Chapter 5
I really need to buy an umbrella, Meredith thought to herself as she walked down South Ellis Avenue in Chatham. Instead of taking the subway to 79th Street like the last time she made her way to that part of town, she had decided to drive. But after circling around the block for several minutes in search of a spot, she had given up and parked in a lot a couple of streets away. Although it had poured earlier, it was only drizzling now and she toyed with the idea of slowing down, lighting a cigarette, and putting her Burberry showerproof trench coat to good use. As she recalled how much time she had spent that morning fighting with her hair straightener, her need for nicotine became less urgent.
Suddenly, her skin prickled with awareness. She glanced over her shoulder, expecting to find eyes on her, but the street remained empty of people. In recent weeks, as soon as she stepped out of her home, she struggled with the suspicion that she was being followed. It might be the police attempting to find Tatiana, or it might be someone connected to The Raven Room.
She slid her hand into her pocket and closed her fingers around the necklace she had found in Julian’s drawer. She needed proof the necklace didn’t belong to Lena, the woman whose death had wrongly been ruled an accidental overdose.
To ask Julian where the necklace had come from seemed pointless. He could tell her whatever he wanted and she wouldn’t be able to challenge him, but Samantha Williams would tell her if the necklace she possessed belonged to her late friend.
Meredith climbed the steps to the porch and knocked on the door. She had tried calling Samantha a couple times, but she hadn’t been able to get a hold of her. She knocked again, louder. No noise came from inside of the house and the blinds were drawn. Beginning to worry that she might be out of luck, she knocked one more time.
A couple of teenagers with cigarettes burning between their lips tinkered with an old boom box on the porch of the neighboring house. She caught them eyeing her.
“Hey,” she called out. “Have you guys seen Mrs. Williams?”
“She moved,” one of them replied.
Meredith cursed under her breath. “Where?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“How long ago did she move?”
“Couple months, maybe.”
She noticed the pile of old junk mail in the corner and realized she should have visited sooner. Without Samantha, she wouldn’t find the answers she needed.
The rain started to come down harder again and Meredith, putting her hands back in her pockets, felt the cross necklace brush against her knuckles. The little energy she had left vanished and disappointment took hold of her. Too tired to rush back to her car, she lit a cigarette and inhaled the soothing smoke into her lungs.
An hour later, Meredith parked her car on her street in Wicker Park, not far from her apartment. As she walked, she sensed someone was watching her.
She had just turned the key on the lock of her front door when a change in the air made all the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She turned around quickly and gasped when she saw a figure standing only a few feet behind her.
“Calm down, it’s me.” Pam took a step forward. The light above the door now reached her face. “You’re not answering your phone.”
“So you decided to scare me half to death?”
“I don’t remember you ever being this jumpy.”
“What do you want, Pam?”
“Can we go for a walk?”
“It’s raining. I’m tired.”
“Let’s go grab a coffee.”
“Why?”
“Meredith, please.” Pam rubbed her eyes with her fingers. “I’m not here on police business.”
“Then why?”
“To talk. As your stepmom.”
“You must think I’m an idiot.”
“Can we go somewhere?” Pam insisted.
“Fine. But you’re driving.”
As they made their way north on Oakley Avenue, Meredith kept shifting her gaze between the back and side windows.
“Is everything OK?” Pam asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Are you sure?”
“Did you send your lackeys after me?”
Pam frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Hoping I’ll lead them to Tatiana?”
“I don’t have anyone following you, Meredith.”
She didn’t know if she believed her.
They ended up at Mystic Muffin, a small coffee shop near Logan Square subway station with checkered tablecloths and a collection of dying plants by the window.
The man behind the counter handed them their coffee, before returning to his spot by the door, newspaper in hand.
Sitting back on her wobbly chair, Meredith felt nauseated. “What’s that smell?”
“Bleach. John uses it to wash the floor. You’ll get used to it. Soon, you won’t be able to smell it anymore.”
“John?”
Pam tilted her head toward the man reading the newspaper.
“You must come here often,” Meredith said.
“Years now.”
Meredith’s physical discomfort added to her agitation. She wished she had declined Pam’s invitation and just stayed home.
“How well did you know Sofia?”
Meredith held her coffee cup in front of her face. She hoped the smell of black coffee would mask the scent of bleach. “I thought you weren’t on police business.”
“Just tell me.”
“I never met Sofia. Julian has been in a relationship with Tatiana Thompson. That’s the woman I know.”
Pam sighed. “Really?”
Julian’s attorney had made it clear—it worked to Julian’s benefit if the police couldn’t prove which of the twins Julian had been having a relationship with. Meredith figured her stepmother knew she was backing the story, not because Meredith believed it, but because she was determined to protect Julian.
“Yes, Tatiana Thompson.”
“Fine. Assuming we’re talking about the same person, how well did you know her?”
“You’ve asked me that before and I’ve answered.”
Pam leaned forward, her elbows on the tabletop. “Were you two intimate?”
“Oh, I see.” Meredith chuckled. “Don’t look so uncomfortable.”
“Have sex with whomever you want. I don’t care. Were you two intimate?”
“Yes.”
“While at the club, did you talk to Tatiana?” Pam continued.
“No, I did not. Why do you want to know if I had sex with Tatiana or if I spoke with her at the club?”
“You have no idea the amount of pressure I’m under.”
Meredith took a sip of her coffee. It tasted bitter and she made a face as she forced herself to swallow it.
“Why would Tatiana steal some dead woman’s identity and use it to find a job and rent a room at the New Jackson?” Pam added. “How would she be able to keep this double life a secret from her husband?”
“Is Sofia’s death somehow connected to The Raven Room?” Up until this moment, the idea that the club was involved in what happened to Sofia had just been a lingering suspicion in the back of Meredith’s mind.
“There are things I can’t tell you. If you know where Tatiana is—”
“I don’t,” Meredith said, interrupting her. “The club hasn’t come up at all during this investigation. Why is that? If we’re going to be honest with one another, it’s time to admit that the club is being protected.”
“I can’t discuss the investigation with you.”
“That’s always your excuse. You’ve already told me things you shouldn’t have. The fact that you’re not looking into the club makes me question you and your integrity as a cop.”
“My job is everything to me, Meredith.”
“Then why didn’t you arrest Tatiana at Julian’s condo that morning? She stole someone else’s identity.” Meredith made sure to reiterate that it was Tatiana who had committed identity fraud. “You had told me, weeks prior, you were going to arrest the woman passing as Alana.”
“I said she was using a stolen identity. I never told you the police were looking for her or that I was going to arrest her. I’m a homicide detective. At the time, it wasn’t my problem.”
“You led me to believe it was. You knew I thought the police were after her.”
“You came to that conclusion on your own.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Meredith spoke loudly enough to catch John’s attention. He raised his eyes from the newspaper.
“Keep your voice down,” Pam ordered under her breath.
“You’re a cop. If you tell me someone is wanted for identity theft—a federal offense—I’m going to assume the police are looking to arrest them. How did you find out Alana wasn’t really Alana?”
“When you approached me and told me about a woman named Alana who worked at Bucket O’Blood, I got them to give me a list of their employees. Alana Stewart was on it. I did a background check, and that’s when I found out that Alana Stewart was dead and that her Social Security number was being used. I showed a picture of the real Alana Stewart to the bookstore owner and he confirmed she wasn’t the woman who worked there.”
“Did you know she was one of the Dulgorukova twins the day you met me at the diner?” Meredith asked.
“No. I had no idea until the night of the murder. When I got to the New Jackson, I found the pictures of her and Julian, but I still didn’t know her real name. It wasn’t until we found her ID with the name Sofia Dulgorukova hidden under the mattress. Then, there were her fingerprints all over the room.”
“How do you know they weren’t Tatiana’s fingerprints? They’re identical twins.”
“No two sets of fingerprints are exactly the same,” Pam explained. “Not even identical twins.”
“Well, did you find any of Tatiana’s fingerprints in the room?”
“We did. We found Tatiana’s fingerprints as well. And her purse with her ID.”
Meredith could tell that didn’t sit well with her stepmother. It helped Davis’s theory that Tatiana had been the one renting the room at the New Jackson Hotel while maintaining a relationship with Julian.
“Pam, at this point, what can you prove?”
“I can prove that Tatiana was in her sister’s hotel room. And, considering the condition and location she was found in—badly beaten and near the New Jackson—I’m quite sure Tatiana knows who murdered her sister.”
“Let’s suppose Tatiana happened to witness her sister’s murder. Do you really think if Julian killed her sister that Tatiana would have taken shelter with him?” Meredith asked. “Where was Thompson that night?”
With her jaw set, Pam didn’t reply.
“Tell me, why didn’t you arrest Tatiana that morning? You had a homicide on your hands and, as you said, she’s a legitimate witness. Instead, you walked out with Julian and left her with me. Why?”
“I fucked up, Meredith. OK? I should have arrested her, but I was shocked to find her alive. I had come for Julian, and that’s who I wanted to speak to.”
“I don’t buy it. Why?”
Pam threw her head back and sighed. “I guess I felt for her.”
“You felt for her?” Meredith didn’t see her stepmother as the type of person who would allow her emotions to interfere with her job.
“You know what I mean.” Pam chugged down half of her coffee. “When Colton and I arrived at Reeve’s condo I was convinced the murdered woman was Sofia. Then this woman, who looks just like someone who is supposed to be dead, shows up. I had no idea we were dealing with identical twins. Or that they were the two girls I had read about in Reeve’s file.”
“Neither did Julian or I.”
“Her marks and bruises were a man’s handiwork. Women don’t beat each other like that. I couldn’t bring myself to arrest her right then and there…she looked like a victim, not a criminal.”
The weight of their exchange lingered in the silence between them.
“I don’t know where she is,” Meredith finally said.
“Has she contacted you?”
“She knows you and I are related. I’d be the last person she would contact.”
“How about Reeve? They have a shared history. She’d turn to him and he’d help her.”
“You’ve seen him. He’s broken. He can barely get out of bed much less help anyone. Have you checked with Thompson?”
“We’ve searched his house.” Pam shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Thompson could have—”
“What’s with your obsession with Thompson, anyway? Do you know something I don’t?”
“I could say the same about you and Julian.”
“Please tell me you’ve given up on the idea of writing a story on The Raven Room and Reeve.”
Meredith refused to answer.
“Please Meredith, you’re the closest thing I have to a daughter. What I do and say is with the intent to protect you. Always remember that.”
She sounded sincere, but Meredith couldn’t let go of the feeling that her stepmother might be lying.