Searching for Scarlet - Part 6

Chapter 25

Sabine, Jordan and the Doc were all sat in the Doc’s garden, enjoying the early-afternoon sun and taking in the glorious sea views. His two employees had been recounting all they’d come across over the last few days on Sandi’s case.

‘That confession was early this morning, we left after that,’ Sabine said. ‘Later on Fred called me and said around noon Joe Elstob also confessed to the murder of Scarlet. He said that she had caught him putting Sandi’s body into his car so he killed her too.’

‘What did he do with the bodies?’ Doc asked.

‘He said he took them out on his boat and left them to the sharks. With the amount of blood all over Sandi, any sharks anywhere nearby would have been attracted. Sorry Doc but it looks like you’re not getting paid for this one.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Doc said. ‘I’m sensing you’re not satisfied.’

‘No I’m not,’ Sabine allowed herself a little smile. ‘Maybe I’ve worked on one bizarre case too many and now I’m getting paranoid, but I really do feel that there’s more to this case than we know. If you guys think we should just leave it alone then that’s fine, I just am not getting the sense of closure I normally get at the end of a case.’

‘If you think you’re not finished investigating then you should continue,’ Doc said.

‘Absolutely, I’m never going to accuse anybody of having ideas that are too crazy. If you have problems with this case then please share them. It has had a weird edge to it from the beginning,’ Jordan said.

‘I do have a problem with this case,’ Sabine said. ‘Nothing close to conclusive, just some little things that don’t add up. The biggest one is finding that stuff in Elstob’s house. He’s killed her on Thursday night, his house gets searched early Sunday morning and he hasn’t found the time to get rid of her underwear and delete the pictures of her on his computer? As it happened the blood in the car was more damaging, but surely if he’d killed her he would have got rid of that stuff as soon as possible.’

‘Tough to argue with,’ Jordan said. ‘So you believe the affair?’

‘Oh yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt about the affair. I’m just not convinced on the murder.’

‘I promise I’m not being sceptical here, I’m just playing Devil’s advocate, to get us thinking out loud,’ Jordan said.

‘Sure go ahead.’

‘How do you explain the confession?’ Jordan asked.

‘That is obviously my big stumbling block, I have no idea how to explain that.’

‘All right then, forget the confession,’ Doc suggested. ‘Continue with you thoughts.’

‘Yeah, let’s think of it as if we’re his defence lawyer and we want to prove he didn’t commit the murders. What else is bothering you?’

‘Even going all the way back to the letter, which did seem strange, even stranger now we know how serious the guy in the letter is supposed to have been. Surely if you’re that scared about you friend you would go to the police. Or if you do come here then you’d wait to make sure you got to speak to the Doc. Plus not having a phone seems really strange. A girl who wants to be an actress having no easy and quick way of getting in touch with her, seems more than odd to me. What if somebody wants to call her back for a second audition, do they email her?’

‘Again have to say that does all seem odd,’ Jordan conceded. ‘Actually now I’ve thought of something else that doesn’t add up,’ he added with excitement.

‘Please tell us, so I’m not the only one spurting crazy conspiracy theories.’

‘That first journal we read. The one we’ve been told is complete fiction, yet we track down a perverted lecturer because of it. He told us that he never touched Sandi. Whilst ordinarily I wouldn’t believe somebody like him in that situation, there was really no need for him to lie. He’d already admitted his seedy affairs so denying doing it to one girl in particular really seemed pointless.’

‘You’re right, I remember briefly thinking about that at the time. But I think I was so happy to have caught him and with how the Dean dealt with it, that I just let it go. Then soon enough I would have had another trail of thought.’

‘So if we do believe him the next question becomes why would Sandi write about him like that in her fake journal?’ Jordan wondered.

‘I suppose she could have just heard about the other girls doing it and then added it to her fantasy world. But again it’s just another one of those little things that’s going to bother me,’ Sabine said.

‘Sabine I think you’re right,’ Jordan enthused. ‘Unless we have something better to do, I think we need to go over this whole case again.’

‘Thought I was going to have to put my case stronger than that to convince you,’ Sabine said.

‘No, the crazier the idea the better for me.’

‘You two certainly have my blessing to continue working on this case, if a case is worth investigating, then it’s worth investigating to the end.’

Sabine and Jordan wasted no time in continuing their investigation. First they headed back to UCLA for another meeting with the Dean. They told him they still wanted to talk to anybody who knew anything about Sandi. He was more than happy to send out an email to every single staff member telling them if they knew anything about Sandi, that they were to get in touch with Sabine and Jordan as soon as possible. After that meeting they went to find Sandi’s gym. There were two gyms very close to Sandi’s UCLA room, the nearest one had no Sandi Lords as a member, so Sabine and Jordan drove on to the next nearest. When they got to the second gym they went up to the reception desk and Sabine told the young man behind the desk who they were.

‘We’re just wondering whether you’ve got anybody called Sandi Lords as a member?’ Sabine asked him.

‘I can check easily enough,’ he said and turned to look at a computer screen and clicked a few keys on the keyboard. ‘Let’s see, yes we have.’

‘Has it got a picture of her on there?’ Jordan asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘Do you recognise her?’

‘Yeah I do actually she comes in here quite a lot, big one for the aerobic machines I think.’

‘Can you tell us if you’ve got a member called Scarlet?’ Sabine asked. ‘I’m afraid we don’t have a surname for her,’ she added.

‘That might take a little while longer.’

‘If you don’t mind looking that will be a great help for us,’ Sabine added with her best smile.

‘Yeah sure, I’ll just run down the whole list of members,’ he said then went back to his computer screen. ‘Oh here’s one, Scarlet Bailey. This who you’re looking for?’ He twisted the computer screen around so Sabine and Jordan could see the picture of Scarlet. The picture was of a slim, well made up young face of a girl with bright red hair.

‘That’s the one,’ Jordan said. ‘You remember her too?’

‘Yeah definitely.’

‘Let me guess,’ Sabine said. ‘Lycra hot pants and vest tops, got lots of attention.’

‘That about sums it up.’

‘Don’t suppose you ever got talking to either of these girls.’

‘No not really, I’ve got a girlfriend, and I do make an effort to not get at all familiar with any of the female clients, especially ones who are at all good looking.’

‘So there’s nothing you can tell us about them?’ Sabine checked.

‘Other than what they looked like and the sort of things they liked to do in the gym, no. Sorry.’

‘That’s, okay,’ Sabine said. ‘We might be in touch again, if you think of anything we might want to know then give me a call,’ she added and slid her card across the desk to him.

‘One more thing,’ Jordan said. ‘If somebody wants to join the gym what do they need to do?’

‘Are you thinking of joining?’ The man asked.

‘No, I was just wondering would they have to provide any identification to prove who they are?’

‘To be honest, no not really. It depends how they pay membership, obviously if they used a credit card or pay monthly out of their bank account then they would, but if they paid cash or cheque then they’d just have to provide a passport photo of themselves.’

‘All right thanks, that’s all I wanted to know,’ Jordan said then he and Sabine headed out of the gym.

‘Why were you asking that?’ Sabine asked.

‘Just checking if we can know for sure that Bailey is Scarlet’s surname, would help us find stuff out about her if it was.’

‘Trouble is sounds like we can’t be sure. Why am I not surprised, I’m actually expecting that name to be fake now.’

‘Me too.’

By the time they got out of the gym Sabine had a text message on her phone from a professor at UCLA, saying that he’d had quite a lot of contact with Sandi and he was free to chat that evening. Sabine phoned him to confirm he was free and where he wanted to meet. He was still happy to meet up and said he was doing some work in one of his teaching laboratories, so they could meet him there.

‘Professor Hughes?’ Sabine said as she walked into the lab closely followed by Jordan.

‘Yes. You’re the private Detectives I assume.’

‘That’s right, I’m Sabine Larksson,’ she said and shook the professor’s hand.

‘And I’m Jordan Dent,’ he said and followed Sabine with the hand shaking of the Professor, who was doing nothing to fight appearing like a stereotypical version of a Science based University Professor.

‘So you knew Sandi Lords?’ Sabine said as she and Jordan found separate seats to sit on as the Professor went to sit back behind his desk.

‘Yes a little. Fascinating girl, wish all students were like her.’

‘Why is that?’ Jordan asked.

‘She wasn’t even in any of my classes, in fact she was doing History I think, something quite unrelated to the medical courses I run. But she introduced herself to me near the beginning of the last academic year, so around this time last year. Anyway she said she wanted to sit in on my classes even though she knew she couldn’t get any extra credits. She wanted to come to the classes on her own time. That’s most unusual, but I was more than happy for her to do that, there’s always plenty of space in the lecture halls or labs I teach from, and I’m always delighted to be able to pass on knowledge to people. Of course she couldn’t come to all of my classes because some of them would clash with her own timetable. But she was there for many of them and probably came to more than some of the layabouts who are actually on my course.’

‘Did she say why she wanted to sit in on your class?’

‘She simply said she was very interested in medicine and the medical profession, and that she always wanted to know how to treat certain things if she ever got caught up in a situation that needed a Doctor but there wasn't one around. She’d even come up to me after class and we’d have a chat.’

‘What sort of things would you chat about?’

‘I suppose we covered just about most things to do with human science really, over the course of the year. Never into great depth about one thing, more a series of broad discussions.’

‘Did she have a good understanding of the stuff you teach?’ Sabine asked.

‘Very much so. In fact I told her a few times she could have been a good Doctor, but she always said she never wanted to be a Doctor. Something about not liking the pressure, or the long working hours.’

‘Were your conversations all about Science?’ Jordan asked.

‘Yes they were now I come to think of it. So I suppose I don’t really know much about her at all. Not really helping you two out much am I?’

‘Maybe,’ Sabine said. ‘But you never know, you could be helping us out a lot and we just don’t know how yet. We might well be back in touch. Thanks Professor.’

‘Oh no problem at all, only wish I could help more.’

Sabine and Jordan both shook hands with the professor once again and bid him farewell. From there they went to the administration office to find out as much on Sandi’s background as they could. They found contact details for the orphanage where Sandi grew up and the high school she graduated from. Sabine went back to sit in her car with Jordan whilst she made the phone calls. By this stage it was early evening so there was no answer from the High School but she did get a response from the Orphanage.

‘Hello, my names Sabine Larksson, I’m a private investigator. I’m afraid I’m investigating the disappearance and possible murder of a young lady who was one of your former residents, I was wondering if you could help me at all?’

‘Oh I’ll do my best dear,’ the old female voice replied. ‘I’ve been here for about thirty years, so I’ll have been here when this young lady was, but alas it also means my memory isn’t what it used to be.’

‘Oh thanks very much. Her names is Sandi Lords, do you remember her?’

‘Oh yes I do,’ she sounded very pleased with herself. ‘She only left a couple of years or so ago, got in at UCLA which made us all very proud. Sandi with and ‘I’.’

‘Yeah that’s right. Can you remember anything in particular about her?’

‘Let’s see, not really dear no. She never got into any particular trouble or anything like that.’

‘You remember her having any best friends?’

‘I don’t think she did really, she was very friendly though, very sociable. But I think she was the sort of girl who was friendly with everybody but didn’t really have specific friends.’

‘She have any hobbies? Any clubs she joined?’

‘The only one I remember was that she played tennis, played quite a lot if I remember rightly. Maybe she had some good friends there.’

‘Which tennis club would that be?’

‘Oh I’m sorry dear I don’t know the name, it would be the nearest one to here though I would think.’

‘That’s fine, I’m sure we can find it. Nothing else you’ve remembered about her now we’ve jogged your memory?’

‘No I’m terribly sorry dear, I’ve seen so many children come through that door over the years it’s hard to remember much about any of them.’

‘Oh I’m sure it is, don’t worry about it you’ve been a big help. Thanks for talking to me.’

‘My pleasure dear, I do hope Sandi is all right.’

‘Me too, thanks again. I might call again if I think of anything else to ask you.’

‘Please feel free to do so, ask for Agatha if you want to speak to me.’

‘Will do, thanks Agatha, bye.’

‘Bye dear.’

‘What a nice lady,’ Sabine said to Jordan after she’d hung up.

‘Nice but not all that helpful?’

‘Probably not, just a tennis club lead to go on really, we can check that out in the morning as well as the high school.’

‘Yes we can. Always good to meet or chat to a nice person though isn’t it?’

‘It does put you in a better mood.’

‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice,’ Jordan said emphatically.

‘Did you just make that up?’

Jordan let out a little laugh. ‘No, guess it might be a British saying. There must be so many sayings that you’ve never heard that I could take credit for.’

‘There most probably are.’

‘What we doing next?’

Sabine stretched both her arms up above her head and let out a yawn. When she brought her hands back down to rest on top of her thighs she let out a big breath of air. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m getting pretty stressed out by all this, I feel like we must be breaking some sort of records for number of dead ends we’ve gone down, walls we’ve hit and circles we’ve gone in,’ she said.

‘Not going to lie to you, this case is beginning to frustrate me.’

‘I suggest we take a break for the night, maybe if we stop thinking about the case for a few hours we’ll be hit by a solution.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

‘You fancy going to a baseball game?’

‘In the spirit of when in Rome, why the hell not.’

‘Cool, the Dodgers are playing tonight.’

‘What time they kicking off?’

Sabine gave Jordan an unimpressed look.

‘I know that’s not what they call it,’ Jordan said. ‘But I just say that about every sport, it’s just easier that way.’

‘I’ll believe you. They start at nine, if we set off now we’ve got time to go to both of our houses and get something warmer to put on. We can get something to eat at the stadium.’

‘They start at nine? Start? You don’t even know the proper word for the start of a baseball game yourself do you? And you call yourself an American.’

‘There is no proper word for it, a baseball game just starts.’

‘You’re bluffing big time because you know I can’t call.’

‘Maybe a little bit, but I’m pretty sure they just start. You’ve got me thinking now though!’

‘I do love the mind games.’

‘Let’s just get going,’ Sabine said with a slight smile and started the engine.

They got to the Stadium just in time to get something to eat and get to their seats just as the game was about to commence. When they’d decided on a place to sit, Jordan went to sit down but was interrupted by a deliberate cough from Sabine.

‘What?’ Jordan asked as he looked at Sabine.

Sabine gestured for Jordan to look down at the players on the pitch and around him at the other members of the crowd. They were all standing and awaiting the National Anthem. As soon as the singing was over Jordan and Sabine sat down.

‘How American am I being?!’ Jordan exclaimed. ‘I’m at a Baseball game with a hot dog, fries and a coke and I’ve just stood through Star Spangled Banner.’

‘Could not be more American.’

‘I could but I’d have to start talking louder, put on a lot of weight and take all the credit for any war victory ever.’

‘I’m hurt, I’m actually hurt by your attack on my country,’ Sabine said with what was almost entirely fake shock and offence at Jordan’s comments.

‘Sorry I do like a bit of light hearted generalisation from time to time, to get an easy laugh. Clearly you personally are far from being guilty of my first two comments and I’ve not heard you take any credit for wars yet.’

‘As long as you don’t mind me occasionally laughing at Brits in general then I’ll let it slide.’

‘Of course you can and we do tend to give you plenty of ammunition.’

‘Here we go, he’s about to throw the first pitch,’ Sabine said with what by her standards was some excitement.

‘I have to tell you I’m not expecting to be too excited by all this, I’m just going to chill out and enjoy doing something new.’

‘To be honest it’s a fairly safe bet that the edge of your seat will not be worn out.’

‘I imagine it’ll be like watching cricket, in that it will be more interesting and intriguing than it will be exciting.’

‘That about sums it up.’

‘I must admit I am a little amazed just how popular baseball is in America, it really isn’t the sort of all action sport that people tend to associate with American fans.’

‘It’s just one of those things that became an institution.’

‘I really do think there’s an element of the Emperor’s new clothes about it all.’

‘Clarify that please.’

‘I think some Americans are scared to admit they don’t like baseball and find it boring, because they think people will think they are un-American.’

‘Quite possibly.’

‘Like a lot of sports I think its what I call a good highlight sport, in that you could put together a highlight reel of almost any match and make it look good, but not many matches are that great if you have to sit through all of it.’

‘That I definitely agree with.’

‘Having said all that I’m ecstatic to be here, I love the atmosphere at live sports events and definitely want to see as many different sports live as I can before I die.’

‘Before I die, that’s one of those strange sayings isn’t it?’

Jordan couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Yes I suppose it is a little odd, makes it sound as if I’m planning to see a few more live sport events after I die.’

‘Must admit I’m a bit of a nightmare for analysing what people say.’

‘I’ve done it to many people plenty of times, so I really can’t complain when I get pulled up myself,’ Jordan conceded. ‘They don’t actually hit it that often do they?’ Jordan commented on his perception of the lack of success of the batters.

‘You’re right, most people who watch a game for the first time will be surprised just how few times the ball gets hit.’

‘Getting to first base is actually quite a big deal.’

‘Oh definitely,’ Sabine confirmed. ‘The games all about the pitcher really, he’s in control of everything. He knows if he pitches his best then there’s a great chance his team will win. Lots of strategy goes into it, in terms of which batter is up next, how many are out, how many are on bases, how many strikes they’ve had how many balls.’

‘Certainly sounds like there’s a lot going on whenever I’ve watched a match on television.’

‘It is a lot easier to follow on television, although the big screens and the big electronic scoreboards in the stadium do help out a lot too.’

‘The television angles are so good now that I think the best view of most sports is from your living room. Good thing about going to the game is still the atmosphere and maybe a few off the ball bits of action that the camera doesn’t pick up,’ Jordan said.

‘I like just being here, the fact that you’re actually looking at the players in the flesh.’

‘Does add authenticity to the whole thing.’

‘Definitely, plus I love the fact that this game will not be interrupted by any adverts.’

‘Oh don’t get me started on that,’ Jordan said. ‘Quick subject change, you play any sports yourself?’

‘I played a few when I was younger, but the only one I play at all now is golf.’

‘Oh cool, I play a bit. Not that great I’m afraid, but I do like to whack that ball.’

‘We should have a game sometime.’

‘I feel a hustle coming on.’

‘No I promise we won’t play for money, it’ll just be fun.’

‘Just got a feeling you’re pretty good aren’t you?’

‘I shoot in the seventies most of the time, so I’ll leave you to decide whether that counts as good,’ Sabine replied humbly.

‘Sounds excellent to me.’

‘My Dad is a golf addict and he started me playing not long after I could walk. Never got into it quite as much as he did, but even now I always play at least a few rounds every year.’

‘Ever played abroad?’

‘No I’ve hardly ever been abroad. The only time I’ve played outside California even is when I visit my Mum and Dad in Florida.’

‘Where’s your dream holiday destination?’

‘Just to get away from it all it would be Madagascar, from the pictures I’ve seen it looks so beautiful.’

‘It does look awesome.’

‘But if I ever get to do some serious travelling I would really like to go all around Europe to do some sightseeing. There’s so many Historical cities that I’d love to see, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Copenhagen, Berlin, Bucharest, the list is pretty much endless.’

‘That’s one of those things I’ve always thought I should do but never got round to it, just take about a month or so and go all around Europe, spending a day or two in each city I wanted to see.’

‘Life’s what happens when you’re making other plans,’ Sabine remarked with a slight sigh.

‘Is it ever, it’s so hard to make time to stop and take a look around.’

‘We really should stop and smell the flowers more. What about you where else would you like to go?’

‘For a chill out type holiday I’d love some sort of Caribbean cruise.’

‘Ooh, yes.’

‘Apart from Europe I’d really like to see the Great Lakes up in Canada. Don’t think I could live somewhere like that for too long, but I would like to spend some time up there.’

‘Yeah, that would be getting away from it all.’

‘One day.’

‘Yeah, one day we’ll do it all. You ever been married, or even close?’ Sabine asked.

‘No, not really.’

‘Not really? I’m sensing there’s something you’re not telling me.’

‘I didn’t hide it too well did I?’

‘Don’t worry about it, of course you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want.’

‘It’s okay, there’s no dark secret. My heart does belong to a girl, but she is married, guess I missed my window with her, and can’t get her to change her mind.’

‘Oh wow, that must be pretty tough to take,’ Sabine said. ‘You feel like she’s the one for you, but you can’t be with her.’

‘Not the greatest situation to be in, but nothing I can do about it anymore.’

‘Sorry for bringing it up now.’

‘Oh it’s fine. What about you?’

‘Oh nothing interesting there, never even a hint of a serious relationship.’

‘You still thinking about the case?’ Jordan wondered.

‘Yes, how did you guess?’

‘Just looked like you were starting to drift off a little there, maybe it was all the talk of Madagascar and the like. Thought maybe you’d drifted back onto what we’re trying not to think about tonight.’

‘I just have this nagging feeling that we’re missing something huge about this case.’

‘I always have that feeling.’

Sabine let out a little laugh. ‘Yeah I think I do too, perhaps I’m just seeing a weird and amazing case when really it is just a very straight forward one.’

‘Subject change.’

‘Yes please.’

‘Did you get to go to any sports matches when you were over in England?’

‘No I didn’t, wish I had though.’

‘If you’re over again, definitely try to take in a football or rugby match. Just for the crowd if nothing else.’

‘They loud?’

‘Oh definitely. The big difference seems to be that over here they just sit and watch and wait for their team to do something good before they make some noise. Or they might make some noise at a key moment when their team is defending, in an attempt to put the opposition off. Back home they are much more proactive, they try and get the team going, not just the other way around. Another big difference is the away team fans. Because your country is so vast you get hardly any away fans, but back home there’s virtually always more than enough of them to make themselves heard. So then the two sets of rival fans can try to out sing each other and that can generate a great atmosphere.’

‘Must be fun to play when it’s like that.’

‘Oh wow is it ever, that’s probably going to be the thing I’ll miss most. The sheer exhilaration you get from playing in an atmosphere like that.’

‘That must be hard to put into words.’

‘Impossible. Oh he’s hit one, get out, get out the ground!’ Jordan waved at the ball as it headed towards the fence.

‘You are aware the away team is batting?’

‘Yeah I just want to see a home run,’ Jordan said as the ball crashed into the fence just short of a home run.

‘Fair enough.’

The two of them managed to pay just about enough attention to the Baseball to prevent thoughts of the case being uppermost in their minds. Towards the end of the game Jordan was introduced to another Americanism.

‘What’s going on here?’ Jordan said as Sabine stood up and so, seemingly to him, did the rest of the crowd.’

‘The seventh inning stretch.’

‘You literally all get up and stretch? You actually have a designated time to stretch?’

‘Yes, but we don’t just stretch, we sing a little song to,’ Sabine said just as the song “Take me down to the ball game” started to reverberate around the stadium.

Jordan stood up and joined in with as many words as he could work out, intermingled with the words he had a few chuckles.

‘Sorry for laughing,’ he said as they sat back down.

‘We do like to be traditional about our sports.’

‘If you think you’re traditional about your sports, then I’m going to laugh some more.’

‘What do you mean?’ Sabine said sounding mildly offended.

‘Who are we watching?’

‘The Dodgers.’

‘Who? The Dodgers? It didn’t take us long to get to Brooklyn did it? I know you drive quite fast but I thought it would take us longer to drive coast to coast. Oh no wait a minute, somebody moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to LA, that’s right, one of many sports teams that have moved around. Very traditional.’

‘A big resounding touché.’

The game didn’t turn out to be particularly eventful or exciting, but Jordan and Sabine both enjoyed the relaxation and the break from the case.

‘Why did he confess?’ Sabine wondered just as they got back to her car. ‘What made him volunteer that information all of a sudden?’

‘Back to the case?’ Jordan said with a little smile.

‘Sorry, just can’t stop thinking about it.’

‘Don’t worry about it, neither can I.’

‘Come on, I’ll take you home then we can get some sleep. We’ve got a lot of investigating to do tomorrow.’

‘You can stay at mine if you want, saves you driving on to yours. Especially as you’re only going to be driving straight back to mine in the morning.’

‘You sure?’

‘Yeah no problems at all, I’ve got a big sofa bed one of us can use.’

‘I suppose that would make sense. I’ve got all the notes on the case with me so we can go over them before we go to sleep.’

‘Sounds fun,’ Jordan said with a light hearted sarcasm.

‘I’m obsessed aren’t I?’ Sabine said and shook her head.

‘That’s why you’re so good at what you do, all the great ones are obsessive.’

‘Love the way you can put a positive spin on pretty much anything.’

When they got back to Jordan’s house Sabine brought all her notes on the case in with her and they spent an hour or so going over the notes both of them had made. Pieces of paper were spread across the coffee table that they were on opposite sides of. As they went over the whole case in their mind both of them still weren’t quite happy with it, something didn’t quite sit right with them. All they had to do now was find out what that something was and what it meant to the case. By the end of that hour both of them were extremely sleepy and they agreed to leave the investigating until the morning.

‘You want to sleep in my bed?’ Jordan said after a long yawn.

‘No thanks, the sofa is fine for me. Actually it’s especially appealing as it doesn’t involve climbing any stairs right now.’

‘Thought you might say that, I’m used to lady’s answering that question in the negative.’

‘Yeah right, false modesty has its limits you know.’

‘I’m always trying to find my limits.’

‘I’m sure there’s going to be no limits to my ability to sleep tonight, wherever I do it.’

Chapter 26

Sabine’s alarm woke her up at eight o’clock the following morning. First thing she did was phone Fred to tell him to search for a Scarlet Bailey, to see if that indeed was the name of the mysterious Scarlet in this case. She told him that she was almost expecting the name to be false, but even finding that out for a fact would be helpful to a degree. Jordan came down stairs not long after Sabine had finished talking to Fred. He sorted out some breakfast for both of them, including Sabine’s customary cup of coffee.

‘Lots of investigating to do today,’ Jordan said enthusiastically. ‘Where you want to start?’

‘Sandi’s high school, it’s not all that far away, no more than an hours drive and it’s as good a place to start as any.’

‘Works for me.’

Sabine phoned the school to let them know she and Jordan were on their way around and to make sure the school didn’t have any problems with them asking people about Sandi. The female receptionist on the phone was friendly and told Sabine there shouldn’t be any problems at all.

‘Sure hope this is going to be worth the trip,’ Sabine said as Jordan and she got out of her car in the school car park.

The two of them headed for reception and were greeted by the lady that Sabine had spoke on the phone to.

‘So do you remember Sandi Lords?’ Sabine asked the receptionist once all the introductions had been done.

‘Yes I do, like you said on the phone, she only left a couple of years ago. I’ve been here for over five years now so I think she must have started about the same time I did.’

‘Can you tell us anything about her in particular that stands out?’ Jordan asked. ‘Or was she just a bit of a loner?’

‘I suppose in a way she was a loner,’ the tone and facial expression of the receptionist greatly interested Jordan and Sabine. ‘In that I never really felt that she belonged to a particular group.’

‘But you wouldn’t say she was quiet?’ Sabine asked.

‘Oh no definitely not. She interacted with everybody, she was one of those girls that everybody liked and wanted to be like, but very few could pull it off the way she did. Definitely one of the cool kids.’

‘But she didn’t have any particular friends?’ Jordan asked.

‘Not that I remember, it was almost as if nobody considered themselves cool enough to be close to her.’

‘This is so different from what we’ve heard so far,’ Sabine said. ‘I just want to clarify we’re talking about the same girl. Sandi Lords, small girl, very slim, mousy brown hair.’

‘Sounds about right, course when she was here she dyed her hair a lot so it was hard to tell what her natural colour was.’

Jordan and Sabine looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and excitement because they were at last finding out something new about this girl.

‘Forgive me if I’m being stereotypical about American High Schools, but have you got a picture of Sandi in a yearbook?’ Jordan asked.

‘Yeah sure, come on through to the office and I’ll find the right year for you,’ she said and let them into the reception office. ‘Have a seat whilst I go and get the yearbook.’

It was less than a minute before she was walking back into the office with a yearbook in her hand, flicking through the pages.

‘Here she is,’ she said and handed the book over to Sabine, pointing out Sandi’s picture. Jordan got up from the seat he’d sat down in, so that he could walk to Sabine and peer over her shoulder.

‘That’s her,’ Sabine said, still somewhat confused.

‘The blonde hair is different though,’ Jordan said.

‘I think she it suits her,’ Sabine said.

‘She definitely makes it work,’ Jordan agreed.

‘Thanks a lot, you might have been a really big help,’ Sabine said. ‘Is it all right if we go into the staff room and see if there’s any teachers in there that remember Sandi?’

‘Yeah no problem, they all come in and out of there all day.’

The staff room was empty when Jordan and Sabine entered it, but within a couple of minutes teachers started to come and go. First two teachers to enter were both new enough to the school they hadn’t been there when Sandi was a pupil. A third teacher entered soon enough and they did remember her.

‘Oh sure I remember Sandi,’ the loud, middle aged man with a friendly disposition said.

‘She was in your class?’ Sabine checked.

‘Yeah I taught her history, one of my favourite students actually.’

‘Why was that?’ Jordan asked.

‘She had such an enthusiasm for the class that she often helped keep the lessons moving along, purely from her interest in the subject and her willingness to verbalise that interest. Then of course there was the knock on effect.’

‘What knock on effect?’ Sabine asked.

‘Because she was considered one of the cool kids and she showed an interest in my class, then all the other kids thought it was cool to show interest in my class. I’m not saying they were all answering questions in class all the time and putting forward their own theories like Sandi did, but they did all show an interest. Maybe some of them were faking that interest but it was a lot better than many other classes, where I'm the only one in there with any enthusiasm for history. With every group I always hope one of the cool kids really likes history, because that always makes my job a lot more interesting.’

‘And a lot more fun I’d imagine,’ Jordan found himself getting caught up in the teachers enthusiasm.

‘Oh so much more fun.’

‘Thanks very much Sir,’ Sabine said. ‘I really don’t mean to be rude but my partner and I have to go now.’

‘We do?’

‘Yes we do, there’s something I’ve remembered we need to check out.’

‘Oh all right then, if you say so. Thanks mate,’ Jordan shook the hand of the history teacher.

‘Yes thanks a lot,’ Sabine added as she headed for the door out of the staff room. She marched briskly down the corridor and didn’t break stride as she thanked the lady at reception on her way out. Jordan got a little caught out by the quickness of Sabine’s exit and found himself having to break into a little jog in order to catch her up.

‘I do love your craziness, I really do,’ Jordan said as he got along side Sabine. ‘But are you going to tell me any time soon what the emergency is?’

‘I’ve just had the wackiest of wacky thoughts.’

‘Don’t hide it from me, you know I love wacky thoughts.’

‘Sorry, this one is so wacky I’m going to have to get a bit more to base it on before I reveal it. Because if it’s wrong, and there’s a good chance it is wrong, then I’m going to look incredibly silly. So the more evidence I can get to back it up, before I’m proved wrong, the less silly I’ll look.’

‘So you know you’re wrong you just want to gain evidence to support your theory anyway?’ Jordan checked with a little smile as the got to Sabine’s car.

‘I didn’t say I was definitely wrong, I just want to check some things first before I’ll commit to my theory.’

‘So where are we going to track down these things that will help prove your sanity?’

‘Back at Sandi and Scarlet’s house.’

‘It’s going to take us about an hour to get there, you really not going to tell me your theory in that time?’

‘No way.’

‘Put some music on then,’ Jordan said as Sabine started up the engine. ‘Make it good music, otherwise I’ll be annoying you twenty question style all the way there.’

When they got to the house Sabine went straight away to Sandi’s bedroom. After a minute or so in there she went into Scarlet's, then went over to Jordan who was in the living room. She was carrying a bundle of clothes which she threw onto the sofa in the living room, an act that got Jordan’s attention. From that pile on the sofa she picked out two pairs of bra and panties and held them up to show Jordan.

‘What do you think about these?’ She asked.

‘I have to tell you, just for future reference in case you’re ever trying to really impress a guy, it would work a million times better if you were actually wearing the underwear.’

‘Really not the time. Just check the sizes.’

Jordan looked at each pair of panties and each bra. ‘Yeah there all the same size.’

‘These are Sandi’s and these are Scarlet's,’ Sabine held one pair in one hand and the other in her other hand.

‘So they both wore the same size underwear, I know this case has been slow but I don’t think that is really that big a revelation.’

‘The dresses are exactly the same size, as are all the shoes, and all those things being the same really isn’t that likely.’

It was now clear to Jordan that Sabine really thought she had a possible breakthrough on the case, he just wasn’t sure what she was thinking.

‘So you think they were exactly the same size, so therefore…..’ he thought out loud.

Sabine stared at him, as if to make him get on her wavelength.

‘Oh wow,’ Jordan had that moment of clarity he and Sabine were waiting for. ‘I know you said it was a wacky thought, but I really don’t think wacky gets close to covering it. You don’t think there ever was a Scarlet do you?’

‘Actually, character wise, I don’t think there ever was a Sandi.’

‘I know I’ve said this before, but oh wow!’

‘You actually do think I’m crazy now don’t you?’

‘I have to tell you that I am a massive fan of thinking outside the box, so I’m not going to call for the straight jacket just yet. What else have you got apart from the fact that the clothes are the same size?’

‘Nothing concrete, just bits and pieces.’

‘Such as?’

‘So few of the people we spoke to about Sandi had actually ever seen Scarlet, plus I really don’t think any of them have told us that they have seen the two of them together.’

Jordan thought for a moment, trying to think of an exception to Sabine’s statement.

‘You know you’re right, I really don’t think anybody has told us about seeing them together.’

‘The house is only rented in Sandi’s name,’ Sabine said. ‘Hang on,’ she added as her phone rang. ‘Hi Fred, what have you found out?’

‘We can only find three Scarlet Baileys in this area, one is four years old, another is in her forties and the third is in her seventies,’ Fred told Sabine.

‘That really doesn’t surprise me,’ Sabine said. ‘Thanks Fred, I’ll keep you up to date with any developments, bye.’ Sabine hung up, barely giving Fred enough time to say goodbye. She looked at Jordan with a satisfied smile. ‘No Scarlet Bailey found in this area who is even close to her age group.’

‘Now that doesn’t prove she doesn’t exist at all, she could not be from around here or maybe she’s just used a false name at the gym for some reason.’

‘Since when have you become all cold and logical?’

‘Hey look, I would love for you to be right. I love the idea, I just want to get closer to making sure its right.’

‘Okay, okay, fair enough. All right then, you ring the bar where Scarlet worked and I’ll ring the bar where Sandi worked. Just see if you can find out when Scarlet worked in the last couple of weeks or so at least.’

‘Good idea, let’s see if we can add any more fuel to your fire.’

Both of them made the phone calls and got to speak to the managers.

‘So what did you get?’ Sabine asked Jordan as soon as he hung up, which was just a few moments after she had finished her call.

‘He didn’t have too many details for me, he only had last weeks schedule, so there were only a couple of days where Scarlet actually turned up. Monday, midnight till four in the morning and Tuesday ten till four.’

‘I got Sandi working Monday seven thirty till eleven thirty and Wednesday nine till one.’

‘They are dove tailing, you’re dream is still alive,’ Jordan enthused.

‘Dove tailing?’

‘I just mean that those shifts could be done by the same person because they fit in with each other. My language tends to get more flamboyant when I get carried away with something.’

‘Oh I see, anyway, yeah those shifts could be done by one person. The bars are only ten minutes or so drive apart. Did he say anything else?’

‘He said more often than not Scarlet did the late shift, not starting till at least midnight.’

‘Sandi very rarely worked past midnight,’ Sabine added and could no longer control her grin.

‘You really love being right don’t you?’ Jordan checked with a grin of his own.

‘I’m not sure which I like more, being right or not being wrong.’

‘Tough call.’

‘Anyway, lets just check one more thing before we fully believe in my wacky idea.’

‘Ask the neighbours?’ Jordan guessed.

‘That’s the one.’

Energised by the new angle on the case they marched quickly out of the house and to Sabine’s car. She quickly drove the short trip down the road to the house of the old couple.

‘Hi there, remember us?’ Sabine checked, trying desperately to not sound patronising, as the lady opened the door.

‘Of course dear, how can I help you this time?’

‘Just one really quick question I promise, about the girls next door.’

‘Ask away dear, I’ll do my best to help.’

‘Have you ever seen the two girls together, both at the same time I mean?’

‘Oh now then.’

‘Think really carefully, it could be very important,’ Jordan told her.

‘You know I really don’t think I ever did, I certainly never spoke to the both at the same time. I can’t even remember seeing them in the garden together or anything like that. I’ll just get Malcolm, he probably paid them more attention than I did,’ Eileen said then shouted her husband’s name very loudly.

Malcolm soon appeared and walked slowly up the hall to get to the front door. ‘Now why on earth are you shouting my name as if I’ve done something wrong?’

‘I was just shouting to get your attention, you must be so used to me telling you off that you can no longer tell the difference. These two young investigators want to know if we’ve ever seen the two girls that live next door together, both of them at the same time they mean.’

Malcolm looked very thoughtful as he attempted to recall all his memories of seeing the two young girls. ‘No, can’t say I remember ever seeing the two of them together. That is strange.’

‘Very strange,’ Sabine said. ‘Thanks very much, you’ve been very helpful again.’

‘No problem dear, hope you work it all out,’ Eileen said.

‘So do we,’ Sabine said.

The two pairings exchanged goodbyes and Sabine and Jordan hurried back into her car and headed back down the road to the writer’s house.

A look of great disappointment was etched across his face when the writer opened the door and saw Sabine and Jordan there.

‘Hi, us again,’ Sabine did her best to be friendly. ‘Just one more very quick question I promise.’

‘Go on then.’

‘Have you ever seen the two girls that live next door, together as in both at the same time?’

‘I really can’t remember ever seeing them together at all now you mention it.’

‘You sure?’ Sabine checked.

‘I’m sure I can’t remember seeing them together, that’s not to say that I never saw them together and have just forgotten about it.’

‘Thanks a lot.’

‘That it.’

‘Yeah I said only one question.’

‘And she did promise,’ Jordan said.

The writer was more than happy to be rid of them for what he really hoped would be the final time. Sabine and Jordan sat in her car, parked outside the writer’s house.

‘All right then, let’s run with the only being one of them theory,’ Jordan said. ‘What does this mean to the case?’

‘I haven’t really got that far yet.’

‘Is this one girl really dead? If she isn’t how do we explain all the blood? If she is dead, what was the point of the inventing a character, was it just for a laugh? And still the biggest question is why did he confess? Especially to the murder of a girl we’re now saying doesn’t exist.’

‘That confession is going to be our biggest stumbling block. What would make you confess to a murder you haven’t done? Hypothetically?’ Sabine wondered.

‘It can’t just be a case of admitting it to get a lesser punishment can it? I mean his lawyer advising it because of all the evidence against him?’

‘No, no way. It will hardly effect his punishment at all.’

‘Didn’t think so. Now then let’s see, why would I confess to a murder I haven’t done? To protect someone maybe?’

‘Possible.’

‘Maybe somebody has something over me, some sort of black mail,’

‘Again possible.’

There were a few moments of silence that were broken when Sabine let out a scream of anguish and frustration and deliberately hit her hand against the steering wheel.

‘Can’t believe this,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘The Doc’s golden rule, the one thing he told me and one piece of advice I passed on to you.’

‘Don’t believe people.’

‘Exactly. And we forgot all about that rule just because we though the person was dead. Not only did we believe her lies in her journal but we did it twice, with two different journals.’

‘If she is still alive, she is one clever lady.’

‘It’s an elaborate plan, I have to give her that.’

‘But how can she be alive? I think that’s our next avenue of investigation, if we can prove that she could still be alive then it throws a completely different light on the case.’

‘It definitely does. I feel a trip to UCLA coming on,’ Sabine said and started up her car.