Until Proven Innocent

CHAPTER FORTY

AFTER
Detective Gerard Sullivan
Sunday May 21, 2016

Rosella was pregnant. Six weeks pregnant. There's no question as to who the father is. It's Weston. Did he know? Or did he lie, as he has done countless times over the past three days?

We'll need to bring him in for questioning, once again. I swear to God if I don't get the truth out of him today, there's going to be consequences.

I'm about to head to my office to call Robbins and give her an update when I hear my name being called. I turn around to see Younger jogging towards me.

"What's up?" I say to her.
"You're going to want to see this. Follow me."
I turn and follow her back to her office. On the screen is an enlarged picture of Rosella Collins.
"What did you find?" I ask.
"Not much. Your girl is clean as a whistle. No criminal record, no history of abuse or violence, no bad relationships. She works as a nurse over at Davenport General. She's an active member of the community, she's on the elementary school's Parent Committee. She volunteers to help disabled children at the Athletic Center on Tuesdays, and often helps out with fundraisers around the city." She stops to let me take in all of this information.
"So what are you saying? She's perfect?"
"Yes."
"That makes sense. I spoke to one of her neighbors yesterday and he basically confirmed all that you just said. He painted her as an honorable woman."
"And she probably was," Younger says. "But get this, there's more." She pulls up another screen and types something in. "It seemed kind of irrelevant at first," she explains. "But if there's one thing I've learned being in this business, it's that nothing is irrelevant." I lean in closer to follow what she does.
She pulls up an image of a young woman. Light brown hair, blue eyes, early twenties, maybe. "Who's that?" I ask.
"That would be her sister," she says matter-of-fact.
"She has a sister?"
"Had. She died in 2005. Committed suicide. Her name was Antonia Collins."
"Okay, I'm not following."
"That's what I thought at first, too. But here's where it gets interesting," she pulls up another file. The death certificate and a birth certificate. "She killed herself just thirteen days after giving birth. She was only twenty-years-old." My pulse quickens. "But that's not all," she starts again, pulling up a school record. "You're not going to believe where she went to school,"
"Let me guess," I say, leaning forward to read the computer screen. "Northwestern."
"Bingo. And I don't have to tell you who else went there."
"Cordelia and Weston."
"She was a year above Cordelia. Do you think there's a connection?"
"Between Antonia and Cordelia?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"It's odd, that's for sure. But I don't know. They could have known each other. Maybe they were friends."
"But the similarities..." Younger continues. "Antonia Collins gave birth to a baby, then killed herself two weeks later. They say it was postpartum depression."
"Same as Cordelia,"
She nods her head.
"But how does Rosella tie into this? Ten years later and she's having an affair with Cordelia's husband?"
"Do you think she knew?"
"That Cordelia and her sister knew each other?"
"Maybe. Maybe she doesn't know and this is all one big coincidence," she says.
"Meredith," I smile at her. "You know I don't believe in coincidences."

____

By the time I get to the Waters' residence, it's quarter passed one and it seems to be a full house. Her parents sit in the kitchen eating lunch, and a few other people stand scattered between the living room and the dining room.

I don't know what my plan of action thus far is. Cordelia doesn't know about the affair or that Rosella Collins was found dead last night. That sort of information is on a need-to-know basis. I have to be fragile with Cordelia, see what she knows. Perhaps she can provide me with some information on the sister – Antonia. And if that proves fruitless, then I'll have to take a more aggressive approach, and that includes bringing Weston down to the station, yet again.