Crime in the Club (The Bound Detective) (5 page)

Jane looked at the
scar with wide eyes, an immediate indication that it was a dead giveaway.  This was the killer, and she was standing in the room and neither of them didn’t even know about it.  Jane looked over at the woman with a dark glare and Trisha simply looked at her with fear present in her eyes.

“Well? 
Care to explain this one?” Jane asked pointedly.  She walked over to grab the scarf and immediately looked directly at Trisha who looked scared to say the least but definitely did have signs of suspicion present.

“That’s not mine.  I
don’t know how it got there,” Trisha simply said.  Trisha seemed very calm about it, but it did seem very odd to Jane that the woman still didn’t budge on the fact that she might be getting accused for something that she was saying that she didn’t do.  It was fishy, and Jane was more than willing to get to the bottom of this and really figure out what the hell was going on.

“Why in the world would you say that? 
We have the evidence right here.  This was the boa found at the scene.” 

“But I swear I didn’t do it!  I was here entertaining customers all night!  I mean
Alice did come in here a few times to talk to me but in reality I didn’t get up or even get out besides that. I swear I didn’t even leave here since you two got out of here!  You have to believe me,” Trisha begged.  The worry was present in her face now and it was obvious she was not lying to them.

Jane looked at
Franklin who shrugged as they looked at Trisha who was borderline cowering in the corner.  Either she was a damn good actress or something was wrong.

“I don’t believe you
Trisha.  But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.  The main question here is if it wasn’t you then who was it?  That’s the next thing we have to tackle,” Jane stated.

“
The only people who have been in here tonight was Scarlet when she checked up on me because I didn’t leave the room, and Alice to come and talk to me.  I remember that she did put something in here, but I don’t know what it is.  It could have been the red boa, but I don’t remember.  I was kind of spacing out and out of it when it all happened so I don’t remember much,” Trisha replied.

Jane scratched her head, trying to figure out what to do at this point.  The woman seemed to be telling the truth at this
point, but the question here was what to do with the information she gave them.  Jane looked at Franklin with a questioning glance.  She did want his opinion on it, even though he was still a rookie loser in her eyes.

“So now what?”
Jane asked.

“I think we should pay Alice a little visit.  I mean
she’s the next person on the list of suspects and if she doesn’t have any information then something is up.  I still have my suspicions about Trisha but I can put those to the side for now so that we can check up on the other woman,” Franklin replied.

“Sounds good to me,” Jane said. 
Jane grabbed the boa and followed Franklin out to where Alice’s room was.  They walked up to the door and lightly knocked on it.  There wasn’t an answer so Jane tried again.  After knocking three times she turned to Franklin. 

“I don’t think she’s in there. 
Unless if she really doesn’t want to talk to us,” Jane said.

“I think it’s the former.  Let
’s go in,” Franklin replied.  Jane nodded and they started to head in.  Jane liked the idea that Franklin was starting to act more like a detective and not an awkward amateur.  He was starting to act professional and Jane was happy about it.  After all, she didn’t want to be brought down by someone who didn’t know his right foot from his left hand. 

Jane and
Franklin walked into the room but when they got in there it was empty.  She looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  It looked just like the room that she was in earlier when she questioned Alice.  All around were papers strewn that looked like she had rushed out of there?  Jane looked around and started to snoop around the place, but came up empty.

“Shit
, I can’t find anything,” she said.

“Maybe we can get the home address from someone?”
Franklin replied.

“No.  I
don’t think these ladies will tell us.  We should head back to the station tomorrow and get some more data about her and the life she leads outside of the club.  In addition, we should get the address from the computer database system as well.  It’s frivolous at this point, and I think we should just call it a night.  Besides I’m exhausted and we need to do some research before we go onto the next phase,” Jane replied.

“Alright.
  Sounds fine with me,” Franklin said.  Jane and Franklin walked out but when they got to the entrance of the club Scarlet spoke to them.

“You’re leaving so early?  I thought you would at least try to stay a little while,” she vocalized.

“Nah we’re heading out.  By the way, do you know where Alice is?” Jane asked.

“She told me she had some personal things to do tonight. 
I’m assuming homework but I don’t know.  I can’t discloser her address however.  It’s company policy,” Scarlet said in a professional tone.

“
It’s okay.  I wasn’t asking for that.  Just curious, that’s all,” Jane replied.  They walked out and headed towards their cars but when Jane got there, she gasped.

“What the hell!”

On each of their cars was spray paint, and the paint seemed to cover the hoods of each of their vehicles.  On the cars said “Get out and stay out you piggish scum!” in all white letters.  Someone knew who they were, and immediately Jane froze in worry.

Jane and
Franklin looked at each other, worry present in each other’s eyes.

“They know about us.  I don’t think we were undercover enough,” he said.

“No shit.   Let’s get back to the station so we can figure all this out and try to see if we can get the address of Alice.  After that I think we should call it a night,” Jane replied.

“Alright.
  I’ll meet you there,” Franklin said.  Jane nodded and she got back into her car and drove down to where the station was.  It was weird and a bit fishy.  Not only had the killer damaged personal property but she also committed mass homicide in the area.  This was getting ridiculous and she needed to debunk this case fast.

When they got to the station
Jane ran in, went over to the computers, and started to log in.  She tried three times, but each time it wouldn’t allow her.  Jane lightly tapped her fingers on the table and looked at it.  Franklin walked in just as she did that, and she turned around and looked at him.

“We have a problem,” she said.

“What?”

“I can’t log in. 
Someone hacked and didn’t allow me to put my password into the system so I can locate her information.  I’m locked out,” Jane said.

“Do you know how to hack computers?”
Franklin asked.

Jane looked at the man
like he was crazy.  This was a computer that only the top hackers in the police force could get into and she didn’t know how in the world to do such a thing.  It seemed nearly impossible and probably only the best hackers could get into it.  There was no way she could do so, and Jane felt at a loss for words because of it.

“Do you?”

“Yes I do.  And I think I can get into this system,” Franklin said.

“No way,”
Jane replied.  There was no way a guy like him could get into one of the hardest systems to crack in a blink of an eye.  That was just impossible.

However,
Franklin looked like he was sure of what he was doing, and Jane didn’t know what else to say about it.  Things were definitely a bit shocking and Jane didn’t know what to do about it besides argue with the man.  He sounded crazy, and it certainly was hard to believe.

“No way,” she said again.  “There is no way you can get into this and hack it so that I can get in,” she said.

“You want to bet?  I know that I can,” he replied.

“Fine.
  What do you want to bet?” Jane asked.  She didn’t really care about this but she knew that this guy was completely bullshitting her.

“How
about if I crack this code you go on a date with me tomorrow before we head over to the club?  And if I can’t then I will never ask about a date ever again,” Jackson replied.

Jane
thought about it for a second. There was no way in hell that this man was going to be able to crack the code of this.  It’s something that even the most adept of code breakers probably couldn’t even tackle.  There was no way, and Jane was willing to put her bets on the guy not being able to do this.  She knew that she was going to win and this guy was going to stop bothering her and hopefully he would go away so that she could take back her fire once and for all.

“Fine.
  Be my guest.  Thank god, I was sick of you trying to show your affections towards me,” Jane replied.  She just wanted the man gone. If not having a date with her stopped him from doing this then she was willing to take the risk.

Franklin
smiled and moved into the seat, eager to try to crack this.  What Jane didn’t know was even though he was a bit of a dunce in some areas when it came to computer science and intelligence he was one of the smartest people around.  They were originally going to have him do scouting and intelligence but he insisted that he wanted to work on the front lines instead of behind because he wasn’t that good at espionage most of the time unless if it was espionage that allowed him to do it from the comfort of a monitor.  Franklin was a computer genius and the reason he was even here was because Thomas knew about his computer skills and immediately wanted him to join up.  It was a secret that he was willing to harbor for the sake of showing off to Jane, and after about five minutes and key typing, he was finally able to crack the code.  After the login showed successfully, Franklin turned to Jane and smiled at her.

“
What do you think?” he said.

Jane looked at the man with her mouth open wide.  It was shocking to see and she
really didn’t know what to think about all of this.  Jane thought this man was just an idiot but in reality he was a computer wizard and actually knew his way around technology.  It was amazing to see, and Jane immediately regretted the bet that she made.  She didn’t know the man had skills like this.

“No way,” she said.

Franklin got up and looked at her with a smile.  He immediately motioned for her to sit down there.  “Yes way.  I forgot to mention that the main reason why Thomas wanted me to work with the company period was because I had two degrees in computer sciences and I can crack many codes.  I was originally supposed to go into code breaking and espionage in order to get information but I’m pretty clumsy,” he explained.

“That’s for sure.  Thanks though,” Jane replied curtly.  She hated that she had to eat her words and look like a dumbass in front of him. 
It was foolish to think that this man was more than meets the eye but in reality, he actually had some impressive skills that even she didn’t know about.

After Jane started to
navigate she found the address system and she was starting to look through it when Franklin moved closer.  He was also looking at the scene, but he was so close to her that she could smell that aftershave that he had on combined with the sweat that she could see beating off his forehead.  He was still an idiot but damn he did smell good and she liked the intoxicating odor of the man, as he was right in front of her face.  She felt the strangest urge at that moment, but she definitely didn’t want to act on it.  She was trying to act like she hated the guy but it was getting harder and harder to do so as she continued to smell the man’s odor right near her face.

After navigating though a few pages she found out all about
Alice.  According to the database, she was also a college student and registered as not having a job even though she did work at the BDSM club.  Maybe she liked to keep her personal hobbies to herself.  She was seen with a guy recently, which looked like the boyfriend she talked about last time the say her.  They got the address, and immediately realized she lived in one of the nicest complexes in the area, which was ironic because she was probably working one of the lowliest jobs in the city.  She was a bright girl and was going to school for neuroscience and right now she was able to pay off all her debts just by working there.

“So she’s a bright whore,”
Jane said.

“Seems like it.  She’s pretty cool though,”
Franklin replied.

Jane hated thinking that the same women they were looking up sucked
Franklin off right before they talked to her.  It was gross but Jane tried to ensure that her mind was not on things like that and instead they were on trying to find the culprit.  After looking around they also found out that she had a bad history with boyfriends.  Most of the men she tried to court had either been incapacitated by natural means, overtaken by their work or they even died.  It seemed like she was a death magnet and there wasn’t any way to go past it.  As Jane looked at this, she felt sick to her stomach.

“Damn this girl sounds nuts,” she said. 
In another file it stated Alice was a big fan of Wiccan stuff and actually was part of a magic club that did weird and offbeat ceremonies and such.  It seemed weird and Jane definitely didn’t like that at all.  She felt like this woman was also hiding something that the system didn’t want to show or didn’t have the information to show.

“She does.  But at least we know where she is now so we can go see her,” he replied.

“True that.”  Jane got up and walked out of there, but just as she was about to leave Franklin called out to her.

“So you’re still on for tomorrow right?  You lost the bet so you have to pay the price that I said,” he stated.

Jane immediately groaned and wanted to put her head in her hands.  She didn’t want to go on a date with the man and would rather just eat dirt than do so.  It wasn’t fun and she didn’t really feel like doing this, but she wasn’t the type of woman to back down when given the challenge.

“Yes we are.  Where do you want to meet?”

“How about the coffee shop by here at noon?  That way we can go see Alice tomorrow.  I think we should go to the club before we do so,” he said.

“Fine by me.
  See you then,” Jane said.  She walked out and even though she hated the fact that she was going on a date with that man she knew there was no way around it.  She had lost and underestimated the monkey so now she had to follow what he wanted.  It wasn’t what wanted but she did have pride and she wanted to at least maintain a reputation of keeping her word. 

As
Jane got into the car she looked at the place and she immediately sighed.  Things were going to be very interesting tomorrow and she knew that it would going to test her skills to the fullest in many different ways.