Picture Perfect

Chapter 49

    About twenty minutes later I arrived at the portrait studio. Lucky for me the owner was still at work. I showed her my badge and said, "I was wondering if I could ask you a question or two?"
    "Why not." The owner said almost dismissively. "I've already answered a million questions today. What's a couple more."
    "Thank you! I'm just doing a little follow up to solidify some details." I said pleasantly. "Now did you suggest to Jenna that she leave her locker unlocked?"
    She seemed surprised by the question but said, "Yes, I did. I swear that girl would forget her head if it wasn't already attached. Although I did warn her not to leave anything valuable in there just in case." She finished with a smile but her expression quickly changed. "It didn't even dawn on me earlier, all three lockers were locked."
    I smiled, "Both facts were what I heard from Jenna and Detective Jameson earlier. Now who was responsible for processing the pictures the team took?"
    "They all share that duty. Honestly because of that they are my best, most effective team. They're always very prompt in getting proofs to their clients."
    "Is there any record of who took care of which proofs?"
    "I could see, do you know the specific set of proofs you're looking for?"
    "Let's try the Daniels family." I said giving her the address. "Probably would have been November or early December. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on time."
    She punched the information into the computer. "Looks like Jenna took care of them but she made a note here that Tara delivered the proofs to their house. That's weird!"
    "What's weird?" I asked expectantly.
"Well we don't usually deliver proofs to people's homes. They normally come back here to look through the proofs."
I quickly jotted down the names and addresses of the other families who were murdered. "Can you check these too?"
"Of course." The owner said. After a couple minutes she said, "They were all processed by Jenna, the proofs that is, but all had the same note that Tara had delivered the proofs."
"I'm gonna need Tara's information. I'll need to speak with her." I said anxiously.
"Of course." The owner pulled her employee info page and printed it out for me. "But the police talked to her earlier. If she had any information I'm sure she would have told them."
"I'm sure too. But as I said before I'm just doing routine follow up. Thank you for your help." I said before I ran to my car.

The killer rang the doorbell at the Mastro house. She was a little nervous because there was a police car across the street but she couldn't back down now. Her plan was in motion.
The wife answered the door, "Tara, how nice to se you again. What can I do for you?"
"I have your proofs ready." She said with a smile. "If you'd like we can look over them now and I can get your final copies tonight."
"Oh that would be wonderful." Mrs. Mastro replied. "Come on in, I'll get my husband and daughter."
"Great!" Tara said with a smile.

I ran by Tara's house but no one was home. I surprised myself a bit with my next call, "Cassidy, it's Ashlee."
"Detective, what a surprise. What can I do for you?"
"Can your friend run a name for me?" I wasn't really sure why I trusted Cassidy enough to ask for help but it seemed like the best option at the moment. The lab guys would give me the run around since I wasn't on the case anymore and I needed answers quickly.
"What's the name?"
"Tara Winters." I also rattled off her address and social security number. "I just need any information he can find on this lady."
"No problem, I've already sent the information to my friend. He should have some information back in about ten minutes or so. I'll call you as soon as he sends me anything."
"Thank you Cassidy, I owe you." I didn't like saying that but she was helping me out.
"You're welcome." Cassidy said then added. "Just hear Chyler out when she finds you, okay?"
"What?" Why did it seem like everyone was confusing me today. This is why I don't normally take time off, my brain seems to turn to dumb way too quickly.
"I talked to Chyler a little bit ago and she was upset about something that went down between you and her earlier. Just hear her out." Cassidy informed me.
"Sure, no problem." I answered, not really sure what else to day. "I'll talk to you soon."