Chapter 11

She knew that everyone had a great work ethic but she had expected some laughter or joking while having their first meeting. She was use to a much more relaxed setting and that is why she had asked to have some time alone with the case files. She did not like the uppity attitude that she could sense from Veronica. She did not appear to have much of a personality at all. Maybe that was why she was such a hard nose in the courtroom. She didn’t know how to have fun so therefore she was all business and nothing else. How boring was that?

Once the officer had brought up all of the case files, Grace just sat there and tried to figure out where to begin. She didn’t know if she should start with the first victim or if she should look at all of them briefly and then try to decide who was going to be the best family to begin with. It is always hard to get a true sense of a person by paper alone, but it was that entire she had at this point and time. She was going to have to use her best instincts on what a person was truly like by just looking at the files. It has always worked best for her to use her instincts. So far they had not let her down and she certainly hoped that it would not start to now that she was working on a really big case. She wanted to show that she could play with the big boys.

While looking through Vincent Ramos files she was surprised to find that there did not appear to be anything of value within it. It appeared that the first victim’s family had not even been interviewed, or if they had there was nothing in the files that indicated that. Grace felt that it was very strange that the next of kin would not be contacted and at least given a basic interview, because they could give the police at least an insight into the victim’s life. The police had gone to Vincent’s up scaled apartment, where he lived alone, and had found nothing of consequence. They found out that his parents live in New York, but the police had not even picked up the phone and did a phone interview.

Grace opened up her notebook and made a point that the first thing that needed to be done was a trip to New York. By getting to know the victim’s family it can often be a window into the victim’s life before they became a victim. She was not sure if it was possible that the police had not followed through with talking to his family. She picked up the phone to call Vincent’s family and then changed her mind. She thought that she might want to speak with Veronica about this before going forward. She wanted to at least make it look like she was looking forward to working with her.

After looking through all of the case files, Grace decided that she was going to focus on the first victim, Vincent Ramos. She wanted to see what is life was like. If that meant that she needed to take a trip to New York then so be it. She really didn’t want to have to travel, but if the police department had not done a complete job on their end then it was up to her to complete it. She did not want to accuse them of negligence until she knew for sure, however there seemed to be quite a few segments of the investigation that had not been completed. It was up to her to find out what was going on.

When Veronica arrived, Grace was ready for her. She had all of the notes that she had taken on each of the cases planned out and organized. She even had them photocopied so she would have her own copies. Veronica was pleasantly surprised. She had not liked the fact that the Chief had asked her to work with Grace. Grace did not have the same style of investigative practices as she herself did. She was afraid that the two of them were going to butt heads. Then to make matters worse, Grace had asked to work by herself before meeting with Veronica. Who did she think she was coming into a set group of people who were use to working together, at least at some point and time during a case, and acting like she owned the place? She was the one that was supposed to be trying to fit in, not running the whole show.

Veronica was use to working by herself. As an only child, she was not use to having to share the spotlight with anyone else. She did not like it when people came in and tried to steal her thunder. She was a smart, attractive woman and she knew it. No one had to tell her that she could be on the cover of any of the glamour magazines if she wanted to be; it just wasn’t her style. She did not want to be out there for all to look at. She liked to be known but not looked at all the time. It often killed her when she had to put on the show in the courtroom as the woman who knew everything. She always made sure that she knew what she needed to know before she went in for her day in court. She hated to be hit by surprises. She had a feeling that this case was going to be one that she was not going to have total control over and she did not like it one bit.

“Hey there Veronica,” Grace said, trying to sound excited that she was back; secretly she was upset but what could she do.

“Hello Grace. How has the work been going? Did you find out anything that is of real consequence with this case?

“Actually, I have.” Grace could see the look of surprise on Veronica’s face. “I realized that in Vincent Ramo’s case no one seemed to have met with his parents in New York. Now I know that they live a far ways away but there does not appear to even have been a phone interview conducted. Before I go accusing anyone of not doing their jobs, I would like to go up to New York and met with them. Let me take that back, I would like both of us to go up there.”

Veronica looked surprised. She had not expected that Grace would be this thorough with what had been given to her. “I can see that you have taken the bull by the horns and that you really want to do this case justice. I would agree with you that we could interview the family but I do not think it is necessary for us to travel all the way to New York. I believe that it is just as effective if we conduct the interview over the phone.”

“I would have to disagree with you. A person can lie through their teeth over the phone but when they are eye to eye with you, it is a lot harder. I want to make it hard for them to lie. I want them to tell us everything that they know about Vincent’s life so we can find out if there is anything that we should know. I believe that there is an unmentionable past that we have not found out about, and I am hoping his family and friends can do that for us.”

Veronica could not believe that Grace was being so forceful. She had not seemed like that sort of person, from what she had seen before. She was actually pleased to see that she was acting like this, because it meant that she was not willing to put up with anything that was not going to be harmful to the case. It was proving to her that she meant business and was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.

By the time Grace had filled Veronica in on the case, the decision was made to go ahead and call Vincent’s family and plan a trip to New York. Both of the women were not looking too forward to it, but Grace hoped that it would help her and Veronica to feel closer to each other. Who knew, maybe by the end of this case they could actually consider each other friends. She was not going to push for that, but it would be nice if that happened.

The call was placed and the plane tickets purchased for both of the women. They would be leaving in the morning and meeting with the Ramo’s family at 9:30 in the morning. The hope was that they would be able to take the return flight later on in the late afternoon. There were two other victim’s families to contact and they wanted to make sure that they were making the best use of their time. It is not always easy to manage time when working with the living as they tend to have other things to do as well. Hopefully everything would go as planned and they would be able to have something to show for all of their hard work.

Their day would begin early the next morning, so it was determined that it would be best for them to call it a night and get some rest. They were going to be quite busy in the morning and they both wanted to be able to put their best foot forward. They were both going to compile questions that they felt would be important to ask the family and then they would collaborate in the morning during their flight. The women said good night to each other and went their separate ways. The search for the connection between the victims of “El Diablo” was started, and it was not going to be an easy road ahead.