Detective On Duty-Chapter 26: Katherine And The Stalker

Katherine didn’t speak to James after their final, hateful confrontation. She ignored his phone calls, the insistent ringing a daily reminder of his cruelty and left his thick, apologetic letters unopened on her table, the sight of his infuriating handwriting sparking fresh pain and fury.

When she got to work, she pulled Ava aside, her face bruised and her eyes still swollen. Her best friend was the only person she felt she could trust. With tears streaming down her face, Katherine recounted James’s infidelity and his monstrous accusations. Crucially, shame and trauma kept her silent about Adrian’s violation.

"He accused me of sleeping with other men... and called me the most horrible names," Katherine sobbed. Ava, the master manipulator, immediately put on a show of outrage. She gasped dramatically, her hands flying to her mouth.

"Oh, Katherine! That monster!" she cried, her voice ringing with false sympathy. "And after he was caught cheating himself? He’s not worth your tears, darling. He’s just a cheap cheat with a filthy mouth." She wrapped Katherine in a tight hug, her lips curving into a subtle, triumphant smile behind her friend’s back, savoring the success of her scheme.

A few days later, a haunted look returned to Katherine’s eyes. She pulled Ava into the ladies’ room at the publishing house.

"It’s worse, Ava," she whispered, her hands shaking. "The letters. Look." She thrust a crumpled note into Ava’s hand.

Ava initially tried to laugh it off. "Kath, you’re making this up!" But then she saw the proof the crude, obsessive script. Her face snapped into a mask of convincing horror.

"Oh my God! This is real. Someone is genuinely obsessed with you! We’re going home together from now on, you hear me? I won’t let you be alone."

The Present

"That day I made a horrible mistake, when I wanted to go home after seeing Katherine already getting ready, I told her that I wanted to leave and she said fine and we exchanged our goodnight. When I leaving I forgot to lock the door and just left."

1957

Moments later, the doorknob slowly turned, and the stalker she had positioned slipped inside, hiding in the shadows.

When Katherine returned from locking her car, she saw the door unlocked. She frowned, murmuring, "Did Ava forget?" She entered, and the man gripped her from behind, dragging her toward the bed.

"Don’t scream, sweetheart. I just want to taste what I’ve been writing about," the man hissed, his breath hot on her neck.

Katherine fought back with a ferocity born of recent trauma. "Get off me! Leave!" She landed a slap across his cheek, and he retaliated, striking her back. But Katherine was prepared. She ripped open her handbag and pulled out a small gun a recent, secret purchase. She leveled the weapon at his chest.

"Take one more step and you’ll regret it!" she warned, her voice trembling but steady.

The sight of the gun paralyzed him. He scrambled backward and fled the apartment.

Back at the company the next day, Katherine recounted the terrifying incident to Ava. "I chased him out. I won’t let another man touch me again." Ava embraced her, whispering, "You’re so brave, my darling! You showed him!"

In The Present

Ava finished her tearful, distorted tale to Miles and Ethan. She had woven Adrian’s crime with James’s betrayal and the stalker’s threat, all while maintaining her innocence in the orchestration.

Miles felt the prickle of suspicion again, her tears felt rehearsed. Ethan focused on the tangible lead. "Ava, do you know who this stalker was?"

She shook her head, maintaining her feigned confusion. "No, but I know my boyfriend stays in the Dorian Hotel downtown. I only have been there twice so I don’t know if he stays there often as before." She gave them the precise location.

"That’s a start. We appreciate your cooperation, Ava," Miles said flatly.

As the detectives left, Ava sank onto the sofa with a heavy sigh. Her new boyfriend immediately cuddled her close. "It’s over now, isn’t it?" she murmured into his shoulder.

"Almost, darling," he replied.

Ava had confessed to him everything about her jealousy, the lie to James, and the stalking incidents, which had initially angered him but which he now viewed as her painful past. However, she never revealed her meticulous planning or the fact that she was the puppet master a detail that remained her terrifying secret.

Miles and Ethan exchanged a long, heavy look in the hallway outside Ava’s apartment. They were reeling from the sheer volume of betrayal Ava had just described, the cheating, the stalker, the near-assault, and the final, catastrophic confrontation with James. Ava’s performance had been convincing, yet something about the convenient timing of her confession and the ease of the new lead felt off. They knew they hadn’t gotten the full truth, but the details she provided were too specific to ignore.

Miles and Ethan arrived at the phone booth nearby, Ethan paid a coin and dialed the number. They were there to speak with the doctor who had handled Katherine Vance’s autopsy.

Dr. Alistair a man with tired eyes and a perpetually serious expression, heard the telephone rings in his office and he answered it.

"Doctor," Miles began, leaning forward. "You only told us that it was a murder case and she was pregnant before she died. However, based on new testimony, we need to ask you specifically about any external signs of struggle that might contradict that finding."

Dr. Alistar opened the file, flipping through the pages of notes and photographs.

"We have testimony detailing multiple, violent assaults in the days leading up to her death forced intercourse, physical restraint, and a near-drowning incident," Ethan explained, watching the doctor’s reaction closely. "Did you encounter any injuries on the body defensive wounds, bruises on the wrists or throat, anything that would suggest she was physically overpowered?"

Dr. Alistar ran a finger down his detailed list of observations. He sighed, looking up at the two detectives.

"No," he stated clearly. "That’s precisely why the case was ruled a Suicide by cutting only her wrist and bleeding to death. Katherine Vance had no defensive wounds on her hands or arms. There were no significant bruises on her wrists, neck, or body indicating a struggle with an assailant. The body was pristine, apart from the expected signs of drowning and the existing bruises noted in the file."

Miles frowned, confused. "So, no evidence whatsoever of the two brutal assaults we now have confessions for?"

"I can only speak to the physical evidence," Dr. Alistar replied. "The answer is no. There was no physical evidence of a struggle or recent rape visible at the time of the autopsy."

Ethan plastered a quick, frustrated look on his face. Ava has confessed about the assault of Adrian and the stalker, but which of them was true and a lie? Was all a lie. How did she even know about Adrian and Katherine? When Katherine didn’t tell her? Was this all made up? Ethan then came out of the booth.

"She’s not telling the truth, the doctor never saw any physical assault on her body at the process of autopsy."

Miles rubbed his temple, feeling the familiar throb of psychic overload. "No. Not even close. But her story about James being drugged... and Katherine catching them? Do you think it was a lie, was everything she even told us a lie?"