Raven: A political thriller Read online

“Raven, your father and I are worried. Please call us.”

  Don laughed to himself, thinking about Maggie and how this VanBuren chick’s parents put her to shame. When the third message started to play, Don half expected it to be her parents again. “Raven, Cathy here. The work was under warranty. I love the car. See you soon.”

  Don turned to Fred with a puzzled look. It occurred to him that at some point this past week possibly a friend of VanBuren’s was driving her car. The fourth message quickly cut into his train of thought. “Your father was at the house, would you please call!”

  Before Don could digest that message, another message quickly started playing. “I’m flying into town for a few days, how about dinner? Catch you later.”

  It sounded like the victim had a suitor. The message didn’t leave a name—and there was an air of familiarity to the message, giving Don the impression that Raven would know whom it was without giving a name.

  Don maneuvered in traffic. That last message bothered him and he didn’t know why. Before he could figure out why, the sixth message came on quickly.

  “If you don’t leave him alone, you’re dead!” the woman snapped and then hung up.

  Don turned to Fred with a curious look as he whistled. “I wonder if Mr. Fly boy is the one that caused this?”

  Before he could think further, the seventh message quickly came on. Again it was Raven’s parents with another plea for her to call.

  The eighth message cut into his thoughts. “I’m going out of town this weekend. He’s finally taken the step. See you Monday,” the woman said.

  The voice was the same as the one earlier. Don turned to Fred. “What was her name?”

  Don had stopped for a red light. Once the light turned green, he was still deep in thought as he looked at Fred waiting for his answer.

  ”Cathy, I think,” Fred said.

  The ninth message started quickly. “Raven, it is Tad here. You avoiding me? Give me a call. I’m staying at the Hilton.”

  Horns blared from behind as Don was startled for a moment. He quickly pulled in front of a taxi and narrowly avoided getting sideswiped. “Finally, a name,” he said.

  Fred just looked around, wondering if he were going to live to see tomorrow, given Don’s inattentive driving.

  The tenth and last message said it all. “I’ve warned you,” was all the woman said. It sounded very threatening.

  After that there was dead air with no more messages. Don popped the tape out and then turned to Fred. “I’ll have to turn this in and have the messages transcribed. This may help us catch whoever did that to her.”

  “Sure sounds like someone had it in for her,” Fred added.

  “I’ll drop you off at the Hilton while I go to VanBuren’s office,” Don said.

  “Shouldn’t we work together?

  Don shrugged. “We can cover more territory this way.”

  Besides, Don just wanted to be alone for a while. He was tired and didn’t really want to talk to Fred. They were both working with a handicap of a few hours sleep. Once he got rid of Fred, he planned to stop in at the first convenience store for another large cup of caffeine.

  Chapter 6

  While Don drove, he kept yawning. He turned to Fred, whose head continued to bob while his eyes were shut. Don envied him and would have given anything to be able to shut his eyes for just five minutes. Don quickly lit a cigarette and inhaled. He had to do something to stay awake. His eyes were blurring over as he kept wiping them, hoping to ward off the sleep he so desperately wanted.

  Don was thankful the Hilton wasn’t that far away. Watching Fred catch a little shut-eye was too much for him to bear. He was glad to be rid of his partner for a little while. He pulled up to the entrance and then poked Fred. He secretly felt a tinge of pleasure waking him, wanting him to suffer just like he was.

  “Hey, wake up,” Don said, hitting Fred in the arm.

  “What, what!”

  It took Fred a short while to get his bearings. When he realized where they were, he slowly opened the door, but before getting out he turned to Don.

  “You sure we should separate?”

  All Don knew was that he needed some time apart from Fred. To have him sit in the passenger seat, sleeping while he drove, was enough to make any sane man angry. Besides, it did make sense to separate under these circumstances. Don didn’t need to be with Fred when interviewing the suspected boyfriend, and Don could handle going to Raven VanBuren’s employer and talking to them about Raven and what she did for Senator Maxfield.

  “Just do it and get out. I’ll meet you back at VanBuren’s place.” Don said.

  “How am I going to get there?” Fred said as he hung onto the squad door while looking in at Don.

  “Take a cab.”

  Fred would have liked to complain, but instead he slammed the car door shut as Don sped away from the cub.

  Don had passed a convenience store a few blocks away and was anxious to get back there. Traffic was light, so he was able to speed and get back to it in short order. Don quickly pulled into the parking lot and entered the store, where he bought one of those energy drinks and a large cup of coffee. Once out of the store, he quickly drank the energy drink and tossed the empty bottle in the trash and then took a gulp of the coffee. He knew this would kick-start his body into overdrive. It wasn’t something he did often, but today he desperately needed it. Don got back in the squad and then sped off. His desire to sleep wasn’t as overwhelming as before, and he felt halfway human again.

  Luckily, it wasn’t too far to the Hart Senate Office Building. When he pulled up, the security guard walked up to the squad with a clipboard in hand. Don quickly pulled out his badge and showed it to the guard.

  “Official business.”

  “Who you seeing?”

  “I have an appointment with a Ms. Winslow,” Don said.

  The guard pointed to his left. “Park in Lot B, I’ll have a guard meet you there and take you over to Human Resources.”

  Don had always been impressed with the building. His father talked about it often, as it was on his beat. It was distinctly contemporary in appearance, with its marble façade that was in keeping with the surrounding buildings in the area. The nine-story building served senators as well as the various committees and sub-committees that kept the government running. It was a building that was built for changing times.

  Once inside, Don was impressed with the atrium that filtered natural light throughout the building. He was in awe of the mobile Mountains and Clouds. It was an impressive sculpture. Although Don didn’t quite understand it, anyone looking at the enormity of the structure couldn’t help but be impressed by its creator.

  The guard who led Don turned to him. “That was one of Calder’s last works.”

  Don didn’t know who Calder was but didn’t want to show his ignorance, so he just nodded in agreement. Don just raised his eyebrows. It was a large building, and he was glad now he wasn’t left to find his own way to the Human Resources department.

  Once he was led into Ms. Winslow’s office he was thankful for the offer of a cup of coffee. While he waited for her to return with Raven’s personnel file he made a few notations in his little notebook and then took a gulp of the coffee and shook his head, trying to shake himself awake. It was going to be a long day and he couldn’t stop yawning.

  Ms. Winslow slowly walked back into the office. She set the file down on her desk. Don glanced at it and then looked up at her.

  “So she hasn’t been in the office since last week.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Did she say why she was taking the...” Don said and then stopped.

  “Comp time?” Ms. Winslow said a little annoyed with Don’s yawning.

  Don nodded. He would have loved a job like that. Being a detective and working twelve-hour days sometimes, it would be nice to take comp time. But the department was short-staffed, and Don was thankful just to have a job. His paychecks were direct-deposited into his bank
account and, with him always working, he never had time to spend any of it, let alone invest. It was something he was always meaning to do. But then after the breakup he discovered Jackie was siphoning his bank account on a regular basis. And he was lucky she hadn’t taken out any loans in his name to boot.

  Ms. Winslow quickly continued. “There was no need for me to know the reason. Raven had worked here for nearly seven years. She had a lot of time built up.”

  “Weren’t you curious?”

  “I have hundreds of people I oversee. Raven was just a name on a piece of paper.”

  It bothered Don when she said that. He thought for a moment about the portrait and the woman behind the vision. There was a time she was a living, breathing human being. Not just a name on a piece of paper. Don held his temper and then quickly added.

  “What about recently? Senator Maxfield was missing and under investigation, I might add. You didn’t make a call to talk to Ms. VanBuren about the situation?”

  Don could tell he had the woman on the defensive. It remained to be seen whether she would give him the information he wanted that would be pertinent to the investigation. He knew from past experience that Human Resource managers were very close-mouthed about employees because of privacy laws. In some cases the information they received came back to bite them in the butt. This case was different, though. Ms. VanBuren was dead, and it didn’t look so good for her boss either.

  “We did talk last week. But it was my understanding that she wasn’t being investigated for any wrongdoing in the senator’s disappearance.”

  “I didn’t mean to imply,” Don quickly added.

  “I would have handled things differently,” Ms. Winslow said.

  Don looked at her with squinted eyes. “In what way?” he asked.

  “I’d rather not say.”

  Don was somewhat annoyed at Ms. Winslow and her evasive tiptoeing around a sensitive subject.

  “This is a murder investigation,” he snapped.

  “I did receive a call. There were some allegations made against Raven. I called to see if they were founded.”

  “What did Ms. VanBuren say?” Don asked.

  Don was curious now if Raven was promiscuous. He had this vision of her being this perfect human being. He honestly would have been disappointed to find out she was no better than a lot of the people who lived in Washington, DC.

  There was something about her portrait and her house that made him want to believe she was a person of substance. Ms. VanBuren not being in contact with them was not normal. He wondered why they didn’t contact the police if they were indeed concerned for her well-being. It would be something he would have to ask them when the time came.

  Ms. Winslow quickly added, “Raven said there was no truth to the rumors.”

  “Who made the allegations, was it a woman?”

  “Yes, she never said much. Just that she wanted Raven to leave her husband alone.”

  “Did she leave a name?” Don asked.

  “No, she hung up before I could get more information. I did get her number on caller ID.”

  Ms. Winslow handed Don the slip of paper. Don took it from her, looked at the name, and then quickly glanced up at Ms. Winslow with a look of confusion.

  “What did you do when Ms. VanBuren denied the affair?”

  She just shrugged. “What could I do? I scheduled another meeting with Raven for early next week when she was supposed to get back from her time off,” she said and then glanced at her calendar. “I guess I can cross that off my planner. It was set for Monday at one.”

  Don was getting a different picture of the type of person Raven VanBuren was. So unlike the sweet vision in the portrait. He felt deflated, and was not sure if it was from lack of sleep or the inflated image he had of the victim of this brutal crime. It was so unlike him to not think rationally about this case. His mind had been clouded ever since he set eyes on that portrait.

  “Could I have a look at her office?” Don asked.

  “Sure, I’ll have my secretary take you.

  Ms. Winslow got up and walked out of the office quickly. She motioned to her secretary.

  It was a long walk to where Raven’s office was and, judging by how deep into the belly of the building it was, he guessed she worked for one of the junior senators.

  It surprised Don he was left alone to go through Raven’s office unattended. He sat at Raven’s desk and just glanced around for the longest time. The desk was completely cleared off except for the incoming basket. Don was curious if someone had gone through things before he arrived. He reached over and grabbed the stack of incoming mail. He flipped through the stack of memos. It made for dry reading, and after a few minutes he gave up on the mail and started going through the drawers. Raven’s office was as neat and orderly as her home had been. When he tried the bottom-left drawer, he found it locked. Don lifted the desk mat and saw the key.

  “Creature of habit,” was all he said to himself.

  Don unlocked the desk drawer. Again everything was neat and orderly. He opened the folders but nothing seemed of importance, hardly worthy of locking the drawer.

  The laptop was also sitting in the locked drawer. Don took it out and then turned it on. The login screen came on the screen suddenly and asked for a password. Don punched in ‘Raven’ and then pressed Enter. The computer beeped, so he typed in ‘VanBuren’ and then pressed Enter again. The computer beeped again. He typed in ‘Maxfield,’ and again the computer beeped, but this time ‘Security Violation’ flashed across the screen. Don quickly shut the computer off.

  “Oh well, it was worth a try,” Don said to himself.

  Don glanced at the phone and saw the red flashing light. He picked up the receiver, pressed the voicemail button, and listened.

  “You have one unplayed message from Thursday at 4:33 pm. To play the message press ‘P’ to delete…

  Don quickly pressed the ‘P.’

  “This is Lydia. I warned you, now you’ll pay.”

  Don ended the message and then appeared a little puzzled. He got up and walked out.

  Don retraced his steps and was soon back in the Human Resources department, only having had to ask three people for directions.

  Once he made his way back to Ms. Winslow’s office he tapped lightly on her door. She glanced up, looking a little annoyed that he was back.

  “One more quick question,” Don asked.

  “What is it?” she said with a perturbed look.

  “I noticed Ms. VanBuren only had one voicemail, from yesterday at about 4:30.

  Ms. Winslow looked puzzled. “You listened to her voicemail?” she snapped.

  “This is a murder investigation.”

  “But...” Ms. Winslow argued.

  “No buts,” Don said and then continued, “Can you access the phone system from outside the building?”

  “That was the whole idea with putting this system in play. To be able to access your messages while you were traveling.”

  “So Ms. VanBuren could be able to pick up her voicemail from anywhere?”

  “Yes, with the proper ID codes, that is,” she said, looking sternly at Don for the longest time. “It’s only when you are sitting at your desk that the security protocol doesn’t require the necessary security codes.”

  Don made a notation in his little notebook. He smiled politely at Ms. Winslow and then turned and walked off before she could chastise him for what he did. Don knew she was not happy with him or the liberty of listening to Raven’s phone messages. Especially given Raven was Senator Maxfield’s personal assistant.

  Chapter 7

  Don was digesting what he learned from Ms. Winslow, which wasn’t much. He still didn’t have an insight into what kind of person Raven VanBuren was.

  As a Human Resource manager, he didn’t like Ms. Winslow much, given the threats that were made on Raven’s life. He felt something more should have been done. It might have prevented what happened last night, but that was neither here nor th
ere. His job now was to find out who did the deed and put them behind bars. He didn’t have to like it. He just had to do his job.

  Don was determined to get Ms. Winslow more training in how to handle situations like the ones that arose with Raven VanBuren’s threatening phone calls. It was a long ride to Falls Church again, which gave him plenty of time to think of the different ways he could make Ms. Winslow’s job a living hell for her indifference in the situation.

  Don hadn’t really given much thought to Fred during his drive. His one thought was that he only hoped Fred had enough money with him to pay for the taxicab.

  As Don pulled onto Hillier Street, he was more impressed by what he saw than last night. In the daylight the well-maintained yards were more noticeable than last evening and far larger than the small city lot his mother lived on. It was clear there were the haves in this world and the have-nots. Don had the distinct impression he was from the class of have-nots. He parked the squad in the driveway and walked up to the front door. To his surprise the door was slightly ajar. He quickly unholstered his gun and walked in.

  Once inside the living room, he was surprised by what he saw. Unlike last evening the room was in total disarray and reeked of spilt cinnamon oil from the reed diffusers around the room. The glass in the breakfront was smashed out, with shards of glass scattered around the room. The cups and saucers were broken into pieces, along with other items from the breakfront. The cushions from the couch were shredded, and stuffing lay all over the floor. The bureau drawers were tossed about with papers strewed around the room, along with the table linens that were stored there. Lamps were smashed, while the plants had been pulled out of their pots and the dirt scattered onto the floor and ground in. It was clear someone was looking for something. He quickly glanced over at the portrait and was relieved that it was untouched. Why it should have mattered, he didn’t know, but he gave a sigh of relief when he saw it intact. It was basically the only thing untouched in the bedlam that he saw in front of him.

  Don slowly walked down the hall to the kitchen. It, too, was trashed. The floor was covered with broken dishes, shards of glass, and food was all mixed together. Don was unclear if this was related to their case or just vandals trashing the house at random. Suddenly, there was the rustling of something falling upstairs. Don stopped in his tracks and listened. It sounded like the noise came from Raven’s bedroom upstairs. He then retreated back into the living room quickly and then slowly climbed the stairs, careful to stay close to the wall as he made his way up. Once he reached the top of the stairs he turned to the right to Raven’s room. Don didn’t hear the movement behind him until it was too late, and he was sent sprawling onto the hallway floor out cold.