The Peake Sisters

Chapter 7: The Investigation Begins

Sunday afternoon Detective Jane Baxter sat in a dark conference room at Metro looking at scratchy, dark and mostly blank tapes. As she pushed yet another cartridge into the player, she heard a soft knock on the door. "Ya?"

The door opened slightly and Hutch poked his head in, "Ah, Captain Dobey said I'd probably find you in here." He sat a tray down on the table with two sandwiches and two soft drinks from the cafeteria. "Any luck?"

"Not really, but things are looking up, I was getting hungry."

"Glad I could help. So the tapes aren't showing anything, huh?"

"Yes and no."

Hutch laughed at her answer, "Now you sound like your partner."

"Watch it, I have a pretty good throwing arm and since most of these tapes are blank I wouldn't be destroying evidence."

"What do you mean they're blank?"

"Looks like the cameras were shut off sometime Saturday morning." She watched him closely, trying to determine if she should ask about Mitch and their private conversation. "Right now our prime suspects have got to be the family or a store employee, so we'll be contacting them starting tomorrow." She removed the tape, pushed the next tape from the stack into the machine, and turned her attention to the food.

A light flashed on the screen that captured their attention and the activity in Tom Peake's office began playing on the TV. They watched as he worked and people came and went during the morning, until they saw the back of a person dressed in motorcycle leathers and a full-face helmet walk into the office, and slowly remove the helmet to show a full head of curly red hair. They saw Tom Peake's face grow serious and then they saw the gun pulled from the jacket and being fired.

Hutch looked at the screen and then at Jane, his eyes wide in disbelief, "That looks like …"

"The daughter Meredith", she finished the sentence for him. "I sure wouldn't have bet that was an act yesterday."

"No, I don't buy that, she's not a killer." Hutch replied.

"Wanting to go up to her dad's office was a nice touch."

"But she's the one that offered to get all the tapes for you, if she was the killer she wouldn't have done that."

"Unless she's the one that turned the cameras off and she thought the one in his office had been off as well."

Hutch sat there trying to get his mind to focus. He knew she couldn't be a cold-blooded killer. Hutch looked across the table at her, "Jane, I'm not trying to step on any toes, but would you mind if I called Starsk in to look at the tape?"

"No, not at all", Jane saw her chance and took it, "Before we do that though, would you tell me why Lieutenant Bernet seemed so upset yesterday?"

"Tom Peake was a very good friend of his, he was upset."

"That doesn't explain the look he was giving Starsky and you."

Hutch thought for a moment about how much he should say, "This is speculation on my part. I believe he might have feelings for Mercedes Peake, so the fact that I am now dating her didn't make him very happy."

She looked at Hutch and tried to control her expression, "Hmmm, ok." She could tell it wasn't the full story, but she didn't feel like pushing him right now. She'd seen him in action, he wouldn't tell her anything more unless he decided she needed to know. Besides, maybe that was the truth, wouldn't be the first time two men fought over a beautiful woman.

Jane stretched and yawned, "Ya but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow, I have plans tonight."

"What's-his-name?"

She smiled, "Ya, What's-his-name". Oh how she wished they didn't work in the same department.