when he had a murder to solve.
His dislike for the director growing stronger with each passing minute. He was glad he didn't have him as a superior.
Ms Spender sniffed twisting a hankie between her hands.
"I don't know... I wanted to ask her, but she just brushed it off, said it wasn't important."
Flack looked up as Stella stepped into the room. They had decided to spit up to interview the staff to save valuable time.
"Thank you Miss Spender, we will reach you if we need any further information", said Flack.
Standing up he placed his notebook in his pocket and headed over to Stella.
"So you found out anything?", asked Stella as they walked back to the car.
She was more than happy to be leaving the school, it drove her crazy that everyone was staring at her even though they knew she wasn't Aletheia Gerold.
"Well, she and the director had a fight, we don't know what it was about, so maybe he has a motive. What about you?"
"Seems like she had a secret admirer, one of her girlfriends mentioned that Robert Norman, a Math teacher, had a crush on her and wouldn't take no for an answer even though she was married."
"Did you talk to him about it?", Flack asked her his curiosity piqued.
Finally we are getting somewhere he thought; finally we have a motive or two.
"Nope, conveniently he was ill today", said Stella. Just then her cell rang.
"Bonasera", she answered. "We are on our way back... Ok... Bye"
Even though Flack had only heard one side of the conversation, he knew what it was about.
"Mac wants to know what we found out", she filled him in. Flack nodded as he stepped into the car.
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Everyone was gathered in the lab.
Mac had put the crime scene photos on the table including all the evidence, even though everybody still avoided looking at the pictures of the body. They hadn't quite gotten over the shock of thinking Stella was the victim.
"We examined her house, everything was a mess, there was a lot of blood all over the place, there was definetly a struggle, so hopefully we may have some from the killer too, but we have to wait for DNA results first-", started Danny.
"There are no signs of forced entry and we found two broken cups on the floor, suggesting she knew the killer", Aiden handed the pictures she had taken at the house to Mac.
Mac looked over to Flack and Stella. "Did you find out anything at the school?"
"We found two possible suspects. Henry Coop the school director, she had a fight with him the day before she died. We also have Robert Norman the Math teacher who was repeatedly turned down by her", said Flack pinning the photos of the two on the board.
"I found some powder on the nightdress it looks like simple building dust, I sent it off to trace." Mac stopped and looked over at Stella.
"I also got the DNA results." He didn't have to say which DNA test he was talking about, everybody knew. He opened the folder again, even though he knew exactly what it said.
"She's you sister, Stella." He passed the folder over to his friend and partner.
She looked down at the results. So it was true after all, Aletheia Gerold and Stella Bonasera were twins.
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396... She checked again, yes it was the right number.
She nervously fiddled with her hair. She had tried putting it up in an attempt to make her look less like herself, which was obviously a lost cause.
She raised her hand to knock on the door.
She shouldn't be here, she knew she shouldn't, but some part of her wanted to be here or felt as if she had to be here.
Taking a deep breath she finally knocked on the door. After a few moments the door opened to reveal Tomas Gerold.
AN2: So what do you think? This part was a lot longer, so I exspect more reviews. ;) Please?