It turned out that Dana Brooke's home was only just over fives minute's drive away from where her car had annihilated itself into the front of a big rig.
Getting out of the SUV, Bayley found herself in the expansive grounds of a single storey property that looked like it could have featured on some kind of design and build TV show. It looked like it was made entirely of steel and glass. It wasn't Bayley's cup of tea, but she could recognise that it had to be worth a fortune.
There were two cars parked on one side of the wide driveway near the front of the house. They were not shabby, but they were not expensive sports cars either. The hired help, Bayley thought, not imagining for a moment that Dana owned either of them.
"Looks like the staff are here," Cole said, arriving at the same conclusion.
"Good. Let's see what they can tell us about Ms Brooke," Thorne said. "Seems like someone wanted her dead. Let's find out why."
Thorne started walking quickly towards the front door. Bayley had soon realised that she was working for a boss who liked to take the lead. She appreciated that. It was much better than someone who expected their staff to do all of the work.
Reaching the front door, Thorne banged her fist on it several times. The result was impressively loud.
After a few moments, the door was opened by a well presented man in a grey business suit. Approximately mid-thirties, he had gelled black hair, designer stubble, and a watch that was probably worth as much as Bayley's apartment, she judged.
"Yes?" the man said, rather looking down his nose at Thorne.
"I'm commander Thorne with SCPD's Intelligence Division." She gestured to the others in turn. "Detective Cole. Officer Martinez."
"Something I can help you with?" the man said, sounding like he would much prefer not to have to lower himself. Bayley imagined the attitude wasn't going to be well received by Ms Thorne. She was right.
"You can start with your name," Thorne snapped.
"Why do you want to know?" he challenged.
"Because your favourite Hollywood starlet and mine is dead, likely murdered, and I'm looking to put someone away for it. Right now, you're looking like an early favourite," Thorne said, deliberately wanting to shock him. It worked.
"Wait, are you saying Dana is dead?" the man gasped, taking a step back. He was clearly rocked by the news. "But she only just left! How can she be dead? And you said murdered? What is going on?"
"Shall we start again?" Thorne suggested, now that he had been knocked off his pedestal. "How about we come in, and you tell me your name?"
"Yes, come in," he said vaguely. "My name's Darryl. Darryl Antonius."
"Is anyone else here today, Darryl?" Cole asked as the Intelligence team entered the home. The fact that he posed the question told Bayley that it was okay to ask something if she wanted to; Thorne didn't insist on being the only voice heard. That was another thing she was glad to learn.
"Only Anna, the housekeeper. James went out with Dana like he always does. Wait, he's not dead too, is he? What even happened?"
"He's alive, heading to the hospital with a busted head and a broken leg. They were in a head on collision with a truck," Thorne said.
"But we think Dana was dead, or at least dying, before that happened," Bayley decided to add. "The accident was a result, not a cause."
Bayley noted the reactions she was getting from Darryl. Genuine shock and bewilderment were almost impossible to fake.
"What are you saying? This is too much to take in," he said, looking rapidly between all three of them.
"It looks like Dana was poisoned," Thorne said. "Maybe you can tell me who would want to do something like that?"
The colour had drained from Darryl's face. "Poisoned?" he said quietly. "I need to sit down."
Bayley looked at commander Thorne, who nodded slightly. It was an indication to change strategy, based on the fact that she trusted the reactions they had seen. Darryl's attitude had made them launch into him with the bad cop routine. Now it was time to try the opposite. Glancing at Cole, Bayley saw him looking back at her. They were giving her the role of good cop. It didn't surprise her all that much, since Ronda Rousey had often done the same thing. It seemed that people thought she looked like a natural 'good cop'.
"Okay, why don't you show us through to the living room?" Bayley suggested to Darryl, softening her tone.
"I really can't believe this," Darryl said as they followed him through a nearby door into a spacious living room that had minimalistic, modern furniture.
Bayley spotted a small drinks cabinet in a corner of the room. "How about detective Cole gets you a drink?" she suggested to Darryl as he flopped down onto a couch. She sat down beside him. Thorne took up a watching brief, standing by a fireplace a few feet away, while Cole went over to the drinks cabinet.
Darryl said, "I could use a whisky. Make it a double. Have one yourself if you like."
Bayley saw Thorne shoot Cole a look that told him not to even think about accepting that offer. He dutifully fixed only the one double shot, and carried it over to Darryl
"Thanks," Darryl said. He downed the whole thing in one chug, savouring the hit for a moment.
"Go and find the housekeeper," Thorne instructed Cole. "Sit her down somewhere. Wait for me before you tell her anything."
Cole nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Okay, Darryl, what's your relationship to Ms Brooke? Professional? Personal?" Bayley asked as Cole left the room.
"Professional. I'm her manager. Was her manager," he corrected sadly.
"If Dana was poisoned, it's highly likely she ingested the poison here, before she got in the car. I need a list of everyone who has been in this house today."
"Not much of a list. Me, Dana, James and Anna."
That makes things a bit easier, Bayley thought. Not many people to investigate if it was a poisoning, and had been ingested shortly before the accident. "Can you think of a reason why someone might want to harm Dana?" she asked.
"No," Darryl said definitively. "I mean, as a boss she could be a bit short tempered with people at times. I can maybe understand if people might have had some words to say behind her back. But to kill her? No, nothing at all to justify anything like that."
"Any other enemies she had?" Thorne asked. "You're her PA, so I figure you know as much about her life as anyone else."
"I already told you there were only the three of us here with Dana this morning."
"Just answer the question," Thorne said.
She's wondering if someone might have paid one of the staff to carry out a hit, Bayley thought.
"No. She had no enemies. There were tweets and stuff from time to time that made death threats, but everyone famous gets that kind of thing these days. There was never any reason to take any of them seriously."
"What was Dana doing this morning? Anything out of the ordinary?" Bayley asked.
"Nothing special. She got up, did her workout, had a swim, then she had breakfast. She was heading downtown today for a meeting about a new TV role. I can still picture her standing in the kitchen. She told me she would see me later, finished her cup of coffee, then she left. I can't believe I'll never see her again."
Bayley looked at her now boss upon the mention of a cup of coffee. They were on the same wavelength.
"Go and get that coffee cup," Thorne ordered. "I'll come and find you in a minute, and we'll talk to the housekeeper."
Bayley got up to obey the command, then realised that she hadn't been able to equip herself with any of the basics. It was something she should have asked detective Flair about before they left the station. "Uh, do you have an evidence bag? And some gloves?"
Thorne gave her an unimpressed look as she pulled a plastic evidence bag and two black nitrile gloves out of her jacket pocket.
"Thanks," Bayley said sheepishly. She wasn't going to make that mistake again.
Proceeding through to the kitchen, Bayley hoped to find the coffee cup in question unwashed. If it had been washed, any potential evidence would have been destroyed.
They were in luck, she soon found. There was a coffee cup standing in the empty sink. It seemed to be the only one that had been used. Bayley worked her hands into the gloves and carefully picked up the cup, slowly placing it into the evidence bag. She sealed the bag up. It was now ready to be sent to the lab. Hopefully it would yield evidence of poison matching whatever had killed Dana Brooke, if indeed she had been poisoned, and maybe some fingerprints too if they were really lucky.
"Darryl's going to sit tight in there until we're done with the housekeeper," Thorne said, appearing in the doorway. "Let's go and find where they are."
Carrying the cup in the evidence bag, Bayley walked with the commander. They only had to check a couple of rooms before they found Cole sitting in a smallish room that Bayley would have described as a study. It looked like Anna, the housekeeper, had been cleaning the windows. She was a short, dark haired, plump Hispanic woman, wearing the kind of housekeeper's uniform that hotel staff might wear.
"I'm commander Thorne," the boss said authoritatively as she walked into the room.
"What is happening? This detective won't tell me anything!" Anna objected in accented English.
"Ms Brooke is dead, likely poisoned. That is to say, murdered," Thorne said, going for shock value again. There was a certain quality to the way she spoke that left Bayley in admiration. It really drove the message into Anna, without needing to be aggressive.
"Oh... my god," Anna said. She was clearly taken aback, but the reaction was not as strong as Darryl's had been.
"Indeed," Thorne said. "I believe poison was put into the coffee cup that officer Martinez is holding, and Ms Brooke drank it. So, Anna, how about you start by giving me your full name, then tell me what poisons and chemicals you have access to in your little cleaning cupboard, wherever it is?"
"My name is Anna Fernandez. But wait, you can't be saying you think I killed Ms Brooke?"
"Actually, we can," Bayley said. "You see we already know that apart from Ms Brooke there were only three people in the house this morning. One of them is now in hospital, lucky to be alive."
"Mr Campbell is hurt? What happened?" Anna asked, looking taken aback again.
"Ms Brooke crashed her car head on into a semi, looks like as the poison was killing her," Cole said.
Anna looked like she was starting to panic. "I have some cleaning things that are probably poisonous, but please, I didn't do anything, I swear."
Thorne moved a bit closer to the chair that Anna was sitting in, seeming to loom over her. "Well someone did, and right now I like the look of you for it, so you'd better give me something."
Anna wavered a moment, then cracked. "She was a nasty woman!" she blurted out. "People think she is sweet and nice and kind because that is how they see her in public. In private she treated her staff like dirt. Bullying, abuse, I hate this job! James hates her too. The only person here she treated well was Darryl. I think she had a crush on him. But on god, I didn't poison her. I could never hurt another person."
Wow, Bayley thought. She hadn't expected that at all. She had seen Dana Brooke on TV a bunch of times, and she had seemed like a very likeable, funny woman. Behind the scenes, apparently, there had been another side to her.
"Okay, Anna, based on what you've just told me, I'm going to have to place you under arrest at this time on suspicion of murder."
"No! I didn't! I swear!" Anna begged, getting to plead with commander Thorne.
"We're going to find out who did it, Anna. If it wasn't you, you'll be released," Cole said. "Now put your hands behind your back and don't make this difficult for yourself."
"I haven't done anything!" Anna cried, even as she allowed Cole to cuff her wrists behind her back. He started reading her rights to her.
Thorne said, "Martinez, go and place Mr Antonius under arrest. Then we're going to the hospital to hear what Mr Campbell has to say for himself."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
Who do you think poisoned Dana Brooke?