Case File #5

(1st Crime)

Sharna arrived at Emily's and found her still waiting "Sharna where have you been? I've been really worried!" she was silent for a moment then she continued saying "Are you still mad?"

"No I'm not, believe me I even forgot about that!" Sharna then told her everything that happened at Fred's.

"Poor man and poor kids too, I mean it's really awful that he was killed, but right in front of his daughters"

"Yeah, I know it's awful. The girls seemed really affected by this, but they were trying to stay strong and not show it"

"So do you think you've gathered enough info to solve this?"

"I hope so. Anyways I'll just go to bed now and sleep on it. Good night"

"Nighty night" Emily smiled

"BTW Em, thanks for putting up with my mood swings"

The next morning, Sharna woke up and checked her phone, she had a missed call from an unknown number. She was worried it might be from Tina, so she decided to dial it back.

"Hello" a man's voice said in kind of a whisper.

Sharna was familiar with the voice, but she couldn't pin point exactly who he was "Good morning" she said "who's this?"

"Ms. Davis, it's me Jeff, from Fred's. Sorry to disturb you this early"

Sharna remembered the night before when she was interrogating Clair and he was eavesdropping on them.

"It's okay Jeff, so why did you call me?"

"It's something concerning what happened yesterday. I heard what Clair was telling you about the bartender who left earlier"

"Yes, I'm listening" Sharna got excited and got up from laying down

"Dan wasn't supposed to leave early, it was his shift and he didn't mention anything about leaving earlier that day"

"so do you think what Clair said was true, about someone paying him"

"I don't know, maybe? He's been suffering financially for a while now"

"Did he say anything before leaving?"

"Mr. Humphrey told me that Dan was leaving because his wife was in labour, but I'm pretty sure he was divorced, for a few years now"

"On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being most sure, how sure is your pretty sure?"

"8 or even a 9. Daniel doesn't talk a lot but I know he mentioned it once or twice."

"Well, I shall talk to him, do he have a number or an address"

"He doesn't use a phone so much, but I know where he lives. Turn right after the Goldsmith bridge into street 112, he lives in the third building on the left after the grocery store"

"Thank you so much for all of this information, you've been a huge help. What is Daniel's full name?"

"All I know is Daniel Fisher and I'm glad to help."

After that phone call, Sharna got up, got dressed and arranged her To-Do List for the day "Go to the lab, search for Daniel and wait for Tina's call" she noted

She then went downstairs for her breakfast with Emily and Tyler, she saw them kissing and as soon as she approached, they pulled apart. "I'm really sorry guys, I'm planning to move out real soon and I won't bother you like that again" Sharna said even though she didn't have any plans yet.

"No, don't be stupid, mi casa es tu casa" Emily smiled

"So Sharna," Tyler said changing the topic "Emily told me about Fred's, how is this going on? Any new leads?"

"Yeah, I just got a really interesting call, but I need first to get these tested she pointed to her bag"

"I really can't believe you're walking around with poison in your bag" Emily said

"How else would I get it tested" Sharna laughed

Sharna prepared herself a toast with strawberry jam on top and walked to the door "I'll leave you guys for your romantic breakfast rendez-vous, I need to get going"

Sharna grabbed a cab and went over to Gem labs where the police usually did their tests for their cases, but parked down there were 2 police cars and a few policemen.

"I can't be seen here" Sharna said to herself "I shall go with my backup plan which is totally not so good"

Sharna got into the cab again and instructed the driver to take her to the hospital in which Johnny works.

As she arrived, she was very nervous about seeing Johnny again, and even worse asking him a favor. She left the cab and walked into the hospital; an old nurse was waiting at the front desk, so Sharna walked over to her "Good morning" she smiled "can I see Dr Johnny?"

"Do you have an appointment or is it a personal visit?" Said the nurse

"Personal visit, but does he get a lot of personal visits though?"

"What?"

"Never mind. I just need to see him urgently!"

"I'm sorry Ms, the doctor has a busy schedule"

"Just tell him it's me, I am Sh...."

"Sharna Davis" Johnny's voice came from behind "It's okay nurse, I can squeeze her into my day"

"Thank you doctor" Sharna said with a smirk

They walked through the halls until they reached his room, they went in and closed the door. "Thank you Johnny" Sharna said

"It's okay, so how are you doing?"

"Better" she then told him about everything she's been through the past weeks.

"Wow, so you're a real detective now"

"I will once I solve this and this brings me to why I'm here today, I really need your help" she showed him the sample from Steve's drink, the sample from the poison and the pill from Eva's bag.

"Can you please test the sample from the drink against the one from the poison and what is this pill? Drugs?"

"Does the police know about these samples?"

"Of course not! That's why I'm here"

Johnny was still hurt over the breakup and he didn't want to help her or spend more time with her "it's so much harder to move on like that" he thought but still he couldn't say no and let her down. "Okay" he said "I'll help you, but just this time"

"Thank you" she smiled at him "I knew I could depend on you, you're the only doctor I know that I can trust"

"I'm the only doctor you know" he said joking

"No, what about doctor Jacob, doctor Michael and doctor Katy"

"You don't know these people, you just came up with these names"

They both laughed "not true these are the names of my cousins"

"Which none of them happens to be a doctor"

"True" she laughed again then they both stopped.

After a moment of awkward silence Johnny got out of his seat and said "I think we should go to the lab now" Sharna got up as well and they both walked to the 3rd floor where the labs are.

As they walked, a woman was siting in front of one of the rooms crying and praying "I really hate hospitals, I just think they give false hope" Sharna said as she saw the woman.

"We try our best to help the people, but when it come to fate, no one can beat it"

"I know. You've got a hard job, but it must feel great when you save someone's life"

They arrived and Johnny opened the door for them, he took the samples and started doing his job while Sharna sat on the side. She got out her notebook and pen and started making a list of the suspects.

"This pill has nothing to do with the poison, it's a Benzodiazepines"

"My mind stopped after benzo" Sharna laughed "speak non-doctor"

"It's the family name. Basically it's for anxiety, it's not drugs, but you know people can abuse it in the wrong way sometimes" he then turned and looked at her "what are you doing?"

"Trying to organize my thoughts. I wanna focus on the ones I'm more suspicious of, because I'm not sure where to start, there were a lot of people there!"

"I know you can do it." He reassured her "so who do you suspect the most? They always say the spouse is the number one suspect. In movies, it's always the husband, so maybe it's the wife this time"

"Maybe and yeah Jessica has to be on the top of my list, if I don't do that detective Howard will find another reason to criticize me" she laughed "There is also some nasty business between 2 of the partners, William and Derek, but I'm more worried of Melissa, William's wife, it seems she's a little more in control. Tina, one of the secretaries, says she know somethings that are important. However, I'm most concerned about Clair and Jack. Clair is the other secretary, but I think that Steve was hitting on her or something, I could see it in her eyes she wasn't happy about it and Jack loves her, plus she had the poison. You're probably lost now Johnny" she laughed "I'm talking too much"

"No, I'm glad I'm helping you organize your thoughts"

There was a knock on the door and woman wearing her doctor uniform came in, her badge said 'Dr. Blake Watson"

"The nurses said you'd be here. Oh I didn't know you had company" she said turning to Sharna

"Good morning Dr. Watson" said Johnny "This is my friend Sharna"

"Hello" Sharna said

"If you're busy now, I'll be back later" she said to Johnny

"Nice perfume Dr. Watson" Sharna said

"Thank you" she smiled to her and left the room

"She seems nice" Sharna said as she closed her notebook then she walked over to Johnny. "So have you found anything?"

"Um, it's homemade, the murderer was clever, they didn't wanna get caught"

"How is that?" Sharna asked

"Well, the person who did this probably went to different pharmacies and drug stores and bought things that may seem ordinary, but when mixed together, they're toxic"

"Wow. So does the drink contain this toxic mixture too?"

"I'm just still checking"

Sharna sat down looking at Johnny "she's pretty too"

"Who is?"

"Dr Watson" Sharna said moving on her seat "and she's got eyes for you" she gave a small smile

"You think so?" He smiled shyly

"So you've got eyes for her too?" She smirked

"To be honest, we went on a date 2 nights ago, it wasn't really a date, we just went out for dinner after the hospital hours. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course I am, I'm happy for you and I want you to find the right person and I sort of knew it" she said fake smiling at him.

"definitely not! She so pretty and tall" she thought

"How did you know?"

"The Perfume, the red lipstick and she unbuttoned the first 3 of buttons in her shirt, she really likes you and wanted you to notice her"

"Maybe I'll ask her for a real date then"

Sharna's phone rang and she walked over to her bag to grab it "thank God I needed someone to save me from this conversation or I would've drank from this poison to stop it" she said to herself

As she arrived, her phone stopped ringing, but she had a missed call from an unknown number "I wonder if that was Tina"

"If she knew important things and really wanted to tell you, she'll certainly contact you again" Johnny said and in just a few moments she received a message.

"Meet me detective in the park near the children's playground, I have the files" Sharna read out loud "it must be Tina, I need to go meet her, are you done with the results?"

"Yes, it's a match"

She checked out her to-do list the lab and Tina's call. Then she turned to Johnny "thank you so much for helping me and I promise I won't bother you again, at least I'll try" she laughed

"You didn't bother me" he said as he approached her to give her back the samples.

"Thank you" she took the samples and carefully put them in separate plastic bags again inside her bag. "I'm going now to the park, wish me luck" she walked closer to him and hugged him then felt foolish about it and pulled back "I'm sorry"

"It's okay" he smiled at her "good luck, I'm sure you'll figure it out"

Sharna walked out and felt really awkward about Johnny, she wasn't sure about what she felt she knew they had to breakup, but also knew that she missed him. However, she decided to not think about it for now and focus on the crime.

She took another cab to the park and walked inside to the children's playground and sat on a bench observing children play. In the sand box, sat 2 kids, a boy of about 4 years and a girl of about 7, and their dad sat with them playing.

"They look so cute, don't they" Clair said as she sat down next to Sharma on the bench

"Clair? I thought I was meeting Tina"

"Tina left"

"What do you mean by left?"

"She left the country, fled away" Clair said "but before she left, she gave me these files, she says they may prove I'm innocent"

"What do these files contain?"

"I have no idea. Detective, she also left you this note"

"I didn't want to risk it, detective. I had to leave, but I gave you my word and I hope you use these papers well. Focus on the decimal points" Sharna read it, she then took the files from Clair and said "would you mind staying here with me for a while, assist me because I don't know much about accounting"

"Sure detective. I'm putting all my trust in you to prove I'm innocent"

"I will do my best to know the real murderer" Sharna started looking at the papers, every document had 2 copies that looked exactly similar at first look, but once you start focusing on the decimal points as Tina said, you notice how much a misplaced decimal point can change.

"I can't believe Tina would do this" Clair exclaimed

"I can't really understand why she changed these numbers" Sharna was a little lost

"Isn't is obvious? She was working for Derek and William to sabotage Steve's percentages, so that they can rule instead, they must have killed him too"

"Don't jump into conclusions that fast, I need to check these some more." Sharna said "Crazy, isn't it? Such a simple dot can change so much"

"It does"

"You can see such a small detail can mean so much, and I feel you're hiding something that might not even be that small, so imagine how much your secret can change"

Clair was starting to panic "I'm not hiding anything"

"I want to help you if you're really as innocent as you say, so why hide anything from me. Maybe you want to protect someone?"

"If you're talking about Jack, I told you before that he didn't do it"

"But you're still worried about him"

"I care about him even if we can't be together"

"And he cares about you too, so what did Steve do to you that would make Jack eager to kill him" Sharna said sympathetically then moved closer to Clair and patted her shoulder "don't be ashamed"

Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "Did he hurt you?" Sharna asked

"Over and over again" she said in low tone

"I'm really sorry for that, but why didn't you just leave?"

"It's hard finding a job like that in such a small town. I needed the money"

"Did you tell Jack about that?"

"He saw me once leaving the company at night after everyone except Steve and I left, I was hurt and weak and I found comfort with him, but that doesn't qualify him as a murderer"

"I know you can't see him as a murderer, but I can't take him off my list of suspects"

"I knew I shouldn't have told you" Clair was angry, she wiped her tears and stood up to leave, but Sharna pulled her to stay.

"If you're both innocent, I'll prove it; that's all I can promise, but until I can prove that,you're both suspects to me."

Clair sat down again saying "maybe when you review the files you can find proof or maybe if you speak to the other suspects?"

"I will, I need your help though" Sharna said pulling out her notebook and pen "can you describe as much as possible the bartender who left that you mentioned to me at the bar"

"I don't think I saw him for long, all I can remember is that he was tall, a little bulky, dark hair"

"Anything more specific, a scar or a birthmark or something?"

"I really don't remember"

"Take a moment and just think" Sharna shouted a little

"I am thinking!" Clair was angry "oh wait, I remember something, he had several plasters and needle marks on his arms. I remember one of the plasters fell on the table while serving and he picked it up from there and apologised, would that help?"

"Any small detail can help. Thanks you Clair for all the information"

"Do you need anything else?"

"Yes, one last thing? Do you have the address for Derek and Eleanor's?"

"Of course I do" she gave her the address and they both left. Sharna knew she still had a lot of work to do but she was positive that she was getting closer.

"Now find the bartender, meet Eleanor and review the files" she said to herself.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading, hope u enjoyed the chapters thus far and let me know all your theories before the next chapter in which you'll know who did it!