Chapter Twenty Four

Alana glanced down at the sobbing blonde, a sneer distorting her face. “Cut the act,” she snarled angrily as she slammed her fist down loudly on the wooden table in the hotel room that the dancer had been handcuffed to. Due to the fact that the local police department was not involved in the case, taking Melanie down to the local station was not an option. So she had to simply hold her captive in her own hotel room until the proper authorities (and subsequently, her replacement) arrived to take over. She was almost a little sad that she wouldn’t get to see this through until the end!

“How many times have I got to tell you that I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Melanie asked her, a pathetic sniffle escaping her. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Alana rolled her eyes. How many times had she heard this before? Had she not been in this profession for as long as she had, she might have found it in her heart to take it easy on the girl. She never particularly enjoyed making people cry, though she knew from years of experience that Melanie was doing it solely to catch a break. And that wouldn’t happen.

The dancer had threatened not only her boyfriend, but herself as well. And perhaps it had been a mistake to get so personally involved in the case, but she wanted to make sure Melanie got everything she deserved. Which meant absolutely no sympathy.

“You do realize that I’m well aware that you’re full of shit, right?” She asked, a bitter laugh escaping her lips. “C’mon Mel. Why’d ya do it? Did he turn you down one too many times? Wouldn’t let you get as close to him as you would have liked?” She taunted. All she needed was for Melanie to crack. Just one solid confession was all she needed. But Melanie was proving to be a much better actress than Alana had pegged her as.

But that was of no importance. She would crack Melanie. She’d cracked people who had had years of practice, who’d perfected the art of lying. Melanie was nothing.

~*~

JC let out a sigh as he headed back down to the dressing room. Melanie was running late. He knew she’d not been feeling her best for a couple of days, and he was afraid that perhaps her illness had escalated. Why else would she be late for sound check?

He brought his hand up and knocked lightly on her dressing room door. “Mel?” He called quietly. “Mel, you in there?” He asked her, stepping back and frowning when he didn’t hear anything from inside. He bit his lip and reached for the doorknob, turning it slightly. He pushed it open when the knob turned and glanced around. There was no sign of his blonde dancer.

He closed the door and turned, frowning once more. Where could she be? He spotted Jerry, one of the lighting guys in the hallway and called to him. “Hey Jer! Have you seen Mel?” He asked.

The balding light technician shook his head. “I haven’t seen her since this morning. Sorry man,” he said, before heading back down the hallway towards the stage area.

Putting his hands on his hips, he was stumped. Where in the hell could Melanie be? Come to think of it… where was Alana? It wasn’t like her to…

Alana.

~*~

The feeling of the handcuffs digging into her wrists was enough to make her cry. Throw in the way that this woman was speaking to her, and she was pretty sure that this was some kind of horrible punishment from God.

“I don’t know how to make it any clearer to you, Alana! I didn’t do anything wrong!” She cried. “Please, just take the handcuffs off!”

“Mmm… no, I don’t think so. Now why don’t you cut the crap like I asked you earlier and just confess? It’s going to make things a whole lot easier on you if you cooperate with me.”

“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” She screamed, unable to control her emotions any longer.

Alana rolled her eyes and shook her head. “If you want to continue that charade, fine. We’ll see how much your mind changes once the others arrive,” she told her. “And even if you never confess, everything points to you. I can have you put away for a long time, Mel. I’m talking… like, a LONG time. And as soon as I get my prints back… well, let’s just say you won’t be dancing any more.”

Giving the shaking girl a smug smile, Alana didn’t even realize that the hotel room door had opened, nor did she notice her angry (for lack of a better word) boyfriend. Well, she didn’t notice him until he made himself quite noticeable.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” He bellowed angrily. He watched as Alana spun around, her eyes wide as she glanced in his direction. He had surprised her, but it was no time at all before she regained her cool composure and spoke.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m conducting an interrogation.”

“You mean you’re bullying the piss out of her? Take the damn handcuffs off of her right now.”

“I’ll do no such thing,” she responded, her eyes flashing with anger. “How dare you come in here and tell me how to do my job.”

“Your JOB? Your job, Alana?” He shook his head angrily at her. “I asked you… no, I TOLD you specifically to drop it, to leave Melanie alone! And you went behind my back! Take the damn cuffs off of her now!”

“NO! I had more than enough reason to believe that she was the one sending the letters!”

“She’s not! I told you she wasn’t! I would have thought you’d trust me enough to believe me! Why isn’t my word good enough for you?”

“Because you don’t know what you’re talking about! You’re letting your friendship get in the way!”

“And you’re letting your JEALOUSY get in the way!” He spat back angrily. “You take the damned handcuffs off of her hands, or so help God, Alana… I’ll take the damn keys from you and do it myself!”

She chose to ignore his remark about jealousy. That had absolutely nothing to do with it! She had observed Melanie delivering the letters to him TWICE now! That was all the evidence she needed, and she told him so!

“I don’t care what the hell the evidence is pointing to! I know Melanie! She’s not the person you’re looking for!”

“Oh, so you mean to tell me that this,” she paused to laugh bitterly, “was all a set up? Oh, I see. Someone gave Melanie the letters by ‘accident’ so she could deliver them and take the fall? I think you’ve been watching too much CSI there, Josh! And I guess you mean to tell me that Mel over there really IS stupider than she looks! You really think she could be so dense as to deliver the letters twice, KNOWING that someone was after you?!”

“She didn’t know about the letters, Alana! No one in the crew did!”

She cocked an eyebrow at that statement. “You mean to tell me, that your ‘people’ never even involved the crew in the letters? In the emails?”

“Well duh! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! If we had leaked it to the crew, it would have leaked to the press!”

She bit her lip at the explanation. If there was no way for Melanie to know what was in the envelope… then maybe… maybe it wasn’t her after all. But admitting that it wasn’t her would be throwing the whole investigation thus far out the window… could she really do that?

“TAKE THE GOD DAMNED HANDCUFFS OFF OF HER HANDS RIGHT NOW!”

Alana jumped slightly at the volume of his voice. She had never seen him so angry before. His face was a deep shade of red, his eyes a stormy blue. He was… intimidating. Why couldn’t he see that she was right? She knew she was right.

Deciding that even if she let her go now, the prints would still give her the evidence she needed. It wasn’t like Melanie was going anywhere, after all. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the key, sliding it into the handcuffs that held Melanie captive, but releasing her. “Fine! But let me tell YOU something! I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have, CSI Chasez! And you’re going to feel pretty damned stupid when I get the results of those prints back and they point to HER!”

“They’re not GOING to point to her because she didn’t do it! Why can’t you get that through your thick head? You WANT it to be Melanie because you can never stand to admit that you were wrong! But you’re WRONG and you’re making a big mistake!”

“There is NO mistake!”

At that very moment, Alana felt her cell phone buzzing in her back pocket. Though she was a little more than annoyed that she was being interrupted she decided to go ahead and answer it, especially when she saw that it was Tony. Perhaps he had the information on her prints!

She flipped the phone open. “Berkeley,” she barked into the receiver.

“Al, it’s Tony,” he said, stating the obvious. “I’ve gotten the results back on your prints. A hard copy is being mailed to you, but I thought you might like to know sooner than 5-7 business days.”

Unable to control it, a smirk came over her face which she tossed in JC’s direction. This would show him. “Go ahead Tony, I’m listening.”

“The fingerprints do not match the ones from the soda can collected from the dancer.”

She felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. All at once, she sank down onto the bed, the color draining from her face. She HAD been wrong. The prints did not match Melanie. She HAD made a mistake. She didn’t even thank Tony nor tell him goodbye before she closed the phone. She glanced up at JC and for a moment she could not speak.

“I… the prints… did not match,” she said quietly, before turning to Melanie. “You…you’re free to go.”

She watched as the blonde swiped the tears from her face as stalk out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She humiliated Melanie… and herself in the process. She had been so bent on proving everyone else wrong that she had lost sight of the case in front of her.

JC glanced down at Alana. Normally, when he gazed at her, it was with a look of sheer love and adoration. Tonight, he couldn’t even muster up a look of sympathy.

“You WERE right, Alana,” he said coolly. “You weren’t the one to make this mistake. I was. I made the mistake of ever getting involved with you,” he told her before he turned and exited the room.

The sound of the door closing caused her to jump. How in the world had she managed to screw up so horribly? She was unable to stop the stream of tears as she fell backwards on the bed and clutched her pillow, the sounds of anger now replaced with the bitter weeping of a heartbroken young woman.