Chapter 16

On the drive to Manhattan, Grace tried to stay focused on the conversation that she wanted to have with Dawn. It was not easy with the thoughts and images that she had in her head from leaving the Ramos house. It did not feel like a home at all. She could tell that it was just a place to live and not really a warm inviting environment. It was not something that she was use to. Every time she entered another person’s home, she was able to figure out what their home life was like. This was a place that was not very warm and inviting and it scared her. She hoped that Dawn would be able to shed some light on what Vincent had been like so soon before he was murdered.

“I want to try again, with me asking the questions and trying to have a conversation with Dawn,” stated Grace. She really didn’t care what Veronica said or felt about it but she thought that it would be a common courtesy to let her know what she was thinking. Even though Veronica never gave Grace any insight as to what her thought process was, it was the way that Grace was. She had been raised to give curtsey to everyone, no matter how they treated her. It was one of the things that her mother had instilled in her. Always treat others the way that you would want to have them treat you. It was not always easy, but it was what she had to do.

“That is fine, Grace. However, if it doesn’t work then I will take over. I already have the questions that I want to ask her figured out and I think that I can find out everything that we want to know from her,” Veronica said with a snide smile.

Grace could not believe that she was being forced to work with a woman who thought that she was the best thing that had ever happened to this case. Grace wanted to bring her down a notch but that hadn’t happened when they met with Mrs. Ramos; she really was hoping that it would be different with Dawn. It was something that bothered Grace. She was so use to working by herself that it was quite hard to have to work side by side with another person; let alone a woman. She knew that she would adjust to it, but it was not going to be easy and Veronica was not making it any easier.

When they arrived at the office building, Grace tried to walk a stride ahead of Veronica. She did not trust her and was worried that if she got to speak to Dawn even a split second before she did, that it would ruin everything. She could tell that Veronica did not like her walking in front of her, but she didn’t really care. She was treating her with respect because she would not have cared if she had been in front of her or not. Of course it was a bit mean, but it made her feel better about herself to be in front of a woman like her. They took the elevator to the 15th floor and found the office that she worked in. Dawn Tally was the secretary for a major law firm. It was not a very prominent law firm, but they did do well. Grace was sure that Dawn was use to having police come in and out of the office. Hopefully that would work to her advantage.

“Hi, are you Ms. Dawn Tally?” Grace asked the receptionist.

“Yes, that would be my maiden name, I am now Dawn Grover.”

“I am Grace Winters from the Grangeville P.D.” That sure felt good to say, thought Grace.

Dawn looked taken back. She must have heard about the murder of her ex-boyfriend. “I am here to speak to you about Victor Ramos and the circumstances that surrounded his murder.”

Dawn started to shake, “What do you mean his murder. I just spoke to him two weeks ago. When did this happen?”

“He was murdered on December 12th, just a little over two weeks ago.”

“But I spoke to him on the 11th. Everything was fine then. He did not sound like anything was bothering him. In fact he was finally getting over the fact that I had gotten married and that it wasn’t to him. That didn’t have anything to do with him murder did it?”

Grace wasn’t sure what to think. She knew that Victor didn’t have many friends in Grangeville but she did not know that he had gotten so buddy buddy with his ex-girlfriend. Maybe this played some sort of role in his murder. She was not completely sure, because the person who had been committing these crimes appeared to be a man. She was just wondering if there might be some connection between Victor and Dawn. Maybe she would be the next person on the murderers list. She hoped for the sake of Dawn that it had nothing to do with it, but she was not very optimistic about it.

“I know that you are upset but I need to ask you a few questions about Victor?”

“That is fine, I think that I can handle that. It is just that I am very shaken up by the fact that he is no longer alive. I wondered why he didn’t return any of my phone calls.”

"What can you tell us about the way that he was acting the last time that you spoke to him?"

"Oh he was acting completely normal. In fact, I had not heard him happier in a long time."

Grace thought that this was completely strange. Why would Vincent be acting normal when he had just recently been told that his ex-girlfriend was married? It just didn't make sense to her, it would seem that maybe Vincent had come to terms with the fact that Dawn was no longer available and he was just happy to see her happy. That did make some sense, but it still did not explain anything about him at all. She was going to have to look into the fact that there might have been something more that Dawn was not telling her. She was not certain what it was, but it was obvious to her that there was something. Now it was just a matter of trying to get it out of her.

“Okay so when you last spoke to him, he was happy. I can understand that but what do you mean when you say that you had not heard him so happy?”

“Well he and I had spoken about the fact that I had married my college sweetheart and he was upset at first, because we had been high school sweethearts and he thought that should count for more than a college boyfriend. When I explained to him that when he moved away and never contacted me again, he started to understand; he was coming to terms with it. I think that he was finally realizing that I was happy and was starting to recognize that we could still be really good friends. I mean we did have lots of fun at Xavier School.”

Veronica tapped Grace on the shoulder, “I think that we need to check out this school. You do have the list of the other victims, right?”

Grace was trying to figure out where Veronica was going with this, “Yes, I do have the list, but I don’t see why it would be so important.”

“I will explain it to you in the car. Let’s wrap up this conversation with Dawn so we can get going I don’t think that we are going to find out anything else from her,” whispered Veronica.

Grace was really mad at Veronica. She was starting to find out some stuff that was really important and yet Veronica seemed to want to stop her conversation. It really ticked her off that she would think that Grace could not handle things on her own. Yes it was true that she was use to working on her own, but she thought that she was adjusting quite while to the situation that she was given. It was fairly obvious that the conversation was over, when she looked over and heard Veronica say to Dawn, “Thank you for your time. We have heard everything that we need to hear from you.”

Grace knew that she was going to have to do some quick thinking in order to keep the door open in case she needed to interview Dawn again. Grace looked towards Dawn, “I think that you have given up plenty of information about Vincent and what he was like in his last days. We greatly appreciate all that you have told us. If we need to find out anything else, we will be in contact with you. Also if you can think of anything else that you would like to tell us, here is my card and you are more than welcome to call me.”

Dawn took the card and looked thankful that the interview was over. “If I think of anything else, Ms. Winters, I think that I will go directly to the police and not to a private investigator such as you.” This really stung when she said it to Grace.

“I am currently working with the police so even thought my card says, Private Investigator, I am here on official police business.” At this time Veronica gave Dawn her own card and that seemed to calm her down. This really pissed Grace off, just because she didn’t have a fancy card that stated that she was working hand in hand with the police should not mean that she was to be looked down upon. She hated the fact that this was the way that she was being treated. She hoped that would change if she was able to help catch this killer.

It had not really taken that long but it probably felt like forever to her since she had not heard that Vincent had been murdered. She wondered why no one had informed her since she had left messages at his home. That was going to be something else that she was going to have to investigate. Grace made a note to speak to the officer that had searched Vincent Ramos’s apartment back in Grangeville. She hoped that it would give her some more insight as to why this case was being handled the way that it was.

When Veronica and Grace reached the car, it was apparent to Grace that Veronica had quite a bit that she wanted to say. She could hardly stand still and was doing even worse having to sit in the car confined. It was quite comical to see a grown woman fidget like a young child who had been seated in a car too long.

“I think that we should find out where this Xavier School is and plan a trip there. I think that there might be some sort of connection there. I mean all of the people who were murdered were from a wealthy family, right?” Veronica started rambling. “You see I am wondering if all of the victims went to the same boarding school. If that is the case then there might be something to it.”

“Maybe you are correct. Let’s call the Chief and ask him if he can find out where this school is located. We probably could not get there until tomorrow but at least we could have that figured out already.” Grace picked up the phone and called Jason. He said that he would try to find out where it was located and to book a flight for the two of them for the next morning. Meanwhile, he wanted them to get back to Grangeville, as he thought that he and William might have found something as well. Grace asked Jason what the information was, but Jason refused to tell her what they had found out. He said that he was going to wait until they got there to share it with her. Grace detected a slight giggle in Jason’s voice, it made her blush.

Grace passed the information on to Veronica as they were heading to the airport. Grace was not looking forward to having to sit so close to her but there was not much that could be done about it. Veronica seemed upset that they were going to have to wait until tomorrow to follow up on her lead, but that is what was going to happen. Grace hoped that when they got back into town that they were really going to be one step closer to finding out who “El Diablo” was and what his motive was behind all of these killings. She could not stand the idea that there might be another killing while she was working on the case. She was determined to make sure that didn’t happe