Wedding Blues #6
She snapped her fingers and nodded at Alec.
“Yes. I know that things have been hinted at for years but there have to be secret societies and things that exist in this world. We know there’s proof of baby mills and all kinds of depravity with women who look just like this. What if she was his way in?”
“You feel like this might have been some type of initiation.” Alec was nodding his head so much of what Asha was saying made sense.
“Yes, I just don’t understand why he would’ve gone for someone that was so well connected.”
“You’d expect someone that would fall through the cracks easier than this?”
"Hookers wouldn't get this kind of attention.
FBI wouldn't have formed a task force and given this kind of publicity.
" I added my two cents because now I was intrigued with the direction she was going.
In the back of my mind, I wondered if she was going to lead us to a dead end but my brain felt like this was a viable direction.
“That in and of itself is a tragedy.” Asha looked disgusted but I was just happy she’d talked to me. Gotdamn I was getting desperate. “Just because a woman is lured or falls into a profession many don’t see as honorable it doesn’t mean her life is any less valuable.”
“If this is what you’re saying it is, then someone who wasn’t seen as valuable wouldn’t have been the right entrance fee so to speak.” It was a distasteful way to put it but it didn’t make my words any less accurate.
“It’s funny how all the media speaks on gang violence but never discuss the actual originators of this type of violence.
Ritualistic killings have been around since almost the dawn of time.
The Bible is littered with them as are Greek and Roman mythologies.
If art imitates life one can only imagine just how depraved earlier societies were.
” Asha walked back and sat down across from me.
When our eyes met I dipped my head as a sign of my respect, which put a small smile on her face.
She picked up her glasses and slid them back on her face, shielding her from me again.
“Whichever one of these boys that she knows who have a clean background and upstanding family will be in a fraternity. Someone who likes the idea of secret societies and exclusivity. If it’s a ritual he’s someone who would already be familiar with acceptable organizations that require some form of sacrifice to ensure compliance. ”
“So fraternities, athletes, hell even military could be a target.” Alec started flipping through his notes again as Asha’s comments seemingly widened the pool of suspects.
“The both of you know that military wouldn’t go for harming an innocent. Neither would athletics. They might cover up assaults and other bad behavior, but not this.”
“What makes you think a frat boy is the culprit?” Watching her think and come up with ideas was similar to someone manipulating the matrix.
“Panhellenic Organizations are all about conforming. Order. But also setting friendships and a network of favors that last a lifetime. They all have dirt on one another to keep them inline and to leverage later on. It’s how this entire city runs, gentlemen.
And it starts at boarding schools and universities around the world.
These are normally the men susceptible to the allure of gaining power.
The Clancy boy fits every one of those markers.
Has his girlfriend reached out to you lately? ”
Her words were directed toward Vega who’d been communicating with the girlfriend of the suspect who’d reached out almost immediately.
She’d been trying to link up so they could fuck.
We’d gotten approval for Vega to continue to work her from Cochran not mentioning anything about the case to prevent any claims of entrapment.
“Offering to suck my dick isn’t really what is going to help this case.” He spoke bluntly before a giggle from Asha made him realize his misstep. “I’m so sorry, Asha. That was crass.”
She waved her hand in front of her; her ring noticeably absent. I was sure it was because of work but it felt like a low blow. “You’re fine. I know you don’t mean it in a bad way and truthfully she’s sexually harassing you. No harm done.”
I’d been tense since he’d answered me but I could relax now that I knew she wasn’t offended.
“I wonder if she knows he was gone that night.” She was taping a pen against her full lips, which of course had me thinking of the last time I’d felt them. It was insane for my dick to be getting hard in the middle of a murder investigation but its one-track mind was solely focused on Asha.
“What are you thinking?”
“If she’s being so cavalier about her desire for you it’s because she’s tired of him. Which means he’s been getting out of line.”
“She could just like having options.”
“I am a sexy motherfucker, Asha, though I doubt you’ve noticed.” Alec playfully stroked his goatee and even though I knew he wasn’t serious I still wanted to hit him with my chair.
“You are handsome, Alec but you all are missing a few things.”
I wanted to scream at her saying he was handsome but I had to let it slide to hear her insight. “And what is that?”
“On paper, he’s a catch. The type of person a girl like her is going to school to hook.
The ultimate power couple. She wouldn’t risk that until she got a ring and an heir under her belt.
” Asha leaned back and crossed her legs.
It was a completely innocent gesture but my dick was yet again waking up.
“You seem well-versed in this.”
Her smile was rueful as she continued to tap her pen against her lip. “Well, the circles I run in are the ones that your society has built its hierarchy on so it’s all very familiar to me. What’s her major?”
Alec pulled open his phone and began to scroll before he looked up with a smirk. “Family and Consumer Sciences.”
“Home Economics. And you know someone like her isn’t going to do any of the labor herself but it looks great on a MRS resume.”
I acknowledged she had a point but that didn’t make him a killer because his girlfriend wanted something on the side.
“You all said that he lived inside the potential triangle of suspects.”
Alec and I exchanged a glance before I spoke. “There’s only one problem with that.”
“Which is what?”
“Your place is in the middle of that triangle.”
“Mine? Don’t you mean ours?” Her emphasis on ours was sarcastic. Heavy and mocking in her tone. We had a silent stare-off over the conference table and Alec was the one to break the stalemate.
“The point still stands that his just being in the zone isn’t enough for us to bring him in. That would make you just as much of a suspect as him since you’re just as connected.”
“Me?”
“You’re a professor at GW.”
Asha still looked confused about what her profession had to do with any of this. “Okay? So are dozens of other people.”
“Your specific field of expertise doesn’t lend itself to you being innocent either.”
Her mouth gaped open as my words sank in. “Ask me.”
“Asha—”
Her hand shot up to silence Alec and I saw him looking like he could choke me to death with his bare hands. Sad that he was doing more to protect her feelings than I was.
“He knows exactly what landmine he’s about to step on so let him. Your friend has no care for his limbs so ask me.” The threat was clear in her tone but I asked her, wanting to clear the air.
“Did you do this?”
Alec shook his head like I was the dumbest nigga on earth but even if she said yes he would help me cover it up but he was pissed that I’d asked.
“No. I have no desire to inflict pain on people needlessly. I see that this victim and the people who are potentially suspects have all been within my department. Most of my classes last year were led by TAs because I was doing work for the book. The same one that brought you to my doorstep. I didn’t see them and if I were so depraved do you think I’ve waited a year to make a move? For what?”
“To make people care about your book? To drive us to do exactly what we did?”
She sat back and chuckled and Vega looked as though he wanted to crawl out of the room to escape the carnage that was to come.
“My trust fund is worth almost half a billion dollars. If I cared that much I could buy the influence you think I’d kill for. For you to think I can’t accomplish what I have with simple intelligence—”
I sat forward then and she took my aggressive move in stride not backing down. “I know you could but you act as though you aren’t hiding shit. I know you didn’t do this because you don’t have the mentality to embody some other woman by consuming her.”
Her normally rich skin went pale and it looked as though Asha’s heart stopped beating. “Asha?”
“What do you mean consume?”
Alec sat forward and grabbed the ice water and poured Asha a cup. He was careful not to touch her realizing that she was spooked and we didn’t know why.
“The victim had her liver removed and there were signs of teeth marks on the flesh that remained.”
I thought she would pass out. She looked ready to keel over and Vega had his hands near her to ensure she didn’t. But just like she always did she surprised me by standing tall in her seat.
“I thought her organ had just been removed but now you’re saying there’s cannibal activity?
It’s got to be some type of initiation. No one stops at one kill and no one without some obsession with killers could do this and get away with it so fast. You would be right to think I could do it but I’m missing one key element. ”
“And what’s that?” Alec hadn’t seen the other side of Asha but I already knew what she was going to say. It was the main reason I hadn’t bothered to truly think she could do this, although all signs pointed to her.
“A dick. That and the time to have done this. I wasn’t in town. I had a speaking engagement and just about a few dozen people can attest to it.”
“I knew that.”
Her eyes shot up to me, and Vega was subtly shaking his head, warning me to stop.