Authors: Jack Parker
"One hundred percent
positive
, sir!"
Lisa was struggling to keep her composure now that the truth about her relationships with her other co-workers was exposed.
"Collin, if you're right, then that would mean…"
"Yeah…
Randy
could've been the killer!"
Lisa tried to talk. "But…"
"If you think about it, he would've had a motive and an alibi. All he had to do was say he wasn't working that night and he'd have all his coworkers back him up."
"You're saying he just walked into work at night and killed Scott then?!" Lisa shouted. "If Randy wanted to kill Scott, he wouldn't have done it right on his own turf!"
"How do
you
know?!"
"Collin, calm down. Ms. McNorr, I'm very sorry, but it looks like you showed up the first time Collin actually realized something important."
"What's THAT supposed to mean?!"
Lisa merely sat back in her chair and nervously waited for the questioning session to be over. It was obvious from her face that it went much worse than she hoped it would. She didn't seem to think the truth about her past relationships would ever come out into the open with the police like that, and she wasn't prepared on how to deal with it now.
Collin, on the other hand, was more excited now than he had been in his entire life. Despite his harsh words, Teneire made it sound like he had truly done something remarkable that could help the case.
Just gotta keep my hot streak going,
he reminded himself. It was easy for him to see he would need to utilize his skills to the best of his abilities if he was going to bring this case to an end.
Clue in a Book
"You're absolutely sure it wasn't Randy?" Teneire asked very quietly. The entire questioning room had now become almost dead silent from the tension that was suddenly arising. Had Collin actually thought of something logical that would make Randy someone who would be worth talking to?
"Positive," Lisa said very uneasily as she passed her eyes down to the floor. "He'd never do something like that. Sure, he wasn't always the nicest guy to be around, but…" She never finished her sentence.
A long silence passed before Collin prematurely blurted out, "I think we should call him in!"
"What, you mean
Randy
?!" Teneire yelled.
"Doy!"
"Collin, weren't you listening to a thing anyone's been saying about him?!"
"What do you mean?"
Teneire groaned. "We
have
to have gone over at
least
ten times now that Randy doesn't work there anymore. No one knows where he is."
"Hey, you're the police. You can track'em down, right?"
"Yeah, but…"
"Well, couldn't you do that!? He might have something useful to say!"
Teneire groaned and turned his attention back to Lisa. "Ms. McNorr, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us. You're free to go."
"Thank you, sir."
Lisa got up without any hesitation and started walking to the door. As she opened it, she turned around and gave Collin a cold glare. After staring at him for a few seconds, she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her very calmly.
When she was finally gone, Teneire let out one more sigh and began massaging his head as if he was getting another migraine. Collin deduced that that would probably be a good time for him to go home and leave Teneire alone for the rest of the day.
* * *
Collin had the next two days off from work, and that entire two-day period allowed him to build up the excitement and get refreshed for looking into everything more. He felt like he was getting closer with each passing day, despite the fact he had learned almost nothing new ever since he started his "investigation".
While he was off from work, he kept wracking his mind and tried to think what would be the most effective question that he could ask others that could possibly put him in the right direction. He concluded that the most logical thing he could do was learn more about Randy and see if he was really the harmless guy Lisa was describing him as, or if there was a bit more to him than Lisa was letting on…
"Lees really doesn't like talking about it," Jess said very casually. She was the first one Collin approached, and she had had plenty of time to forgive him for becoming so aggressive when she was called in for questioning.
"Why not?"
"I dunno," she casually answered. Collin had started by asking her about the relationship between Lisa and Randy. "I guess she was just trying to stay professional and not talk about her love life on the job. Either that or she was uncomfortable, I guess."
"But was she happy, anyway? Like, did they seem like a good couple?"
"At first, they did."
"At first?"
"Yeah. Lisa was always happy and was in a much better mood when she first started seeing Randy."
"Wow…Randy must've been pretty nice to her."
"Actually, he probably wasn't."
"Huh? How do you know?"
"None of us can really tell. Lees didn't really feel like talking about it a heck of a lot."
"Then how do you know Randy probably wasn't nice to her?"
"It was kinda obvious. After they had been seeing each other for kind of a while, Lisa just started looking unhappier."
"And you think that's because of Randy?"
"Yeah."
"Any idea if he did anything that would make her feel that way?"
"We didn't see much, but it looks like he was kind of controlling and thought that since he had the higher job, he had the higher authority. I guess he was just really controlling and everything."
"Wow…so he was a control freak?"
"We can't really say for sure. That's just what it looked like."
"Hmmm…poor Lisa."
"I also think those rumors about Randy had something to do with it, too."
"Rumors?"
"Yeah. Oh, that's right. You're a newbie. You don't know about those rumors, do you?"
"You mean the ones about him having those... "
dirty
" magazines in his desk and all that other nasty stuff?"
Jess immediately looked confused and slightly suspicious. "How do you know about those?"
"I used to work for the police when they were working on this case last summer and I heard all about it then."
"Uh…yeeeaahhh…well, anyway, that's what I think. Lees probably found it all to be too much. Randy being a control freak and all those bad rumors going around about him…that's why I'm thinking Lees started getting a little out of it. It was all probably just more than she could handle."
"Aw…now I'm feeling
bad
for her."
"You
should
be, especially after what you put her through the other day when she was coming in for questioning."
"Huh?...oh, was I a bit over the edge?"
Jess let out a nervous laugh. "She came back muttering about how she was gonna wring your neck or something like that."
"Ooooooooo…well, I probably don't wanna talk to her then."
"Smart choice. Oh, uh…thanks, Jess."
"Anytime."
Collin began walking away from Jess and was now headed back towards his work post. He thought about everything he had just learned, and, while it helped him learn a bit more about Randy, it didn't help him figure out who could've been the one who was Scott's murderer.
"Well, that didn't help a lot. Hmmmm…"
-
"Randy? Pfft. I'd like to forget him," Ian remarked as he continued staring out at everyone in the water from the top of his lifeguard tower.
"Why?"
"The guy's a punk. I mean, really…if you could get
one
day off from him you were the luckiest guy in the world."
"He was really a tough guy, then?"
"Oh yeah. He wasn't really that nice to anyone here. It was pretty much, "Come to work. Do your job. Get paid. Go home". And if you had any problems with that, well…he wouldn't really do much for ya."
"Sounds like a real jerk."
"Ahhh…well, he was actually all right. Just really strict. But yeah, he definitely got
a
little wacko at times."
"What about Lisa?"
"Huh?"
"Was he that way to Lisa?"
"To Lisa? Pffft. No way. He treated Lisa like a queen. Well, at least compared to the way he treated us, anyway. But yeah, he was
a
nicer guy to her."
"Really. Hmmmm…"
"I think he really liked her. And I think she liked him back. And these are all rumors, but it sounded like they were even talking about getting married."
"What?! Lisa never mentioned anything about that!"
"She never told anyone about that. D'ja listen to what I said, dude? I said those were rumors. RU-MORS!"
"Uh…right. Thanks, Ian."
"No prob, dude."
Collin instantly turned around and got ready to run somewhere, but as he was about to depart, Ian stopped him.
"Hey, buddy!"
Collin froze and turned around. "What is it?"
"If you see a chick with long brown hair in a rented one-piece bathing suit, tell her she's gotta return that bathing suit to
me
, all right?"
"Don't people
drop
those off in the bin at the front office?"
"Just do it, all right?!"
"Uh…right. Sure thing, Ian."
"Thanks, buddy."
* * *
"Please, I don't want to talk about him," Lisa said coldly. "Randy and I are done, all right? We've
been
done for some time now! We've been done for
so
long, this is light years before Scott died."
"Oh, come on," Collin whined. "It couldn't have really been
that
long, could it?"
He had caught Lisa just as she was starting her break. While she was trying to heat up leftover ravioli that she had been keeping in the refrigerator, Collin was questioning her again-this time, on the relationship she and Randy had shared and what happened to it. Neither of them realized that Christine was on her way to the break room and was just a short walk from the door, in plain earshot of everything being talked about on the inside.
"Collin, I know you really want to find out what happened to Scott, and I don't mean to ruin your dreams or anything like that, but…the cops have been on this for over a year. They're the best crime solvers around and
they
couldn't figure it out. What makes you think
you
can?"