Murder with Style

They say that we all have a twin. Well this story begins when Isabelle happens to see hers in the Harvard Library. He is pretty close to her height, 5’7”, rather short for a man and the spitting image of what she would look like if she were a male. Thus the seed was planted for the perfect murder.
Two week prior, Isabelle had been at the bank trying to get a loan to finish law school. True she was from a wealthy family, but her parents insisted that in their final year, children should be able to pay their own way, to show them responsibility. She had never worked a day in her life and wasn’t about to start with some menial job this close to graduation. There were a few internships, but most paid little or nothing; not nearly enough to supplement student loans.
The loan officer was an older man and though he obviously had a thing for younger women, he wasn’t about to give an inch when it came to company funds. Apparently he was notorious for turning down anybody and everybody. It was bad enough to be turned down, but to be turned down by a decrepit old fool while he was looking down her shirt was intolerable. And judging by the wedding ring, he was married too.
She thought for a second of going to her parents, but they were adamant that she hold a part time job all through college and save money for that last semester. If she told them she hadn’t worked or saved a penny, they not only wouldn’t help her but there would be no cushy job waiting in Daddy’s law firm after graduation.
She couldn’t risk that. Maybe she could swallow her pride and give this old guy a little. God she’d have to put a bag over his head to avoid puking in the middle, but what was one night. She decided to feel him out and asked him out for a drink; on the other side of town where no one she knew would see how low she had sunk. He accepted.
They met at O’Hara’s in a rather sleazy part of town, still self-conscious; she wore a blond wig and dark glasses. Well there he was, God this was degrading. She wandered over to the table and sat down.
“What’s with the disguise?” He asked.
“Well my folks have money and it wouldn’t do for me to be seen in a place like this.” She replied.
They had a few drinks. She was rather slamming hers down to build up courage. He began rubbing her leg under the table and she knew she had him hooked. A couple more drinks and he suggested they go back to his place. She said she would prefer a hotel in the neighborhood as they had too much drink to drive; not wanting to let him know she didn’t want to be seen with him. He readily agreed. She took a bottle with her in an attempt to make this more tolerable. It didn’t help. After about 10 minutes, thank God, he came and passed out.
Having no intentions of spending the night, she slipped out and caught a cab. She had him drop her off a few blocks from the campus so no one would see her and ditched the wig in a dumpster behind a restaurant. Jesus, she couldn’t wait to get into the shower.
The next afternoon she went back to the bank to discuss her loan again. To her utter shock, he gave her a lustful smile and a wink and turned her down again. She was furious but decided to hide it for the time being and bide her time. She would get him for this, somehow.
Then a chance glimpse of a stranger in a library gave her an idea.
She got close enough to overhear his conversation with the girl he was with, agreeing to meet at the same time tomorrow, and she caught his name at the book check-out counter. Frederick Sims III, God he was probably one of the Long Island Sims’. They owned several hotels and a bank or two.
Halloween was just around the corner, this was going to be perfect. She would have her scapegoat, now all she needed was an alibi, airtight. There was to be a huge Halloween party at Straus Hall from 4 to midnight on Halloween night, perfect again. Now she needed to find a girl approximately her build and discover what she was going to wear that night so she could dress alike.
She looked in her dorm first and found no one. Then starting with Thayer Hall she began her search. Yes, there she was, seated in the study lounge in Matthew’s Hall, talking on the phone. Isabelle, carrying a stack of flyers for the party as her reason for trudging through all the dorms, laid one on the table next to the girl. Busying herself putting another on the bulletin board and on a few on the other tables, she waited for her to take the bait. Sure enough she picked up the flyer and began talking to whoever on the phone about going to the party. After an eternity she began to brag that she with her perfect figure was going to go dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Good, good. Now she needed her name. Gathering her coat and purse she turned to the girl and said, “Jessica is it? Didn’t we meet in Professor Hardwick’s class last year?” No the girl replied, with her nose stuck up as high as it would go, I’m Catherine Colby of the Rhode Island Colby’s and I’ve never taken his class, excuse me.”
Now she needed to give Mr. Frederick a motive for murder. No easy task but she had a deliciously creative plan. Seating herself in the library at his usual hour for study she awaited his arrival. Late, but there he was. After an hour or two of studying and some conversation with a certain girl he rose to leave. “See you on Friday, same time?” He said. “I may be a few minutes late, but I’ll be here.” She replied. God, could this go any better? All the pieces were falling into place.
Next to make a date with the banker for some kinky sex. She arrived at the bank not long before closing in the hopes of not giving him time to question her too much. “Meet me at the library, I’ll be going to a Halloween party afterwards, so I’ll be dressed as a man and sitting at the third table on the left. Just come in and plant a big one on me, I want to embarrass my parents, they pissed me off.” “I’m not sure I want to be a party to your getting back at your parents.” “Oh c’mon honey it’ll get your juices flowing, then we can get to the fun stuff in my room.” He agreed.
This was going to be fun. She would have to watch from a safe distance, perhaps even take video. She spent the next few days getting her costume ready and making sure the whole dorm knew she was going as Marilyn Monroe. Her friend Becky agreed to go with her to the party.
Getting hold of Frederick’s clothes and shoes was going to be the easy part. God the rich are so vulnerable. Every Wednesday he left his laundry outside his door for the cleaners and his precious Robert limited edition tennis shoes to be cleaned as well; all of which she would collect dressed as a maid.
There was one little snag. She needed to know where Frederick was going to be that night. She chanced arriving at the library a little early and actually asked him out to the party. No sorry he said, “I would be taking my finance, Nadine, but she’ll be out of town at a family thing. I’m just going to stay in and study for finals.” “Ok, your loss,” and off she went to hide in a corner with her camera phone. This was going to be good. She could hardly contain herself. About 5 minutes later in walked the old banker. Just as planned he ambled over to the table bent over and actually tried to tongue poor Frederick. She got the whole affair on video all the while trying to keep from laughing hysterically. Freddy pushed him away demanding to know who the hell he was and what the hell he was doing. Embarrassed to death when he realized his error, the banker ran.
This gave Isabelle another delicious plan. She made a copy of the video and slid it under Freddy’s door with a note demanding $10,000 be dropped off with his laundry on Wednesday or the video would be on YouTube by Friday, and added, “You shouldn’t have rejected me in the library. You made a fool of me.” It might work it might not. If so she could put off talking to her parents about money for a little while longer. What the hell, she would be picking up his laundry anyway.
Wednesday came and to her surprise the laundry was rich. Oh my God, icing on the cake. She would post the video anyway of course, he needed motive. Three more days till Halloween. In the meantime she lingered in the biology lab late one day and made off with coat, booties, cap, mask and gloves, and made herself up a smidgen of ricin toxin ; all important materials. She had purchased the castor plant seeds for this purpose on the other side of town dressed as Frederick. It’s amazing what you can find out about poisons in a library. She poured it into a tiny spray bottle and she was ready.
Now she needed a taxi to pick up the banker after work. Well that shouldn’t be too difficult. No she couldn’t over power most cabbies, but most of them wouldn’t turn down a drink. For this she got a heavy dose of seeing pills and poured them into a mini of Jack Daniels. If this failed, she would have to use the spray bottle. Ah, all was going according to plan.
It was finally Halloween night. She’d gotten herself a big purse and packed it with lab wear, Freddy clothes, a baseball cap and poison. Then she began to put on her costume. The blond wig, of course the white dress that Marilyn was famous for and even the little mole. She was ready. On the way there she stopped at an internet cafe' and posted the video on YouTube. God most of these places never asked for ID, especially near the campus.
She didn’t want to linger too long at the party and give people a chance to notice 2 Marilyn’s, so after about 15 minutes, she ditched Becky at the bar and snuck off to the restroom. She had to wait till no one could see her going into the men’s room. After a few minutes she scooted into a stall and eventually emerged as Frederick Sims III. Heading straight for the door, she hailed a cab. She almost felt bad for the guy, he seemed nice. Thank God he accepted the drink. “Go on finish it” she said, in her deepest voice. “Take me to City Bank on 3rd.” About halfway there, she had to grab the wheel, he was passing out. “Pull over a sec,” she said. “Get some air.” He did and she shoved him into a ditch and drove off. She pulled off onto a side road and put on the lab gear, except for the mask and hat.
Pulling up to City Bank, she noticed another car parked out front. Shit, she thought, I hope he doesn’t have a ride. Wait a minute, that’s Freddy’s car. What the hell? Minutes later the old bugger emerged, right on time. But to her amazement, Freddy stepped out of the other car and fired 3 shots into his face. Holy crap! He dropped the gun and drove off.

The worst part was he was dressed as Marilyn Monroe