FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 55 ~~~~~

"It's not that uncommon." She replied. "I was young and needed to do everything I could to climb the ladder to get to where I am today. Lauren's father is a shareholder in a company I needed. Spending a few nights with him was the price I had to pay. My husband was aware, and besides, I may not look it now, but I was rather sought after in my younger years. I played it to my advantage. Lauren was simply a mistake."

"That still doesn't answer the question," Kira told her. "If that's how you felt, why not give her up or have an abortion?"

"It would have ruined my image if I did, and if he found out that had a child that wasn't my husband's he would have done something to expose it. He couldn't have children and his wife had just passed. He was the perfect target I needed. But I couldn't afford to bring out the truth, so I lied, I told him it wasn't his. She looks a lot like me so it was easy."

They didn't respond, how could this woman be so callous about her own daughter?

"Don't get me wrong, she had her uses, but the older she got the less useful she became. And the more and more she started to look like her father, I resented her." She looked at Freddie. "So, no detective, I was never a mother to the girl and I never will be."

He clenched his teeth, he wanted to shout in anger, this woman only saw people as political tools, even if they were her own flesh and blood.

Kira was right in calling this woman a monster.

"It seems we got off track," Kira spoke up.

"Right, I suppose we have. As I said, I had to resort to a company to clean the house. But when I returned home, it was already clean. It was odd because it reminded me of how Lauren cleaned the place, but she wasn't there."

Freddie frowned as he stared at the board, there had to be something, something he wasn't seeing. When he looked at the X-ray of the bodies, he paused at Dave Davenport's.

"Liam, do you know who did the autopsy on the two bodies?"

"Uh," he pulled up his notes. "It says it was performed by Doctor Roydon, why?"

"Look at the neck,"

Liam did so, his eyes squinting at it. "Wait a minute..." he grabbed a magnifying glass off the table and looked back over it. "This isn't a break from falling down the stairs." He looked at Freddie with growing concern. "His neck was snapped from someone twisting his neck." He looked back at the X-ray. "You don't think Lauren did it, did you?"

"No, it couldn't have been Lauren. She's far too thin, and she's shorter than her brother. Besides she doesn't have the arm strength in order to cleanly snap someone's neck—"

Liam looked at Freddie with a puzzled look. "Hey, uh, Fred? You okay? You just kinda... stopped?"

"What? Oh, sorry. Anyhow, I don't think Lauren could have done this. Whoever did needs to be strong, really strong. Could you get me Doctor Roydon's number, I need to speak to them as soon as possible."

"Sure," Liam said as Freddie made his way out of the morgue. "What do you want me to do with the photocopies?" he called out.

"Leave them on my desk!" Freddie called back before heading to the elevator. "I need to check something out, thanks for doing this Liam, I'll pay you back later!"

"Get me an extra-large mocha with whipped cream and a big brownie we'll call it even!" Liam managed to get out before the elevator doors closed. "Man... just what the heck is he seeing that I'm not?" he said to himself as he looked at the photocopy on the light board.