Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters below – I am only borrowing them – and will not be financially benefitting from the story in anyway. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author Notes: Many thanks to Mellow Mel for the beta – cheers chickadee ;).
You'll Get Yours – Chapter 4
An uncomfortable silence filled the vehicle; at least Andy found it uncomfortable, considering the newly borne interest he had in his boss. Ordinarily, he wasn't one to be lost for words – however at that moment in time…he genuinely couldn't think of anything smart to say.
It was as if his vocabulary had been reduced to that of an anxious teenage boy, forced to partner up in science class with the head cheerleader.
But Andy Flynn hadn't lived that life; he had dated the head cheerleader in high school - women had never made him nervous.
'It must be her rank,' he concluded.
Sharon pulled up at a set of lights and the sound of the indicator clicking broke the quiet, but Andy was unsure if the noise detracted from the awkwardness or added to the tension - being that it sounded like the rhythmical ticking of a clock.
'Man, it's hot in here.'
Andy loosened his tie and reached for the air-con dial, but the ever astute Sharon - quick to read his tie loosening as an indication the he needed cool air, reached for the dial at the same time - their hands bumping in mid-air.
"Sorry…" Andy mumbled - snatching his treacherous hand away and bringing it back to the safe confines of his own lap.
"No problem," Sharon responded in her ever-cool tone, as she twisted the dial to the fifth notch and returned her hand to the steering wheel. "It is so hot today."
"Too damned hot." Andy agreed, as he looked out of the window at nothing in particular.
A few long moments later, the ticking of the indicator stopped - Sharon turned the corner and finally, Andy found his voice.
"So - you taking Rusty anywhere for his birthday?"
"Well," Sharon narrowed her eyes and glanced over her shoulder before overtaking the car in front. "I'm not sure he'll want to go anywhere; I bought him a Playstation."
"Ah," Andy bobbed his head in recognition.
"Something tells me I will be spending tonight watching him shoot aliens or zombies, or something else just as unpleasant."
"Boy's will be boys…Julio helped you pick it out?"
"He did," Sharon nodded, "thankfully," she spared Andy a glance, her lips quirking into a lopsided smile. "Since my kids grew up and left home – I'm a little out of touch with what's cool."
Andy chuckled, deep in his throat; "Can't relate," he shrugged and a flicked his wrist; "Provenza and I are still totally down with the kids."
Sharon barked a short laugh – catching it with a hum. "Oh totally," she agreed with mock-seriousness, as she wound down the window and collected her ticket for the parking lot.
xXx
"Miss Moore," Sharon greeted the young woman with a tight smile as she arrived in the murder room. "Thank you very much for agreeing to come down here so quickly. Detective Sykes, please could you show our guest to Interview Room 1?"
"Captain," Sykes nodded and dutifully ushered the now more conservatively dressed actress down the corridor.
"Detective Sanchez, did Miss Moore offer us any more information en-route?"
"No ma'am. – she was pretty much silent the whole way…She did stop outside to sign an autograph though."
Andy scoffed, "wouldn't want to disappoint the fans."
"Okay," Sharon chipped in, "Buzz, Detective Sanchez – "she pointed towards the media room, "eyes and ears. Lieutenant Flynn – you're with me."
xXx
The detectives entered the interview room; Andy placed a glass of water in front of their guest and Sharon closed the door behind them.
"Thank you for agreeing to speak with us, Miss Moore," Sharon reiterated as she took a seat at the table, placing her note pad and pen neatly in front of her. "I can't even begin to imagine how you must be feeling right now."
"I feel a little lost," the girl shrugged and clutched at the glass of water with both hands. "I just can't believe it, you know. It's surreal."
Sharon nodded, "Tell me Amber, we're you and Jessica very close?"
"We were," Amber sniffed and released her grip on the glass to push an errant strand of thick blonde hair behind her ear. "She was like the little sister I never had, you know. I'd let her share my clothes…we'd talk about boys…"
"So, not your standard employee / employer relationship then?" Andy asked flatly.
"I guess not," Amber shook her head softly. "I felt sorry for Jess – a bit protective maybe…Being so far away from home in a big city…I know what it feels like to be alone." The actresses blue eyes clouded over with sadness and to Sharon, in that moment the young woman seemed much older than her years.
"That's a hell of a job for someone so young; PA to a Hollywood celebrity," Andy pressed on with the interview. "She can't have had much experience…"
"Oh she had none." At the confused looks from the detectives, Amber continued. "I recruited Jess through a viral internet campaign - to raise my profile as an actress, "she waved her hand in front of her. "It was all Franco's idea…"
"Franco?" Sharon asked - her pen poised to write.
"Franco DeSalve – he's my agent. He's a total genius…"
"Franco DeSalve," Sharon nodded as she scribbled down the name on her notepad, "A viral internet campaign you say?"
"Yeah," Amber shifted to lean back in the chair, appearing more relaxed than a moment ago. "We ran a series of videos on my website - - where I auditioned a group of hopefuls to be my PA. I set them challenges, and every week one was eliminated."
"Like a reality show?" Andy asked, frowning.
"Exactly like a reality show," Amber nodded, "but just on line."
"Do you have to be a member to view these videos – or can anyone vote?" Sharon asked as she continued to make notes.
"Anyone – that's kinda the point. I've already got fans from my soap opera work – I wanted to attract new ones."
The detectives shared a knowing glance before Andy continued. "Amber, the runner up to this prize - she a sore looser?"
"He." Amber corrected Lieutenant Flynn, and Sharon fought a smile at Andy's inadvertent slip into chauvinism. "The runner up was a man – James Wang."
"Sorry - he." Andy quickly corrected himself and Sharon was sure that she observed the slightest blush colour his cheeks. "James Wang – how did he react to losing?"
"Really well, actually. He was totally supportive – I think they are still friends…or a least they were…"
xXx
The door to the media room opened quietly and Provenza and Tao joined Sanches, Sykes and Buzz at the desk.
"We miss anything good?" Provenza asked, taking an empty seat next to Sykes.
"Only that Jessica Ardell was recruited through an internet reality show." Buzz informed the Lieutenants.
"Oh god," Provenza rolled his eyes. "This is going to be a long day."
"Our suspect list has just increased to include the whole of the goddamned world," Sanchez agreed with his superior - slamming his cell phone on to the desk. "Damn it!"
xXx
"Ok people," Sharon paced the space between the desks in the murder room, hands on hips as she addressed her team. Amber Moore had returned to her Hollywood home – but true to form, the Major Crimes division had been investigating the actress's story long before she had even left the building. "What have we got?"
"Well," Provenza leant back on his chair, languidly waving his pen in the air. "The internet reality show shortens our list of suspects to just about every whack-job in the United States."
"You're right - it does," Sharon turned on her heel to face the rest of the team. "But realistically, what are our best options?"
"James Wang keeps a blog, Captain," Sykes twisted her monitor to show the other detectives. "He made some gushy congrats statement when his BFF Jessica won the PA role – but there had to be some hard feelings, right? He's local too - I'm tracking him down as we speak."
"Very good, Detective Sykes. Let me know once you have him – see if he will come in for questioning. Do we have anything else?"
"Franco DeSalve," Luitenant Flynn offered, "a.k.a Howard Francis Workman. Agent to the stars; he has priors for assault."
"Against who?" Sharon frowned
"A former client; apparently he got a little handsy with her. He didn't like the rejection."
Sharon narrowed her eyes and hummed as Sanchez placed a photo of DeSalve on the murder board. "He sounds delightful; bring him in. Anything else?"
"Amber Moore." Lieutenant Tao spoke up.
Sharon whipped around to face him, "I thought her story checked out?"
"It does," he nodded, "but only just."
Sharon cocked her head to one side, "What do you mean?"
"Core temperature checks of her liver, put Jessica's time death at approximately 10pm. Amber arrived at the party at about 10:30pm. The location of the party was about 20 minutes away."
"That would mean that she killed Jessica and left to go to the part right away," Provenza said incredulously, "that's cold."
"Not necessarily. As you know, core temp checks aren't always that accurate when determining time of death. From the time of death the body loses about 1.5 degrees per hour, until the temperature of the body is the same as the environment around it. But Amber's air conditioning in that part of the house was set by a timer that switched off around midnight, and then turned back on around seven this morning."
"So the estimated time of her death, could be out somewhat?" Sharon asked the obvious question.
"We won't know for sure until Morales has conducted the post-mortem."
"Do we have anything new from the crime scene?"
"Not yet, Captain. We still haven't located a murder weapon."
"Okay, thank you Mike." She turned again to address the rest of the detectives. "Did we find anything odd in her recent history – friends, family, boyfriends?"
"We're looking into it," Provenza re-joined the conversation. "We hacked her face book account – spoke to her family…but nothing untoward came up. Jessica just seemed like a normal girl, who'd got her first big break."
"Alright." Sharon nodded firmly and sighed as she watched Sanchez add the photograph of the young actress to the murder board, just below the photograph of Jessica Ardell. Something about the photographs struck her in an instant; "they look very similar, wouldn't you say?"
"What? Jessica and Amber?" Lieutenant Provenza got to his feet and came to stand next to her in front of the board.
"Yes. Similar build, same hair colour and style…didn't Amber say that she let Jessica wear her clothes?"
"I see where you're going with his – you're thinking that maybe Jessica wasn't the intended victim here?"
"That's right, Lieutenant. Maybe our intended victim was Amber."
xXx
Several hours later, the murder room was quiet with most of the team out on errands - and Sharon had retreated to her office.
Andy sat at his desk sifting through the Hollywood division police report on 'Agent to the Stars' Franco DeSalve's assault charge, for the second time that day. Not surprisingly the creep was being a little evasive; he was currently on a flight to Vegas – where he would be promptly met at the airport by Las Vegas PD.
Regardless of whether the intended victim was the actress or her PA – considering his history, Mr DeSalve seemed like the most likely candidate.
The sound of a door opening distracted Andy from his tedium. "Hey, birthday boy!" He got to his feet with a smile, and approached Rusty. "How's it going?"
He outstretched an arm to ruffle the young man's hair, but Rusty skilfully avoided him - playfully swatting the hand away. "I'm good, thanks." He smiled shyly - Rusty was still getting used to people giving a damn; with his mom, birthdays were just another excuse to get drunk. "Erm, is Sharon around?"
"Yeah, she's in her office," he nodded towards the closed door. "Go on in."
The teenager took a tentative step towards Sharon's office, before turning back to look at Andy. "She in a better mood than this morning?"
Andy frowned as he returned to sit at his desk; he knew that something had been wrong with Sharon this morning when she arrived at work. "I know, she had a face like thunder when she arrived this morning," he played along. "What was all that about? Things okay at home?"
"Yeah, they're good but…I don't know…one minute she is fine and the next, she gets this letter or card or something and it's like she totally changed."
"Letter?"
"Yeah, or a card. It was left outside our apartment - I asked her who it was from but she wouldn't say…"
"On your doormat? Not in your mailbox?"
"Yeah, I know – weird right? Anyway, she says I've got to hang out here after school instead of going home to play on my PS3 – but it's my birthday, you know?" He whined, "I don't want to spend it here with you guys…" He held up his hand hands, "…no offence."
"None taken, kid," Andy mumbled as his gaze drifted to observe his superior through the open blinds that dressed the windows of her office.
xXx
Sharon's apartment was just as the intruder had imagined.
'A place for everything and everything in its place.'
Even with a teenage boy sharing her living space, the ever anal Sharon Raydor's apartment looked like a show home.
Expensive furniture, collector's artwork – it appeared that she had a fondness for the ballet.
'Snooty bitch.'
The only item that stuck out as not belonging in the space was a games console; still boxed it sat atop the coffee table next to a birthday card.
"How sweet," the intruder's words were laced with the bitterness of a lost childhood.
They turned sharply and moved swiftly through the apartment, careful not to disturb anything; that was until they reached their destination - Sharon's bedroom.
xXx
The team had returned from their various locations and left for home already – once again leaving Andy alone.
James Wang had turned out to be a dead end and without the post-mortem results, their best bet at the moment was the Agent - DeSalve, who was still on the plane to Vegas.
Sharon had sent a sulking Rusty to an interview room to finish his homework, whilst she finished up and Andy…Andy was just hanging around in the hopes of getting to the bottom of Sharon's mood.
The fact that she had received a hand delivered card – was what really worried him. It meant that whoever it was from, either lived in the building or were able to bypass security somehow.
Her insistence that Rusty come to the station from work and not to straight to the apartment, was also a little odd.
Of late, the teenager had been trusted to go straight home – as long as he checked in regularly; he was still a witness in a murder investigation after all.
'Is the letter Sharon received - threatening to Rusty in some way?'
The door to the interview room opened dragging Andy from his anxieties; Rusty emerged, looking bored and a little dishevelled. "I'm just going to get a soda – you want one?"
"No thanks, kid."
"Me neither – it just gives me something to do," he mumbled as he skulked past Andy's desk.
"I was under the impression that you had homework?" Both Andy and Rusty raised their gazes to meet Sharon's – neither of them had heard her enter the room.
"But it's my birthday, Sharon..."
"And don't we all know it?" She smiled teasingly and leant against the door frame, "Get your things, honey - I'm ready to leave."
"Yes!" Sharon didn't have to tell the boy twice; he was in and out of the interview room in a flash.
"Did you even unpack your books?" She arched her eyebrow at Rusty as he flung his rucksack over his shoulder and walked towards her.
"Of course," He nodded firmly, offering her an innocent smile.
"Hmmm," Sharon narrowed her eyes.
"How about I take you guys out for dinner?" Andy interrupted their familial banter, getting to his feet and pulling on a grey suit jacket that had been hanging over the back of his chair. At the questioning looks from both of his invitees he continued; "it's your birthday – you should celebrate… And Captain, I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten anything since this morning."
As if on cue Sharon's stomach rumbled; "that's very sweet of you, Andy - but…"
"Sound's great!" Rusty piped up, a grin plastering his boyish face.
Sharon looked at the young man, wide eyed, "I thought you wanted to get home to play on your computer?"
"I do." He nodded eagerly, "so how about pizza at our place?"
"Rusty," Sharon appeared to be flustered by the suggestion; this was a sight Andy had never seen. "I don't think that Lieutenant Flynn would want to…"
"I'll tell you what, kid," Andy interrupted Sharon before she could protest, "we get Chinese takeout, and you've got yourself a deal." He turned to look at Sharon, who appeared slightly taken back by their exchange, "as long as that's alright with you, Captain?"
TBC
I know…another bloody cliff-hanger! Thanks for reading :)