Ch.3 Blending in the Crowd
"So, working on the case of Heather's daughter, huh?"
Bridgette froze mid-step and looked at her current roommate, Gwen, "How did you know?"
Gwen shrugged, "It was on the morning news that they found the body, I just assumed. Talked to Heather yet?"
Bridgette thought back to how horrible it had been; it must have shown on her face as the next thing she knew she heard Gwen comment, "Not good huh?"
"You can say that," she walked briskly into her room, but the conversation still continued.
"I think I've finally found the perfect place to live in, there's an open house this afternoon, wanna join?" Gwen thumbed through her house hunting magazine, waiting for a response.
"I'm sorry but I can't" came Bridgette's voice from her room, "Geoff and I are going someplace."
Gwen smiled, "Finally giving the old lug a second chance at the dating thing, right?" The latest she had heard about their relationship progress was after New Years, when she got back from the Murdock family Christmas Bonanza and said that she and Geoff were considering the prospect of dating again. The subject was dropped after a while, as there were murderers to catch and work to do afterwards. Gwen's reverie was shaken when Bridgette finally answered.
"No, I mean we're still thinking about it and waiting for both our schedules to clear up, but this is case related." She came out in shirts and pants with spring pastel colours, "Leshawna said that pageant parents were…"
"Repugnant?" suggested Gwen.
"…no, trigger-happy when it comes to lawyers, I think was her wording. Anyways, she said that in order to not sound alarm bells with the whole community of rich parents, Geoff and I should go to the Little North America Princess competition casually. You know, rub elbows with the competitors and all the people involved in it before flashing the badge. It's located in the same place the Little Miss Canada pageant was held, the one where Bianca disappeared. Geoff's picking me up here in five minutes. He was questioning the father after he dropped me off at the Jeffersonian."
Gwen raised one eyebrow, "Sounds like a good plan, in theory."
Bridgette checked herself in a hallway mirror, "Well, theory's all we got right now, so wish us luck."
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"Look at all this pink!" Geoff whistled, a little bit too impressed, as he and Bridgette strolled into the room where the competition would take place. Wonder Falls Hotel, situated in the middle of a finely kept English garden was expensive, high class and refined, exactly the place where pageants should be held. Max Steiner's Theme from A Summer Place was flowing softly from the speakers and soon Bridgette was sure it was going to get stuck in her head. She turned her head towards Geoff.
"No luck with the father, huh?" Geoff had recently gone to the Eagle Springs Country Club for a nice chit-chat with Robert Lambton, Heather's ex and Bianca's daughter.
"No, the guy doesn't even seem to care. He has a strong swing for his golfing though," Geoff contemplated how Robert's nine iron almost gave him an instant lobotomy, but quickly shook his head. "You think we can sneak backstage to have a look?"
His partner looked around and replied, "I don't think so, we don't have a kid nor are we reporters so that might raise a few questions." She squinted and then blinked, and squinted again to see if her sight was alright, "Geoff, does that look like Lindsay and Tyler to you?" She pointed and Geoff turned his head to follow the direction of her hand.
Standing together by the large French glass doors was a couple. They looked just slightly too young to be apart of the other Botox obsessed parental crowd, but they still had the same high-end fashions and looks. The woman of the two, a blonde in a pressed, gleaming white tennis shirt, knee length skirt and a pink sweater tied around her neck spoke to the other, a brown-haired man with a little too much gel with an athletic build and almost matching outfit, except for the yellow shorts and a green sweater around his neck instead.
"That does look like Lindsay and Tyler! Let's go say hi!" Geoff dragged a slightly reluctant Bridgette over to the couple, stopping in front of them by a large stone, decorative pillar. "Lindsay, Tyler, is that you? Remember us from TDI?"
Tyler nodded, opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by his wife.
"Oh my God! It's George and Betty!" Lindsay squealed and ran up to hug them.
"Actually it's Geoff and Bridgette," Bridgette broke free from Lindsay's surprisingly strong grip and noticed the wedding rings on the two's hands, "So, tied the knot?"
Lindsay nodded enthusiastically, "Yes! Oh, I wish you guys could've been at the wedding! It was so romantic!" She swung one arm over Tyler's shoulders and placed her other hand across his chest, "And Tyler looked just the cutest!" The couple kissed and before things got out of hand, and awkward for the other party, Geoff coughed.
"Well, congratz you guys. Tyler, saw you on TV on the sports channel. Sports commentator job doing you any good?"
Lindsay broke off the kiss, much to the disappointment of Tyler, still he replied, "Totally, I mean, I would prefer to be actually on the field playing but it's a good life." Obviously, with Tyler's huge checks from home and Lindsay's daddy's money, the two had wads of cash to spare. "So which kid is yours?" He nodded his head towards a group of little girls practicing on stage.
It took a moment for the question to make sense and then came a flurry of flustered answers.
"Oh no…" started Geoff.
"We don't have any kids," stated Bridgette.
"Heck, we're not even married! See no rings!"
"We just came by because of Heather's daughter…"
"Oh yeah that. It was so sad. I wanted to console Heather, but I figured she wouldn't want any from us."
"So you still keep in contact with Heather?" Geoff asked.
Lindsay thought for a moment, much to the amazement of Bridgette and Geoff, "Well, kinda. We don't talk to her a lot since she was so mean on TDI and TDA; however my sister, Paula, has a daughter in these pageants so we sometimes see each other."
Tyler nodded, and quickly added, "That's why we're here. Paula's usually away in some exotic location so we look after Catherine, Lindsay's niece, sometimes. You want us to take you back stage and meet her? She knew Bianca better than we did."
The two investigators jumped at the chance, and quickly followed; for once not being the ones in charge.
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Back stage looked exactly how back stages usually looked, chaotic with lots of vanity mirrors and benches, dressing room doors and clothes hangers holding onto clothes so full of sparkles it could blind you under the right lighting. The beige colour of the walls looked so bland in contrast to the contestants in their costumes, their faces accented by the lights.
Walking around Bridgette started becoming hypersensitive to her surroundings, partly because she had to investigate the place, and partly because she didn't want to be trampled by the onslaught of kids and mothers who were screaming for decent make-up supplies or better lighting. The group finally stopped by one of the vanity mirrors and bench, one, Bridgette noticed, which had a crack on the glass covering the desk surface.
"Geoff, Bridgette, this is Catherine, our niece. Catherine, this is Geoff and Bridgette, old friends from TDI and investigators in Bianca's death."
"Hey, Tyler, buddy," Geoff fiddled nervously with his tie, "can you not say that so loud? We want to keep it on the down low for a while."
"Sure. Catherine, you aunt and I will be at the buffet, Geoff and Bridgette are just going to ask a few questions and stuff okay. Be a good girl." The two walked off, leaving Bridgette and Geoff unsure what to do.
Catherine, however, seemed unfazed with her aunt an uncle's actions, "So, you're here to talk about Bianca's death."
Bridgette knelt down, and said softly, "Unfortunately yes. Were you friends with her?"
"Unfortunately, yes," she replied echoing Bridgette's words. Seeing the looks of confusion, she explained, "Bianca was very mean, she teased us, bullied us and stole stuff from us too. But you had to be friends with her, cause she always won these things."
Bridgette moved closer to Geoff and murmured, "What did I tell you. These pageants are forcing these girls into a Darwinian chain of power structure that should be long dead in a society as advanced as ours."
Not understanding a word she said, Geoff continued asking questions, "So Catherine, noticed anything strange the night Bianca disappeared?"
She shrugged, "Eh, not really, although Bianca and her mom were arguing pretty loudly by the stairs. They stomped off is opposite directions and we never saw Bianca again." She smiled, "I won second place that night, though if Bianca was there I would've been third. Afterwards my big brother Ryan came and drove me home." She noticed the time on the wall clock, "I'm sorry, but I have to go meet my aunt and uncle at the buffet. They have the best fried shrimp here. You can call them if you want to talk to me again."
Geoff watched the little girl walk off and rubbed his chin with one hand, "Fried shrimp huh? Bridge, you go make friends with some other contestants, I'll go investigate at the buffet." He proceeded to walk but was stopped by Bridgette grabbing a fistful of the back of his shirt.
"Come on Geoff, we have to go back to the lab and see if they've found anything yet. Plus, we have to talk to Heather about the fight. We'll come back tomorrow." She browsed through the pageant schedule, "The competition's at the end of this week so we have enough time to come back."
"But…the shrimp…"
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Exiting through the backdoor, Geoff got off his cell phone.
"Maurecia got the surveillance footage. It's true, Heather and Bianca had a little spat near the grand stair case during the interlude of the pageant. I guess we have to…" he paused and stared at the sight of a scruffy looking young man trying to fit himself through a window. His pants we muddy and his hair was all over his head. Amused by the sight for a bit more he finally took out his badge and yelled. "Freeze, FBI!"
The man plopped himself out from the window, and bolted.
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Getting a bit stingy on the reviews, I've noticed. Maybe I should start holding my chapters hostage in exchange of reviews... (Yeah, that's me not so subtly asking for more comments) Next chapter will be up on Wednesda. I'm also working on some of my own original stuff and wroking through my summer Physics class.