Cath Trilogy: Hey Jane

"I know that I have given you some strange cases in the past, but I think this is going to make all of those look like a walk in the park," Aubrey began talking as she assumed Jane and Rhys were following her. They both struggled to keep up with her brisk pace while absorbing the information she was giving them. "It has remained unsolved for 18 years, and five different attempts have been made to find the killer, but none of them succeeded. Including me, this was one of the first cases I was ever assigned to, and I watched that body get carried out of the house.

"I don't ever get sick when I'm working, but I spent two hours puking up my guts after I saw that body. He had a kid, wife, I mean the guy was a Gary Sue if I ever saw one," Aubrey continued and seemed to get lost in the flashback. Her mind was obviously elsewhere, but that wasn't going to give Rhys and Jane their new assignment.

Rhys stopped Aubrey before she could continue and said, "So before you tell us what you know, what is this case. If it's that popular for being unsolved, maybe Jane or I might have heard about it."

"It's the Prentice Family case," Aubrey whirled around and caught both detectives off guard. "Now, I would advise that you listen to me unless you want to get caught on a path of dead ends like I was."

"Yes ma'am," Rhys grumbled then something seemed to click in his head. "Wait, the Prentice Family case?"

"No, the other one," Aubrey's voice came out sardonic and harsh. "Of course it's the Prentice Family case."

If either of them had bothered to look at Jane, they would have seen her go as pale as a bed sheet. The case was infamous, and there was so much she wanted to find out about it. Still, there were some things that would be better off unknown for her about the case.

"I was just making sure," Rhys rolled his eyes behind Aubrey's back.

"I'd be less willing to roll my eyes if I were you," Aubrey called to him and gave herself a devious smile as Rhys came at a loss of words. "And yes I know your connections to this case, Detective Khan. That is why I am giving this case specifically to you two. If you weren't as dull as a rusty butter knife I would have let you work on this by yourself."

Rhys was only slightly offended because Aubrey and him had always had a love-hate relationship since the day they met. "You know it would be futile to try and separate Jane and I on a case."

Jane gave a quick smile, but her features were still paled. Rhys turned to her and noticed the change in the tone of her skin and gave her a worried look. "You feeling alright?"

Aubrey briefly turned over her shoulder and said, "Come along Ms. Wilson, don't tell me your getting a weak stomach now."

"It's not that; I just have some lack of sleep," Jane lied through her teeth, but neither Rhys nor Aubrey prodded at the subject.

Well, beside the joke Rhys made which was, "Says the last person to make it to work today. I guess you were to busy partying, all night." Rhys gave her an inappropriate wink.

"You are disgusting," Jane lightly punched his arm and made a face.

"It's merely Darwinism sweetie," Rhys used a fake British accent.

"Detective Khan!" Aubrey shouted him to attention and motioned for the two of them to follow her into her office. Rhys coughed awkwardly and followed her while pulling at the tie around his neck which had a diamond pattern.

Aubrey's office was standard without a trace of untidiness and all of her papers were neatly put away in binders or manila folders which were in stands. There was not a scrap out of place, and the widow shades were drawn to let the light in and shine upon the office giving the entire room a glow. It was almost like staring at the ocean at high noon. Hypnotizing yet blinding.

Aubrey searched through the files for less than a second before she pulled out an accordion folder labeled "Prentice Family". It had different tabs for different suspects and victims who had background checks and notes written down about them. Jane was waiting for the day when all that she would be was a section of a folder in an office. Rhys would often joke that he was going to fill an entire binder by the end of his life.

"So, here is all of the information that I have on me, but I'm there is more you could get more if you dug," Aubrey grabbed a case file that she had been working on and started to read. "If I were you, I would plan on leaving for Berkeley by tomorrow morning."

"Alright, I'll bring my baby and pick you up at let's say 7ish tomorrow morning if you think you will be awake," Rhys turned to Jane and couldn't help throwing in the joke at the end.

Jane wanted to tell him off for making fun of her for have a psychosis induced nightmare, but she didn't want to worry her into thinking that she was seeing purple people and Hallucifer was telling her what to do. Instead, she decided teasing him would be a better alternative, "I can't believe that you still insist on calling your car your baby."

"She is though," Rhys insisted

"You put way too much value on material objects," Jane noted.

"I'm not Buddhist; I think I can become fond of whatever material possession I want to. This is America," Rhys ended that note by snatching the folder off of Aubrey's desk leaving a trail of papers as he had failed to notice that the folder had been open.

"Sometimes I think he should be an actor, not a detective," Aubrey muttered to herself as she began to type away at the computer most likely finishing up a report. She turned away for a moment to look at Jane who was picking up papers off the floor and said to her, "Good luck to the both of you."

"Thank you," Jane nodded to Aubrey before tidying the paper into a stack and holding it in her hands. On the top sheet of paper she saw a little girl with tear stains on her face and a woman with a soothing face holding her in outstretched arms. It was from a newspaper article from that time and underneath there were two words. They were two words that Jane actually thought about for some time:

Catherine Prentice