Criminal Case: Grimsborough

Chapter 19: Innocence Lost-Part 3

Back at the station, Jones and Marie were at their desks and Jones said, "Okay Marie it's time to regroup cause this case is baffling me! For one, how did a girl like Gail end up hanging out with people like Derek Molina and Irina Phelps? I mean if you heard what people said about her, she doesn't seem to be the kind of girl who would take enough cocaine to OD on the floor of a dingy motel now, would she?"

"That poor girl. She goes out to gave fun and she ends up being dipped in concrete. Surely, no one des-," Marie started to say when Ramirez called out their names.

He then approached Marie and told her that they found the missing car from Grim News. Jones' eyes then lit up and said, "Really?! I'm shocked Ramirez, but in a good way. Marie, we might be getting our break with this!"

"Before you go, there's more. Alex wanted to see you," Ramirez said and since Jones was itching to check out the company car they decided to see Alex first.

In the tech lab, Alex saw the two officers enter and he said, "Good you're here! I wanted to tell you that I've run the fingerprints of your latest suspects against the ones you found on the cocaine mirror and I found the two missing matches. The first one belongs to Derek Molina, which I'm sure you expected. And the final set belongs to Irina Phelps. The two of them must've consumed cocaine with the victim prior to the murder."

"Which means Irina Phelps has a lot to answer for," Marie said while scrunching her eyes.

"And I'd like to see Mr. Rockwell again. He seemed a little too eager to tell on Derek if you ask me," Jones suggested and soon the two officers left the station to do their jobs.

The first thing the two officers did was search Grim News's company car. After looking around they found the car with the news station's logo on the windshield. Marie then took out the key that she found in the trash and used it to unlock the doors and sure enough they opened when she pressed the button. After the car was opened, Marie began to explore it until she found a detached headrest on one of the seats. As soon as she found it, Jones said, "Gail couldn't have driven back here while she was dipped in concrete. So it must've been the killer who took it downtown."

"Let's take a look at this headrest and see if the killer left us with anything," Marie said while bagging the clue they found.

Back at the station, Marie sat at her desk and took a sample off of the headres and she sent them to Grace to be analyzed. Afterwards, Grace was done analyzing and she called the two officers to the forensics lab to tell them the results. Grace then explained to them, "The molecules that you found on the headrest are all shampoo components and they don't even match the brand the victim uses. Which means it's your killer's brand and that would be the end if it. But, I went the extra mile and bought that exact brand, which happens to be Swavepro L."

Jones then scrunched his face and thought, well that's just great! I can't wait to get out there and ask each if our suspects which shampoo brand they use. Grace then looked from Jones to Marie and said to her, "I'll put it in simpler terms for you Marie. The brand is recommended for those with long hair, which means your killer also has long hair and they seem to be taking really good care of it."

"That does make better sense," Marie said and Jones nodded in agreement.

After they were done talking with Grace, Marie and Jones left the station to talk to Irina Phelps and Philip Rockwell. The first person they decided to talk to was Irina about her cocaine addiction. When they arrived at her office and told her that they found her fingerprints on a cocaine mirror that they found in the motel, Irina snapped at them and said, "So you found my prints on a cocaine mirror, so what?! I already told you that I partied with Gail that night, didn't I?!"