The Hunt

Thirteen

"Welcome, Detectives. " Captain Blake's wife greeted us. She was a friendly looking woman, some years younger than her husband. "Richard isn't here yet, he phoned me a while ago, he had some last minute issues." 

"We don't want to bother you, if you want us to go there's no problem." I answered.

" No way, " the woman said, in an unmistakable southern accent " We the New Orleanians are well known for our hospitality," she laughed "I made some Gumbo, one of our best known dishes. "

Mark smiled widely "Love that dish, actually. As they say, it's jazz made music."

"So they say," the woman smiled back "Oh, silly of me, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Theresa." She shook our hands in a vigorous way. "So, you both were in New Orleans?"

"Not me, " I answered "But definitely will try to go."

"You should go in Mardi Gras, out Carnival. It's something worthwhile to see, everyone should see it at least once"

"Terry, I'm home!" Captain Blake yelled " Have the...? " He stopped suddenly when seeing us in the living room "Sorry I'm late, I had to take care of a drug abuse case. The guy is in hospital now, will talk to him tomorrow.  How was it with Mrs Nichols?"

"She didn't tell us much, actually . She was still in shock for her husband's death and we didn't want to cause her more stress."

"Yeah, she's quite sensitive and Harold's death was so unexpected."  Blake said gloomily "It was a shock for the whole department, he made the difference if you know what I mean. He was really committed to his job. When I first moved here, he kind of adopted me under his wing and taught me all I know."

"He had a good pupil too," Theresa held her husband's hand and smiled at him. "But let's not talk about sad things, not tasting my Gumbo at least. Do you want some wine, Detectives?"

****

Next morning, we talked to the Deans of all the Colleges, and asked them to give us a list of all the 1995 female students named Victoria or Vicky. Some of them were harder to convince,  but we managed to get it. It included a total of fifty girls, and we decided to examine the list when we went back to Washington. On our way back, we had another call from Kate. I put the free hands system so that Mark could hear it too.

"I have more news, " her voice sounded excited "After the emails I sent you, I did some research on Vernon's accounts. He happened to pay a beautiful amount of money to someone in Harvard.  It was only once, but it's nothing less than five hundred bucks,"

Mark and I looked at each other, in excitement "Thanks Kate, we sort of know who received this money. By the way, we're sending you a list, can you manage to take a look at it?"

"I have more things to do, but will try. I'm currently doing some phone surveillance for Bradford, something related with drug dealers."

"We can wait, have to do something too before going back to the station. Thanks, Kate." I hung the phone up and played with it before dialing Commissioner Dennis' office number. If we were going to interview Congressman Vernon, we would probably need her support in case things didn't go well.

"Commissioner Margaret Dennis's office." Her secretary Nadya answered.

"Morning, Nadya. This is Detectives Mitchell and Davidson. We need to talk to Commissioner, it's important. We're now on our way back to Washington, can you put us through."

"Wait a sec, I'll pass her your call. Good day."

"Good morning, Detectives. How was it in Harvard?" Commissioner Dennis' voice was as energetic as usual .

"Good day Commissioner. It looks like the victims were being threatened because of something happened while they were students in Harvard. A girl was gang raped there, and all clues point to the three victims.The detective in charge of the case was "invited "to leave the case , his wife told us he had much pressure done on him. He had a weird accident not long ago and died , he fell from the roof. "

"I see. You're thinking of Vernon, aren't you? This will cause a havoc, specially in an election year. "

"We know, but we have to talk again to him."

"I agree. Just keep it low until we get more information."

"We have a list of the female students, apparently this girl's name was Victoria or Vicky. We'll examine the list when we arrive, but would want to talk to Vernon before that."

"I understand. Anyway, it's better having the actual rape victim identified before taking the next step . Good day, Detectives. I have to go now."

"Are you with me?" Mark asked as I hung the phone. "Shall we pay Vernon a visit?"

"Absolutely." I didn't hesitate.