A/N Thanks so much for those of you who took time to review. I really do appreciate your efforts and love to hear what you have to say. I still own nothing.
When they had all met back at the office, they were thrilled with what they had found out, with Kurt's discovery being the final piece.
After some discussion, they agreed they had enough to go to the police. After they had contacted Penny and Bernadette to set up a meeting, they realized there was one more thing they should check out; if anyone had seen Cheryl around Penny's apartment on the day of the murder. They especially wanted to talk to Mr. Evans who had ran into Penny.
Unfortunately, this time they were not so lucky. Mr. Evans said he was sorry but he had only seen Penny. He said he regretted having to testify against her. He said she had always been friendly and that he thought Steve Baxter was a jerk.
Assuring him that Penny understood, they made their way to Bernadette's office.
When they were all seated around the conference table, Leonard told them of their findings and that they felt they had enough that the Police would reopen the investigation.
Penny and Bernadette were both thrilled and shocked. When Leonard finished, Bernadette spoke up, "This is wonderful. Great job by all of you." She paused, "Even if the Police for some reason refuse, you have provided me with enough evidence to cause the jury to have reasonable doubt."
Penny broke in, "I just want to thank you guys. This is wonderful news." Then she couldn't resist and got up to hug a surprised Kurt who smilingly returned it. She then gave Leonard not only a hug but kissed him firmly on the mouth which brought smiles from Kurt and Bernadette and a small eye roll from Sheldon.
Then she smiled and said, "Sorry, Sheldon, but you don't get left out this time. Then to everyone's joy, she gave him a quick hug. They were all a little shocked when he actually somewhat hugged her back.
She then returned to her seat and turning serious, "It is still hard for me to believe that Cheryl killed him. I mean, I have known her for a long time. I know we didn't always get along, but I would have never believed her capable of anything like this."
Kurt nodded, "I know what you mean." After a few moments, "But I just remembered something the owner of the store said. She said Cheryl said she was on her way to see her boyfriend. Apparently, she and Steve had gotten somewhat serious."
Penny said, "And that was the same day Steve told me we should get back together."
Realizing that could possibly be investigated as a motive, the three guys headed for the police station. After hearing a quick summary of what they had discovered, including the matching gloves, Detective Harding arranged a meeting with him, his partner and an Assistant District Attorney, Marta Heddings.
After everyone was seated, Harding began, "Note for the record this is a meeting to evaluate further possible evidence in the murder investigation of Steven Baxter on July 23rd of this year."
He then asked everyone to identify themselves. When they had finished, he continued,
"All right, let's get started. Mr. Adams, will you cover what happened at the Fourth Street Corner Bar?"
Kurt told how Cheryl had danced with Steve and how she was humiliated by Penny. He then told them that Penny left with Leonard while Steve and Cheryl had also left together.
"Did you see either of them in the days leading up to the murder?"
"No. And that was surprising, because Cheryl was a regular."
Harding turned to the others, "How about either of you?"
Both Sheldon and Leonard denied seeing either of them.
"Will you now explain how you came to suspect this Cummings woman?"
Sheldon answered, "Since we were proceeding on the belief that Miss Andrews was innocent, we assumed someone had put the gun and gloves in her purse."
"In talking with the defendant, we decided the only two places where that could have occurred were a service station she stopped at on the way to the airport and the time she was with her father. After we eliminated the service station, we talked to Mr. Andrews. He remembered that they had left the purse unguarded. He also remembered Miss Cummings being in the restaurant." He hesitated, "He remembered because she is, how do I say this, quite endowed."
Rachel smirked, "You mean she has big boobs."
Sheldon went on, "A rather crude way to say it, but yes."
He then went on, "After Mr. Andrews identified her Facebook picture as the woman he had seen, we began to see what we could find out."
Marta interrupted, "Note we need to get a statement from Mr. Andrews and also to send somebody over to that restaurant to see if they can find anyone who could corroborate his testimony."
Harding nodded and then went on, "So, how did you proceed?"
Leonard spoke up, "We first sent Kur… Mr. Adams to Cheryl's apartment to see if anyone had seen Mr. Baxter during the week leading up to the murder, but he couldn't find anyone who had seen him."
"We then determined that Mr. Baxter had an apartment of his own. When we questioned people there, we found many individuals who did see Cheryl around. Although none of them could unequivocally say she had stayed overnight, a couple did see her leave in the morning."
"We were also told they had been seen in a nearby restaurant and we verified that with a waiter."
Marta interrupted again, "We will need their names."
Leonard nodded.
Then Leonard took a deep breath, he knew the next part was going to be difficult. He wasn't disappointed when Harding asked, "What led you to check out the clothing store?"
Sheldon, Leonard and Kurt looked at each other. They had known this would come up. They realized they had made a mistake. They should have had Kurt try to find out what he did without showing the credit card slip to Betty.
Sheldon took over, "We obtained a copy of a credit card receipt. We didn't think anything would come of it but because it occurred on the date of the murder, we sent Mr. Adams to check it out."
The two detectives and the Attorney exchanged glances. Finally, Marta asked, "Do I want to know how you obtained that information?"
"Probably not."
Marta nodded. After a few moments, "Let's let that go for now. I'll talk to Judge Brown. I think we can make the case that with the other evidence we have, we would in the normal conduct of the investigation check out her credit card purchases, that we would have eventually found this evidence ourselves. It's also possible, if she is guilty, we may not have to go to court."
Harding smiled to himself, then he continued,"Is that it?"
Leonard answered, "We did check out Miss Andrew's apartment, but no one we talked to saw Cheryl there on the day of the murder. That's about it."
Harding nodded. Marta spoke up, "All right, why don't you three wait outside?"
After they left, she sighed. "I don't know what you guys think, but I don't see that we have any choice other than to at least talk to this Cummings woman. We will have to be careful how we handle the glove situation, but I think the judge will go along with us. After all, they weren't acting on our behalf when they accessed that information."
Harding looked at his partner, "We agree."
Marta continued, "So, do you think Andrews could be innocent?"
Rachel shrugged, "I hate to admit it, but I do have my doubts now about her guilt."
Marta nodded. "And so would a jury."
Calling the others back in, they told them they were going to reopen the case. They also informed them that since this was now a police investigation, they were to clear any other information or possible lines of investigation with them.
Barely able to hide their excitement, they quickly agreed.
After they left the Police, they contacted Penny and Bernadette and told them the good news. They all agreed they wanted to go out and celebrate. They decided they needed to go somewhere that none of them frequented.
They would later chastise themselves that they never noticed the car that had been following them all day. Cheryl had watched them go to Penny's, the Lawyer's office and the Police Station. When they went out to a bar, she was pretty sure their trip to the Police had been successful.
She complimented herself that she had been prepared. She had almost cleaned out her bank account and had packed and loaded her car with what she would need.
As a final step, she parked down the street from her apartment and smirked when what were obviously Detectives entered her apartment building.
She reached down and opening her purse, took out the gun she had bought when she had left home, wanting to be sure no one would ever rape her again.
Looking back one more time, she left her home forever.
After the detectives discovered she wasn't home, they went to her place of employment and found out she had taken two days of vacation. Obtaining a search warrant, they returned to the apartment and found that clothes were apparently missing, but that could be because she was on vacation.
They had a great bonus when they came across the same credit card receipt that the guys had obtained.
After talking to her coworkers and her neighbors, none of whom had any information about where she might have gone, they put out an APB on her and returned to the station.
They planned for the next day to start talking to the same witnesses that Sheldon and the others had provided for them and obtaining statements.
After they left the bar, Penny and Leonard decided that Penny would stay over at Leonard's for a few days until they found out if the police were going to charge Cheryl.
Penny drove to her apartment to get the things she would need, while they guys went back to the office to get caught up on everything. Sheldon was not thrilled, but agreed with Leonard and Kurt that they could get along without Leonard at the office for a few days.
Saying goodnight, Leonard headed for home, exhilarated about what had happened and excited about the prospect of spending time with Penny.
As Penny, carrying a suitcase, headed out to her car, someone came up next to her.
"Hi, Penny."
Penny was stunned to hear Cheryl's voice. Suddenly she felt something poke her in the side.
"What you feel is a gun. Now, we are going to walk together to my car. I would suggest you not try anything. I have already killed once and won't hesitate to do it again."
"Cheryl. You don't need to do this. I am sure you didn't mean to kill him. Just let me go."
"Shut up. You and I are going for a little ride. Who knows, you might even come out of this alive."
With no one around; when they reached the car, Cheryl handcuffed Penny's hands behind her and forced her into the trunk. Throwing her luggage in with her, she closed the trunk.
She then got back in her car and drove away.
Leonard was just starting to get worried when the phone rang and he saw it was coming from Penny. He quickly answered, "Where are you? I was getting a little worried."
His heart almost stopped and his blood ran cold when he heard a voice say, "Hey, Leonard. This is Cheryl. I want you to listen carefully to what I have to say."