Tap, tap, tap. Evangeline Williamson moaned and tried to shake her head to stop the tapping. Tap, tap, tap. She groaned and raised her head, squinting at the figure standing above her, who had been tapping her on the head. The smell of coffee perfumed her senses and her stomach growled. Yet another day had gone by, drawing her closer to Todd’s execution.
“You want the good news or the bad news first?”A female voice asked. Evangeline sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. That was Kit’s voice. Evangeling became alert immediately. “I want the bad news first.”She said steeling herself for something horrible, like they hadn’t been able to find Denton or Spencer’s record was clean. “Okay, boss.”Katharina “Kit” Louis said. “The bad news is,” She paused and placed a coffee cup on Evangeline’s desk. Her tone was grave, very serious and Evangeline felt herself grow cold. “The bad news is that you look like hell. Do you even know what a mirror is? And you need to brush your teeth. Morning breath is not attractive.”Evangeline frowned and shook her head. “Kit. I don’t need you kidding around. What did you find?”Kit walked over to the couch and plopped down. She took her time sipping her double mocha cappuccino before answering. “Geesh, I was just trying to get you to smile or something and really you do need to brush your hair and your teeth. Do that and then we’ll talk.”Evangeline shook her head and walked over to her private bathroom. She looked in the mirror. She had bags under her eyes and she looked tired. Her makeup was mostly faded away and her hair was a mess of tangles. She started to run a brush through her hair wincing at the tangles.
“What time did you go to sleep last night?”Kit said, sipping her cappuccino. “I don’t know, maybe three?”Kit shook her head. Van hadn’t been eating or sleeping properly. After her PI had failed to find Denton, she’d called Kit. “He better be innocent.”Evangeline turned and glared at her.
“What? I’m just saying. That doctor better have done it, because if he . . . ”
“Just stop! Todd would never kill a baby. That I’m sure of. I believe him.”
Kit nodded, knowing that Evangeline wouldn’t do everything she had already done, if Todd Manning wasn’t innocent. Kit watched Evangeline, brush her teeth. She ruminated over the information that she had found while tracing Todd’s footsteps the night of Margaret’s “murder”. After doing some digging and looking in places the LPD hadn’t even bothered to check, Kit found herself disturbed by what she had discovered. The LPD was a joke and today they were going to get the punch-line, slammed into them hard.
Evangeline washed her face and turned to Kit. “Do you mind? I’d like to change into a fresh suit.”She didn’t miss the expression of deep thought on Kit’s face. Kit looked up and nodded slowly. Evangeline could see that whatever Kit was thinking about hadn’t been good, which made Evangeline’s stomach clench at the thought that she wouldn’t be able to help Todd. As soon as the door was, closed Evangeline sank down on the toilet seat and put her head in her hands. Todd. She wanted to help him. She wanted to save him. She felt so helpless, lost and frustrated that the system that she believed in had failed. She ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath. Whatever Kit had found, it wouldn’t do to face it looking lost and hopeless. After freshening up a bit, she put on a new suit, put the old one in a garment bag, ready for the cleaners and took a deep breath and opened the door. The scene before her amused her, giving her the first smile she’d had in weeks.
“Come on love. Give ole, Keegan a kiss.”
“Keegan I swear to God if you come anywhere near me, I’ll deck you! Now sit down and shut up.”
“Ooooh I love it when a woman orders me around. All right love, I’ll sit down.”
Keegan Foster, Evangeline’s other PI sat down in one of the chairs reserved for clients and stretched his long legs. At 6'5, with blond hair and green eyes, Keegan was a sight to behold. He turned toward Evangeline and smiled. “Ah, there she is Miss. America.”He stood up and walked over to Evangeline and enveloped her in a big, warm hug. Evangeline laughed as Keegan pulled away. She could see out of the corner of her eye Kit roll her eyes. “You look wonderful darling. Do something different with your hair?”Evangeline shook her head. “Thanks, you’re sweet. But I know I look a bit worn around the edges. So have a seat. Kit will tell me her news and you’ll tell me yours.”
“I still don’t see why you had to hire two PIs.”Kit mumbled as she sat down on the couch, shooting a warning glance at Keegan as he eyed the couch. “Because I wanted twice as many people looking for information and Denton so what do you have?”
Kit stood up and started to pace. Angry energy rolled off of her. “First off, I want to say that the LPD is a bunch of lazy bastards. If they had done a little more work and less donut eating they would have found a hell of a lot more info than I did, and it only took me two days to get this info.”She stopped and faced Evangeline. Her brown eyes, darker than normal, she clenched her fists and Evangeline felt herself getting excited. If Kit was pissed at the LPD than that means that they screwed up and Kit found it. “Well, love? What did you find?”Keegan asked. All kidding aside, he had on his serious face, the one he used when he knew something was up. Keegan Foster was a former Marine, CIA agent (something he didn’t talk about) and now at 37 he was a PI. “First off, did any of those so-called detectives investigate the island in the middle of lake?”She asked. Evangeline furrowed her brow. “No, the bodies were found at the reservoir, downstream. They only searched the shoreline of the lake, nothing more.”Kit continued to pace. “Well, I decided to investigate and what I found would have saved everyone a lot of trouble, especially Todd.” Evangeline leaned forward in her chair waiting for Kit to continue. “Well?”Keegan asked. Kit turned to Evangeline. “There is a convent there, on the island. I showed off Margaret’s picture and they said that woman, from the picture I showed them, washed up on shore, unconscious and very pregnant. They examined her and found that she was exhausted but healthy and so was the baby. They let her stay in their infirmary overnight. She told them her name was Margaret and that she had fallen off of a boat and managed just barely to swim to shore. She stayed overnight and in the morning made a call. I managed to get a hold of the telephone records on that night and during the next day. There was only one called made from the convent, in the morning and that the number called was to, get this, Spencer Truman’s private cell phone.”Evangeline’s eyes widened. So, Todd is right, she thought. “I asked the women if they would be willing to testify to that and they said yes they would.
“Wait so what happened to Margaret?”Evangeline asked. “Well, after the phone call, a man came to the nunnery. I showed them a picture of Spencer and Denton. They Id’d the man as Spencer who came to the convent that afternoon, he told them that his sister had called him. Her name is Margaret and she’s pregnant. They led him to her, and he Id’d her as his sister. He told them that she was mentally ill and that a brother was supposed to be watching her but had an emergency. He made it sound like he was really worried about her. He even wrote out a large check to the convent in thanks for caring for her. He took her away from the convent that afternoon. They said, they thought he was very kind. They have surveillance cameras on the grounds and luckily they wait a few months to erase the tapes. I was lucky. They hadn’t erased the tape of that day yet. I watched it and I have Spencer leading Margaret to a speed boat. The time stamp is 3:45 p.m.. I have the tape.”Kit held up a VHS tape. Evangeline sat up straight in her chair. Excitement coursing through her veins, this was the first big break they needed and it proved that Spencer had something to do with Margaret and Todd was innocent.
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