Authors: Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Jasi almost gagged.
Funny thing, love. It makes you do stupid things, things you often regret later.
One knock brought the apartment's occupant to the door, and Jasi was caught off guard. Karen Hampton's head and face were wrapped in bandages. Only her deep teal eyes and augmented lips were visible. She wore a navy-blue satin robe and matching slippers with three-inch spiked heels.
Hollywood starlet
came to mind.
Jasi showed her badge. "Ms. Hampton?"
"Hurry up. I don't want my neighbors to see me." An impatient hand pulled her inside.
Jasi couldn't help but stare. "Were you in an accident?"
Karen Hampton laughed. "No. I had a rejuvenation lift."
Facial rejuvenation, SEE eye color enhancements, liposuction, vaginal and sexual sensitivity rejuvenation…
Christ! No one's happy with how they look anymore.
Jasi studied her. "I honestly don't get why you'd put yourself through such torture."
"Why, to look beautiful, of course."
"Then my definition of beauty must be a bit off."
The woman shrugged, then led Jasi into a cozy living room. Sliding doors led outside onto a small balcony. The view was so breathtaking that Jasi couldn't resist taking a peek.
"Ottawa is a beautiful city."
"You should see it at night," Karen said behind her.
Jasi turned to her host. "I have."
With Zane.
"Have you ever had facial surgery, Agent McLellan? Your skin is so smooth."
"Ivory soap."
Karen flinched. "You're kidding, right?"
"I never kid about such things."
Jasi caught sight of three black and white photographs on the nearby wall. The girl in them had luxurious dark hair and eyes. She was exceptionally beautiful. And very young.
"You?" she asked Karen.
"Yeah. I was seventeen and at the beginning of my modeling career. Then I hit a few roadblocks."
"I hear it's a tough business."
"Yeah, you have to stay young and beautiful forever." She indicated her bandaged face. "And youth and beauty don't come cheap."
"I suppose not."
"So…shall we start, Agent McLellan?"
Jasi reassessed the woman. She was used to hesitation, stalling. Not head-on confrontation. This made Karen Hampton stand out.
As a suspect.
Let's see what you've got to hide.
"Have a seat," the woman said, pushing an obese Garfield wannabe off the sofa. The cat left behind a clump of pumpkin colored fur the size of a mouse. "Sorry. Max started shedding in clumps the day I got home from my surgery. I hope you're not allergic."
"No problem." Setting her data-com on the coffee table, Jasi kept a wary eye on the monstrous feline. "I'd like to record our conversation."
"I'm guessing you want to know about me and Monty."
"I understand you used to be Marilyn Winkler's secretary at Paragon Research Corporation. Is that when you first met Mr. Winkler?"
Karen settled into the armchair across from Jasi. "Yes. Monty would often drop by PRC to see Marilyn. Since I took her messages, I often talked to him. He always took the time to ask me how my day was."
Karen's voice was wistful and her expression seemed sad, from what Jasi could make of it behind the bandages.
"When did you start seeing Monty? Personally, I mean?"
"It started innocently enough. We'd duck out together during political galas. Monty said they were 'pretentious stuffy affairs for pretentious stuffy people.'" Karen laughed. "I had to agree. We'd often go to the nearest bar and just chat. Then we'd go back to the gala and Monty would act as if he'd never left."
"And the affair?"
"It started a few months after I began working at Paragon. We'd left another boring party together. One minute we were at a bar discussing the difference between a good merlot and a fruity cabernet; the next we were in a hotel room making love." Her voice grew quiet. "He was always caring and thoughtful. It made it easy to overlook the fact that he was much older than me."
Jasi smiled thinly.
And married.
"When was the last time you saw Monty?"
"About a month ago." She saw Jasi's surprised look and smiled. "We'd broken it off six months ago. After that, I only saw him at mutual affairs." She bit her bottom lip. "Get-togethers and events, I mean."
"Did Monty break things off with you?"
"Yes. But we both felt things had come to an end. There's no future with a married man." She turned away, but not before Jasi noticed the tears in the woman's eyes. "I guess Monty had no future anyway."
"You cared a lot for him."
"Monty was the kind of guy that everyone loved."
"Not everyone," Jasi corrected. "At least one person wanted him dead."
The woman flinched. "I can't imagine why."
"According to reports, it wasn't always
good
between you. You did, after all, come clean about your affair to the press." Jasi watched her for a reaction. "Some people say you wanted the public to know. That you were trying to ruin his marriage and his career."
Karen shrugged. "You know how the press is. They take your words and twist them around to suit them. To sell more newspapers."
"So you expect people to believe you harbored no ill will against him. For choosing to stay with his wife, I mean."
"Monty and I loved each other, Agent McLellan. But we both knew that a divorce would compromise his political career. Once I realized there was no future with him, I let him go and moved on."
"Where were you the night of April 13
th
?"
Karen's eyes widened. "You can't think I had anything to do with his disappearance or murder. I loved him."
"People have killed for less, Ms. Hampton."
Karen tilted her bandaged head. "I was having a face lift, Agent McLellan. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll get you my doctor's contact information."
While Jasi waited, she took a moment to study Karen Hampton's apartment. Located in a ritzy area, the building boasted an exercise room, spa and swimming pool, according to the flyer she'd seen posted inside the elevator.
"What do you do now that you've left PRC?" she called out.
Karen reappeared with an older model data-com in hand. "I went back to modeling. For Suzi Wang Fashions."
"You must be doing well to afford such a place as this," Jasi said while copying down the surgeon's information.
"I'm doing all right."
"Did Monty ever mention getting strange phone calls?"
"No."
"Did he ever mention friction between himself and anyone else?"
"You mean besides Marilyn and her sister?" Karen chuckled. "No. Monty was pretty easy going. And one thing we didn't do was talk about his job or marriage. We had
other
things to keep us occupied."
"What about you? Did you harbor resentment against him for staying with his wife?"
"I did at first. I'll admit it, it's hard being the 'other woman,' but once the press got hold of the story, I did what any woman would do. I made the most out of it."
"But the press wasn't very flattering."
"No, but it got my name out there." She smiled. "Suzi Wang called me personally and offered me a modeling job when the story hit the tabloids. I wouldn't be modeling again if it wasn't for Monty and my affair with him."
"That's a bit shallow, isn't it? You say you loved him."
"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."
Later, in the SUV, Jasi replayed their conversation on the data-com. The woman had been brutally honest, and if her alibi checked out, Jasi could cross Karen off the suspect list.
"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."
Karen Hampton was right. Sometimes you had to take the bad and turn it into good. Jasi's
bad
had hit rock bottom with the violent murder of her mother. Now she was a CFBI agent with an uncontrollable urge to save the innocent and put away the bad guys.
As she drove back to the Embassy Hotel, she thought of the current case. Would a killer strike again? Or would they catch him first?
22
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
~ Ottawa, ON
Twelve days passed with no breaks in either the
Winkler or Sampson case. Karen Hampton's alibi checked out, along with an alibi and background check on Marilyn and James. No new clues or evidence were available. The investigation was at a standstill.
A media frenzy had begun to wreak havoc in Ottawa and across Canada. The press had caught wind that two Members of Parliament had been drugged and abducted, resulting in one case of partial amnesia and one violent death. Everyone was screaming for justice, with pressure coming from all angles, from relatives and friends of the deceased, Parliament and even the Prime Minister.
Jasi welcomed the pressure. It kept her too busy to think about Zane. He'd left messages at the front desk, but she refused to answer them. She'd seen him in the Embassy Hotel's foyer before he left for New York. He walked away as soon as he saw Ben and Natassia. Neither had noticed him.
She spent time chatting with Natassia, getting to know her, as Matthew had insisted.
Your partner or partners will be your best friends.
Jasi didn't do so well in the friend category.
"So…" Natassia said that morning. "How'd you find out about the PSI Division?"
"I didn't. They found me."
She told Natassia how she'd left home at eighteen and taken a job as a researcher for a high-powered lawyer.
"One night someone set fire to the office. There was one casualty, my boss. He was working late."
Natassia's finely shaped brow arched. "Alone?"
Jasi nodded. "The CFBI was called in, but after nearly a week they had no leads. Until I walked into the building to pick up some files."
"What happened?"
"The smoke overwhelmed me."
"No one showed you how to protect yourself?"
"No, not back then. I was still trying to hide what I could do. You know, pretend to be normal."
"What about your parents? Didn't they try to help you?"
Jasi laughed derisively. "My father prefers to stay in denial over what I can do. He's never seen what it does to me."
"And your mom?"
"She died when I was young."
The words were automatic, as was the small twinge in her heart that always came with them.
"Before my gift surfaced," she added.
"Sorry," Natassia murmured. "It must've been tough."
"It was." Jasi shrugged. "But I got through it."
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, the proverbial elephant. Until Natassia made it vanish.
"So what happened when you went to get the files?"
"I passed out. A judge found me, half-unconscious, on the floor in the hallway. Apparently I told him that my boss's business associate had set the fire to cover up his involvement in defrauding the company."
"They caught him?"
"In the act of transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to an offshore account."
"Case closed," Natassia said with a grin.
"Yup. He was carted off to prison while I was rushed to the hospital. When I woke up the first person I saw was an older man with long gray hair tied in a ponytail."