Excerpt From Chapter Two
 Chief Inspector Thomas Travis of
the Anchorage Police Department rose to his feet as his
partner, Inspector Marilyn Graves, walked into Lauren
Rivers' apartment. He had been kneeling next to Lauren's
body, talking in hushed tones with Ellen Bristow, head of
the forensics team."My god," Marilyn whispered as she
peered down at the body."She was stabbed at least twenty
times," said Ellen, looking up. "Most of the
wounds are postmortem." She pointed to a vertical
gash right under Lauren's breastbone. "This appears
to be the fatal one; it's where most of the blood came
from." She held up a large plastic evidence bag; the
inside surface was coated with blood but Marilyn could
see the ugly knife. "We found this sticking out of
her vagina.""Good heavens," said Marilyn.
"That thing's big enough to kill an elephant!""It's a bayonet," said Thomas.
"You can get them at any military surplus store. Any
signs of rape?""Too messy to tell right now. We'll have
to get her cleaned up, first."Marilyn stared into Lauren's face. "Who
would want to do something like this?""Maybe a fan," said Thomas, handing
her a DVD box. "Looks like our vic here was a porno
queen.""Wow--'Firelight Sex,' starring Lauren
Rivers. I wonder if that's her real name?""I doubt it very seriously; all these
girls have screen names. Who found her?""Her next door neighbor. She says her
name's 'Tawnee Roberts;' she's also a porno star. I was
waiting for you to get here before I talked with her.
She's a total mess--wanted to take a Xanex but I wouldn't
let her. There's a uniformed with her. We can't do
anything until the M.E. is done, so let's go talk to
her."Tawnee was sitting Indian-style in a big
chair, her head drooped, her long cinnamon-colored hair
shrouding her face. Beside her stood a uniformed
policewoman."How is she?" asked Marilyn."She hasn't moved a muscle or said a word
for a half hour or so."Marilyn knelt beside Tawnee's chair. Despite
Marilyn's opinion about the porno industry, Tawnee was a
fellow human who was obviously in great distress.
"Tawnee?" she said in a soft voice.Tawnee slowly acknowledged her presence,
tossing her long hair back over her shoulder. She had a
small delicate oval face with enormous brown eyes which
were red and swollen at the moment. She couldn't have
been over five feet tall, a pixie of a girl in her early
twenties."I'm Inspector Graves, and this is Chief
Inspector Thomas Travis. Do you feel up to answering a
few questions?"Tawnee sniffled; Marilyn handed her a tissue.
"Yeah," she whispered, wiping her tears."You called 9-1-1 about seven-thirty or
so; would you tell us about how you found her?""Yeah. Lauren and I have keys to each
other's place. I ran out of sugar and so I knocked on her
door. She didn't answer so I went back and got her key so
I could get the sugar. She was lying right in the middle
of the front room. There was blood everywhere and she had
that knife stuck in her pu...""That's okay," said Thomas.
"Then what did you do?""I...I guess I was paralyzed for a
minute, then I dropped my measuring cup and ran back into
my apartment and called you guys. No, I take that back--I
puked first, then I called you. My god it was
horrible. Who would do something like this to her?""We were hoping you might be able to shed
some light on that. You told the officers that you are a
model?"Tawnee smirked. "If you could call it
modeling. I make movies for the Internet. Hardcore
movies. So did Lauren.""Did you work together?""You mean doing lesbo stuff? No--I have
done that, but not with Tawnee.""Actually, I meant do you both work for
the same filmmaker?""Yeah--Satan Productions.""Do you know if she worked today?"
asked Marilyn."Yeah--she had a shoot this morning; it
was supposed to be at nine but the guy didn't show up
until ten. The photographer was pissed as hell, and I had
to sit around and wait.""You're referring to Lauren's, uh,
partner?""Yeah--Ralph King; they've done a couple
of shoots together.""So how long did this 'shoot' take?""Mmm...maybe about an hour; I think we
got started about eleven-thirty or so.""Do you know where she went after
that?""No; we just said 'hi' in passing. And I
didn't see where Ralph went, either. After I was done--I
think it was about one o'clock or so--I went to work and
got off at six. Of course I was an hour late, thanks to
Ralph.""You said you went to work-you mean you
had another shoot?""No--I'm a part-time waitress at Humpy's
Bar and Grill. I'm not as popular as Lauren is--or was--I
need two jobs so I can pay for tuition.""You're going to school?""Yes, at the University of Alaska--I'm
taking night courses.""Oh, really?" said Thomas.
"What are you studying?""You're not going to believe this,"
said Tawnee. "Criminal justice, specializing in
forensics.""That's great--why wouldn't I believe
it?""Because you probably don't see many porn
girls studying to be a cop.""No, I can't say that I have, but your
present calling certainly wouldn't preclude you from
pursuing another career." Tawnee blinked her big
brown eyes at him. "Not everybody sees it that way,
Inspector. Thank you.""You're welcome, Tawnee. Just for the
record, is 'Tawnee Roberts' your real name?""No, it's Andrea Lakehurst. I know--that
sounds like a phony name too, but it's my real one.
Andrea Featheringill Lakehurst. Fancy name, huh? When I
was growing up, everybody called me 'Feather.'""What about Lauren?" Marilyn asked."Her name? I don't know; we don't usually
ask." "Excuse me," said one of the
forensics crew from the doorway. "The M.E. is done
and we're finished.""Thanks," said Thomas. He turned his
attention back to Tawnee. "I'd like to ask you a few
more questions, but I can tell you're tired. Could you
come down to the station tomorrow morning so we can take
your statement?""Tomorrow morning? Yes, that would be
fine as long as I'm at Humpy's by noon.""I'll make sure we're done by then. Say
about ten? "Okay. Is, um, Lauren still in
there?""No, dear," said Marilyn.
"They've taken her away.""Thank God," Tawnee replied. "I
don't think I could stay here alone if she were still
like that.""Tawnee," said Thomas in a kindly
voice, "I know you knew Lauren and that makes it ten
times as difficult, but if you're going to be a forensics
specialist, you'll see a lot worse things than that. It's
never easy, even if it's a stranger.""I know; they warned us. I'll be alright,
Inspector.""I'm sure you will," he replied.
"I'll see you in the morning then.""Just one more question," said
Marilyn. "Can you think of anyone who might have
done this to Lauren?"Tawnee shook her head. "No--everybody
liked her, as far as I know.""Well," said Marilyn, "somebody
sure as hell didn't." |
