The Best Suspects

It was well after midnight...Detective Angela Belton -Barlow was working by herself...All of her friends had gone home...There was two FBI agents on duty and three uniformed officers...The few detectives that were milling around were people she didn't know.

She was going through the financial history of the four murder victims we found in the tony loft a few days before...

Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Bank accounts...What she was finding wasn't helping much....The two girl's credit cards were all maxed out...One had gotten a consoladation loan and was planning to pay all of hers off..The other girl was getting ready to declare bankruptcy....Neither girl had more than $1000.00 dollars in the bank.... The two guys weren't much better...Their Credit cards weren't maxed out and their  Debit cards and Bank accounts were just slightly healthier than the girls...Their charges were mostly clothes, porn, video games, music streaming...and nothing more...These were typical twenty somethings and there was nothing remarkable or interesting about any of them...

So why did somebody kill all four of them?

Angie guessed that that was what her partners in the CID were asking too...

Someone placed a cup of coffee next to her..

She looked up...

"Hey Cupcake....I came to help you out!" said Jimmy....

Angie smiled the sweetest smile she could have smiled...

"Awwwww I love you..." she said..

and kissed him gently....

"So what you find out?" asked Jimmy...

"Nothing...These are four of the most unremarkable people I've ever spent time investigating...They definitely were not involved with Damian's business..No..these were what my partner, Duke calls "Citizens"

"So why would someone kill the four of them?" came the unmistakable voice of her partner..Detective Edwin "Duke " Baylor..

"Duke!! What are you doin here?" asked Angie...

"He couldn't sleep....This case is bugging him....So he got up and got dressed and I got up with him..What are you still doing here?" asked Hazel..

"Studying their financials...There is nothing here..nothing out of the ordinary..."said Angie..

"Wait!  Hmm look at this...Mikal wrote a check to the Boothe Maternity Center...about two months ago..." said Angie..

"Hmmm,why would he write a check for that amount to that place? A Donation maybe?" asked Duke..

"No Silly" said Hazel and Angie in unison...

"I think ole boy got somebody knocked up and paid for an abortion!" said Jimmy...

II-

"You're right, but it wasn't either of the two dead girls.." came the voice of Carlotta...

"Wow, you're here too?" asked Angie..

"I couldn't sleep , So Papi and I got dressed and came here.." said Carlotta..

"Good thing I don't have any court dates..."I laughed...

 ''Hey Hey,Hey, the gangs all here." said Tyriq ,who came in with breakfast platters..

 ''We couldn't sleep either and when we saw all the cars in the lot...We ordered some food ."said Sirena..

 "I could sleep...I'm supporting my husband." joked Sharon..

 "Yeah..I wanted to look into some things..."said Hop..

"Here is a time I wish we were at "Copland.." we could all just go back upstairs and go to sleep.."joked Sissy...

"Rico, Jimmy and I interviewed all of their next of kin and classmates and associates and we found out that Mikal got somebody pregnant...a few months ago...His girlfriend...Hazel was very upset with him, was threatening to leave him...He took care of it...and they reconciled.."said Carlotta..

"We knew you were looking into his financials....So we both came back here to find out where he made that payment.."said Tyriq..

"Or if he made that payment..."said Jimmy...

"He made it...I crossed checked their financials...They all hung out at Stoleys and Aqua Bar a lot ,there are charges on here for drinks at both places on all four debit and credit cards...but on Mikals, there is a few seperate charges at Bottom of the C and at Skybar....Stephen Bristol's rooftop club...That's not on the others.....The charges go back a few months and they're in the middle of the week.."said Angie...

"He might have been there with another girl....."said Sirena...

"Any hotel or motel charges?" asked Hop...

"Wow!  Now that you mention it...There are two...One three months ago...and the other two months ago..." said Angie..

"Tomorrow ,after we've had some sleep..Me and my partner are on the motel..." said Sirena..

"Yeah,maybe we'll pull some footage of this girl.."said Hop...

''Rico...You and Jimmy and I will hit Stoleys, Aqua Bar and Skybar..." said Carlotta...

"No telling what we may turn up!"said Tyriq..

"Yeah...." said Jimmy...

"Not to be a downer...but if he got a girl pregnant and took care of it...How is that a motive for mass murder? " I asked.

"You may be right...but it's the only oddity in this entire case..." said Sissy...

"The only square that doesn't fit in the circle..." said Sharon...

''I sent that DNA to VICAP ,INTERPOL and the Department of Defense...If our perp's DNA is on file anywhere in the USA or the world..They'll find it." said Hazel....

"I'm going to publish the photos we have as persons of interest...Who knows...They may come forth!" said Sissy...

We finished the breakfasts and coffee...

''Look , we can't do anymore...Go home everybody...Report in tomorrow at Noon...and we start again."said Sissy...

We all got up and headed for the elevators..

She hugged Angie..

"Good Work Girl." she said..

"They did the good work Siss..I almost missed this.." said a very exhausted Angie...

"Jimmy, take your wifey home."said Sissy...

"I'd like nothing better." he said.

III-

Carlotta, Tyriq, Jimmy and Angie slept in late.....Their job required them to work at night... In the Clubs...

Angie insisted on going with them.... Having two gorgeous ladies did make the job easier...

They hit Aqua Bar, a spot they all hung out in anyway and were known and were able to view and pull footage from several months before...And here they found Mikal Fabersham and his mystery woman....drinking, dancing, kissing and having a good time...

They next hit Stoleys....

A younger crowd hung out here...but in the footage they found Mikal and the same girl , a few weeks later...dancing, kissing passionately and drinking heavily...

Skybar, the rooftop bar was next....Disturbing footage of the two apparently arguing was seen....But altogether they gleaned enough photos and footage of the girl to take back to headquarters and make a comparison...

Sharon looked at the footage and then compared the face to the face of the strange woman in Black...

"Looks like you guys got a match...This woman...is the same woman seen leaving the scene of the murders."said Sharon...

"The question now is who is she and is she the one who Mikal got pregnant.?" asked Sissy....

''And further more...Who is her male companion...?" I asked.

"We can answer that?  Her name is Yvette...Yvette Styles..." said Sirena...

"We went to the motel...The one they snuck off to to have their little rendezvous.."said Hop..

"They met there almost every week, twice a week for close to six months...She paid with a credit card...And it's not stolen, it's hers...They met on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights sometimes..Usually late and stayed until morning..." he said.

''She paid?"I asked.

"Yeah..." sighed Sirena..

"He didn't have a lot of cash...His drug dealing brother paid for his classes at the college and his job paid his rent and a few of his expenses....so if he was sneaking around on his girlfriend...it makes sense that she was paying for them to have a room..."said Angie.

"She worked at Skybar....That's where they met...She was an Assistant Manager up until a month ago...They had been seeing each other for awhile...Everyone there seemed to know about it.."said Carlotta..

"So does she have a sheet?" asked Sissy...

"No...None that we can find...We checked VICAP and our system...She's clean..."said Tyriq..

"But her brother...Fenton...He's another story...He did a five year stint as a guest of the state for Assault with intent to kill...and he's rumored to be a leg breaker for the local loan sharks or anybody that's paying..."said Jimmy....

''He's also been at Blue Skies for ,and get this, Mental Instability...inability to cope with stress..." laughed Duke..

"You got a photo of him?" I asked..

"Yup...Look familliar?" asked Duke...

"That's the guy in this photo...leaving the scene of the crime...Look!" said Carlotta..

"These are your Best Suspects guys." said Sharon....

"Oh yes and I called the Boothe Maternity Ward.....Duke and I went over there with Judge Freemon's warrant.."said Hazel... "Yvette Styles did indeed have an abortion, about two months ago and Mikal Fabersham wrote them a check to pay for the procedure.." she said..

"We got an address for either one of them?" asked Sissy..

"Several for the brother....One for the Sister...In Cherry Hill."said Duke..

 ''Well guys...Let's wrap this up..."said Sissy....

''Sounds Good to me.." I said and hugged Carlotta...I allowed my hands to slyly slip up her dress...

"Ouuuu...Watch it papi.." Said Carlotta, smiling and blushing at the same time and slowly removing my hands..

What we didn't now was that this case was far from over and that it was going to take another wicked turn before all was said and done!



(TO BE CONTINUED)