Chapter 5. Jolene Parker

A weapon, a victim, a killer. Dynamic trio.

|~| The Mailman.

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He nodded as she spoke. He pretended to listen. Sure he could hear little tidbits, but all he could think about, all he could see was his hands wrapped around her throat. He had come to prefer that method of silence. They would struggle and struggle. Their lungs would fight for just an atom of air. But he wouldn't let them have it. Slowly, yes slowly, the struggle would reduce. The heart would slow, the brain would relax and accept it's fate. And then right in his arms, the body would die and the person would forever remain quiet. Silent forever.

"Are you even listening to me?" Jolene asked in that whiny voice of hers.

"Yes of course I am darling. Please do go on" she blushed a pretty shade of red, oh the blood that would splash if he slit her throat, and continued speaking.

He was charming, he knew. After his mom kicked him out of the house because of his fucking stepdad, he ended up in a whore house that taught proper etiquette, in case that was the customer's preference. So he knew he could slide under a ladies defences as easily as a sharp knife slid into skin.

As he watched her mouth move, it angered him. People like her shouldn't get to speak. All that came out of their mouths was nonsense. Demanding, whiny nonsense. Oh he could remember his mother spoke like this. And his stepfather. All they ever did was talk, talk, talk. They would shut up now. He'd make sure of it. He'd get to them eventually. He was saving the best for last.

"I think we should get out of here. Don't you?" He interrupted her latest rant and winked suggestively. He was tired of waiting. He wanted to finish her now.

"Your place or mine?" She asked. Sometimes, it was too easy.

"Yours" he replied with a wicked smirk.

**************

"She was my best friend, you know. I loved her like a sister. Marla was just a bundle of joy. I've been her Agent since she first started acting when she was sixteen. Since then, we've been tight. When I heard that night that she was gone, a part of me was ripped out of my chest. A void was created that can never be filled" Jake Malroy, Queens' Agent said. He was a handsome young man in his late twenties. He had rich dark hair that was cropped close to his skull and just barely brushed his neck. It was tussled in that 'I woke up like this' way. His eyes were deep brown. His face was angular and defined and he was well built.

"Again, we're sorry for your loss. Were you aware that Marlena was going on a date that night?" Kory asked.

"Yes I was. She kept going on and on about him. Honestly, I was a little concerned but I was happy for her. It was nice seeing her enthusiastic about love again since she had just lost faith in it"

"Did she describe this man to you?" Kory asked.

"Yes she did. She said he had blonde hair and dark dreamy eyes, her words" he had a small smile on his face that disappeared after some seconds. He sighed.

"How come she told you what he looks like but not the three Heathers?" Agent Douchebag asked. This was the first time he had spoken during an interview and she was shocked. Malroy seemed to be too. He appeared to have forgotten that Agent Douchebag was in the room in the first place. Though Kory didn't blame him. The way the man melted into the background, she herself almost forgot he was in the room.

"We were closer. What she didn't tell the three Heathers, she told me. She would've told her brother too if he wasn't so against the idea in the first place" Malroy replied.

"So she's known the three Heathers since she was three years old and she met you when she was sixteen but she trusts you more?" Agent Douchebag asked again. He was on to something so Kory sat back and let him take the lead.

"You know how it is with old friends. Marla was always afraid to disappoint them or that they'd look at her in a different light if she told them some things. Friends sometimes have this whole hero worship thing for themselves and they're scared to fall from that pedestal their friends have placed them on. She didn't worry about that with me. She thought of me like a brother" Malroy said and sighed. He blinked back tears.

"Ok. Last question before we leave. Where were you on January 23rd, 2020 at precisely 11pm?" The Agent asked.

"I was home alone in bed. I guess my live in cleaner, Annabelle could verify. I'll give you her number" Malroy replied. He scribbled something on a paper and handed it to Kory.

"Thank you for your time" Kory said and got up.

"Just a quick question, have you ever been romantically involved with Marlena?" Agent Douchebag asked pointedly.

"Of course not. I told you, we were like siblings" Malroy replied after a hearty laughter.

"Ok. We'll be in touch" Kory said as they stepped out of his apartment.

"You saw something there" Kory said when they were far enough away.

"Just a little hunch. He seemed like he resented the fact that they were 'just like siblings'. Plus it seems a little odd that she told him what the suspect looked like and not her three best friends" he replied.

"Well he definitely resented the sibling zone but it's a big stretch from that to serial killer. And the thing about telling him, I totally get what he was saying, I'm like that. Regardless, he's still on the suspect list" she said. All of a sudden he burst out laughing. The laugh was harsh and depreciative.

"I have never met a cop who genuinely looks for the best in people. Hannagan, in our line of business, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. It's the lawyers that say it the other way around. It's our job to consider everyone suspects until they're cleared beyond reasonable doubt"

Kory stopped and glared at him. "Don't you tell me how to do my job. I've been on this force for years and I didn't get to where I am now by jumping to conclusions. I analyse deeply and investigate before I cast blames. I do see that there's something here which is why he's on the top of the list currently. I'm trying not to focus on just one person cause that's how you flunk an entire investigation and let the killer get away" after her rant, Agent Douchebag stared at her for the longest time. Then he smiled. It was small but genuine and made him look painfully beautiful.

"I continually underestimate you and you continually prove me wrong. I'm impressed" he said with a respectful nod.

"Why do you underestimate me anyway?" She asked as they continued walking down the stairs of the apartment building in uptown Chicago where Malroy lived.

"I don't really trust women in law enforcement" he said, looking the most bashful she'd seen him. He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck.

"I noticed. Ok to ask why?" Kory asked, tentative smile on her face.

"It is. I'm not gonna answer though" he replied. She laughed.

"Fair enough. We have one last stop. Her director"

Raymond Coulter was a very successful movie director. He was in his late forties, fat and balding with a large gut and an ego to match. He was notoriously a womanizer even while being married to his third wife, Janet Coulter. Kory took one look at him and decided she didn't like him. She was usually a good judge of character and actually waited a while before forming an opinion but he simply didn't rub her the right way. The sleazy looks he gave her didn't help either.

"How would I know if she had a date? What she does in her spare time is none of my business" he replied to their question of whether he knew she was going on a date that night. "Don't know why she went on a site for a date, heaven knows she definitely had her pick what with sleeping around the whole of Hollywood"

"Miss Queens was rumored to have used rather offhanded ways to acquire her fame. You believe those rumors?" She asked.

"Course I do. All women ever do is use their bodies to get to places" he gave her a meaningful look. "That is when they're not talking up a storm" he barked out a laugh and look to Agent Douchebag as if looking for support. He gave him a bland look, but Kory could see the disgust in his eyes.

"According to autopsy reports, Miss Queens died a virgin" Kory didn't quite know why she told him that. Perhaps she wanted to defend this woman who she felt the media had wronged and who this man was slandering.

He blinked slowly as if just waking from a deep sleep.

"Really? Huh. Must be the one exception then" Kory resisted two urges. One was to roll her eyes and the other was to feel the texture of his face. With her closed fist. Hard.

"So she never confided in you?" Kory asked after taking a deep cleansing breath.

"Who could tell with all the talking she did anyway" he shrugged.

"You know nothing about her personal life or the man who she went out with that day?"

"Nothing that wasn't on the media" he said.

"Last question, where were you on the 23rd of January, at approximately 11pm?"

"What you don't think I killed her? There's definitely a use for a pretty thing like her. I wouldn't waste it by killing her" he gave Kory a sleazy look, leaving no doubt as to what he meant. She fought to keep expressions off her face.

"You haven't answered the question" she said.

"I was home with my wife, Janet. You can call her to confirm"

Kory nodded. "If you could just write down her info" he wrote it down and she stood to go.

"Thank you for your time"

He grabbed her hand in a surprisingly tight grip before she could step away though and she turned to look at him.

"Ever thought about a career in acting? I think you'd do just great. I could hook you up and you could pay me back some other way" he licked his lips. Before Kory could comment, Agent Douchebag stepped in front of her and pried his fingers from her hand in a slow but deliberately painful manner.

"You don't lay a hand on a lady without her permission. And you certainly do not lay a forceful hand on an officer of the law. That could be interpreted by some as assault" he said it calmly, as if just advising but there was an edge in his voice that made Coulter chuckle nervously.

"Just asking" he raised his hands in mock surrender. When they turned to leave again, Kory saw him rub his hand and wince.

"Thanks but you didn't have to do that" she said once they were far enough away.

"Oh trust me, I wanted to" he replied, the fury still in his eyes and voice.

"He's not the killer though" he glanced at her at her words. "If it were him, he'd definitely rape her first. And he wouldn't kill her immediately too. He'd keep her and rape her until he got bored. Plus she had a type, physically. There's no way she'd have gone out with him and no way she wouldn't have recognized him"

He nodded. "Right. But we need to look into him anyway. Murder might not be on his list of crimes but there's a ninety eight percent chance rape is"

She nodded. "I'll put someone on it. Let's get back to headquarters and analyse what we have so far. Update the murder board and the team. And get these handwriting samples to the lab with the others" She slid into the passenger seat of her car. By now it had become routine that Agent Douchebag drive and she sit shot gun. After researching him, she was almost sure she knew the reason why he wouldn't relinquish control of the wheel. He had been in an accident once. The details of the accident were kept under wraps since the case he was working on that caused it was high profile, the same case that made him hate partners, but she was willing to bet her paycheck that he wasn't behind the wheel and that he was suffering from PTSD.

On their way back, she called Annabelle, Malroy's cleaner to verify his whereabouts at the TOD of the vic. She confirmed that he was home in bed. She bumped him down on the list but didn't take him off completely. Alibis could be bought or gotten through a false sense of loyalty. She also called Coulter's wife, who confirmed that he was indeed home that night. She expected that though. He wasn't the killer. Nevertheless she didn't cross off his name just yet.

They paid the rest of Marlena's exes on the list visits but that yielded nothing so they returned back to HQ.

After updating the team on site and the ones still carrying out their assignments, she closed herself in her office to think. She paced and drank a bottle of coke because that was her way of thinking.

Working cold cases was every cop's nightmare but she didn't mind. She hated when a case got cold. The leads became blurred, witnesses began to jumble up their stories. The crime scene would probably be occupied, the evidence accumulates dust in storage, everything was just cold.

But she would work this case. She would because dammit the commander was right. This one hit deep. Logically she knew there was no way she could have been sure that the call wasn't a prank call but if she had just followed her damn instincts, Queens would still be alive! But no use dwelling on it. What was done was done. Queens was dead because she went on some stupid site that allowed her stalker to get.... Wait. The site.

"Fuck how could I miss that?!" She ran to her lap top and began to search.

The people who had been killed this year with their UNSUB as person of interest were Mona Fincher, Caucasian, 28, black hair, blue eyes. Worked at an advertisement agency. Cristina Boldman, white, 29, bonde hair, green eyes. She was a sex worker. Merry Daniels, mixed race, 54, black hair dusted with gray and dark eyes. The owner of a registered brothel. Basically a pimp. Marcus King white, 29, blonde hair, green eyes. Freelance model. Jacob Gold, white, 24, black hair, yellow-gold eyes. Self employed, he had his own restaurant. And then the most recent one, Masey Kindle Frost, white, 25, red hair, green eyes. Just out of college and still interning at Coleman and son Inc. Nothing connected these people on the surface. But now she followed a hunch. She contacted every cop on their cases. It took a while to get them to give up information about their case but after promising to share information about hers if the cases turned out to be related, she got what she wanted and sat back looking at what should have been her first leap in the beginning of the case.

Just as she picked up her phone to contact the people who were in charge of Cupid's arrow, there was a knock on her door. She sighed, got up and opened the door to Mike's smiling face.

"Baby didn't you miss me? You've been holed up in here for hours and you haven't seen me all day" she rolled her eyes and let him in.

"Nice to see you Mike" she said. "Actually since you're here I might as well tell you before I update everyone. I hit on something. I've figured out how he picks his victims" he cocked a brow "Cupid's arrow. The site. I don't know how we missed it. He goes on the site with different names, bogus if you look deep enough but who would? Then he woos the different victims, takes them on a date and somehow convinces them to take him to their house. Then he kills them there. I'm about to talk to the owners of the site, Max Ingersoll and Randy Stevens. I need access to their website. I'll also need you to do the same thing you did with Queens' messages and get back their communications" as she spoke, she dialed Max Ingersoll. She answered and Kory raised a hand to stop what Mike was about to say.

"Miss Ingersoll, this is Lieutenant Hannagan. There's been an update in the investigation and we're going to need access to your site again. Actually, this time you may need to shut down the site" there was silence for a second, then;

"I don't know who you think you are-" Ingersoll began but Kory interrupted with a reply just for the hell of it; "Lieutenant Hannagan, I thought I said that-" "but you can't just close down our business. I don't permit you! We promise our clients privacy and we won't let you compromise that!" Ingersoll continued as if Kory hadn't said anything.

"I'm being cordial by asking for permission first so we can do it the easy way. I could just get a warrant and do it the hard, rude way but that would be wasting time and giving a murderer time to pick and kill his next victim, one of your oh so treasured clients probably. And so God help me if this political dance makes me waste time that the killer utilizes to kill someone else I will make life very miserable for you" Kory said, her voice hardening.

"For how long will it be shut down?" Ingersoll asked after a beat.

"I'm not sure. Indefinitely. Until the investigation is closed and the killer apprehended. This person is picking victims from your site and murdering them Miss Ingersoll" Kory intentionally softened her voice, appealed to Ingersoll's conscience.

"Fine. I'll notify Randy. You have permission to go through the site but please Lieutenant, be discreet. Nothing not directly patterning to your investigation should be revealed to the public. Privacy is our business" Ingersoll said.

"I give my word. Thank you" she ended the call and turned back to Mike who was pacing.

"We should have thought of that sooner. I don't know how we all missed it!" He said, running his hand through his hair.

"At least we've seen it now. You've got to go over those messages, try to spot a pattern. We need to find out if he chooses them randomly or there's something else linking them. Update the cops who are on site. I'll update the ones in the field via calls while I go. I'm headed to Cupid's arrow headquarters. I want the techs there to walk me through how they screen the people that access the site" Kory said as she got up with her half empty bottle of coke in one hand and her coat, gloves and hat in the other.

"I think you're forgetting something. I love you but you suck at anything computer related. You need someone that understands tech to go with you" Mike said. She stared at him pointedly.

"I'm better than the average person and you know it. I'm just not 'you' good" she said.

"I'll go" Agent Douchebag said from the door.

"You know tech?" Mike and Kory asked in unison.

He stared at them from under his thick mane of hair.

"Yes" he replied simply. She shrugged and left her office with the Agent in tow.

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xoxo,

Mimi.