A Year At The Opera

Chapter 11, Part 2: Catching Up

A/N: We pick up right where we left off with Joe and just a reminder that his POV is one day ahead of everyone else since Svetlana's date is happening the same day Ingram and Aaron were interviewed and Joe found that coin. Alright, let's just get straight into this and I hope you have fun reading! And I hope you have mixed feelings about the second pov in this part. Also one last thing, I'm sorry this is so dialogue heavy because I'm in a playwriting class and I guess it's impacted my ability to string together a description but I'll fix it in later drafts obviously. That's it, have fun!!

Word Count: 3800 words.

Joe

Joe opened his car door and got in. He grabbed the folder he'd got on the vic this morning. He hadn't got a proper chance to look at it completely.

"Alright, Carson Justice, let's see what secrets you're hiding." He whispered to himself as he opened the folder.

Carson Justice, 46, born July 1974, to Shane and Judy Justice, was a man with a squeaky clean record. No prior arrests. Which meant one of two things: either he was a saint, or he was rich. And Joe had never found a saint. Looking at his address made it abundantly clear what kind of a man Carson was: 1205 Rosewood Lane. Only the richest of the rich ever settled on Rosewood Lane. With the prices of each place in multiple millions and the shitton of screenings you had to go through because "the community prides itself on the safety of its residents", it explained why Carson was a resident. Man didn't have any fingerprints on record and the only photo from a 4 year old driving license renewal. Carson had no dental records. On paper, this guy barely existed outside of his driver's license and his job history. An electrical engineering degree, a marketing degree and an accounting degree. Techie in silicon valley at the beginning, got poached by a big company, then quit, got an accounting job, made his way to assistant executive officer, quit again and finally joined his current job at Duval Industries, where he made his way to CFO in just five months and has been working there for the last five years. On paper, this guy was a saint. But, then again, that was often the case with rich white assholes in power.

No living siblings but he did have a wife and a six year old daughter, Madison. His wife, Amélie, french, worked as an art collector. Came over to the US with a green card when she married Carson — Joe flipped the page — seven years ago. Joe guessed the baby was the reason she came over to the states. The first thing to do would be to talk to her ASAP. Let her know what happened, have her identify the body. Establish a timeline for where everyone was.

Duval Industries was a bio-engineering company that had a main office just a few miles outside of Ellesburg. After Amelie, that would be his next destination. Duval had been known for shady dealings though, of course, money says a lot and no proof was ever found. All the cases against them either cold or dropped.

Joe sighed and closed the folder. This would all have to wait, because it was getting late and before he could do anything else, he had to go interview the last two people who found the body. First up was Eleanor Martinez.

-

Joe arrived at Eleanor's house around 2pm, with the sun scorching hot and the dry heat making Joe sweat just being around it. He quickly found street parking and made his way to Eleanor's front door.

Eleanor's mom, Felicia, opened the door. "Can I help you, officer?" Her tone was sweet yet with limited patience.

"Yes, I was hoping to talk to your daughter, Eleanor? Is she home?"

"And what is this about, if I may ask?"

"About the um—" Joe cleared his throat. "The body that she found?"