Detective Crawford

7

When Megan went outside, she answered the phone and heard an indignant, slightly intoxicated voice on the other end.

"Megan, where are you?"

"Hey, I'm at Whitney's."

"How long are you going to be there?!"

"I'm not coming in tonight. I'm staying at Whitney's tonight."

"What's the problem?"

-I've got... She's got some stuff going on. I want to help her." She didn't want him to know what happened to them, even though they were family.

"And what business do we have?" He heard a laugh on the phone.

"Leave me alone, Lewis, I really don't need to talk to you right now."

"What's wrong?" he asked in a sad voice, though Megan realized he was being sarcastic."None of your business." She turned to see Whitney watching her through the window. "I have to go now."

"I'll see you tomorrow..." The conversation was over before Megan could take the phone away from her ear.

After talking to Lewis, the bruises started to hurt again. How was she going to tell him about the divorce? It was better not to put unnecessary thoughts in her head at this time, at least not today. So Megan walked into the house.

"Megan," Whitney started from the doorway, "Do you have any news yet?"

"You know damn well I talked to Lewis, he doesn't know anything, he's not even interested."

"Should we call Alex again?"

"Whitney!" Megan yelled. "I'm not calling Alec every five minutes. The investigation is taking longer than the others, he made that clear. Tomorrow I'll go to them and help them, because with Anderson it will drag on until the New Year. Now please leave me and yourself alone."

"Okay, whatever you say."

"Girls, let's go to dinner, we can't go hungry under stress."

Megan agreed. "That's right. It's very bad for your health. Come on, Whitney, it's important for you to eat now, and then you can lie down."

The girls sat down at the table and Peter served the bolognese on snow-white plates. Megan could not eat, but she forced herself to put a forkful of spaghetti in her mouth. They ate in silence, either because there was nothing to talk about or because it was not the right time to talk.

"Thank you, Peter, it was delicious."

"You're welcome," The man smiled and began to wash the plates.

Megan helped the weak Whitney to her feet and led her to the bedroom. While Megan talked to Lewis, the couple cleaned the bedroom. It was nicer to be in a bedroom that was so clean than the one that had been upside down. Megan waited for Whitney to get dressed in the bathroom and when she came out, Megan helped her into bed and stayed by her side until she fell asleep. She went downstairs to find Peter sitting on the couch, waiting for Megan to come down.

"Are you going to stay the night?" Asked Peter when she came downstairs.

"Yeah, I don't want to go back home."

"Then you know where the guest room is. You can stay there." The man got up from the couch and started to leave, but stopped. "Is Whitney asleep?"

"Yes."

"Okay, thanks for helping her...us. Whitney needs your support."

-"I know that," Megan said, forcing a goofy smile.

"Good night then."

"You too," They said to each other and went to their rooms.

The guest room was on the 1st floor. It was equipped with beautiful furniture: a white bed, a coffee table with artificial tulips on it, an armchair, bedside tables with various accessories and small succulents, paintings of abstractions and nature, a mirror. The walls were pleasantly flesh-colored, and the parquet floor was light brown. The chandelier gave off a bright light. As for the plants, there were a huge monstera, an alocasia and a dracaena, which were real plants. The plants gave the interior a modern feel. Whitney loved plants, she literally considered them second children. Megan liked them too, especially the unpretentious ones that could live in a house where there was often no one, and they would not be cared for often.Flopping down on the pristine white bed in her work clothes was a pleasure, but it was more of a pleasure to just lie there, just letting her back and nerves relax. Closing her eyes and searching through the tumultuous flow of her thoughts, Megan found herself gripping one of them and couldn't let go. She thought of sneaking into Stella's room and snooping around, maybe there was something that would help the investigation? What a great idea! So, without hesitation, Megan got out of bed and quietly opened the door. Her niece's room was on the second floor, next to her parents'. So, getting to it quietly was a challenge. She closed the door and tiptoed up the wooden stairs to Stella's room.

Quietly opening the door, she entered the spacious room. There was a huge bed against the snow-white wall with various soft toys on it, and the entire ceiling was covered with artificial green vines and LED lights. A huge wardrobe, cabinets, a desk with various trinkets and a laptop, a dressing table, a beanbag chair, shelves with books and collectible figures-a modern teenager's room. It was surprisingly clean, which was a good thing, since she wouldn't have to go through all the trash and junk that the girl had loved to leave behind. But it did give Megan the idea that if the girl had known something was going to happen, she might have thrown away all the interesting information and wiped her laptop. So first Megan started to rummage through the cabinets and where they were. There were all sorts of junk but not what she was looking for, nothing that could help her find out more about the girl's death. So after rummaging through other places in the room and finding nothing, Megan decided to keep going and take up Stella's laptop. She prayed that there would be some useful information for the investigation. So, turning on the laptop, the first thing she had to do was enter the pin code. It was quite easy because the girl didn't bother to put her date of birth, she just put her date of birth. So, the first stage was successfully completed. After going through Stella's social networks, Megan found a lot of interesting things, especially her correspondence. Megan loved to read other people's messages, they made her realize that everyone has feelings and emotions, so Stella's messages were like honey to her soul. In a message to her best friend, Stella said she thought someone was following her. 

"I'm walking in the park and I hear someone walking behind me, and not just walking, like I'll stop, and he'll stop, I'll speed up, he'll speed up. I looked at him, but I couldn't see his face, he hid it under a black hood. Then I was very scared and started running. And he followed me. It was good that there were a lot of people nearby, there was a concert, so I ran there. He lost me in the crowd, but I was very scared!" Stella wrote to her friend. 

So she had a secret stalker who could have killed her. Suddenly, the door opens, and a surprised Peter appears in the doorway.

"Megan," The man said in a sleepy voice, "What are you doing here?"

She lied, hiding the laptop behind her back. "I just wanted to see if there was any sign of Stella's presence here. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I hope Whitney's still asleep."

"Yeah, she is. You should go, too."

"Yeah, okay. Good night again." She slipped past Peter with her laptop, unnoticed, and quietly went up to her room.

Megan had spent the night digging through Stella's laptop, and by the time she arrived tomorrow, she had enough information to advance her investigation.