Not My Baby

The hot steaming chinese food arrived and was spread over Monica and my desk....we sat down and began eating and comparing notes....

"I feel like we are going at this backwards....I interviewed Cory Baker's family members and friends...now unlike the job...none of them knew about his relationship with Kelly Young...I showed em photos...They'd never seen her before." said Monica..

"Same here...I interviewed all of Kelly Young's close friends and relatives and they didn't know about Cory...Which is weird because they did have a relationship some years ago before they got married to other people.."I said.

"Pass me that egg roll bae." said Monica...

"There you go...here...try some of this....It's good.."I said...

"Ouuu you guys sharing?" said Detective Kylie White...

"Yeah, come on over....sit down...What you got?' asked Monica..

"I checked their financials like you asked...Nothing out of the ordinary....Then I looked at the husband and the wife of the deceased....I got a huge bar tab for Kelly Young's husband...Scott Young....It seems as though in the past few weeks, he was at the bar quite a bit...every night..to be exact..."said Kylie...

''When we talk to him...I'll remember to ask him about that." said Monica..

"You mean you haven't talked to the wife or the husband of the deceased yet?  The murder is going on a day old now...and she is the one who reported him and the car missing." said Kylie..

"I know right? She's meeting us at the M.E.'s office in two hours." I said...

"That's not a meeting I would want to take." said Kylie...

"Girl, you aint never lied..."said Monica..

We continued to eat our lunch....neither Monica or Kylie or I said anything else regarding the case.

II-

 When Monica and I arrived at the M.E.'s office.. We saw that Corey Baker's wife, Julie Baker...a white woman about 28 or 29 was staring at his lifeless body...with a big gunshot wound to his right temple...Monique put her arms around her...

"Come on...don't torture yourself...Let me cover him up....."said Monique....

She cried profusely....She was very upset....

I walked over to her...

"Mrs. Baker..I'm Detective Nate Nellis...This is my partner, Detective Monica Nellis.. Let me say first off...I am so sorry for your loss...We are going to do everything possible to catch whoever killed your husband.." I said...

She cried even more profusely...

Monica said to her....

"Mrs. Baker...Mrs. Baker...when was the last time you saw your husband?"

Julie Baker ignored her question...She looked at Monica and then looked at Monique...

"My god....you two look just alike...but your name is Nellis and hers is Talbert....I-I'm not trying to be funny,but you look like twins."she said.

''Dr. Talbert is my sister....Nellis is my married name." she explained...

"You guys twins?" she asked...She seemed to be in another world....As if she was avoiding the hard questions that were inevitable...

"Yes...Identical twins...Dr. Talbert is three minutes older."said Monica....

"Your married name is Nellis...You're married to him?? Your Partner??" she asked..

"Yes mam...We've been married for a few months now."said Monica...

"Wow!" she said.

"Soooooo..."Mrs. Baker...Mrs. Baker...uhhhh, when was the last time you saw your husband?"asked Monica.

"Three days ago...when he dropped me off at work and went to his job....I talked to him at lunch time and he seemed fine...and that was the last time I saw him...He didn't come home for dinner,which I thought was strange....I called the job....They told me that he had left ,that he was dropping a co-worker off...But detective...That was three hours before...I went home and went to bed...When I woke up the next morning...He still hadn't come home...I called his job...They said that he didn't come in to work ...and that he didn't call out sick....That was when I got worried...I called the police...Missing Persons...They told me that he had to be missing 48 hours before they could begin a search...When he didn't show up...I called the police again...They asked for the car's license plate." she said.

"They used the lojack device and tracked his car to where we found it..."I said.

"Is it true? Is it true that he was found with a woman and that he was naked??"she asked..

''Who told you that mam?" I asked.

We had kept that out of the media...

She showed us her smartphone...Someone had snapped a photo of the two corpses in the back seat with bullet holes in their heads....

"I got this yesterday afternoon around six o'clock.."she said ,shaking and crying...

Monica took her phone and looked at the message and photo...

"This was time stamped...Whoever killed them snapped this photo after they shot them and took a photo of this and sent it to you....This was taken before we arrived on the scene...before anybody arrived on the scene...Do you know what this means partner?" said Monica.

"I do...The killer snapped a photo, right after he or she killed them!!!....Check the number..."I said.

"I'm texting Kylie right now...but you know and I know this is from a burner cell phone...Which means it will be untraceable..."said Monica..

"Mrs. Baker....Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt your husband...anybody who was having problems with him?" I asked.

She looked shocked...

"No...He didn't have an enemy in the world...at least not that I knew of....But I see I didn't know a lot of things about him....He-He-He appears to have had this whole double life didn't he?" she asked...

"Uh yes...it uh appears uh he uh did."I said.

Julie looked at me...

"We just had a baby about six months ago...He courted me hard for a year.....We met in Jersey....He told me that a woman here had broken his heart.....I told him that I'd wash away all of his tears....I loved him the best I could."she said sobbing....

"This isn't your fault Mrs. Baker...Don't blame yourself..."said Monique...

Julie Baker looked at us...

"I heard rumors.....A woman from his job...she called me about a month ago....She told me that Corey was fooling around with somebody on the job... I told her she was lying...I said "No...Not my baby...Not my baby...He wouldn't do that to me...What a fool I was..." she sobbed...

"Mam...We still have to catch whoever did this...."I said.

She looked at me ...Her eyes looked angry....

"I can't help you...and frankly....I don't care anymore...I can't believe he cheated on me...I gave him everything he said he wanted." she sobbed...

''The woman at his job who called you....What was her name?" asked Monica..

"She wouldn't give her name...but here is her phone number if you want it.." she said.

Monica took it and texted Kylie...

"Mrs. Baker can I get you something?" asked Monique...

"No...No...You've all been very kind...I-I just want to go home.." she said and she walked out to her car...

As she walked out ,I stared at her...

"I wonder if she's going to be alright?" I asked aloud..

"She'll be alright....Eventually...."mused Monica...

III-

 We returned to the squadroom...Lt. Cotton was waiting for us...

"I can tell by your tone...That you don't have anything to go on do you?" he asked..

"No...but we are going back to that job...I need to find out who the tipster was that told her about the affair.."said Monica.

Detective Kylie White walked in just then...

"Hey Mo...I checked out those two numbers you gave me....The text with the photo came from a burner cell....We traced it...It was rerouted through the Ukraine and through Pakistan by someone...A cute little trick...but I over-rid it and tracked this cute little baby to a trash can on the opposite side of town....It's been bleached down and scrubbed....Whoever did this really covered their tracks...and that second number you gave me?" she said..

"Yes...the one that came from someone at the job.."said Monica..

"It didn't come from someone at that Food Processing plant...Came from a phone belonging to Vince Vikram...He reported his phone stolen a week ago...we found it...It was scrubbed and bleached down...No prints....And it's not him...He doesn't know either of the deceased and doesn't work within the city limits.."said Kylie..

"Rats...Nothin and Nothin.."I said...

"We still got to interview the husband tomorrow."said Monica.

"Well get on him fast...before he can cover too much up ,if it's him..."said Lt. Cotton..

"We'll be on it Lou."I said....I noticed some beautiful flowers on Kylie's desk...

"Kylie...those flowers are beautiful if I don't say so myself....Let me guess....They're from a certain Detective who works in Special Victims Unit..."I said laughing...

"Yes...they're from Wally...They're nice..." she said smiling..

"Awwww they're cute...Finally ,he's sending flowers to someone who appreciates them."said Monica..

"Yeah...I told him not to start with that...but I guess he just has to do something.." laughed Kylie..

IV-

 Later that night at home...

"Wow Nate...I felt so sorry for her...Mrs. Baker...Married to a man, having his baby, being stand up for him...and he betraying her like that...Shot dead while doing the freaky sneaky with another woman..."said Monica..

"The killer wanted her to know...We are dealing with someone cold and methodical.....They walked up to that car and shot both of them..Then took a photo and sent it to Mrs. Baker..."I said.

"I knowwww right...Apparently ,they weren't worried about being caught...They took their time..."said Monica..

"Which means they had to know they were going to be there...at that time....Doing that." I said.

"Yeah Bae..but how?" asked Monica...

"I don't know...Tomorrow is another day..."I said.

"This could turn out to be one of the most baffling cases we've ever had." said Monica..

I was afraid she could be right.

(TO BE CONTINUED)