Author's Note: Here is chapter 5! I would like to thank everyone, as always, for reviewing, favouriting and following this story!
The day was getting even longer for the officers of 15 Division as they continued to try to find out who the person in the basement was and what exactly happened. Nick and Chloe had led the now harried woman into the house. Once they entered the front door, they saw Chris walking up the stairs from the basement followed by Steve and Traci. Traci asked the woman to sit down, to which the woman responded, "It's my own house... I can sit down whenever the hell I want to!" She placed her briefcase on the floor beside a brown suede sofa and sat down with a huff.
"Please, Mrs. O'Neil, we are just trying to do our job." Steve said softly as he stared at the woman.
"Oh sure... I am sure this is part of your job description! Breaking into a woman's home while she is out of the country on business. How long have you been in my house?"
"Ma'am," Traci started calmly as she sat down on a leather recliner opposite of the sofa the woman had sat down in. "We received a call for a possible Breaking and Entering this afternoon around twelve. When officers, Price and Peck arrived at the scene your front door was open and the alarm system was turned off. So they came in to investigate. When they went down into the basement, they found someone."
"I hope they arrested them then," Patricia exclaimed as she stared at Nash. Her loathing for the police officers being in her house disappeared only to be placed on the first intruder in her house.
"Well..." Traci trailed off as she stared at Steve who nodded his head for her to continue. "No. they didn't"
"What do we, as citizens, pay the police for anyway?" the woman asked as she threw her hands in the air and stared at Chloe. "You are one of the ones who entered my house first, yes? I see the name Price on your uniform. Why didn't you and this other officer arrest the person that had entered my home?"
Chloe rubbed her hand across the back of her neck. "Yes, I was one of the officers who first responded to the call. We didn't arrest the person in your basement, because... well... because..."
"Because the person is dead, Mrs. O'Neil," Steve finished for Chloe.
"Oh god..." Patricia covered her mouth with her hand. "You mean there is a dead body... right here... right now... in my basement?" She stared at the officers and scoffed, "There can't be. You must be joking."
Traci stared at the woman for a few moments as she allowed the woman to collect herself after hearing the news. "Now Mrs. O'Neil..." Traci began as she stared at the woman sitting on the brown suede sofa in front of her. "I have a few questions that I need for you to answer to the best of your ability."
"Am I a suspect?" the woman asked as she stared wide-eyed at the detective.
"No... Nothing like that ma'am, we just want to figure out as much as possible so we can proceed in our investigation." Mrs. O'Neil nodded her head in consent before Nash continued, "How long were you out of the country?"
"Um... about seven... eight months," Patricia replied as she stared at the ceiling and thought back. Returning her gaze to Nash, she sighed, "I work as a consultant for a pharmaceutical company ran out of Germany. I had to report to the main headquarters in Munich for a convention. Then I had to travel to Rome, Paris, London, Madrid and Tokyo to help train. I just flew in this morning from Tokyo to hold a training session here at the Toronto branch. When I got out of the meetings, I decided to go home. My next flight is to leave next week for the session in Sydney. I wanted to rest in my own bed for a couple of days since this session was so close to my house."
"I see," Traci said as she looked at her notebook, "Was there any other time during these past seven or eight months that you came back home?"
"No. Each session lasts a two to three weeks. It really depends on how many new consultants they have hired on and also depends on how long the branch has been in operation. For example, I was in Madrid for a month because they just opened the branch there back in January and really needed the training."
Steve looked at the woman in front of him. "You said that it is a pharmaceutical company, correct?"
"Yes," Patricia replied as she smoothed her hands over her lap.
"What's the name of the company and what exactly do you train these people on exactly?" He asked as he continued to stare at her. Steve didn't know what he was looking for exactly when he stared at the woman, but he had a feeling she wasn't exactly telling them the whole truth.
"Zurich-Mueller. As I said before, the company is based out of Munich, Germany. Since I am a consultant, I mainly train the new marketing teams at the locations or I train the buyers. I have nothing to do with the labs and scientists that work in them if you are asking. I just train the people who try to sell the products that are made."
"Okay," Traci replied as she scribbled something down in her notebook. "Now is there anyone who has the code to your security system? A neighbour you might trust to look after any pets or plants you may have. Someone who would pick up your mail and bring it into your house while you are gone on business trips?"
"The only person I would trust to do such a thing would have to be my neighbour, Ms. Myers, " Patricia pointed towards the house on the left side of hers. "She's a really nice lady... a little paranoid, but other than that, a very nice lady. She would never tell anyone my code, not even my pain in the ass ex-husband."
Traci smiled softly as she listened to the woman. After Patricia had finished, Traci said, "Well, I have no more questions for you... unless my colleague, Detective Peck has anything for you, I think we are done here."
Steve shook his head, "I don't have anything more to ask, but let me offer one of our officers to escort you to a hotel. Since this is a crime scene, we can not allow you to stay in your home, but I promise we will try to finish up before you have to travel to Sydney. Just so you can at least sleep in your own bed this year." He smiled as Patricia laughed slightly at his attempt of a joke.
"Thank you, Detective. Also, I am sorry to all of you for how I acted earlier. I still feel a bit jet-lagged and I was just wanting to crash in my own house for once and when I saw you all standing in front of my house..."
"It's no problem, ma'am," Nick said as he clasped his hands behind his back. "If you want, I can take you to a hotel in town."
"That might be a good idea, Nick," Traci said as she stood up. "Oh before I forget, can we get a contact number from you, Mrs. O'Neil? Just in case we need to ask you any more questions."
"Oh sure..." Mrs. O'Neil reached inside her purse and pulled out a business card. "My cell phone number is on the bottom. That is the number to reach me by."
"Thank you, Mrs. O'Neil," Traci said as she reached for the card. "I am sorry about any inconvenience this is causing you. Like Steve said, we hope to be out of your hair shortly and you can go back to business as usual."
The four officers watched as Officer Collins escorted the woman outside and into his squad car. "Do you trust anything she said?" Steve asked Traci when the car was backing out of the driveway.
"Not even a little bit," Traci said as she turned to face the male detective. "Chris, I want you to go back to the station and team up with Epstein to see what you guys can turn up on this Zurich-Mueller company and also see what you can pull up from her travel records. I want to know for certain if Mrs. O'Neil is telling the truth. Also... see if you can run the plates on both cars, the one that was in the driveway when Chloe and Gail arrived and also the ones on the SUV that O'Neil drove up in. Something is not adding up and I want to find out what it is exactly."
"I'm going to have to take Gail and Chloe's patrol car since Nick left with Mrs. O'Neil," Chris said as he finished writing the list of things that Traci wanted him to find out.
"Go ahead..." Chloe said as she shrugged her shoulders, "We can ride back with Traci and Steve." As Chris turned to walk out the door, Price remembered something. "Hey... where is Gail anyway?"
"God... why is it so hot in here?" Gail moaned as she shrugged her uniform top off, "I'm going to take that damn light bulb out. Maybe without the light, it won't be as hot in here." She walked over towards the table that was void of monitors and stood on it. "Holly, can you make sure I don't fall when I do this?"
"Yeah," Holly said as she unbuttoned her blouse revealing a black undershirt. She strolled over to the table and placed her hands on Gail's waist to help steady the officer as she leaned to reach the light.
"Shit!" Gail shouted as she snatched her hand away from the bulb. "I can't grab it! It's too hot!"
"Use your shirt... or better yet, use mine," Holly said as she handed her button up shirt to Gail. "Just be careful."
"I will," Gail mumbled as she reached for the bulb again. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the bulb with her covered hand and sighed, "It's warm, but not as much as it was before. I just have to turn it a bit and then hopefully we won't have to contend with the... dammit!" She swore as a breaking sound filled the room and the light went out.
Holly reached for the flash-light on Gail's waist and clicked it on. "Honey, are you okay?"
"The damn bulb broke off in my hand... I think it cut me," Gail said as she centred herself on the table. "Can you help me down?"
The pathologist took a couple of steps back and lifted her hand that didn't have the flash-light. "Easy does it." She said as Gail took her hand and slowly let herself down off the table. "Now let me take a look at your hand."
The tech walked back up the stairs just as Traci and Steve were making there way back down, "I'm finished down there. I was able to pick up a few prints, a couple of fibres, and a few hairs, but other than that, it is pretty clean down there."
"What about the blood in the panic room?" Steve questioned as he peered over the man's shoulder.
"What panic room?" Johnson asked as he stared at the two detectives.
"The panic room that was in front of the victim," Traci replied as she moved past the tech to get into the basement.
"I didn't see a room in front of the victim... just a panelled wall like the rest of the basement. It had a thermostat on it and another security panel. There was only one room," Johnson said as he stood in the middle of the stairs looking down at Nash.
Traci eyes widened as she looked up at Steve. At the same time they both exclaimed, "Gail! Holly!"