Chapter 02: Greed
"A coincidence?" said Julia, and looked at the dead man on the floor. "He gets away with child molestation due to lack of evidence, and 4 days later he's dead?"
"Murdered," Dennis corrected her. "By some Moral Avenger. But how come he had his dick out?"
"How come they didn't cut it off?" muttered Julia. "That pig! Who ever did this should get a medal!"
"Don't be silly!" said Dennis. "No matter what he did, we can't have someone running around taking the law into his own hands!"
"Or HER hands," said Julia. "Two glasses... Thompson with his dick out... seduction gone bad?"
"From what we know about Thompson, his victims were more into lemonade than wine," said Dennis. "Besides, where did the girl get her murder weapon from?"
"This glass has been washed," said Julia. "Could have been anything in it. Lemonade, date-rape drugs..."
"We'll have the guys at the lab take a look at it," said Dennis. "Julia – how many people knew that Thompson had gotten away?"
"It hadn't leaked to the news yet," said Julia. "So that leaves... the DA, the families of the victims... and whoever they have told it to... you think one of the family members of Thompson's victims did it? As a revenge?"
"It would make sense," said Dennis. "We should check their alibis."
"I forgot – there's one more who knew about Thompson walking away from all charges," said Julia. "The entire police department."
"You think a cop did this?" said Dennis.
"If I hadn't had 8 witnesses swearing that I spent all last night oooh-ing and awww-ing over my nephew's wobbly steps, I would have suspected myself for doing this," said Julia.
"This isn't a joke!" said Dennis sharply. "You go around this place, knocking doors, to see if the neighbors saw or heard anything. I'll check the families' alibis."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The news about the murder leaked out, and pretty soon there were two events competing for the status of being headline in the local news; the murder of Fred Thompson, and the accident with the apartment building complex right outside towm, which had collapsed and buried 58 people alive, of which only 13 had survived. There were some evidence suggesting that the building had collapsed because it was built of cheap, second-rate material...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Gene Anderson ordered another drink, and looked away when the waitress gave him that haven't-you-had-enough? - look. No, he hadn't had enough! He had just killed 45 people, for fuck's sake! He'd decide for himself when he had had enough to drink, thank you very much! She came back with his drink, and put it on his table with a sneer. He swept half of it at once, just to spite her. He heard her utter a "hmph!" as she left.
"Why can't they mind their own business?"
He looked up. A young woman sat at a table on his right. A woman with style. Long black hair, a neat black dress with a classic cut, and no jewellery except for a thin gold chain around her left wrist.
"It ought to be up to each and everyone how much they want to drink," she said, and took a sip from her glass. "I hate it when some little teenager working part time to get herself through college tries to act as if she was my mother!"
"Society treats us like we were children," he nodded.