Three - 2009

March 19th 2009

The man that opened the door wasn't at all what Stella was expecting, a bumbling old man a few marbles short. Jonathan Vaugn was still well-built, and though he must have been well into his sixties, he looked fairly young and healthy for his age.

"Can I help you-" he looked down at Stella's badge, "Detectives?"

She gave a quick smile. "Could we ask you a few questions?"

He nodded, smiling unsurely. "Can I ask what this is about?" he asked slowly, closing the door behind her and Flack. The male detective produced the picture they had of Emma Kranz.

"Do you know this woman, Mr Vaugn?"

The old man nodded. "Sure. That's Mrs Kranz from upstairs. Lovely lady. Is she all right?"

Stella shook her head grimly. "That's what we're here to talk to you about, Mr Vaugn. Emma Kranz was murdered."

Jonathan Vaugn gripped the side of his kitchen top in his hands, and took a deep breath.

"You're sure it's her?" he asked in a weak voice. The two detectives nodded. "That's awful." He whispered, "She was a lovely girl."

"You filed a domestic report against Mr and Mrs Kranz back in November, Mr Vaugn… could you tell us a bit more about what happened?"

He nodded slowly. "You think… you think Mr Kranz did it?"

Stella shook her head, "We can't release information like that at this time, Mr Vaugn. Could you please tell us about the domestic report?"

He nodded, showing them through into his small sitting room. There was no sign that anyone else lived there, but at least twelve pictures all over the walls of the same young woman, with blonde hair and laughing eyes, smiling widely.

"It… it was late November, I think, and I'd recently seen Emma and she'd told me she was pregnant… I heard some shouting quite late at night, and a few sounds… my hearing's not what it used to be, Detectives, but I thought I heard a smashing at one point… I guess it wasn't that bad, but I was worried about her and the baby… so I filed the report… I don't have a problem with Mr Kranz, and afterwards Emma spoke to me and cleared it all up… I was just worried, at the time…"

Flack leant forward. "So you've not been given any other reason to believe Jason Kranz might have been violent towards Emma…"

Jonathan Vaugn shook his head. "No. In fact, after the incident, we talked a few times when we were taking out our trash… he's a nice young man…"

"Thank you for your time, My Vaugn." Stella said slowly, realising they'd hit a dead end here. She handed him a card. "If you remember anything else, just give us a call…" she gave him a reassuring smile. "You're not going anywhere in the next few days, are you?"

He shook his head. "I'm not really into holidaying, and I don't have much family… you'll always be able to find me here…"

Flack and Stella nodded, and got up to leave. As they walked to the door, Jonathan Vaugn called out to them.

"Find who did this, Detectives! She… she didn't deserve to die…"

"We will." Stella said, with more conviction than she felt.

In the squad car on the way back to the lab, Flack was slightly more animated. It seemed to be the only situation he could seem to put Angell's death behind him, when he was working, trying to find and catch a killer.

"You think Jason Kranz could be guilty?"

Stella shook her head. "If he is… he's one of the best actors I've ever seen… did you hear what he said about the vic's aunt, though?"

Flack shook his head.

"She was murdered when she was pregnant, same MO. In Philadelphia, but he said someone went down for it… maybe it's just a coincidence…"

Flack nodded, "But maybe it's more… but how we gonna get details on a 70s homicide in Philly, Stella?"

She smiled, "I have a contact."

Flack raised his eyebrows, and for a moment there was a sparkle, a flicker of the old Flack, just there. "In the mean time… we'll have to speak to Emma Kranz's parents, see if she ever made it to them… or if that's even where she was going…"

"As soon as we get back to the lab, I'll get Lindsay to locate them, then… and I'll make a call to the people I know in Philly Homicide…"

Flack gave a small smile. "We're gonna catch this one, Stella. I don't care if I don't have to sleep until we do…"

She gave him a weak smile back.

When they got back to the lab, Lindsay pulled up the names of Emma Kranz's parents on screen.

"Her mother's in a residential medical facility in Manhattan, she can't have been going to stay with her… her father lives in Washington DC with her step family…"

Mac nodded slowly. "You and Danny get down to see the mother, and Flack… put a call in to the vic's father… if we can bring him up that would be great… where's Stella, d'you know?"

Lindsay shrugged. "She said something about her calling someone in Philadelphia…"

Mac frowned, and walked through into his office, where Stella was sat at the computer.

She looked up as he entered.

"Mary Beaumont, murdered 1976, aged 16, eight months pregnant." She said slowly, and spun the computer screen round so Mac could see the high school photo of the smiling girl, who was a complete likeness of Emma Kranz. "Also happens to be Emma Kranz's aunt, same MO, same stage in the pregnancy… everything's too similar to be a coincidence, Mac…"

He shook his head, leaning closer to the picture. "She's the one that looks familiar, not our vic…" he said slowly, "Where the heck would I know her from?"

Stella gave him a small smile. "I figured that one out, too… her case was used as a casefile in the New York Police Academy in the time you were studying there…"

Mac nodded slowly. "I remember, slightly… it was the boyfriend, wasn't it? Nasty character, if I remember correctly…"

Stella nodded. "But he's still in prison for it, and he's always been claiming that he didn't do it… what if this is the real killer, Mac, striking again?"

His brow furrowed. "You have to consider the possibility it could be a copycat, Stella…"

She looked at him. "The note, in Emma Kranz's hand? It said Mary on it… her aunt Mary… look, let me call Detective Valens in Philadelphia… he works the cold jobs… and see if he can at least dig some stuff up on the Mary Beaumont case… I think it might help us…"

Mac tilted his head to one side. "Go ahead." He agreed, "We're going to catch this guy…"

At that moment, Flack put his head round the door… "We made a call to Edward Harris, Emma Kranz's father…"

"Yes?"

"He walked out on her and her mother when she was three, and has never seen her since…"

Mac frowned. "So… either Jason Kranz was lying about Emma going to see her parents… or Emma was lying to her husband about where she was headed…"

Flack nodded slowly.

"Bring Jason Kranz in. We can't leave him to grieve if he might be lying to us. Stella… make that call to Philly. I'm going to meet Emma Kranz's mother…"

The phone trilled on Scotty's desk, across from where she was sat. Lilly groaned inwardly, wishing she didn't have to work in such close proximity with him. Ever since the incident two months ago, every time either of them moved it was too close for comfort… it had thrown a spanner in the works of the cold case squad as well, having Lilly and Scotty hardly speaking to each other, and when they did, in clipped, professional tones. They didn't all eat lunch together anymore, through companionable chatter and smiles, and First Thursdays had become a thing of the past for the pair of them, both fearing the other in a non-forced, non-working environment. Fearing the revelation of their mutual attraction, and that their co-workers might guess.

Therefore, when Scotty Valens' work phone rang, he was out getting a burrito with Vera and Jeffries, Kat Miller was talking to Boss in his office, trying to arrange holiday to take Veronica away. So she had no choice but to pick up the phone.

"Philadelphia Homicide."

"Hi, can I speak to Detective Valens, please?" It was a woman's voice on the other end of the phone, "It's Detective Bonasera, from NYPD."

Lilly ran her hand through her wispy blonde hair. Not another of his girlfriends, at least she could be thankful for that.

"He's on his lunch break at the moment… I'm his partner, Detective Rush, could I help?"

The woman on the other end sighed. "I'm actually trying to call in a favour… I assisted Detective Valens with an investigation a year or two ago… we're investigating a murder than has striking similarities to that of the victim's aunt, in Philly in 1976… Valens told me you worked on cold jobs."

"We do." Lilly said slowly, "Is there an unopened case this might link to?"

Stella sighed. "That's the thing… someone was put away for this that might not have actually done it… would you maybe be able to look into it?"

Lilly looked across at the stack of casefiles accumulating on her desk, and sighed. The ones that linked to present cases always took precedence.

"Sure. Can I have a name and case number?"

"The victim's name was Mary Beaumont, and the case reference is 7678912… could you let me know if you find anything… our victim was shot two days ago in exactly the same way… I'll send you the details of our case…"

Lilly was already typing in the reference into Scotty's computer to bring up the details. "I'll get right on it, Detective. I'll let you know anything we know…"

"Thank you, Detective Rush."

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