The Peake Sisters
Chapter 8: Analysis and SpeculationsIt was Monday afternoon when the two detective teams scheduled time to view the tapes together. Starsky sat at the table and watched the tape without saying a word, taking in the details and trying to stop his brain from jumping to conclusions by the obvious evidence in front of them. He froze the picture when the person removed the helmet and revealed the head full of tight curly hair to the camera, and just sat and stared at the image on the screen.
"They're having a conversation on the tape, he wasn't caught off guard, Tom Peake knew his killer." inserted Gray.
"Not only knew, but trusted his killer", surmised Baxter.
Gray snorted, "It's his darling daughter, why wouldn't he trust her?"
Starsky backed the film up a few frames, "There, look at how she takes off the helmet, real careful, slowly. I've watched Meredith; she swings her helmet off, and shakes her hair to fluff it back up."
"Uh…huh? But would she do that when she's confronting a person she's planning to kill?"
"That's another thing… right there… I'm telling you Hutch, that's not Meredith's butt. Starsky said leaning into his partner and added, "Hers is much cuter ah… rounder… trust me, I know."
Jane's tilted her head to the side, "What was that Detective Starsky?"
He glanced at his partner then to Jane, "I said that doesn't look like Meredith's butt."
"With the leather pants, how can you be so sure? Besides, I'm not going to go to the DA and tell him that we can't bring charges 'cause the person on the surveillance tape doesn't have a cute, round butt."
Starsky smiled at Hutch, she had heard what he said after all.
"We can only see the back, and that definitely looks like Meredith's long curly hair."
Baxter and Gray sat and watched the two partners staring at each other, communicating between themselves. Jane tried not to be jealous, but it was hard considering the main non-verbal communication her partner did was squirm in his seat when his hemorrhoids flared up. She appreciated her partner's experience and knowledge, but at that moment longed for a partner that she could connect with and that wasn't so close to retirement.
Hutch was the first to speak, "You're thinking someone is trying to be obvious that this is Meredith, aren't you? Someone is setting her up?"
"One of the other siblings? The wife? Disgruntled employees?"
"The business was financially stable and making money. From all the reports, he was a generous but frugal man, didn't drink a lot, didn't gamble except among close friends on an occasional football game. The man seems pretty clean. Every employee we interviewed this morning said he treated all of his employees like family, very generous, no one seemed unhappy. He hasn't ever fired an employee", stated Detective Baxter.
Starsky mentally clicked to the next person on their main list of suspects. "The wife, Mona, appears typical, didn't work outside the home, raised the kids, and since they were now all grown did volunteer work. There's known contention between the two girls and their step-mother, motive could be that she wants her son to take over the business versus sharing it with the girls."
Hutch continued, "The other daughter… ah… Theresa Foster doesn't appear to have much involvement with the family or the family business. Doesn't have a lot of luck in the marriage department, currently divorcing her fourth husband. We probably should dig there, why is she so uninvolved with the family?"
Starsky sighed heavily, "And then there's the son Michael who lives the lifestyle of a rich playboy, fast women and faster motorcycles," then snorted, "or is it the other way around, fast motorcycles and faster women? Meredith said he has quite an ego, he could feel he deserves the business as the sole male son."
Gray chuckled at Starsky's joke. "We need to check deeper, a lot of times that lifestyle goes hand in hand with drugs and money problems. But we're speculating and worse, stereotyping."
"Or even worse yet, allowing the girls' comments about their brother to influence our opinions."
"Ya." Hutch responded, meeting Starsky's gaze.
Detective Baxter frowned. "So what do we have? The prime suspect is the only sibling with an airtight alibi. The sister Mercedes had a headache and was at home alone taking a nap, the other sister was alone at her parent's home sunning and swimming in their pool."
Gray interrupted her "Rough life, huh? I spoke to the son; he had just gotten back into town from some motorcycle race. He was at his apartment with his girlfriend making up for being gone the past week. She confirmed they were there together and naked all afternoon until they went out to eat in the evening."
Jane rolled her eyes, "My partner the detail man. And girlfriends don't lie?"
He laughed back at her, "She's one gorgeous woman, I'd call out for food and never leave home if she'd get naked for me".
Jane glared at her partner and drummed her fingers on the table. "Partner, you can really be crude sometimes."
Starsky smirked and exchanged a look with Hutch, but didn't say anything. They had seen pictures at the cycle store, she was definitely drop dead gorgeous, particularly in the black leather bikini she was modeling for the life size poster on display.
"He is about the same height and build as the two girls we met at the store," Gray continued nodding toward Starsky, "but I'd still say the killer is one of the daughters."
"What about the wife?" Hutch asked.
"Shopping and lunch with her friends, she provided receipts that showed where she was most of the day. Plus she's a little over weight, that wasn't her on the tape."
"My hunch is it's one of the kids. We need to move on search warrants for their places, see if someone got careless and left any evidence lying around." The elder detective stood up and looked over at the other detective team, "Think Dobey would let you guys assist, I'd like to hit the one daughter and son at the same time".
"We should ask, but it shouldn't be a problem. Why don't you two start working on the search warrants while we talk to the captain and explain the situation and what's on the tape?" Starsky said as he stood and started for the door.
Detective Gray stretched, "My bet is still on the younger daughter. I don't want to be too hasty, but based on the evidence; I'd say we're going to have to arrest Meredith Peake."
Hutch also stood and then paused, "Ah, the funeral is scheduled for Wednesday, just so you know."