Charlie rolled her head from side-to-side, trying to work out the kink in her neck. She'd been pouring over paperwork for the past two hours without a break and now she was regretting it. She glanced at the clock; still another hour before she could go home to Joey. That made her smile, as she did any time she thought about her girlfriend.
"Are we interrupting?" Robertson asked from the door to her office.
"I'd actually appreciate any interruption from this damn paperwork," she replied.
"We have an update on the body in the morgue," Robertson said as he and Graves took the seats opposite Charlie. "It seems like there has been a little bit of miscommunication going on. The M.E. assistant at the morgue saw the missing person's picture of Miss Scott, thought that the Jane Doe that had recently come in could be her, so called it in immediately, only when Miss Scott's name was mentioned, the call was transferred on to us, instead of the original investigating officers, who would have been able to tell us that the body had already been identified."
"It's not Bianca, is it?" Charlie guessed from the way Robertson was going about this.
He shook his head. "We finally got a hold of the Detectives investigating our so-called Jane Doe's death and they informed us that the woman had been identified as a Jessie Devereaux. Despite the slight miscommunication though, it turns out it wasn't a complete waste of time for us."
Charlie sat forward with interest.
"Because of the close similarities between Miss Scott and the victim that led to the M.E. assistant's error, we suggested to the other detectives that they run Miss Devereaux's prints against those found on the bank withdrawal slip we had sent in earlier for analysis."
"And they came back as a match," Graves said. "Jessie Devereaux is or I should say, was, our Bianca Scott imposter."
"Is there anything to connect her to Angelo?" asked a hopeful Charlie.
"Except for the blonde wig that was found in her apartment and that she was posing as Bianca Scott, there is nothing yet that connects her to Angelo," replied Robertson.
"Who is this Jessie then?"
"A waitress and part-time escort who is also an actress when she can find the work."
"An actress?" Charlie said. "Is it possible that she was hired for the job of playing Bianca?"
"We're trying to contact her agent so we can ask him just that," Graves said. "And we'll also check her accounts for any recent large deposits that we may then be able to trace."
"How did this woman die?"
"Cause of death was listed as massive head trauma," Robertson said. "And those injuries, along with others on her body, are consistent with being struck by a car."
"Bianca's double died in a car accident?" Charlie said, amazed at the way this investigation just kept throwing up these things. "Is there anything to suggest she was targeted?"
"No," replied Graves.
"It turns out it really was just a tragic accident," added Robertson. "A delivery van was backing out of the alley when she must have stepped behind it. The driver wasn't even aware he'd hit someone until he noticed the dent to the back of his van and he turned himself in as soon as he heard about the body found in the alley he'd been in earlier. Headphones were found on the ground near her body, so it looks like Miss Devereaux was listening to music and wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and didn't hear the reversing signals from the van when she was hit."
"So if she's not Bianca, then where the hell is Bianca and is it possible she is alive after all?" Charlie wondered aloud. It seemed like that every time though, that she started to believe Bianca was dead, something came up that offered a glimmer of hope that she was alive, only to then be quickly snuffed out. They needed answers, not just to be able to get Angelo, but so they could actually offer April some sort of closure on this.
"Angelo Rosetta may be the only one able to answer what happened on the day of the accident and then with Miss Scott with any certainty," Robertson said.
"Somehow, I don't think Angelo will be answering that anytime soon," muttered Charlie. "And you were hoping this woman might lead us back to Angelo once you caught up with her, but that's no longer possible now," Charlie expressed with disappointment and some sadness for the woman's tragic death.
"Unless her agent or her accounts reveal something," Graves said. "But we still have Dr Dick Head."
"Who has been quite chatty to our Kiwi colleagues once he was informed that he was now part of a criminal investigation that quite possibly involves the death of the woman he supposedly treated," piped in Robertson. "He's basically confirmed what we'd already surmised about his so-called examination of Miss Scott."
"Seems like he was approached by a man the day after the accident and offered a lot of money to fake a medical report for Miss Scott without having even seen her and then backdate it," Graves said.
"Didn't he ask why he was being paid to do this?" queried Charlie.
"Apparently, the man spun some tale about his sister being abused by her husband and he was looking to plant a false trail so she could get away from him."
"And the doctor actually bought that nonsense?" Charlie said incredulously.
"I think the good doctor was easily convinced by the amount of money being offered," Graves said. "Especially since he was nearly wiped out after a medical malpractice lawsuit earlier this year and was accused of Medicare fraud."
"The fraud wasn't proven, but he would have been just the type of easy target someone looking to do a cover up would be after," said Robertson. "And it wouldn't have been too hard to find a list of doctors who had made the papers for the wrong reasons and may be a bit lax on the ethical side of things." He smiled charmingly at Charlie, "After the good doctor was so helpful to us, I thought it best to report him to the medical board, who I'm sure will see fit to deregister him, should he decide to return to the country, where he'll also be facing criminal charges for forging a medical file and obstructing a criminal investigation."
"Good," murmured Charlie. "So, if the doctor never saw Bianca, then we can prove that Angelo lied during his interview about dropping her off at the clinic."
"Unfortunately, we're probably going to need something more concrete against him than that before we can bring him in or his attorneys' would just make light work of us," he said, "Because it could be argued that Angelo had dropped her off at the clinic as he said he did and then driven off without seeing if she went in or not."
"Fuck," muttered Charlie. "What about a description of the guy who approached the doctor with the money?"
"The doctor provided a very good description," Graves said. "It definitely wasn't Angelo, but we're running it against known friends and associates of his and his family."
"Hopefully we'll get a hit," Robertson added.
"I hope so," Charlie said, "Because the longer this takes, the more I think he's going to get away with this and I don't want to be the one to tell Georgie that."
"If that should happen, I'll be the one to tell the Constable that I failed to get him," Robertson said. "And since I don't particularly wish to face the wrath of that woman, I won't fail. I will get Rosetta and anyone else who helped him."