The Perfect Crime

Chapter 1: MEMORY LANE

Dr. Emilia Gardiner watched as her last client of the day hefted himself onto the back seat of his mother's huge Jeep. The ten year old boy sat clutching his teddy bear tightly to his chest. Emilia was scared that the teddy's stuffing was going to pop out. His mother took position at the driver's seat and drove away.

Emilia walked back to her office at the Mental Health Clinic where she specialized as a speech pathologist. Three people sat impatiently in the black foldout chairs of the waiting area. They were probably waiting for other specialists because her appointments for the day were over. Now she had to get ready to visit her sister, Elizabeth, her sister's husband, Will, and their almost two year old son in Mattapan.

Emilia signed and dropped off her last patient's file with the receptionist, a huge dark woman who wore a tight fitting nurse's uniform and huge circular earrings. Her shiny dark shoulder length hair framed her freckled chubby face. The receptionist gave Emilia a soft smile and put the folder with the rest.

For some reason, the receptionist's enthusiastic smile made Emilia angry all over again. Emilia had been in a bad mood since yesterday night when her best friend, Amanda, had gone and crossed the meddling line. The receptionist's smile dropped when she saw the scowl that took over Emilia's face. Emilia turned away to avoid scaring the woman away on her first day.

The domineering television in the waiting area showed a sharply dressed Barbra Streisand. Her shoulder length hair danced wildly with the September autumn winds. She was delivering yet another fruitless update on the missing person's case that had most of Boston riled up. Twenty year old Harleigh Amari, an up and coming dancer, had been spotted leaving the community theatre after a huge performance on Monday two weeks ago but had not returned home. Just this morning, her parents had held their fifth consecutive press conference pleading for the safe return of their daughter. Their bloodshot eyes and trembling figures had been a solid punch to Emilia's gut.

Emilia turned away from the blaring television because this case hit too close to home. Ten years ago, Emilia had also been abducted from her best friend's birthday party at the Mannequin Hotel. Just two years ago, two of her abductors had found her again and had destroyed the life she had built for herself. Now she had spent the last two years rebuilding her life.

Emilia pushed open the neon blue door of her office and her heart rate briefly spiked when she saw someone seated in her chair. She forced herself to calm down when she realized that it was only Margaret. Margaret McGarret was her second mother and for the last two years she had also doubled as her boss. Margaret had built this clinic as a tribute to her nephew who had suffered from a mental illness that had been left untreated by his narrow minded parents.

"Are you finally going to stop finding excuses to see your sister?" Margaret asked as she put her legs on top of Emilia's heavy mahogany desk and crossed her hands over her chest.

"I'm not finding excuses." Emilia replied with thinned lips.

"Then how do you explain not visiting your sister for two years? Emilia for God's sake. You need to stop living your life in a pit of self pity." Margaret said.

"I'm going okay. And I'm not living in a pit of self pity!" Emilia fired back and Margaret arched a brown brow. She was amused by the show.

Emilia was so damn flabbergasted with everyone thinking they could meddle in her life. Just yesterday, Amanda had planned for Emilia a blind date. Emilia had reluctantly agreed to the blind date only to receive the shock of her life when she reached the cafe and found Detective Archer Finn, her sort of ex-boyfriend, seated alone in a booth. Their eyes had both widened on seeing each other and just like she had done two years and two months ago, she had fled the scene in tears.