Shortcake*

Chapter 43: Crime Scene

*Copyright: Stephanie Myrick, 2023. Posted to Wattpad ONLY*

The rest of the evening was spent making final plans. Annette and Will said they would take all the evidence to the LAPD and have them get in touch with Hargrove and D'Agosta, promising to follow up with them as soon as they had some news. Nico apologized to Cleo again and then asked if he could speak to Link alone. Cleo grinned and said she was going to get a bath. When they were alone, Link waited for Nico to start talking.

"Congratulations," Nico smirked at him. "You got her to fall for you."

Link raised his eyebrow and shook his head. "I can only hope she fell half as hard for me as I have for her."

"You stopped drinking."

"You told me not to." Link was done with this already and just held out his hand. "Look, I love her. I'm eventually gonna ask her to marry me, and I know it would mean a lot to her if we just got along for her sake."

Nico grinned and shook his hand. "I'll do it for her. But I want it on record that I knew this was going to happen. You were a little too easy to get riled up."

Link chuckled. "Yeah, for an actor, I'm pretty bad at hiding my emotions. I actually developed a bit of a crush on her when I watched all her movies long before I met her."

"She is very loveable." Nico agreed. "And beautiful." He released Link's hand. And started toward the door. "Just remember, mistreat her, and you'll have to deal with me."

"Yeah, I know." Link rolled his eyes. "You have nothing to be concerned about there."

"Mmm." Nico knocked on the door to the bathroom. "See you tomorrow, Belissama."

"Bye, Nico!" Cleo's voice was muffled through the door. "Do something good for yourself before you go to bed."

"I will." He smiled and put his hand on the doorknob before turning back to Link. "How does your Mom feel about gays?"

"I don't think she feels one way or the other." Link furrowed his brow and folded his arms across his chest as he thought. "My parents are pretty accepting of people as long as they aren't rude. They're both pretty firm christians, but they follow the teachings of Jesus, love thy neighbour, judge not lest you be judged, that kind of stuff, why?"

I'm going with Cleo and your mom tomorrow; I didn't know if I should be myself or go with the stoic, masculine bodyguard type." He waved good night and left the room.

—-------------------

The following day, Link, Cleo and Nico met his parents for breakfast. They introduced Nico to them, explained vaguely what they discovered the night before and that Nico would be going with Link's mom and Cleo to make sure they were safe, something Link's dad was extremely grateful about.

When they finished the meal, Link and his dad climbed aboard his dad's truck and left the other three in the rental car so they could go about their day. The drive to Jerrica's parent's place was spent bringing his dad up to speed with everything in full rather than the bare bones they had given his mom at breakfast.

"Have you spoken to Steve and Cathy about any of this?" Link asked when he was done.

Owen nodded. "They were wondering why I was asking so many questions about Jerrica's whereabouts. I just told them there had been some harassment since you went public with your relationship with Cleo, and we wanted to be sure it wasn't Jerrica. They insisted that she was in love with her new guy."

When they got to Bennett's, Link noted that the house was looking a little neglected. Steve, Jerrica's father, used to be a gardening fanatic, but now the grass was long and the flowerbeds were in need of a good weeding. "Has Steve been ill?" Link asked as they walked up to the front door.

"I don't think so. Things are looking a little neglected, aren't they?" Owen looked around in surprise. "Steve was so proud of his lawn; this is very unusual."

Link knocked and, after waiting a few minutes with no response, then tried the bell. He could hear it inside, but no one came to the door. "Did you get in touch and tell them we were coming?" He asked his father, who went down the stairs and was going toward the garage door.

"Yeah, they said to swing by around ten." He called over his shoulder as he peered into the garage through the window. "Their car is still here.

Link frowned and checked his watch. It was ten after ten. He tried the knob and knocked loudly on the door. "Hey, Dad, check the back door, will you?"

"Sure thing, son." When his dad disappeared around the house, he leaned over the railing of the front step and peered in through the living room window, shielding his face with his hands. He could see Steve and Cathy sitting on the couch; it looked like they were sleeping, but Link knew better. The positioning was almost identical to the crime scene photos from Cleo's parent's murder scene.

"Son of a bitch." He muttered. "Dad! Come back here, don't go inside!" He yelled, panic filling him as he jumped off the step and raced around the house. As he rounded the corner, he almost crashed into his father, who was running back to him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Owen skidded to a stop before they could hit each other head-on.

"They're dead, and I think it's carbon monoxide." Link explained as he pulled out his phone and called 9-1-1.

"Are you sure?" The colour drained from Owens's face.

"Yeah. The killer staged the living room and body positions exactly like Cleo's parents. Even down to the positioning of their hands." The 9-1-1 operator came on, and Link said they needed police, fire and ambulance immediately, giving a brief explanation and the address. Greenville is a relatively small town, so it wasn't very long when everyone showed up. Link explained the situation and what he thought was going on without going into Cleo's parents at first. A firefighter entered the house with a carbon monoxide detector and was barely over the threshold when it began to blare.

Moving to one side, out of the way of the first responders, Link gave a complete statement to the police officer, explaining they should check the gas pipe on the water heater. When the police heard it was a recreation of a crime scene from upstate New York, they listened closely to what Link told him and took Dexhart's name.

A few minutes later, a fireman came out and waved over the police officer Link was talking to. A quiet conversation was had, and then the police officer came back over to where Link and Owen were standing.

"I'm going to need you to come down to the station." He appeared to be a little apologetic, but Link felt his stomach tighten anyway.

"What for?"

"We need to question you, confirm your story and get a written statement." Link let out a huge sigh and turned to his father. "Get in touch with Cleo, Mom and Nico and ask them to get up here, would you please?" He had been here before when he was investigated for Kimber's death. He looked around and saw the commotion had attracted a lot of neighbours.

"Officer, I wouldn't normally ask for special treatment, but could you let me go to the station with my day and a police escort." He subtly gestured to the growing crowd. "My reputation is on the line here." After a moment's hesitation, the officer nodded, and Link let out the breath he'd been holding.

"Thank you."

*Copyright: Stephanie Myrick, 2023. Posted to Wattpad ONLY*