CHAPTER: 32
1067 Words
"I think Adriana Reed slept with some guy, he asked her for money or something, she refused, he killed her and dumped her in Maury County. Case closed. Sorry, Dr. Chase Reed, your wife was sleeping around with some loser," Stuart suggested.
"Is that some plot from one of those Thursday night cop shows? Not the kind of answer I expect from my brilliant little assistant," Sharon said, before throwing money on the table and getting up to leave.
"Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one," Stuart said.
"That is true. But we do not have much to support that theory. You try and find some evidence, and then we will go down that rabbit hole," Sharon told him.
"Fair enough," he replied.
Labeling the word infidelity felt too easy. There had to be more to the story. Sharon thought about her conversation with Melanie. She had been a bit vague, but did she seem like Adriana's killer? Not really, but that did not mean she was not guilty, or maybe she just knew more than she had told her. Either way, Sharon needed to investigate.
"I need to know more about Chase and Melanie. That would be the only way I could see Melanie being the killer. She and Chase are close, but Nicholas also really likes her. Personally, she does not seem that warm and fuzzy to me, but then again, I am investigating her," Sharon said.
"And you are a woman. Melanie might probably have charmed those guys," Stuart said.
"True. Okay, how did it go at Adriana's, Mt- Pleasant High School?"
Stuart handed her a file with Adriana's name. "Check out her personnel file."
"How did you get the file?" Sharon asked him.
"That is classified," Stuart said, winking and letting out a giggle.
"Cheeky, cheeky," Sharon said, wagging her finger like a concerned mother.
She opened the folder and flipped through the pages. Adriana had been written up twice in the year she had taught at the Mt- Pleasant High school, for having too many visitors at school. Both write-ups stated that a visitor had interrupted her class. Her personnel file also stated that she had not been invited back to teach the following year.
"So basically, she had too much company and did not stand out in other ways, so she was fired?" Sharon asked Stuart.
"That is the significance of it. Also, her coworkers were not that fond of her. No one seemed to have a grudge or anything, but they were a bit indifferent when I told them that she had been murdered," Stuart told Sharon.
"What did they say about her?" she asked.
"Generally, she was late for work, not that reliable, and she could not get along with students' parents. It sounded like the year she spent there was rough. The principal did not want to talk to me, but there was this one lady, Mrs. Diana Rodger, who gave me the dirt," Stuart said.
"And the file." Sharon winked and smiled, watching Stuart's face fall.
"You always have to ruin my fun," Stuart told her.
"That is what I am here for," Sharon said, suppressing a giggle. "What did she say?"
"Mrs. Diana Rodger seems to be the only person who had any contact with Adriana outside of work. She told me that Adriana was only there to impress Chase. They had started dating the summer before. He is a devout Catholic, ambitious, successful, etc. and she wanted to make him think she was a sweet deal. Mrs. Rodger told me that Adriana never planned to stay there, so she did not mind her mother coming up to the school and interrupting her class regularly," Stuart said.
"What? Her mother?" Sharon confirmed.
"Yeah. Apparently, Mom was a little overbearing. Mrs. Rodger told me that she worried about Adriana because she was not... How did she put it? 'All there'."
"You think Mrs. Rodger was being straight with you?" Sharon asked.
"Yeah. She is probably beyond retirement age, loves teaching, and is a motherly sort. I could see her taking a new teacher under her wing. Sounds like Adriana needed that," Stuart said.
"I wonder what made Adriana such a needy case?" Sharon said. Chase Reed was a great catch. He could have had any woman he wanted. Why did he choose Adriana, she wondered?
"We need to find out more about Mom's connection with Adriana. Her showing up at her grown daughter's job is weird. I am heading over to talk with Mom and Dad today. Will you get some info on the parents?" Sharon requested him.
"Sure thing," he said.
"I cannot understand how Adriana and Chase ended up together?" Sharon shared her thoughts with Stuart.
"Yes, seems weird, but that does not really matter, does it?" he asked.
"Well, I think it does matter. What if some other woman thought herself to be more deserving? Maybe it just took her a few years to work up the nerve to get revenge. Chase might seem to be nice enough, but he is part of the elite. Sometimes, things that we commoners do not flinch at can cause irrevocable harm to the elite," Sharon said.
"Hmm. I had not thought of that," Stuart said.
"That is why I keep wondering how and why they were together. There might be something more to their marriage," she said.
"I will see if I can find any connections," Stuart told her.
"Okay. I am going to continue looking up information. Maybe Adriana left some hints if she was having some type of affair, Hey, Stuart, I almost forgot to mention the gang activity that took place at Allen Grey's store. So, before Adriana was murdered, Allen Grey says that he experienced attacks from gangs. After Adriana was murdered, there were no other attacks."
"Do you think this is a slumming case? Adriana got mixed up with a gangster? But what does that have to do with the store owner?" Stuart asked.
It did not make sense. What connection did Adriana have to Allen Grey and the store? Sharon was not able to connect them. "We are missing something. I wonder why the other detective quit?" Sharon said.
"Corruption? Does Adriana have any connection to the police force?" Stuart asked.
"Not that I know of, but we need to leave that possibility open," she said.
A/N: To be continued...
- Writer
