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Chapter 9

Brian walked into his office where Nick was sitting waiting for him. He looked at his younger partner, well aware of the fact that he was thinking of everything that had just happened. Maybe letting him think was a good idea. Someone was already working there way onto Cheryl's computer to see if they could find anything useful. It was Nick's idea after all.

"We should have results of the check in a few minutes," Brian said to Nick who looked up at him, "then we can go and talk to the people she worked with, family, friends, people like that."

"Did you get anything from the check on her computer?"

"I have a guy working on it right now. We should know soon, he's really good at hacking into computers, I'm just glad that he's on our side or we might have a lot of shit to worry about," Brian told him.

"You think anything will turn up?" Nick asked.

"Maybe, but if it was like you said, and she met this guy on-line, it will be a major help."

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait for some results to come in. Once something comes in from either one of them, we'll have something more to work with."

"What do we do if this does turn out to be internet related?" Nick asked.

"We get a warning out there for women not to get involved with men that they meet over the computer. Then we can trace where the e-mails were coming from and get this guy."

"What if it's a public computer? Like at a library or something?"

"Then we check the sign-up sheets to see who's been using the computers and then we check them out," Brian explained. Nick said nothing futher, he seemed satisfied knowing that if this guy used a computer to get in contact with this girls that they knew exactly what they needed to do to catch this guy.

"Results are in boys," one of the secratries said as she opened the door to Brians office, "this is a list of where she worked and worked until the time of he murder."

"Thanks Colleen," Brian replied as she handed him a folder containing the information that they needed, "when Carl gets the results on the computer scan tell him to bring it to my office. Carter and I will try and be back as soon as we can."

"Alright can do," she answered as she walked out of the office. Brian looked over at Nick who was staring at him. Brian could feel by the strength of his stare that he wanted to get out there and do something. Quickly Brian flipped open the folder and started to scan through it.

"It says that she works at some strip joint," Brian told Nick as he looked up from the folder.

"She was a stripper? That means that just about anyone could be invovled," Nick replied knowing that sometimes strippers were the hardest to find the murderers to because there seemed so many likely suspects. Jealious co-workers, obsessed 'fans,' just about anyone.

"Yeah but we know that our attacker is male. That can rule out the other female employees. It was most likely a customer," Brian replied.

"Okay, but then why did this guy attack Doreen? I mean we're sure that it's the same guy because of the note right? Then what's the connection between these two?" Nick asked.

"Honestly, I don't know right now. We're going to have to ask some questions to find the answer to that one."

"So what are we waiting for?" Nick said as he stood from the chair quickly, "we have a perp to catch."

"Alright come on," Brian answered as they walked out of the office. Nick had brought up a vaild point. These two women seemed to come from different worlds already. Doreen was the honor student type that never wanted to get into trouble. Where as Cheryl was invovled in a life where trouble came along with the teritorry.

Thanks in part to the sirens on the top of their squad car, they were at the club in under twenty minutes. Casually, Brian and Nick stepped out of the car and began to walk in the direction of the club. Neither of them said anything on the way over. The samething was on both of their minds. They wanted to find this guy and make him serve time.
"Open up, police," Brian yelled as he banged on the door of the club.

"Can I help you guys?" a young female asked as she opened the door.

"Yes, we'd like to speak to the owner," Brian told her.

"Well you're talkin to her," she answered.

"You mind if we ask you a few questions?"

"No, not at all. Why don't you boys come inside," she offered as she stepped aside and let the two of them walk in. The place was quiet and there seemed to be no one else around. "I'm Elena by the way."

"I'm officer Littrell and this is my partner officer Carter," Brian replied, "we're here to talk to you about Cheryl Adams."

"What about her? Is she alright?" Elena asked worried.

"She's dead."

"Oh my god," she gasped, "what happened?"

"We're not completely sure," Nick replied, "that's why we came here."

"I don't know what help I could be to you boys, but I'll do the best I can," she answered.

"Thank you ma'am," Brian responded, "Was there any particular guy that came here a lot and talked to her? Or seemed infatuated with her?"

"The only guy that I can think of is AJ."

"AJ what?"

"McLean. They dated in high school. She got pregnant by him."

"So they have a kid?" Brian asked.

"No, she miscarried," Elena explained, "they stayed close though. They were really close friends."

"Can you tell me what he was like? Was he an angry man? Jealious of other guys?" Brian asked. He knew that this AJ guy was going to come back to haunt him.

"No, he was a really sweet guy, which surprised me. Because the first time I saw him, he was covered in tattoos and I instantly thought that he was a bad guy, but infact he was really kind. He had a lot of respect for others."

"Did his behavior change recently?"

"Nope. He was the same guy that I met two years ago. Nothing was different about him other than a few new tattoo's but that's typical for AJ."

"Was there any other guy that came here who seemed to be overly infatuated with her. Like he was obsessed or something?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head after she had taken a moment to think, "nothing seemed strange. I've been involved in this business for a long time and I would have noticed if there was some guy here that would take things to far."

"Did Cheryl mention anything about being followed or she thought that something seemed wrong?" Nick asked.

"No, she seemed happy as ever."

"Why did she get involved with this business?"

"Each of the girls has their own reason. Some get into it because of the money, others because they like the rush that they get when they're up there," she said as she moved her hand towards the stage.

"Did you know Cheryl's reason?" Brian asked.

"Not really. I never asked. It didn't seem like it was any of my business," she replied.

"How did you aquire the information about her and Mr. McLean?"

"She introduced me to him and told me about it," she told him as she looked at him questiongly, "if you think AJ killed her, I don't think so."

"We never said that he was involved," Nick defended, "we just want to get as much information as possible."

"Still," she continued, becoming slightly inraged, "I know AJ and there is no way that he is capable of murder. No way in hell."

"Ma'am please calm down. We're not putting the blame on anyone. We don't have enough evidence to pin this on anyone. We just wanted to know about their relationship because there might have beem something there that we could have used. We never ment to insult your judgement," Brian explained to her calmly. Her eyes moved from staring at Brian to staring at Nick, she inhaled deeply and began to speak again.

"Sorry about my outburst," she apologised, "I shouldn't have don't that."

"It's alright ma'am," Brian assured her, "if you think of anything that might be of some assisstance to us, please give me a call. This is my card," he continued as he handed her his card.

"Sure officer, I'll call you as soon as something comes to mind that might be useful."

"Thank you, that would help us greatly," Brian answered before he and Nick began to walk out of the club. Silently, they entered the car and Nick looked over at Brian.

"Are we going to officially name McLean a suspect?" Nick asked.

"It's too soon. We need more to tie these two murders together other than the fact that they both knew this guy," Brian replied.

"That's enough for me," Nick said deifantly.

"Me too but we have to play by the rules," he answered, "and if we're right, which I believe that we are, things should start to fall together really soon."