I stopped by Special Victims unit to talk to Detective Carlotta Rodriguez about the rapist who had attacked my employee...It had now been a few weeks..
"Well, all of your 93 employees and yourself have been cleared.." she said... One of the condoms had semen from one of your employees...but we questioned him and it seems he had a uh ruh..how do you say it...Nooner with a female employee...She confirmed it." she said.
I laughed.....She did too!
"The other condom's contents however doesn't match anybody in your office...We did DNA analysis on the guards and people in all of the other offices in your building and we didn't get a match...We also interviewed and talked to all of the delivery guys and security people from your building too!"she said.
"Let me guess..Nothing right?" I said.
''Right, nothing...It was the same with the other three office workers and employees in the other buildings too...No matches at all....And even if we do Id the DNA in this mystery condom...We can't prove it belongs to the rapist!" she said.
''Wow!" I've been there with a case myself ." I said really feeling sorry for her.
''We are still on the case."she said.
"Okay...that's good to know." I said as I left.
II-
I'd turned over everything I had on Rich Cornfield to him a week before...He was impressed and he smiled.
''Wow, you are thorough...I wished I'd known about you sooner."he said. He paid me handsomely....and smirked... "I suppose your uh operatives have already been paid."
"Yeah they have." I said.
"Smart man." he laughed.
"So how long has Irving Whitendale been blackmailing you?" I asked.
"You don't miss a trick do you Kevin?" he smiled ruefully!
"That's why they pay me the big bucks." I joked.
"For awhile...Ever since I found out that he has been transferring funds into several off shore dummy accounts." Said Rich Cornfield.
"So you can't blow the whistle on him, because he has the goods on your backdoor moves also?" I said.
"That's how the business works Mr. Morris." he smiled."Only now..I know everything he has on me..What can hurt me and what can't! I take it you already knew about him?" he said.
''Yeah,I did my homework on the entire Harris Group." I said.
" Your total thoroughness is very impressive."he said.
"You guys are pretty cut-throat...I guess that's why he was investigating your extra-marital affairs ." I said.
He looked stunned...
''What? What are you talking about?" he said.
''Didn't you read all of Amundsen's file....It has photos of you and several other women..in hotels and in your office having sex?" I said.
"No....No...That had nothing to do with it." He said.
"Yeah, well you better read that file a little better." I said
''Thank you Kevin...I will." he said.
A few days later,I received another envelope filled with cash in my mailbox and a note written in Cornfield's handwriting that simply read- "Thanks Again"...I smiled ,This Richard Cornfield, once my sworn enemy now was my biggest fan.
He had licked the envelope and out of curiosity ,I sent the envelope to Special Victims Unit....He was in my building and was the only person I could think of who had not been swabbed...That thing he told me about liking Black girls had got me to thinking...
As I was on my way to talk to someone else...I saw Lt. Sissy Van Buren and several policemen and detectives outside of a house and with the street cordoned off...A crowd of people stood by....
I got out of my car and walked over to her....
"I see you're busy today.." I joked...
"Yeah...we found this woman's body in the trunk of a car....She's been missing for about a week.....Looks like she was raped and then strangled." she said. It was the body of a shapely white female who looked to be in her early twenties.
"What's her name?" I asked.
"Beth Edelman....she's 25 years old...Was a college student...Didn't live anywhere near here and this car was reported stolen...Nobody knows how it got here either.." she said.
''Wow! "I said..
"Where does she live?" I asked.
Sissy showed me her license. I was stunned...but I didn't say anything....she lived next door to Richard Cornfield!!!!!!Hmmmm!
"Somebody relieved her of her underwear too...Unless she made a habit of not wearing any." said Sissy Van Buren.
"Hmm, just like the rape victims.." I found myself saying aloud!
"You think there is a match?" she asked me..
"Oh...I don't know....I guess you know it's too early to say." I said.
''You know her?" she asked.
"Nope...Not at all." I said..''Good luck Sissy." I said as I got in my car and pulled off....I wished I could offer her more...but I couldn't.
I had to talk to Lee Spann, another private investigator I had worked with for awhile, who had actually been doing the investigation of Richard Cornfield.
III-
I met Lee Spann, a young white private investigator who I had worked a number of cases with in the past at Chinese Bob's...We ordered some good hot chinese food and two tumblers of Green tea and we sat in a booth in the back and talked.
''Wow Kevin , never thought you'd be mixed up in this case too...I can't believe Cornfield hired you." he said as we ate and talked.
''Yeah hired me to find out the skinny on Whitendale, just like Whitendale hired you to find out what he was doing." I said.
''Well, Whitendale wasn't my client." He said.
"He wasn't?" I said.
"No...The lawyer, Ronald Amundsen was my client....I never saw Whitendale, though I always suspected that Whitendale was Amundsen's client and that he acted as a middle man for Whitendale." he said.
"So they both were stealing and they both now how evidence on each other , to keep the other from ratting each other out eh?" I said.
"Yeah, that's how it works...Neither can now tell on either." laughed Lee Spann.
''What about Cornfield's divorce? All that sex stuff you got on him?" I asked.
''Sex Stuff? That Wasn't me Kev...I was only hired to get info on whether he was stealing...I know he was going through a divorce...but I didn't have any sex photos or anything like that of him......Whitendale didn't care about that!" said Lee Spann.
''Really?? " I asked.
"Yeah...I don't know nothin about that.." he said.
"Well I pulled some rather embarrassing photos of Cornfield out of those files." I said.
"Nah...that wasn't me." he said.
I believed him.....He had no reason to lie and like me...The Harris Group had paid him handsomely...
We continued to eat and talk about a number of other things.
IV-
The next few days, I did an investigation of my own...I talked to all three of the other victims as well as as many people associated with their perspective buildings as possible....I had a hunch and I was going to play it....I wanted to see the visitor lists of all the buildings...See who was a common visitor on the days of each of the rapes...
I expected to find Mr. Richard Cornfield's name.... Since three of the four victims was African American...One was White! and he had said he had a thing for African-American women...To my surprise...His name only came up in my building....but someone else's name came up as a visitor in all four buildings, on the dates of all of the rapes!!!The Attorney...Ronald Amundsen!!! He was indeed seen going in and out of the building on tape..He'd been questioned three times by Special Victims unit and had refused to be swabbed!! Because he was a prominent attorney , he'd just been stricken from their suspect list...but not mine!!
While holding that thought ,I got two phone calls....One was from Detective Carlotta Rodriguez!
''Hola" I said jokingly...
She giggled....
''Hi Kevin...I wish I had some good news for you, but I don't." she said.
"No?" I asked.
"That DNA sample you sent us of Richard Cornfield? It's not a match of the DNA we have in the semen we retreived from the mystery condom...but there is something else?" she said.
"What is that?" I asked..
"Two of our victims said that their assailant had a very strong cologne on that was like nothing else they had ever smelled....It's on the second victim's blouse... It's not much...may not mean anything,but the cologne fragrance I know....It's also on your employee's blouse that we took for evidence..Frenchette...It's called Devestation...It's very expensive and not sold everywhere." she said.
"How do you know about this?" I asked.
"One of my boyfriends used to wear this...It's very strong...It definitely makes an impression and our perp must have taken a bath in this stuff." she said.
"Only one of your boyfriends?" I joked.
''A girl has to have variety." she joked. I liked Carlotta! I laughed.
"Oh, I see....Well, thanks for the update." I said laughing.
''Sorry I don't have anything else to offer." she said.
''Yeah, me too!" I said.
''Stop being fresh, aren't you married?" she said jokingly.
"I meant about the case." I said.
"Oh......Okay Kevin .." she laughed slyly. She couldn't see me, but I was smiling slyly too!
The second call was from Peeping Tom-
''What's going on Tom?" I asked.
"Hey Kevin, remember you told us, we could take the bugs out of both of those offices, that that case was pretty much through?" he said.
"Yeah!" I said..
''Well we got one last video feed...I think you need to come over here and see this yourself." he said.
"I'm on my way." I said.
(Definitely to be continued.)
4 comments:
I'm digging the team of Sissy and Carlotta...I'm smelling a new series..New Mysteries that the two of them solve....What do you think Keith?
I like Carlotta... Please bring her back...Her and Sissy could handle a case...A case that doesn't involve Kevin!
Didn't Kevin say he smelled a strong cologne in Amundsen's office the first time they went in there?
Now they have proof that he was actually in the buildings on the days a rape occurred and he wasn't swabbed...
It's clearly him and not Cornfield as I originally thought.
@Sean- I never thought it was Cornfield....He was having a meeting with Kevin I assume while the rape was taking place..It couldn't have been him.
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