A Descent into Darkness

A Confusing Case

Bilal waved farewell to the officers who had accompanied her and got into her car outside of Eve Sheppard's building and reviewed her thoughts after that interview. It had been a combination of completely predictable and an enormous surprise. Either way, she had decided there was now a fifty-nine percent chance Erin was somehow involved, versus the forty-five percent before she showed up.

She had expected, given her suspicions, that Erin would close up immediately and demand her father be present during any questioning. But at first, there was no signs she was trying to hide anything. In fact, Sheppard seemed more on edge than the actual suspect in Bilal's case.

Erin had agreed to being recorded... Bilal looked at her phone. She could play this and compare it to the 911 call. Sure the techs had long determined the voice on the call was digitally altered, but at least the specialist could tell her if it matched in terms of mannerisms and accents, etc.

But why had she agreed to being recorded, while not providing her fingerprints or DNA? That was the real reason Bilal wanted to look into the girl more. No prints or DNA believed to belong to the perp had been found at the scene of the stabbing a month ago. Rain had left nothing usable at the scene last night. What was Erin afraid she might find? Was she there and thought she had left prints or DNA? Was there some other scene out there with something?

The shoe size and voice wouldn't be enough to get a warrant for her DNA and prints. Her being the daughter of Andrej Kowalski wouldn't make the judges any more inclined to sign a warrant without hard evidence.

But even if she was the stabber a month ago, could she really have been last night? And how had the stabber a month ago been involved in the attack on Rebecca Ross? A lookout while the male accomplice was inside? Were there even just two perps they were looking for? This case made Bilal's head hurt. The physical evidence was not clearing anything up.

She started the car and headed for the Gardener Expressway where she would transition to the 401 and head back to York Region.

As she drove, Bilal wondered about the murder of Chloe Blanchard. Could Erin have been involved? While the detectives on the case initially suspected Chloe's date that night, way too many witnesses confirmed he was on the dance floor. What was Erin's motive though? Did she have one?

She was interrupted in her thoughts by her phone ringing. On the car display, she saw it was Detective Murdoch, the Homicide detective she was sharing the case with. He was meant to interview Nate and Veronica today. She answered it on the Bluetooth.

"Hey Roger, what's the latest?"

"Well, nothing new with Dunbar. Her story's the same, and she has an alibi for last night. Was on a Zoom call with a study group. I already called two of the people on with her and they confirmed."

Bilal sighed. "I suppose it would be too easy if it were her. What about Rivers?"

"Well, that's a bit more interesting. I haven't been able to interview him yet, but you probably won't be able to guess why."

"Let's pretend I've already guessed and you tell me why."

"His sister just got taken to the hospital. She overdosed sometime last night."

Bilal's eyes widened. "You mean to tell me that the day after our murder, the guy who was in the vicinity of multiple previous offences has an overdose in the family? What is that old saying about a detective not being able to believe in coincidence?"

"I'd say you nailed it," came Roger's voice through the phone. "I'm heading to the hospital now to keep an eye on Rivers until we get his whereabouts last night."

"Good. They should have sent us the CCTV by now. I'll head back to the office and start going through it."

"Sounds good. How'd your interview go by the way? You still like her for being involved in this in some way?"

"Oh yeah. She refused to provide a fingerprint or DNA sample. I'm definitely keeping an eye on that one."

"Yeah, definitely," Roger replied. "That would certainly fit the suspect descriptions as we know them if Rivers and Kowalski are in on this together."

"True, though it's still confusing as hell," Bilal replied.

"They wouldn't pay us if these things were easy to solve. Anyways, drive safe. I'll keep you updated on the Rivers situation. Meanwhile, think we should try to get tails on him and Kowalski?"

"Let's see what the CCTV brings up. I'll be in touch, but probably not a bad idea to start the manpower request paperwork if you or someone on your team has the time."

"I'm on it." With that, he cut the line andBilal Mohammed continued her drive, hoping that soon, she would finally have atleast some answers in this perplexing case.