Just Desserts

Cruel and Unusual

Later, in the afternoon, after the necessary tests had been done on the evidence collected from the scene, Chloe and her "team" gathered in the conference room to go over all of it. Ella had the television on to display the photos she'd taken at the crime scene, as well as whatever pictures they'd found of the victim or other related parties. Now, Charlotte Richards joined them, seated primly at the table with her briefcase in front of her. She had once been the most formidable defense attorneys in LA, but after a recent change of . . . everything, she had become one of the department's lawyers from the DA. Her knowledge of the "alleged" criminals in LA had many times proved invaluable. Lucifer wasn't here right now. He only showed up once they had someone to find or to interrogate.

Chloe began the meeting. "Okay, Ella. What do we have?"

Ella's face lit up in excitement, as it always did when she was telling her theories. "Okay! So, Ben Collerd, one of the top executives of Peaches and Cream cosmetics company." She looked around the room, expecting something.

Chloe shrugged. "And?" She looked at Charlotte, the other woman in the room, but the attorney shook her head.

Ella's face fell. "What you mean 'and'? It's Peaches and Cream! Ugh, never mind. Anyway, they're this super big company, super high ethics standards and all, but I did some digging and turns out they've got some pretty nasty skeletons in the closet." She clicked to the next picture. It showed a news story from a few years ago reporting on Peaches and Cream's ethically questionable use of animal testing.

Charlotte snapped her fingers. "Yes! I do remember this company now," she said with a smile. Then the expression crumpled. "I defended them in that case."

"Hey, well, you're on our side now," Dan said, trying to make her feel better. "Remember anything about the vic? Was he working there at the time?"

"Yes, I recall he was," Charlotte replied. Ella clicked through until she found a picture of Ben Collerd. Charlotte nodded. "Yes, I remember him. He was the executive pushing the most for continuing their testing."

Ella scowled. "What a jerk."

"Ella," Chloe said, drawing her friend's attention. "What did the lab have to say about those hairs you found?"

Once again, Ella perked up at the prospect of sharing her findings. "Right. Are you guys ready to have your minds blown?" She was met by silence and vague shrugging. "Great crowd tonight," she said, half to herself as she clicked through her slides. "Anyway, I found four distinct hairs at the scene from all over that lab. Got them tested for DNA and . . ." The screen displayed four different pictures. "These are the matches."

After a perplexed moment of silence, Charlotte spoke up. "Primates?"

"Right?" Ella said, a huge smile on her face. "Hella weird! But it's true. Japanese macaque, chimpanzee, lowland gorilla, and baboon. All there."

Dan was skeptical. "Are you saying monkeys killed Collerd?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Charlotte looked just as unbelieving. "Peaches and Cream doesn't use primates in its testing. At least, not since I checked. Do they?"

Ella shook her head. "Nope. Just mice, rats, rabbits. Totally bonkers, right?"

Chloe narrowed her eyes and stepped towards the screen, looking intently at the four images. "Ella, what did you get from dental? Or the candy wrapper Deborah found?"

"Nothing human on dental, and the wrapper hasn't given us anything useful either." She shrugged. "It doesn't make any sense to me either."

Chloe closed her eyes, trying to see another path through this investigation. "Okay, forget the monkeys for a second. What about Ben? What was he like? Any enemies? Maybe someone set this up."