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Chapter
3: Surprise Invitation
A few hours later, Sara had made her way back to the 11th
Precinct after finishing her first sweep of the crime scene. It didn’t yield
much to the investigation, but autopsy evidence was still pending. ‘Time to
pay Vicky a visit,’ she thought as she started for the basement of the
building.
Vicky Po sat at her rustic metal desk with a tape recorder in
hand and a file in her lap. Jotting down notes and recording them onto the tape
occupied most of her time. Today was a typical day, except for that strange
decapitation case that was just brought to her attention. As she stared down at
the man’s photos, she noticed something that appeared out of place. The
severing of the head from the body took place between the first and second
vertebra. Either this was a lucky shot, or the person was a skilled knife
wielder.
“Vic, you got anything on that decapitation yet?” she
heard Sara call from the door as she stepped into the morgue.
“Actually, something just caught my eye. Hold on.” She
stuck her finger in the air as she wrote down her final note. Sara waited
impatiently as Vicky put down her pencil and looked up at her. “This man’s
head was severed between the first and second vertebra,” she finally said.
“Yeah, and what’s so important about that?” Sara
questioned.
“Well, most decapitations occur between the third and forth
vertebra because that’s the part of the neck that’s mostly exposed. The
first and second vertebra are much closer to the head, therefore harder to
reach. Either this guy took a lucky shot, or he was an experienced knifeman,”
Vicky answered.
“So basically we’re looking for someone who knows how to
use a knife,” Sara retorted. “Great, that’s pretty much most of the
crew.”
“Crew?”
“Yeah, this guy belonged to the Darren Hayes’ road
crew.”
“Oh, then you’d better get your ass moving. You’ve got
a lot of work to do.”
“Later, Vic,” Sara called as she started back through the
door and up the stairs to here office where her understudy, Jake McCarty, was
waiting for her. “You’re late,” she quickly observed.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Long night.”
“Long night? You weren’t even working last night,” Sara
retorted as she took a seat at her desk.
“I don’t mean work,” Jake snidely answered as he sat
down across from her.
“Oh, I should have expected it. A guy who looks as good as
you is always busy at night.” It was true; Jake had that champion surfer look,
blond hair, blue eyes, and plenty of muscle. The rookie had been the best of the
best out in California. Sara wasn’t at all surprised by his latest conquest.
“Well, a girl as pretty as you should also have a full
card.”
“Shut up. We have work to do,” Sara almost yelled, trying
to avoid the subject of dating. As luck would have it, she never seemed to find
the right guy. He was always either too cocky or evil for her taste. Besides,
it’s not like she was looking for romance at that point in her life. She had
decided all too quickly that dating wasn’t a top priority.
Ruffling through the stack of papers that had accumulated on
her desk, she found a pair of tickets and V.I.P. passes to that night’s Darren
Hayes’ show at the Garden. “What the hell?” Sara said aloud as she picked
up the items. “How’d I end up with these?”
“I knew I forgot to mention something to you. Those just
came via some messenger service. There’s also a note around here somewhere,”
Jake replied as he started to shuffle through her stack of papers. “Ah! Here
it is.” He picked up the little blue envelope and handed it to her.
Sara tore it open and began to read the note. “Detective
Pezzini, security at the concert is my utmost priority. I would really
appreciate it if you would come tonight for the added support and continue your
investigation. I want this resolved quickly and without too much press coverage.
Please accept these passes so you can continue with you work without much
interruption from my security staff. Take care and hope to finally meet you
tonight, Darren Hayes.”
“Nice, personally written and signed. I wonder how much you
can get on Ebay for that,” Jake teased as he tried to grab the letter from
Sara.
“I don’t think so,” she retorted, pulling it away from
him. Sara put the letter back into the envelope and stuffed it into the deepest
part of her desk, a place she knew her co-workers would never venture. Deciding
to forget the comment Jake had just made, she asked, “So, you coming with
me?”
“Nope, got a date tonight,” he answered, rising from the
chair and heading for the door.
“Jake!” Sara called as he left her office. “Jake!”
her yells became louder.
“You’re not suckering me into this one!” he yelled back
from the end of the hall. “I’m not going to a damn pop concert!”
“Shit!” Sara angrily stammered as she slammed her fist
against her desk. She had pretty much lost the only person who could help her
with the investigation. Danny wouldn’t be around either that night, or the
rest of the week for that matter. His vacation was beginning the second he left
the precinct. The last thing he’d want to do was spend three hours at some
concert working on a case he would probably forget about the next day.
Sara sat in her chair and leaned back, her feet rising to the
top of her desk and resting there as she closed her eyes and rubbed them with
the back of her hand. She didn’t want to go to the concert alone, and she
wasn’t about to go with another one of the guys from homicide. “Assholes,”
she mumbled, her eyes still closed.
“Who are the assholes?” Vicky asked as she walked into
Sara’s office.
Sara shot up, startled by the sudden presence of someone else
in her office. Vicky stood at her door, a manila folder in her right hand.
“Sorry,” she quickly apologized. “I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”
“It’s okay,” Vicky replied. “I’ve got the results
back from that guy’s autopsy. You don’t have much else to go on except for
the fact that he died between three and four in the morning.”
“Already knew that,” Sara said as she grabbed the tickets
from her desk. “Hey, are you doing anything tonight?”
“It’s a Friday night. What makes you think I don’t have
something to do?” Vicky questioned. She was already suspicious of what Sara
was going to ask her.
“I’ve got two,” Sara looked down at the slips of paper
in her hand to see where they were situated, “front row tickets and two V.I.P.
passes to the Darren Hayes concert tonight. I was just wondering if you wanted
to come with me.”
“What’s the catch?”
“We’ll be doing a little investigating.”
Vicky rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, none of the guys want
to come with you?”
“Yeah,” Sara answered, looking down at the tickets in her
hands.
“I’ll come,” Vicky finally replied as she headed out of
Sara’s office.
“Thanks, Vic!” Sara called.
*~*~*
Darren tried to nap as he waited for Anastasia to call him
back to the arena that afternoon, but it didn’t seem to work. He tossed and
turned on the feather soft bed in his hotel room, yet his mind continued to
spin. It seemed that whenever he closed his eyes, he’d see the picture of the
roadie with his head ten inches from his body, the blood still fresh and
dripping from the decaying corpse.
Darren cringed, shooting out of bed again and heading to the
bathroom, hoping that he wouldn’t become sick again. The first time he had
seen the body, when he and Leonie were talking to the police at the arena, his
stomach had done a complete flip and he nearly passed out. It had been the most
gruesome thing he had seen in his life.
Washing his face with cold water, Darren looked in the mirror
and noticed the black circles that were appearing beneath his eyes. He was
beyond tired and was now in “just gotta get through a few more hours” mode.
The concert would wear him out enough so that he passed out and didn’t wake up
until the next afternoon. He walked out of the bathroom and back into the
bedroom just in time to hear his cell ring.
“Do I have to come down now?” Darren asked as he picked
it up, seeing Anastasia’s number appear on the caller ID.
“Yeah, I hope you got enough sleep,” she replied.
“Don’t worry about me,” he lied as he opened the door
to his room and started to walk down the hall towards the elevator.
“Hey, I can’t help it. I’m your assistant, remember?
I’m supposed to worry about you.”
“Well, thank you, but you’ve already had enough to worry
about. I should be the last of your problems right now.”
“Alright, Daz. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
“Hey, I forgot to thank you for sending those tickets to
that detective you were telling me about. Sounds like she really can use
them,” Darren said as he stepped into the elevator.
“No problem. Now I gotta go, I’ll see you in a few.
Bye!” Anastasia hurried to get off the phone. Leonie was probably putting her
through hell that afternoon with all the new security issues.
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