AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Theo, would you please remain with the Jamesons while they seek out their lawyer?” Brook requested as she turned away from the couple. “I’ll join you in the spa’s sitting room in five minutes.”
Without looking back, Brook exited the indoor pool area.
“Boss?”
“I need time to think, Bit,” Brook replied once she was out in the hallway. She needed someplace private to collect her thoughts. “We’re running out of time, because the moment that Lorelei realizes that she was successful in destroying any evidence against her…well, this case is over. She walks.”
“If it helps, I’ve scrambled the cell signals to the building. No incoming or outgoing calls have been made since the 911 call was initiated.”
“Remind me that you should get a raise,” Brook murmured as the holiday music became louder with each step. She retreated before deciding the women’s locker room was the only area where she might garner some peace and quiet in order to go over her profile. “Unfortunately, I need to speak with Sylvie.”
“Give me a second.”
Once Brook was inside the women’s locker room, she took a seat on one of the long benches. The odor of disinfectant was strong, but not nearly as potent as the chlorine had been in the pool area. She purposefully leaned her head back and inhaled deeply to clear her thoughts.
According to the profile, Lorelei was cunning and manipulative. To have convinced Bella and Piper to apply bold makeup, cover their heads with translucent plastic bags, and then convince them that she would unfasten the belt before anything dire just so happened proved that she’d had their trust.
Most likely, she had persuaded them that it was all in the name of art.
When they began to struggle, she almost certainly attempted to encourage them to last a little longer. There would have been a struggle, but it would have come too late. Lorelei would have been able to use her body to prevent them from reaching for the bags over their heads, probably using a blanket as a barrier to prevent DNA from contaminating the scene. It wouldn’t have been difficult for her to pose them on their couches afterward.
Lauren Kim’s art had been a huge success back then. Why would Bella have denied her a second exhibit when the canvases had been selling so well to the gallery’s clients?
“Bella turned down Lauren Kim’s work the second time around because she was paving the way for her sister,” Brook mused aloud as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Only Lorelei didn’t want to be an artist. The more independent she became, the more Robert pulled away from her.”
“Boss, I have Little T on the line through a satellite feed. You can speak with her through your earpiece. She’s all caught up on the situation.”
“Sylvie?” Brook called out her name once she thought she’d heard Bit connect the two of them. She wasn’t sure how he’d been able to do so given that there was no cell phone coverage, but she’d stopped questioning Bit’s ability to get things done a long time ago. “You there?”
“I haven’t even been gone for twelve hours, Brook. Bit said that Lorelei Jameson is our unsub. Our own client?”
“Yes.” Brook figured she didn’t have much time, so she got right to the heart of the matter. “Help walk me through this. I don’t have time to pull up the profile or comb through Lorelei’s background investigation. Did we miss that Lorelei was an artist?”
“Lorelei and Bella both dabbled in painting when they were young because of their mother, but it was Bella who continued on with her education in the arts. Nothing was really mentioned about Lorelei, but it sounds as if she kept it up as a hobby.”
“I can find that out,” Brook said as she thought through ways to get the couple to talk with their lawyer present. “This is what I’ve pieced together. Robert began to step out on his marriage to Lorelei early in their marriage. It didn’t take her long to realize that he had a complex when it came to being needed, so she would purposefully create situations where he would always be drawn back to her. It fits the profile. She’s cunning and manipulative. I don’t believe that Robert and Bella had an affair or anything of the sort. I think Lorelei created friction between her and her sister so that Robert felt the need to intervene...to come to Lorelei’s defense. She took it to the extreme and began to fantasize what it would be like in a world where Bella died.”
“Around five years into their marriage, Lorelei began seeing a therapist. The therapist would have given Lorelei insight to her husband and his past. Robert’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during his junior year of high school. She was stage four. He took care of her through his junior and senior year, and on into college. She passed away during his sophomore year, but that was right around the time when he’d met Lorelei.”
“Was there anything going on in her life at the time?”
“Lorelei had fallen and broken her arm. I recall reading about it in her background check, because she had to have surgery. A couple of pins had to be inserted, and she was in a cast for over eight weeks.”
“Robert would have been attracted to Lorelei based on her needing to rely on someone. Your right, Sylvie. Her therapist would have pointed that out in their sessions. Lorelei was given all the ammunition needed to keep her husband.” Brook was still facing the barrier of proving their theory. “Okay. We have motive.”
“What about the means?” Sylvie inquired, her tone indicating that she hadn’t connected those dots quite yet. Brook filled her in on how she believed Lorelei had convinced the two women to put themselves in such a perilous position. “Damn, Brook. That is…sick. Seriously, that is one twisted woman.”
“I get why Bella might have believed her sister, but what would have motivated Piper Zimmer to go to such extremes for art? She wasn’t even in the business.”
“But Piper had been doing business with Lauren Kim. If Lauren had divulged just how much money she received for her paintings, then maybe Lorelei convinced Piper to be the subject of one. Brook, there was that ten-thousand-dollar deposit that we could never explain. We assumed that it was a payoff from either Lauren Kim or Martin Kingston. What if it was from Lorelei?”
“That would make sense.”
“Boss? I hate to interrupt, but Big T is looking for you.”
“Tell him to delay the Jamesons for a few more minutes,” Brook instructed Bit while she stood from the thin bench. She began to pace slowly while attempting to figure out a way to deceive Lorelei into revealing the truth. “Means, motive, and opportunity. All three are there, but we have nothing to connect her to the murders. She chose Rachel Lee due to high school behavior that would have followed that young girl for her entire life. Nothing is forgotten in small towns like this.”
Small towns.
