A Jewel Whodunnit...
SADIE'S SCANDAL
PART TWO:  DEATH TO THE OLD LIFE

Chapter Five: Complications

"Those bloody pigs are here again."
Simone perched on the windowsill, taking an annoyed drag on her cigarette. "When do you suppose they're gonna be gone, huh? Dammit, they got the body, what else do they want to do?"
"Perhaps they're looking for new accomodation." Donna muttered from her corner. "I wish I'd never brought them into it. I just hope whoever did this gets it in the neck."
"Well, we all wish you hadn't done it too." Simone told her companion bluntly. "Cops and us don't go together."
"Oh, go to hell, will you!" Donna exclaimed. "Listen, airhead. What did you expect me to do? Drag him out and bury him? Besides, it weren't one of us did this. It was that bitch Sadie. I just wish they'd hurry up and nail her and leave us alone. You know, one of them asked me if I'd testify in court about finding the body? Must be mad."
"You, in court and not in the dock?" Simone snorted with laughter. "Oh, priceless, that. Who's gonna listen to a wasted out smackhead like you, huh? Brilliant."
"Like you're so much better." Donna snapped. "In case it escaped your notice, the police are well clued into the fact that Neal had a whole lot of smack in his possession when he died. Not only that, but they took it all as evidence."
"So? Isn't like we don't know other people who can supply." Simone shrugged carelessly, flicking ash onto the floor. "Hey, get over it, huh? Sure, it sucks and all. Neal was cool and noone shoulda done this. But we'll survive. Ain't the first dead body that's ever come up round these parts, anyhow."
"What do you mean?" Donna looked startled. Simone nodded, exhaling a contemplative cloud of smoke.
"Yeah. Don't you remember Marsha Robinson?"
"Marsha who?"
"Dammit, girl, how wasted is your brain!"
"I never knew no Marsha." Donna retorted. "Not in this life or any other. What the hell is she to do with anything?"
"She died." Simone said with an infuriating shrug.
"Yeah, but what has that to do with us?"
"Well...she was Neal's bird, once upon a time." Simone reflected. "Come to think of it, she was Neal's girl when Sadie first got in with us lot. You know, that is suspicious, now I think about it."
"Go on." Donna looked interested now. "I wasn't here when Sadie joined, she was here when I came. I don't remember any of this. Tell me."
"Well...the girl kinda disappeared, you see." Simone shrugged. "People said that she'd left, but she didn't. She died."
"How do you know?" Donna looked suspicious.
"I saw her, dumbass." Simone snapped. "Me and a couple of the girls found her next morning. Hanging from the light fixture...it weren't pretty. Neal said we were to bury her and not tell anyone. Said he didn't need the nosing around his drug trade and all that. Kinda shocked us all, it did. I mean, noone ever blitzed themselves here before that. But now I think of it..." She paused, then, "Maybe it wasn't suicide after all."
"You think Sadie..."
"Well, wouldn't put it past the girl." Simone shrugged. "Think about it. She stole Neal from under Marsha's nose, right? Why not get rid of the competition? Neal coulda been protecting Sadie...else why would he not want the cops to have the body? And maybe Sadie came back to finish off her witness, now that all that crap was in the press about her. Maybe she was afraid something else might scurry out of the woodwork."
"Ooh." Donna's eyes opened big with surprise. "Hell, Sadie the psychopath! You really think she could've?"
"Damn right I do." Simone nodded. "Hey, you know that Georgie's always said she was sick in the head and not to be trusted. Guess the kid could be right."
"Maybe." Donna pursed her lips. "Sim, you don't suppose the cops will find this Marsha chick?"
"I dunno." Simone responded. She grinned. "If it gets Sadie in more crap, though, I might tip them off to it."
"They'll think you were involved." Donna shook her head. "Let it alone, Sim. You don't want in on that one. Not unless you wanna be in court."
"Well, I'd do it for Neal." Simone poked out her tongue. "Besides, the bitch deserves it, with her stuck up life and more money than she can spend. I bet you anything you like she's not so squeaky clean and reformed deep down. Bad people don't jus' turn good, you know. I bet she's been plotting this for a while and now she's using her new big money friends to protect herself."
"Well, she was here that night. I saw her myself." Donna shrugged.
"Me too." Simone smirked. "I'd like to see big money lawyers overturn that."
"Georgie's in a state over all this, ain't she?"
"Don't know, haven't seen her." Simone shrugged. "Don't care much, either. Her problem, not mine."
"I kinda know how the kid feels." Donna looked haunted. "I can't imagine what it must be like to have your whole world taken away from you like that in one fell swoop, though. And by your own sister! Hell, I'm starting to feel sorry for Georgie - what's up with me?"
You're sober. It's making you think dumb." Simone scolded. "Forget the kid. Like I told Grey, she won't stop round here long. If the cops don't scare her off, she'll go of her own accord, back to her Daddy no doubt. Now Neal's gone there's nothing for her here and we don't want her."
"Perhaps." Donna looked pensive. "I dunno, I hate how all this is. It sucks."
"Looks like the police are quizzing Grey." Simone glanced out of the window. "Like he'd know anything."
"He might. Neal hit his precious Georgia." Donna smirked. "Perhaps he's more of a tough guy than we thought."
Simone laughed.
"Not a chance." She responded, amused. "More likely they're asking him directions to the pub." She slipped off the sill. "Come on. I want in on the action!"

**************************************************

"Sir?"
DI Fields glanced up from his files, casting the Detective Seargant a tired smile.
"Yes, Roden? What is it?"
"I think we hit paydirt." The other officer smiled, sitting down in an empty chair and pushing a folder across the desk. "This just came from the forensics lab - it's the test results on the samples taken from the Ridley stiff."
"Oh!" The DI's expression changed, and he pushed his other work aside, scooping the folder up. "All of them?"
"Pretty much." DS Roden nodded his head. "The only prints are too smudged up to be identifable with the Monahue girl's we have on file, but get this. The blood they found on the victim's clothing? Type O, which belonged to Ridley himself, and...type AB positive. Guess what?"
"Sadie Monahue's blood type is AB?" The DI asked, and a smile crossed his face as his companion nodded.
"Bingo." He agreed. "I did as you said, checked out her hospital records and anything else - and she gave blood twice whilst she was working in Birmingham. Her blood type was recorded...AB positive."
"And it's not a common blood type to have." DI Fields mused, flicking through the folder. "I wonder what Miss Monahue will have to say to that? Anything else I should know?"
"Yes, Sir. One thing." DS Roden nodded his head. "Forensics haven't identified a clear match for the other samples found at the crime scene yet, but...Neal Ridley died of a blow to the head, and it was not possible for that blow to have come about in a fall. Someone clocked him all right."
"Yes, I think we knew that." DI Fields said wryly. "And I'll lay my money on it being that wretched girl. If it wasn't for her agent's busybodiness I'd have her by now, I swear...but as it is we're just going to have to do a bit more digging. We've got the blood type...we know that she went to see Neal Ridley on the night of his death and that she was seen by at least three individual witnesses going to the house. Her bandmate said she was still fully dressed at one o'clock and Sadie has admitted that she went to see the victim. Surely it can't be that hard to tie all of these pieces together? Did forensics get a DNA profile of the killer?"
"They're working on it." DS Roden nodded.
DI Fields skimmed through the report, a thoughtful look on his face.
"The coroner believes that the killer might well have struck out in self defence." He mused, putting his finger to the page at a significant paragraph. "Apparently the blows the victim received and the position the body was found in are consistant with that."
"Sadie Monahue is quite a bit smaller than the Ridley bloke, isn't she?" DS Roden remembered. His superior nodded.
"She is." He agreed. "So what are we looking at? If this was self defence, did Neal Ridley strike out at Sadie first?"
"Maybe you should ask her that."
"I think I will." DI Fields considered. "Perhaps she'd be more willing to confess if we suggested that it was in self defence. Besides, the blood evidence is gonna be a blow for that bigmouthed agent and her hot shot lawyers. I know she's doing her job, but I've about had enough of her impeding mine."
"Sir!"
At that moment there was a frantic knock at the door and it swung open to reveal an excitable young officer.
"What is it?" DI Fields looked up from the report. "What now?"
"Sir, they've found another body! The constable exclaimed.  "At that Ridley place!"

Chapter One: An Uncertain Reputation
Chapter Two: Reaction
Chapter Three: Questions
Chapter Four:  Back Home
Chapter Five: Complications
Chapter Six: The Net Closes
Chapter Seven: Jetta Demands
Chapter Eight: Startling News
Chapter Nine: An Unlikely Suspect
Chapter Ten: The Truth
Chapter Eleven: Amber
Chapter Twelve: Final Verdict
DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE
Copper, Nancy, Sylva, Anna, Blade, Raesha, Sirena, Topaz, Aaron, Sophie, Justin, Elliot, Rosita, Luis and any other characters in this fiction which do not appear in the animated Jem series are copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley) as of January 2002 <unless otherwise specified> and are not to be reproduced without permission ANYWHERE. Jetta, Pizzazz, Stormer, Roxy, Raya and all other original Jem characters are the copyright of Hasbro Inc, Sunbow, Christy Marx and the other writers of the Jem series. The future world of Pizzazz, Raya, Jetta, Roxy, Stormer, Clash, Synergy, the fate of Jem and her memorial are all copyrighted to me. The future world of Kimber and Shana is copyrighted jointly to myself and Gemma Dawn.
The concept of 'Jewel' is entirely my own, and any apparent link with any fictional or actual person or persons of this name is entirely coincidental. Equally the characters in this fiction are not based on any real life individual.
The concept behind the future world of Danse, Aja and Craig, the idea behind Jerrica's futureworld and the split of the Holograms is copyrighted to Gemma Dawn, whose Teenangel Outsiders fiction is directly twinned with Just a Dream. The character Sammi and any of the other Teenangel Outsider characters mentioned in this fiction are entirely copyright to Gemma Dawn and appear here only with her permission.
Pay her page a visit!