Raven: A political thriller (4 page)

Chapter 5

Chief Webber had run the homicide department for then years now. He
was five years away from retirement and wasn’t about to alienate anyone, or
make waves at this point in his career. He slowly walked around his desk. He
didn’t like the role he was asked to play today. Every homicide in the city was
important for him to get solved. He usually balked at the higher-ups forcing a
case to be placed on the front burner before other older cases. They were all
important in being solved, and making sure all the t’s were crossed and the i’s
were dotted so that a strong case was handed over to the prosecution.

When you started dictating the importance of any one case, it tended
to make for not-so-happy campers around the station house. Don was one of his
best detectives, and his closing rate was right up there with the best of them.
He felt confident that if anyone could solve this and put it to bed in a timely
fashion, the right man was on the case. And his new partner could learn a few
lessons from a pro. But he knew pushing Don and Fred would not make either of
them happy.

The Chief quickly sat down and then just looked up at Don and Fred as
they followed him into his office. Don brought in his breakfast sandwich and
coffee. He was not going to let them get cold, because he knew once the day
started there would be no time to stop and eat. Don just sat down nonchalantly
and took a big gulp of the hot liquid.

“Well, what’s so important?” Don asked, knowing full well what this
was all about. He was just toying with the Chief.

“What do you have?”

Don and Fred looked at each other a moment as if not knowing what the
Chief was talking about.

The Chief was annoyed with the game they were playing and then
snapped. “The VanBuren case!”

Don quickly cut in, “I just got in.”

“You must have something.”

Fred leaned forward and quickly added, “We were going to interview the
people where she worked.”

The Chief glanced at his watch, not aware anyone was paying attention
to him. It was almost eight.

Fred turned to the Chief. “It’s too early.”

Embarrassment was on the Chief’s face, realizing he had been read.
“Then what?” he asked.

“We can go back to her house and have a second look at things,” Don
quickly added.

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.” The Chief sighed and then quickly
added, “The heat’s on, I need answers.”

“Who is this girl anyway?” Don asked, curious why the concern. They
had other cases just as important as this one.

Fred quickly piped in. “Yeah, what makes her case more special than
the others?”

The Chief got up and looked outside the office and then pulled the
blinds, while Don took the opportunity to take a bite off his sandwich and
another gulp of his coffee. Once it was gone, Don threw the cup in the trash
while the Chief started pacing his office. He finally stopped and turned to the
two.

“Did you know she was Senator Maxfield’s personal assistant?”

Don just snickered. “How personal?” he asked.

He really didn’t mean it. He was just on the defensive because the
push was on to solve her murder. Besides, it was none of his business what
victims did with their lives to provoke the violent means of their death.

“It’s not like that.” The Chief quickly cut Don off.

“So, what makes her so special?”

“Isn’t he still missing?” Fred quickly added hoping Don would catch on
to the importance of this case. Plus, he wanted to give Don some time to regain
his composure.

The Chief just nodded and then picked up a folder and opened it. “I
sent a unit to talk to Ms. VanBuren six days ago. Now all of a sudden she
turned up dead,” he said, as he snapped the folder shut to show his anger.

Don’s interest was piqued. “So you think it’s connected?”

“I don’t know. That’s what you get paid for. Find the connection if
there is one,” the Chief snapped and then continued, “Otherwise, get me the guy
who did it and pull it off the boards.”

Don shook his head and then turned to the door while getting up.
“We’ll try.”

The Chief just pointed his finger at Don. “Don’t
try
. Do it. By Monday I want this
case solved.”

Don just shrugged as he walked out. Fred followed him out of the
Chief’s office. He also was not happy with the orders that were given.

Once out of the office, Don quickly walked over to his desk and took
the squad keys out of the top desk drawer. Without saying a word, he motioned
for Fred to follow him. This was going to be a long day, and that didn’t make
Don happy. It was days like this that Don regretted his choice of career. He
hated whenever politicians were involved in a case he was on because there was
always an unreasonable push to get the case solved.

Don walked out of the station house, slamming doors and not speaking
to anyone. It was at times like this that people around him avoided him
altogether.

Once in the squad Don pulled out the cassette tape from his jacket
pocket. He quickly stuck it in the tape player in the dash and then pressed
rewind.

Fred had had a hard time keeping up with him and was almost fearful he
would leave without him. He quickly hopped into the squad and then looked up at
Don. “You haven’t listened to it yet?”

Don just turned to him with a sarcastic grin. “Not you too.”

Don quickly put the car in gear and sped away from the curb.

The tape player started playing the first message. “Raven darling,
it’s Mom. Please call.”

Don nodded. He knew how mothers could be. Before he moved back to
Maggie’s, he couldn’t go more than two days not talking to her or she would be
on the phone trying to find out if he was okay. The second message started playing
quickly.

“Raven, your father and I are worried. Please call us.”

Don laughed to himself, thinking about Maggie and how this VanBuren
chick’s parents put her to shame. When the third message started to play, Don
half expected it to be her parents again. “Raven, Cathy here. The work was
under warranty. I love the car. See you soon.”

Don turned to Fred with a puzzled look. It occurred to him that at
some point this past week possibly a friend of VanBuren’s was driving her car.
The fourth message quickly cut into his train of thought. “Your father was at
the house, would you please call!”

Before Don could digest that message, another message quickly started
playing. “I’m flying into town for a few days, how about dinner? Catch you
later.”

It sounded like the victim had a suitor. The message didn’t leave a
name—and there was an air of familiarity to the message, giving Don the
impression that Raven would know whom it was without giving a name.

Don maneuvered in traffic. That last message bothered him and he
didn’t know why. Before he could figure out why, the sixth message came on
quickly.

“If you don’t leave him alone, you’re dead!” the woman snapped and
then hung up.

Don turned to Fred with a curious look as he whistled. “I wonder if
Mr. Fly boy is the one that caused this?”

Before he could think further, the seventh message quickly came on.
Again it was Raven’s parents with another plea for her to call.

The eighth message cut into his thoughts. “I’m going out of town this
weekend. He’s finally taken the step. See you Monday,” the woman said.

The voice was the same as the one earlier. Don turned to Fred. “What
was her name?”

Don had stopped for a red light. Once the light turned green, he was
still deep in thought as he looked at Fred waiting for his answer.

”Cathy, I think,” Fred said.

The ninth message started quickly. “Raven, it is Tad here. You
avoiding me? Give me a call. I’m staying at the Hilton.”

Horns blared from behind as Don was startled for a moment. He quickly
pulled in front of a taxi and narrowly avoided getting sideswiped. “Finally, a
name,” he said.

Fred just looked around, wondering if he were going to live to see
tomorrow, given Don’s inattentive driving.

The tenth and last message said it all. “I’ve warned you,” was all the
woman said. It sounded very threatening.

After that there was dead air with no more messages. Don popped the
tape out and then turned to Fred. “I’ll have to turn this in and have the
messages transcribed. This may help us catch whoever did that to her.”

“Sure sounds like someone had it in for her,” Fred added.

“I’ll drop you off at the Hilton while I go to VanBuren’s office,” Don
said.

“Shouldn’t we work together?

Don shrugged. “We can cover more territory this way.”

Besides, Don just wanted to be alone for a while. He was tired and
didn’t really want to talk to Fred. They were both working with a handicap of a
few hours sleep. Once he got rid of Fred, he planned to stop in at the first
convenience store for another large cup of caffeine.

Chapter 6

While Don drove, he kept yawning. He turned to Fred, whose head
continued to bob while his eyes were shut. Don envied him and would have given
anything to be able to shut his eyes for just five minutes. Don quickly lit a
cigarette and inhaled. He had to do something to stay awake. His eyes were
blurring over as he kept wiping them, hoping to ward off the sleep he so
desperately wanted.

Don was thankful the Hilton wasn’t that far away. Watching Fred catch
a little shut-eye was too much for him to bear. He was glad to be rid of his
partner for a little while. He pulled up to the entrance and then poked Fred.
He secretly felt a tinge of pleasure waking him, wanting him to suffer just
like he was.

“Hey, wake up,” Don said, hitting Fred in the arm.

“What, what!”

It took Fred a short while to get his bearings. When he realized where
they were, he slowly opened the door, but before getting out he turned to Don.

“You sure we should separate?”

All Don knew was that he needed some time apart from Fred. To have him
sit in the passenger seat, sleeping while he drove, was enough to make any sane
man angry. Besides, it did make sense to separate under these circumstances.
Don didn’t need to be with Fred when interviewing the suspected boyfriend, and
Don could handle going to Raven VanBuren’s employer and talking to them about
Raven and what she did for Senator Maxfield.

“Just do it and get out. I’ll meet you back at VanBuren’s place.” Don
said.

“How am I going to get there?” Fred said as he hung onto the squad
door while looking in at Don.

“Take a cab.”

Fred would have liked to complain, but instead he slammed the car door
shut as Don sped away from the cub.

Don had passed a convenience store a few blocks away and was anxious
to get back there. Traffic was light, so he was able to speed and get back to
it in short order. Don quickly pulled into the parking lot and entered the
store, where he bought one of those energy drinks and a large cup of coffee.
Once out of the store, he quickly drank the energy drink and tossed the empty
bottle in the trash and then took a gulp of the coffee. He knew this would
kick-start his body into overdrive. It wasn’t something he did often, but today
he desperately needed it. Don got back in the squad and then sped off. His
desire to sleep wasn’t as overwhelming as before, and he felt halfway human
again.

Luckily, it wasn’t too far to the Hart Senate Office Building. When he
pulled up, the security guard walked up to the squad with a clipboard in hand.
Don quickly pulled out his badge and showed it to the guard.

“Official business.”

“Who you seeing?”

“I have an appointment with a Ms. Winslow,” Don said.

The guard pointed to his left. “Park in Lot B, I’ll have a guard meet
you there and take you over to Human Resources.”

Don had always been impressed with the building. His father talked
about it often, as it was on his beat. It was distinctly contemporary in
appearance, with its marble façade that was in keeping with the surrounding
buildings in the area. The nine-story building served senators as well as the
various committees and sub-committees that kept the government running. It was
a building that was built for changing times.

Once inside, Don was impressed with the atrium that filtered natural
light throughout the building. He was in awe of the mobile
Mountains and Clouds
. It was an
impressive sculpture. Although Don didn’t quite understand it, anyone looking
at the enormity of the structure couldn’t help but be impressed by its creator.

The guard who led Don turned to him. “That was one of Calder’s last
works.”

Don didn’t know who Calder was but didn’t want to show his ignorance,
so he just nodded in agreement. Don just raised his eyebrows. It was a large
building, and he was glad now he wasn’t left to find his own way to the Human
Resources department.

Once he was led into Ms. Winslow’s office he was thankful for the
offer of a cup of coffee. While he waited for her to return with Raven’s
personnel file he made a few notations in his little notebook and then took a
gulp of the coffee and shook his head, trying to shake himself awake. It was
going to be a long day and he couldn’t stop yawning.

Ms. Winslow slowly walked back into the office. She set the file down
on her desk. Don glanced at it and then looked up at her.

“So she hasn’t been in the office since last week.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Did she say why she was taking the...” Don said and then stopped.

“Comp time?” Ms. Winslow said a little annoyed with Don’s yawning.

Don nodded. He would have loved a job like that. Being a detective and
working twelve-hour days sometimes, it would be nice to take comp time. But the
department was short-staffed, and Don was thankful just to have a job. His
paychecks were direct-deposited into his bank account and, with him always
working, he never had time to spend any of it, let alone invest. It was
something he was always meaning to do. But then after the breakup he discovered
Jackie was siphoning his bank account on a regular basis. And he was lucky she
hadn’t taken out any loans in his name to boot.

Ms. Winslow quickly continued. “There was no need for me to know the
reason. Raven had worked here for nearly seven years. She had a lot of time
built up.”

“Weren’t you curious?”

“I have hundreds of people I oversee. Raven was just a name on a piece
of paper.”

It bothered Don when she said that. He thought for a moment about the
portrait and the woman behind the vision. There was a time she was a living,
breathing human being. Not just a name on a piece of paper. Don held his temper
and then quickly added.

“What about recently? Senator Maxfield was missing and under
investigation, I might add. You didn’t make a call to talk to Ms. VanBuren
about the situation?”

Don could tell he had the woman on the defensive. It remained to be
seen whether she would give him the information he wanted that would be
pertinent to the investigation. He knew from past experience that Human
Resource managers were very close-mouthed about employees because of privacy
laws. In some cases the information they received came back to bite them in the
butt. This case was different, though. Ms. VanBuren was dead, and it didn’t
look so good for her boss either.

“We did talk last week. But it was my understanding that she wasn’t
being investigated for any wrongdoing in the senator’s disappearance.”

“I didn’t mean to imply,” Don quickly added.

“I would have handled things differently,” Ms. Winslow said.

Don looked at her with squinted eyes. “In what way?” he asked.

“I’d rather not say.”

Don was somewhat annoyed at Ms. Winslow and her evasive tiptoeing
around a sensitive subject.

“This is a murder investigation,” he snapped.

“I did receive a call. There were some allegations made against Raven.
I called to see if they were founded.”

“What did Ms. VanBuren say?” Don asked.

Don was curious now if Raven was promiscuous. He had this vision of
her being this perfect human being. He honestly would have been disappointed to
find out she was no better than a lot of the people who lived in Washington,
DC.

There was something about her portrait and her house that made him
want to believe she was a person of substance. Ms. VanBuren not being in
contact with them was not normal. He wondered why they didn’t contact the
police if they were indeed concerned for her well-being. It would be something
he would have to ask them when the time came.

Ms. Winslow quickly added, “Raven said there was no truth to the
rumors.”

“Who made the allegations, was it a woman?”

“Yes, she never said much. Just that she wanted Raven to leave her
husband alone.”

“Did she leave a name?” Don asked.

“No, she hung up before I could get more information. I did get her
number on caller ID.”

Ms. Winslow handed Don the slip of paper. Don took it from her, looked
at the name, and then quickly glanced up at Ms. Winslow with a look of
confusion.

“What did you do when Ms. VanBuren denied the affair?”

She just shrugged. “What could I do? I scheduled another meeting with
Raven for early next week when she was supposed to get back from her time off,”
she said and then glanced at her calendar. “I guess I can cross that off my
planner. It was set for Monday at one.”

Don was getting a different picture of the type of person Raven
VanBuren was. So unlike the sweet vision in the portrait. He felt deflated, and
was not sure if it was from lack of sleep or the inflated image he had of the
victim of this brutal crime. It was so unlike him to not think rationally about
this case. His mind had been clouded ever since he set eyes on that portrait.

“Could I have a look at her office?” Don asked.

“Sure, I’ll have my secretary take you.

Ms. Winslow got up and walked out of the office quickly. She motioned
to her secretary.

It was a long walk to where Raven’s office was and, judging by how
deep into the belly of the building it was, he guessed she worked for one of
the junior senators.

It surprised Don he was left alone to go through Raven’s office
unattended. He sat at Raven’s desk and just glanced around for the longest
time. The desk was completely cleared off except for the incoming basket. Don
was curious if someone had gone through things before he arrived. He reached
over and grabbed the stack of incoming mail. He flipped through the stack of
memos. It made for dry reading, and after a few minutes he gave up on the mail
and started going through the drawers. Raven’s office was as neat and orderly
as her home had been. When he tried the bottom-left drawer, he found it locked.
Don lifted the desk mat and saw the key.

“Creature of habit,” was all he said to himself.

Don unlocked the desk drawer. Again everything was neat and orderly.
He opened the folders but nothing seemed of importance, hardly worthy of
locking the drawer.

The laptop was also sitting in the locked drawer. Don took it out and
then turned it on. The login screen came on the screen suddenly and asked for a
password. Don punched in ‘Raven’ and then pressed Enter. The computer beeped,
so he typed in ‘VanBuren’ and then pressed Enter again. The computer beeped
again. He typed in ‘Maxfield,’ and again the computer beeped, but this time
‘Security Violation’ flashed across the screen. Don quickly shut the computer
off.

“Oh well, it was worth a try,” Don said to himself.

Don glanced at the phone and saw the red flashing light. He picked up
the receiver, pressed the voicemail button, and listened.

“You have one unplayed message from Thursday at 4:33 pm. To play the
message press ‘P’ to delete…

Don quickly pressed the ‘P.’

“This is Lydia. I warned you, now you’ll pay.”

Don ended the message and then appeared a little puzzled. He got up
and walked out.

Don retraced his steps and was soon back in the Human Resources
department, only having had to ask three people for directions.

Once he made his way back to Ms. Winslow’s office he tapped lightly on
her door. She glanced up, looking a little annoyed that he was back.

“One more quick question,” Don asked.

“What is it?” she said with a perturbed look.

“I noticed Ms. VanBuren only had one voicemail, from yesterday at
about 4:30.

Ms. Winslow looked puzzled. “You listened to her voicemail?” she
snapped.

“This is a murder investigation.”

“But...” Ms. Winslow argued.

“No buts,” Don said and then continued, “Can you access the phone
system from outside the building?”

“That was the whole idea with putting this system in play. To be able
to access your messages while you were traveling.”

“So Ms. VanBuren could be able to pick up her voicemail from
anywhere?”

“Yes, with the proper ID codes, that is,” she said, looking sternly at
Don for the longest time. “It’s only when you are sitting at your desk that the
security protocol doesn’t require the necessary security codes.”

Don made a notation in his little notebook. He smiled politely at Ms.
Winslow and then turned and walked off before she could chastise him for what
he did. Don knew she was not happy with him or the liberty of listening to
Raven’s phone messages. Especially given Raven was Senator Maxfield’s personal
assistant.