Part 2 and a bit
"I don’t believe it," Rex groaned as he rested his arm against the bars of his cell. "This is ridiculous. Dimeras never get locked up."
"Only because your family sneaks off first," Belle mumbled, irritated at herself for getting caught. Her father had taught her better than that.
"This was your idea," Rex wanted to go home. He didn’t like the dank cells of Salem’s police station, and Tony was going to be furious when he found out that he’d spent the afternoon in jail rather than in class.
"No one made you come," Belle was not feeling too full of sunshine herself. She wanted to know when she was going to be let out. Every minute in here was a minute taken from crime solving time, and that was a minute taken from Shawn loving time.
Rex grumbled something unintelligible, then tried to change the subject, attempting to avoid an argument, "So who do you think did it?"
Belle stared blankly at him. "Did what?"
"Killed Dr Murphy," Rex answered, "we only know who didn’t do it."
"Well I didn’t do it, Jack Deveraux didn’t do it, Victor didn’t do it," Belle paused and thought about this last dismissed suspect, "unless he hired a hitman. How about you, Rex, did you do it?" She caught sight of his horrified expression and had to suppress a giggle. "You’re either the best actor in the world or innocent. Which is it?"
Rex gabbled something.
Belle put out a hand and patted his shoulder through the bars that divided their cells. "Don’t worry, I’m only joking."
He relaxed a little.
"You’re a Dimera, and the only thing worse than a Dimera’s acting skill is their morals. You couldn’t look quite so like innocence outraged and be guilty." This time she let the giggle escape her as Rex spluttered a defence. "You are so easy to wind up!"
*******
"Get ready to release the teens," Det. Irving was bored of games, "but let me see them first and don’t tell them they’re being released."
"So you’ve finally realised that Belle had nothing to do with Murphy’s death," Abe Carver showed white teeth in his self-satisfied grin.
"Belle Black had nothing to do with the murder, I never thought she did." There was no Bridget O’Shaunessey in this detective picture, but he couldn’t help being depressed by that truth. "But someone in Salem is a murderer and I’m no-one out until they can prove an alibi as tight as…" he searched his imagination for a simile without immediate success.
"Having tea with the Queen of England?" Abe cheekily suggested.
"No, as tight as being under CIA surveillance in Fort Knox when the trigger was pulled," Irving thought about this for a moment, "and then I won’t rule out their using a hitman."
Abe’s grin vanished. "You really are a suspicious bastard, aren’t you?"
Irving shrugged. "We make the best detectives. We suspect everybody. By the way, you didn’t kill him, did you, Commander?"
Abe didn’t deign to reply. Like John before him, he stomped out of the office cursing under his breath.
As before, Det Irving grinned happily. Salem was proving a veritable doughnut box of delights.
*******
"Get up." The tall, light haired detective had appeared as if out of nowhere and was now standing in the doorway of the hall that led to the cells.
Belle shot to her feet. "Are we free to go?"
"No," the detective was analysing his first impression of her. Short, blonde haired, a real fireball when it came to defending herself or her boyfriend, he couldn’t help but like her. That, however, was not about to cloud his judgement. "I’ve come to ask you a few questions."
Rex Dimera was watching him warily. "What about?"
Irving smiled, a smile that everyone in Salem would soon learn meant trouble. "Why neither of you told me that Mrs Horton makes the best doughnuts this side of Texas." The grin didn’t change as Belle giggled and Rex relaxed half a degree. Irving went on. "Or that Colin Murphy wasn’t the only person you saw outside the Kiriakis mansion the night the good doctor was killed. You saw someone else that night. Both of you."
Rex started and made a motion to deny it, but Irving just stared him down. "I know you were there, and your sister, Rex. Stop lying. The pair of you. I want the truth." He settled himself against the doorway, a cup of coffee in one hand that slowly filled the room with an appetising aroma and one of Mrs H’s famous doughnuts in the other.
From where she was standing, Belle could see it was jam filled. Her mouth started watering. The detective took a big bite out of it, licking away the spilt jam from his lips sensually. "Mm-mm," he murmured, "that sure does taste good."
Rex licked his own lips and stared hard. That doughnut was just so tempting.
The detective chewed and swallowed. "So, are you going to tell me the truth, or do I need to send the entire box of Mrs H’s doughnuts back including the ones laced with digitalis to make you two appear dead?"
"No!" Rex started forwards and gripped the bars of his cell. This was a torture not to be endured. "We’ll talk, we’ll tell you anything you want to know, just don’t take the doughnuts away."
Irving nodded briefly, then leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms across his chest and staring at them. "Nice to find someone who’s willing to be co-operative around here." There was the lightning quick flash of a smile. "Now," the smile was gone as if it had never been, "tell me, why is it that everyone in this town lies about seeing Larry Welch and claims he’s dead when he so clearly isn’t?"
Belle gasped. "How did you know?"
Irving shrugged. The deduction had been easy. "That’s not important." He picked up another doughnut from the box he had laid on the table next to him. "So what were Larry and Cassie talking about that was so secret?"
Rex dropped his head. "My sister’s an idiot."
Belle made a noise that would be a snort in a girl less ladylike. "No kidding."
"Children," Irving waved the doughnut at them. "Stop arguing. I need answers. Tell me what I want to know and you can leave."
"I didn’t hear," Belle looked depressed. "I was too far away."
Rex’s eyes were fixed on the doughnut. "I wasn’t." He had the detective’s full attention. "Cassie thought that she could get Larry’s help in convincing Shawn to fall in love with her."
Belle swore quietly.
"Miss Black," the Detective’s voice expressed his sympathy but was still authoritatively firm, "please don’t interrupt."
"I told you," Rex sighed, "my sister’s an idiot. She thought she could get Larry to kidnap Hope again so that she could find her and save her, thereby earning Shawn’s everlasting gratitude and therefore love. Of course, Larry wanted to know what was in it for him. Cassie told him that she knew who killed Colin Murphy, the man he hired to kill Bo Brady."
"I know this," the Detective was looking bored. "Larry hired Colin to kill Bo so that he was out of the picture when it came to Larry getting to Hope. With the Love of her Life dead, Hope would be weak enough to fall into one of his traps. Colin was set to kill Bo the night he himself was killed, but Bo didn’t do it."
Rex’s eyes were clouding over with confusion. "How did you know all that?"
Another heavy sigh. "Because Abe, after a little coercion, told me about the bullet with Bo’s name on it, from various sources I know that Larry is alive and no, you don’t get to find out what those sources are, the pills Shawn has been taking are clearly amphetamines designed to drive Hope mad, and if there’s one thing you can rely on around here, it’s an Evil ex-lover of one of the most prominent residents who is behind it all." Irving’s face expressed how tired he was becoming. He hadn’t slept in almost twenty-two hours. "What I don’t know is who killed Colin and why there was another bullet at the scene of the crime."
"You feeling OK, Detective?" Belle’s blue eyes were watching him keenly. He looked exhausted, surprisingly something that even Mrs H’s doughnuts couldn’t fix.
Ashamed of himself for letting his emotions show so clearly on his face, Irving nodded curtly. "Yes." He turned to Rex. "Thanks for your help. I may need a statement later. For now, you’re free to go."
"Thank God already," Belle muttered as she turned to pick her things up.
"Not you, Miss Black," Irving was feeling miserable and in the mood to spread it around a bit. "I need to ask you a few more questions."
Rex, having been released by the Officer on Duty, glanced back apologetically at Belle. "See you later."
She merely scowled back at him. It was his fault they’d been caught at all. He was meant to be keeping a look out while she searched for clues. Instead he’d been pestering her about what she was doing, what she was going to do, and, worst of all, whether she thought that Mimi liked him or found him too out of this world.
*******
"Shawn?" Cassie’s whining voice was in his ear again, and he could feel his Ho-radar start to beep.
He swallowed his impatience and, with as much kindness as he could muster, answered, "Yes, Cassie?"
She tossed her wantonly red hair over her shoulders and pouted. If he had read the proper literature, or tuned in to a daytime soap, he would have known that this was classic villainess behaviour, but he hadn’t, so he didn’t, and so he had only a lifetime of experience of Salem with which he could defend himself. "I need to talk to you. It’s about That Night."
"Does it have to be now?" He made a show of glancing at his watch. "I’m meeting Belle soon."
He was looking down so that he did not see the flash of green envy that crossed her face. Another sign of Badness. "Yes. I think Det. Irving knows."
"He can’t know," Shawn’s impatience was rising back up his gorge. "He’s only been here for two days. He doesn’t know anything. He was interviewing Henderson earlier." His Dad’s police radio had reported the call that Victor had made to complain about his butler’s absence at the time when cocktails were to be served. Victor hadn’t threatened reprisals. He didn’t need to. The butler had been returned almost immediately. Even Det Irving seemed to fear Salem’s answer to the Godfather.
"But I’m sure he’s figured out that we had something to do with Colin’s death," she let her lower lip wobble just a little bit, enough to attract his attention to her ruby lips and wide mouth.
‘First Brillo-head, then the Sinthia, now this Space Sex Bunny! How do I get myself into these things?’ Shawn thought to himself, ignoring her blatant attempt at seduction and struggling to pull himself away from her wandering hands. A single finger on his biceps was enough to make him shiver with trepidation. He really didn’t want to feel her any where Belle wouldn’t approve. He had a fair idea that Belle wouldn’t mind if Cassie was on the other side of the planet, and he toyed with the idea of buying her a ticket, but then decided that she would probably be back faster than a cop to a doughnut shop. The girl liked her sugar.
"Cassie, don’t worry. He hasn’t figured anything out. He’s just doing his job." He sounded so much calmer than he felt, and he was calmer than perhaps he should have been. After all, he had nearly come to a decision that would shape the rest of his life. "If you look worried or afraid, he’ll work out we’ve got something to hide. Just stay cool. Let me do the worrying for you. Not that there’s anything to worry about."
Shawn’s brain, usually inoperative, was buzzing like a sawmill. He gave her a tentative smile, tentative as God only knew how she would take it. "We’ll talk tomorrow, OK? I’ll meet you in the park by the bench near the river. I’ll have worked out what to do by then. In the mean time, don’t fret. Irving presents no danger."
It was only then that she played her trump card. "Then why did he arrest Belle and Rex for trespassing on the crime scene earlier and take them in for questioning?"
*******
There was a strange sound in the jail, one that came abruptly to Belle’s attention as it grew louder. Belle stared at the Detective who was still eating doughnuts. "Are you humming?"
A guilty look briefly flashed across his face. "No." He lied swiftly.
"You were," Belle’s eyes bored into his. "What was it?"
"I wasn’t humming," Irving felt himself becoming as intimidated by the daughter as the father had been by him.
"Were too." Belle grinned. Having reduced the Detective to big brother status, she could deal with his interrogation easily. "It was ‘Save Me’."
The Detective, infuriated with himself for falling into her game so easily. He should have known better. "Miss Black," he forced himself to come under his own iron will. The stubbornness that had driven his mother to distraction was finally doing him some good. "Whether I was humming or not is of no importance."
"Ah," Belle’s grin widened mischievously. "So you were humming."
Irving forced himself not to sigh in exasperation. "Miss Black, a man has been murdered and it’s my job to find his killer. Are you going to help me or do I need to call your mother?"
She visibly paled. "My mother?"
There was no hint of amusement in the Detective’s voice. "You aren’t a minor, but I’m sure she would want to know what questions I was asking you during your stay here."
"My stay?" She was horrified. "I’m not staying."
"You broke the law, Miss Black." That infamous smile flashed again. "I can keep you here over night, longer since I witnessed you in the act of trespass."
Belle groaned. She knew the law. She had broken it and now her ass was his. She was already late to meet Shawn in the Brady Pub. He’d had something to tell her. Now she would have to spend time apologising, explaining and listening to his fury that she had done something so stupid.
"So," Irving’s blue eyes were watching her intently, his brain recording her every tiny reaction, "Belle, are you going to stop lying to me or does your mother need to come in?" He watched as she gave a small, frustrated nod. "Then tell me, why is it that I don’t believe you when you say that you were too far from Cassie and Larry to hear what they were saying?" He pulled a tiny black microphone from his pocket. "Could it be that you’re Father had Cassie bugged and that you were listening in the whole time?" He wasn’t smiling anymore. "Miss Black, I really do think it’s best if you tell me the truth. Your boyfriend’s cousin was murdered. You know that. You found the body. If the murderer goes undetected," his hands went up in a gesture of helplessness, "that means you’re putting other lives in danger."
Belle saw a sudden light at the end of the tunnel. "I don’t know anything about a murderer and you don’t know that Colin’s death wasn’t an accident. Maybe he surprised Larry spying on the Brady family, they struggled and the gun went off."
The light was the oncoming train of Irving’s logical thought. "Larry Welch did not kill Dr Murphy. He was sighted by a guard on the other side of the mansion at the time the murder took place. Cassie Dimera did not kill Colin Murphy. As the gun went off she was buying red liquorice from a Seven-Eleven two blocks away. Tony Dimera did not kill Colin Murphy. He was under surveillance at his house. Rex Dimera did not kill Colin Murphy. He was playing chess against Tony, and winning, I may add. Jack and Jen Deveraux have been cleared. They didn’t kill Colin, though I suspect they had good reason to. Little Abby Deveraux is far too young to have killed Colin. Anyway, she didn’t have gunpowder residue on her hands or the strength to bruise the good doctor."
She gasped, "You actually thought Abby might have done it?"
He shrugged. "Everyone is a suspect in the eyes of the law."
"What about Will Roberts, Sami and Lucas’s son?" She was taunting him now, half disbelieving that he had even thought of investigating such small children for the crime.
Irving deliberately took the bait. Every suspect’s name crossed off the list went further to intimidate Belle into telling him something useful. He felt a bastard doing it though. "He was playing in a maid’s room. Six people can testify to his whereabouts."
"And my mother?" Her blue eyes were widening. "My father? Are they suspects too?"
Another casual shrug from the detective. "Marlena and John were dancing, the entire band backed them up."
Belle’s gaze darted to the doughnuts, "Mrs Horton?"
That made him laugh. "Alice? Oh, she wouldn’t kill Colin. Anyway, she and every member of the Brady and Horton family in the country but not invited to the party were eating chowder and celebrating the New Year in the Brady Pub."
She felt safer now. Most of the people she cared about most seemed to be off the hook. "So who’s left to investigate?"
"There’s Bo and Hope Brady; Nicole Walker-Kiriakis; Brandon Walker; Sami Brady; Lucas Roberts; Kate Roberts; Victor Kiriakis; Faye Walker; those are the major suspects, and of course, your boyfriend, Shawn-Douglas Brady, though I hear he goes by Just-Shawn these days." His blue eyes were watching her more closely than ever. The slight intake of breath, the widening of the eyes, the increase in her heartbeat, a thousand tiny signs told him she was innocent. She didn’t know who the killer was. He refused to use her further. "Miss Black, I think you’ll be glad to know that you are free to go now."
"Wait," Belle gripped the bars of her cell as the detective signalled to the guard to unlock her cell. "Did you mean what you said about Shawn?"
"That he’s a suspect?" She nodded to confirm his question. "Of course. You were too up until you broke into the Kiriakis residence." She stared at him hard, disbelieving him. His hard blue eyes softened and a smile gentled his lips. "I credit you with too much intelligence for you to be the killer returning to the crime only to be caught in the act of trespass."
She ran past him, tears starting to form.
He hadn’t meant to make her cry. He hated making girls cry. He’d hated it whenever Hannah had cried. He had some answers now. The tape that his fellow officer had found when searching through Belle’s bag would provide a few more.
There were some days when he really loathed his job.
"Detective Irving?" It was Officer Ruiz, another under-worked and overpaid member of the Salem police force.
"Yeah?" He dragged himself away from the doughnuts, tempting though they were.
"We got John Black in reception," Ruiz grinned, "he’s demanding that you release his daughter or he’ll file a police harassment suit. He said something about some doughnuts being stolen." The officer glanced knowingly down at the box by the detective’s hand. "You know anything about those, sir?"
Irving tossed the box over to his colleague. "Not anymore I don’t." He began to stride from the room but checked his paces for a moment. "Don’t eat the ones with chocolate sprinkles."
Ruiz, caught in the act of lifting one of the chocolate sprinkled doughnuts to his mouth, stopped abruptly and stared at it warily, a memory of another imprisoned prominent Salemite receiving Mrs Horton’s doughnuts crossing his mind. "Is it one of the drugged ones?"
"No." Irving positively smirked at having made Ruiz stop, "But they are my favourites."
He was out of the room but not out of hearing when Ruiz shouted after him, "How about the coconut ones?"
In response, he jerked a thumbs up at the officer. Grinning, Ruiz bit into the coconut covered confection. His superiors never usually let him eat the doughnuts, drugged or not. Irving was a real peach, or rather a real peach jam doughnut. "Hey guys!" He yelled happily, picking up the box after locking the cell doors, "Guess what Mrs H sent us?"