LOST IN THE LAW

Chapter 6

Charlie and Finn entered the building. Charlie felt as if she knew Anne Smith personally from all the information Finn had gathered. Anne Smith sat at the front desk. She lazily tapped away on her phone, chewing loudly on her gum. Finn spoke first. "Excuse me, are you Anne Smith?"

Charlie almost scoffed. As if he didn't know everything about this woman. Anne looked up, a sultry smile making its way to her lips. Almost casually, she popped the first two buttons of her blouse, showing off her cleavage. She crossed her legs as she pushed back from the desk, causing her skirt to ride up. "Depends on who's asking," she said.

"My name is Finn West. I work as a lawyer. I need to speak with you about one of your coworkers, Jayden Domen."

Anne kept her smile in place, seeming unfazed by the name. "And what about him? I'm sure we could find something else to talk about." Anne had been doing good with flirting, up until this point. She batted her eyelashes, but one was placed correctly and flapped about as she moved her eyelid. Charlie bit her lip to stifle the laugh that was about to escape her. She didn't want to ruin any chances of getting something out of this woman.

"This is my partner, Charlotte Frendsen," Finn introduced. "She works for the Stratford Police Department. Does this woman look familiar?" Finn showed Anne a picture of Courtney.

Anne scoffed. "That's Jayden's wife." She rolled her eyes. "It's sickening how much he loves her." Anne bat her eyelashes almost innocently at Finn, the left eyelash beginning to come off the eyelid. "All I want is a man to satisfy me. I bet you know how to satisfy a woman."

"I wouldn't know," Finn said, "but you can ask Charlie." Charlie choked on the air. Anne's gaze flew to her, her flirty gaze replaced with an icy glare. Finn placed his arm around her shoulders. He tried to make it seem as if her rubbing her back, trying to help her get air into her lungs.

Charlie shot a quick glare at Finn and brushed off his touch. "Not funny," she said. Finn only smirked.

"Anyways, how do you feel about Mrs. Domen?" Finn asked.

Anne shrugged. "I never truly met her. Only in passing when she came to see Jayden. She always brought her daughter along. I can't believe she went so low as to make Jayden raise a bastard child. She practically baby trapped him and he can't see that the little girl isn't his."

"You think Amanda isn't Jayden's." It wasn't a question, more of a statement.

"She was jealous that Jayden worked with me and he was interested in me. She knew Jayden would never cheat so she went and got pregnant then claimed it was his so he wouldn't leave her. She's just a jealous bitch and she got whatever's coming to her!" Anne's words were filled with venom.

"Thank you for your time. That'll be all." Charlie made a bee-line for the door. Finn followed after her.

"Guess we got a number one suspect." Finn said. A humorless laugh escaped Charlie's lips.

"I'll call in the tip," she said. They returned to the car. Charlie still felt a flustered from Finn's earlier comment, but decided to leave it for now.

———

Finn and Charlie arrived back in Stratford later that day. They had an interview with Jayden's boss and some other people that would've known him.

They hadn't gotten very far other than with Anne. Charlie ran through the interviews in her head once again. There had to have been something missing. Finn pulled to a stop outside of Charlie's current home. She needed to home shop.

Charlie added it to the list of things she needed to do once Courtney was found. Charlie exited the car. Finn followed her inside the house. Jayden sat in the living room with Amanda. "How'd it go?" Jayden asked hopefully.

"You have an admirer," Finn offered. "Anne seems to be obsessed with you." Charlie let out a quiet snort. Obsessed seemed like an understatement.

Jayden sighed, "did you get anything from her?"

"A new lead," Charlie said. "Uncle Robert is on his way to talk with her right now."

Jayden nodded. "If they find something on her?"

"They won't be so confident you are a suspect." Charlie said.

"Aunt Charlie!" Amanda rushed to Charlie and showed her a drawing. "Look! I made a drawing for mommy when she comes back." The picture had three stick figures. Amanda had messily written "Mommy" next to one. Another figure was on the other side of the page with the word, 'Daddy' written next to it. A smaller figure between the two figures had Amanda written.

Charlie complemented Amanda on the drawing. Charlie stepped from the room when her phone began to ring. When Roberts name flashed across the screen, Charlie immediately answered. "Hello."

"Charlie? We looked into Anne Smith. She had a solid alibi. She was at work the entire day." Robert said. "We did find another suspect. Piper Quinn has been meeting up with Jayden. They seem to go to all the same places. She's at the station right now if you want to get a crack at her."

"I'll be right there," Charlie said. She ended the call and walked back into the living room. "I gotta go. Anne was cleared, she has an alibi."

"Do they have another suspect?" Finn asked.

Charlie nodded, "I'm headed to interrogate her."

"Who?" Jayden asked.

"Piper Quinn," Charlie said, grabbing her keys once again.

Jayden laughed, I'm sure you'll love interrogating her." Charlie raised an eyebrow at the cryptic comment, but shrugged it off. She walked outside with Finn following her.

"Yes?" She asked just before she got into her car.

"Can I come?" He asked.

"You aren't a cop. You can interrogate her when she's out." Charlie pulled open her door and slipped inside. She ignored Finn as she pulled away from her temporary home.

Charlie sighed once she pulled up to the police station. She felt irritated by how much traveling she had done between the station and her home. She walked into interrogation room A and sat.

A woman, no older than twenty, sat at the table. Her hair was in a short cut, the underlayer of hair seemed to be dyed different shades. She looked at her nails, picking out the dirt beneath them. She looked up upon Charlie's arrival.

"Hello, my name is Charlie Frendsen," Charlie introduced herself.

"You look like Courtney."

"She's my twin sister," Charlie explained. "I'm here to ask you some questions about what you were doing this morning."

"If you think I kidnapped Courtney because of Jayden, you might want to rethink your approach," Piper said, smirking.

Charlie raised an eyebrow, "why do you say that?"

Piper reached into her bra and pulled out a photo. The photo was of a woman that looked to be around Piper's age. She had a ring on her left hand as she flashed it towards the camera. "This is my fiancée, Evangeline. We recently got engaged just last week."

Charlie nodded, "can you tell me why you were contacting Jayden so much?"

"Finn, his lawyer, is my cousin. I was told that Jayden could hook us up with some cars. We would need them as we would be moving to the middle of nowhere. Jayden was supposed to meet with me but kept putting it off. Apparently, Courtney was having mood swings." Piper explained.

"Okay. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll tal with Jayden and Finn, just to get you an alibi, can I ask where you were this morning?" Charlie asked.

"I was in Dallas up until noon. I work as a contractor and I had some clients out there I needed to meet," Piper said.

"Would you mind if I looked into the meetings?"

"Would it matter if I did?" Charlie shook her head, she wanted to be honest. Piper shook her head, "I'm innocent, but go ahead, I just want y'all to find Courtney."

"Me too."