Princess in waiting

Episode6

“Frieda’s been arrested. She’s a murder suspect!” Giselle’s eyes went wide with horror when Thomas, a friend of both Frieda and hers, told her that when she finally had time to ring Thomas, who had gone through hell trying to reach her. “Who has been murdered?” Giselle barely managed to speak. “What worries me is that it’s a royal reporter.”

“Why would he be murdered? Because she won’t do something like that? How the hell is she connected?” Giselle could hear Thomas’s heavy breathing. “I know she cannot.” " How… What kind of death was it?” “He was run over by an SUV. I just remembered the type of vehicle, I don’t know why.” Giselle grit her teeth. “

Thomas Frieda does not own an SUV. She wouldn’t even hire!!! We need to figure out how she got knee-deep into this.”

“Can I ask you something? “ Giselle guessed what Thomas would ask, but she let him speak.

“Did Frieda leak something about you dating Julian to the paparazzi or a tabloid or whatever?”

“She did. It appeared in a tabloid.” Giselle started shivering as she did not ask him the question she dreaded to ask. Russo worked at the tabloid BlueBloods.”

“So he was the guy who was killed?” Thomas did not speak, letting the facts sink in.

“I still don’t get how Frieda is connected. And why did you ask me about Frieda leaking my things to the Bluebloods?” The word had slipped before Giselle could think about what she was speaking, or before she could plan what she was speaking.

“So it is the BlueBloods that the pictures were in? In fact, I have the paper in front of my face right now, looking at the pictures.”

“So what? Thomas? "

“I think this was the reason why Frieda was arrested, but there must have been something else that got him killed.”

“Should we look into it?”

“No”. Thomas responded bluntly.

“We should get Frieda out.”

****

“She will c***k before long. It should not take long.” Sergeant Fiona Shetty poured herself a coffee, slightly amused at having the chance to get a dig at a girl who was trying to make ends meet, rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and the powerful. Fiona had done her background search. Fiona studied the girl who was scared to death before going in. A sense of recoil crept into her as she continued to study the girl. “Look at the ladies like us, you i***t! We work our asses off and make a name for ourselves, and all that you are doing is trying to make a million by trying to sell your friend’s bikini photos to paparazzi or a journalist. When that’s done, you kill him off! Parasite!”

Sergeant Shetty curled her fingers into a fist, exhaled breaths, and gathered her composure to go in and question the suspect.

“Frieda McSweeny, Sergeant Shetty,” the Sergeant announced her arrival curtly, and Frieda, having noticed this, lifted her eyes to the Sergeant, with reluctance.

“Let’s get into facts. Why did you murder the reporter named Willie Forsyth?”

“I did not murder anybody.” Frieda sounded close to tears.

“Where did you get the SUV that was used for the murder?”

“I told you I-did-not-murder-and-hire-an-SUV!” Frieda was more enraged than before. Perhaps she was gaining confidence to face a Sergeant or anyone from the Police.

“Interesting!” Sergent’s gaze grew more scrutinizing.

“How did you know that it was hired?”

“Because I did not use mine,” Frieda answered Sergeant Shetty, with defiance.

“So you did not use yours, obviously, as it would have led to clear evidence against you, and you hired one? From whom, Miss McSweeny?”

Frieda was staring at Sergeant Shetty with wide eyes. She was finally understanding where the interrogation was leading. Sergeant Shetty seemed to analyze every answer given by her, and she was getting herself nailed to a murder she did not commit. Yet she did not know what to do about it and waited for the Sergeant’s next question.

“I did not hire anything from anybody.”

“Okay, you were smart enough, as you have always been, to not let any leads get to you?”

“Are you suggesting that I hired an SUV and killed him? Why would I do that?”

“I should be asking that question, Miss McSweeny. You have been making a living selling information about your friend who is supposedly in a relationship with the Prince, and this time, things went wrong. What happened?”

Frieda was struggling hard to stop herself from lashing out.

“Are you mad at being exposed?”

Frieda stamped her fist on the table, which was unexpected, and Julian shifted, watching Frieda’s every expression through the screen.

“The Sergeant is way out of line, and I’m truly getting bored!” Julian yawned lightly and covered his mouth with a curled fist.

“I honestly don’t know what you are talking about, and I did not sell information as a business. I don’t know this man who is dead, and I did not sell any images. It was just information. To Russo.

“Russo?”

Sergeant Shetty’s earpiece gave space to the chief’s voice. “Russo worked for the tabloid BlueBloods. He was the subordinate of Forsyth. I think we have a hypothesis. Leave her there and get here to dig into this further.” Sergeant Shetty listened with concentration and rose from her seat. Without turning back, she walked out of the door, shutting it firmly. Frida started to cry.

“Gentlemen? Chief?” Sergeant Shetty looked at the officers, with her hands in her pockets.

“If Russo was Forsyth’s subordinate, whatever information that this woman sold had to land on Forsyth’s desk because Russo has no authority to publish this information in his paper without confirmation from his boss, and he has nowhere else to sell.”

“We need to get this in order,” Sergeant Shetty said, looking around at the three other officers standing in front of her.

“What Frieda sold to Russo, the journalist, was the information about where the girlfriend would be, and her schedule, but what was in the media was a photograph. That photograph was proof of the location that Frieda had given, which boosted the sales of the BlueBloods by telling the world that the relationship is official.”

“Did Frieda receive the payments, and is there proof?”

“Yes. We have information on the wire transfer, and Officer Holland gathered from the suspect that this was the payment she received for the information.”

“So, the suspect sold the whereabouts to Russo, and Russo took the pictures and …”

Officer Holland held up his palm, and Sergeant Shetty stopped speaking.

“What about motive?”

“Russo does have a motive. If Forsyth dies, he gets promoted. Faster than waiting until Forsyth retires. People who knew Willie Forsyth knew his reputation. He was the competition for everybody in the world of royal reporters.”

“We need to bring in Russo.”