“Are you okay?”

Carmen nodded. “Yeah I’m fine.” She sighed softly. “We have to get out of here.”

“Where are we going to go?”

“I don’t know, but we have to get out of here.”

——————————-

          Dana was sitting at her desk as she looked at old college pictures of her and Alice. She smiled at how happy they used to be. She flipped through the pictures and giggled. Her fairy-tale like relationship ending abruptly after Dana came out to her parents. She blamed Alice for everything and broke her heart. She leaned back in her chair as she stared at Alice in the picture. There was a knock on the door, and she hastily put the pictures back in the drawer.

“Come in,” the door opened, and Helena walked in.

“Hey we got a name for our DOA.” Dana sat up, and Helena took a seat. “His name is Stephen Doherty, twenty-eight years of age. He lived near Venice Beach, and he had just got out of jail about four months ago after taking the fall in the murder of Dennis Harris and his brother Ricky eight years ago.”

“Why didn’t he get the chair or life in prison?” Dana asked confusedly.

“Because his father is William Doherty—and he has money. His father bribed the bloody judge to give his son a few years in prison.”

“Well he got eight years, and he wanted to have a little fun.” Dana looked at the folder that Helena had put on the desk. She flipped through it and stopped. “Wait—who else was on trial for that murder case?”

“I-I I don’t know,” Helena shook her head. Dana continued to look through his folder and found the case.

“Shane McCutcheon, white female, at that time she was nineteen years of age.” She continued to read the case. “She was an accomplice in this murder, but all of her charges got dropped.” She dropped the file on her desk.

“What are you getting at Dana?” Dana rubbed her chin with her finger.

“Well—maybe Shane knew these two ladies, and Doherty had followed them.”

“C’mon Dana, let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t know if McCutcheon had anything to do with this.”