Reason for Revenge – VI.

It was getting late and the party had died down quite a bit, leaving very few guests. Adam suggested that they all move out onto the patio since the weather was very agreeable that evening. The guests either sat on the lawn chairs or stood around by the flowers that surrounded the area, and some moved over by the pool. It was rather dark because no lights had been lit outside. Adam went over and turned on the pool lights so they could see each other, but still leave a little ambiance. When Adam turned on the lights, Becki had been standing by the pool talking to one of their friends. She screamed, “Adam!” and passed out. Adam looked in the pool at the figure floating in the sparkling water; he then turned a dead white. He sprinted over and dove into the pool, but she had been dead too long, he couldn’t save her. He just held her and cried. Christopher had been one to stay inside, but when he heard the screaming, he ran out to the patio and saw Adam in the pool with his younger sister. He couldn’t believe his eyes; he never would have thought that she would be the next victim.

Everyone had been moved back inside, the police had arrived and the body had been removed from the pool after the investigation. Christopher was with his men looking for clues out on the patio. One of his men called out to him, “Christopher, I think we found something.” “What is it?” He replied. “Look at this. I found it right there. What is it?” The officer asked. Christopher took the object into his surgically gloved hand and studied it. The object was gold, two inches long, and slanted on one side. “I think that this is a woman’s heel to a shoe, “the detective stated. “You actually think that a girl might have done this?” His man looked puzzled. “Sure, you don’t know how strong these women are nowadays with their aerobicizing and what not,” Christopher said sarcastically. “Have a couple of the men search the house, especially the closets. If this was a woman, she would have had to find another pair of shoes to wear back to the party.” “Right boss.” The officer walked off gathering the men for the task. Up until now, Christopher was convinced that Adam had killed his father out of emotion, the emotion of hate. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

While the officers went on their search for the missing shoes, Christopher walked through the room where the guests were being interrogated and towards the library where the family was waiting. As he passed through, he could not help staring at all the women’s feet. When he made his entrance into the library, he noticed right off that not only was Joanne wearing gold shoes, but, so was Vivien and Becki. Jokingly to himself, he thought this must be the latest fad. “All right, let’s start the questioning.” Christopher went through the same drill that he had gone through only a little over a month before. About halfway through his questioning the family, his men came in with some news. “We found a pair of shoes with a missing heel and guess what color they are?” Charles followed the men up the stairs while the family waited impatiently at the news. They rounded the comer from the stairs and went passed the study, which had been Dave Hailman’s, passed another room with a closed door, and went into a bedroom and straight into the closet. Sitting neatly placed among 30 other pairs of shoes was a shiny gold strappy pair of shoes missing the heel. “Now how in the hell… “This just couldn’t be, how could anyone get through the party and up to this room and put those shoes like that, so neat as a pin, where they sit? Whose room is this by the way?” Christopher sounding very upset. “Sir, this is Vivien Hail… I mean Tailord’s room. No, could this be, Christopher thought, kill her father and then her younger sister, but why. Jealousy… Tabytha was the younger sister… Money…. unlikely, she just inherited two million dollars…. Power…. not possible; she received a higher percentage than Tabytha in the company. No, it just didn’t make sense, but what was the answer.

Moving swiftly down the stairs, Charles went straight into the library where the family was still occupied. “Mrs. Tailord.” “Yes, Detective Christopher,” Vivien replied questionably. “I need to discuss a private matter with you, if you would please accompany me upstairs,” requested Christopher. “Of course.” Vivien responded, now very curious, but also slightly nervous.

They walked up the stairs rather briskly and back into her room and into the open closet with all the officers taking pictures and prints. Christopher reached in and held up the strappy little gold shoe and asked her, “Mrs. Tailord, is this one of the pairs of shoes that you own?” “Um, let me look at it a little closer,” she inching up to it, “I would never wear something like this. If you look at all my other shoes, you can see that, they are much more conservative than this shoe.” “Would you mind trying it on for us?” Christopher asked politely. “Well, sure, but I am telling you that it is not mine.” She sat down on the edge of her bed and slipped her sleek stylish, but conservative, gold shoe off her foot and slipped this one on. It fit like a glove. “I… .I…I do not know what to say, but this is not my shoe!” She declared emphatically. “Calm down, we didn’t say that it was. Hey, Jones, have Mrs. Hailman and Becki join us up here.” Charles requested. “Sure boss.” The officer went quickly downstairs and within five minutes the other two ladies were walking in the room. Christopher had both women try on the shoe and to his amazement, the shoe fit all three of them. All three of these women wore the same damn shoe size. He couldn’t believe it. “You ladies may go downstairs now, thank you,” he said disappointingly.