The Congresswoman's Daughter

All the residents of Rydertown gathered together at the church for the funeral service for their revered congresswoman, Samantha Halloway. A week ago, she was strangled to death in her own home in the dark of the night. The only other person in the house with her was her now grieving 22-year-old daughter, Tasha, who had allegedly been in her own room at the time of her mother’s savage attack. The two of them had been living together since the death of Samantha’s husband, Ned, the town’s sheriff who was killed on the job when Tasha was 12. So, in one fateful night, Tasha became an orphan when her only surviving parent was cruelly taken away from her.

This was important information for the FBI to take into consideration for their formal investigation into Samantha’s murder, including Agent Greg McGurney. He and Ned had known each other since their elementary school days and had since been inseparable. Greg’s close friendship with the Halloways had inspired him to work in a field where he needed to protect others and put the bad guys away, so he’d gone into training to become an FBI agent, and here he was now, paying his respects to the widowed congresswoman who now left behind a bereaved, heartbroken 22-year-old daughter.

Not only was Greg paying his respects to the Halloways, but he was also surveying the service, hoping to catch a suspect in the act or a member of the community acting a little “out of character”, as if they had something to do with the crime. Right now, every person was in mourning, truly saddened by the congresswoman’s loss and the beautiful young woman of a daughter she left behind. Greg was a father, so he knew exactly how Tasha was feeling, being at this service for her mother and knowing that this was going to be her new reality.

After the service was over—which was a closed-casket service because of the strangulation horrors that Samantha had endured—people went up to Tasha to pay their respects to her, and Greg smiled to himself, seeing how remarkably brave this young woman was to interact with others while she was grieving her mother. He’d known Tasha since she was a little baby: her wide, innocent blue eyes staring up at him whenever she would giggle. He remembered her as that innocent, angelic little child who could have done no wrong. She was a sweet girl at heart, and God only knows what could be running through this poor girl’s mind at this moment. Still, he needed to put aside his personal feelings so that he could help Tasha get justice for her mother. He needed to ask her all the hard questions, such as what exactly she’d heard that night while she was in her room. She and her mother were the only two people in the house, so she either must have seen or heard the assailant make their way into the house at that time of night. He needed to get her side of how things had really gone down that night, and the sooner he got to it, the better chances the FBI had in solving Samantha’s murder.

He walked up to her as soon as most people began making their way out of the church and, without a word, gently wrapped his arm around her. “I’m very sorry for what you’re going through, Tasha,” he said softly.

She gave him a small smile through her tears. “Thank you, Greg.” She sniffed as she gently wiped a few tears from her face. “Are you in charge of the investigation?”

“I am, yeah. I was hoping that you’d spare a little bit of your time so that we can talk about what you remember about that night. I know you’ve been in distress for these past few days, and I’d really like to hear from you for once, if that’s okay.”

“Sure thing, Greg. Let me go get my purse, and I’ll go to the ladies’ room first to freshen up.” She chuckled as another tear slowly fell down her face. “Lord only knows how much I’ve messed up my mascara from all this crying.”

“Hey, that’s totally okay. Just meet me outside in my car when you’re done, and we can head over to the station so that we can talk. Take your time, okay? No need to rush.”

“You’re much too kind, Greg.” Tasha smiled at him as she grabbed her purse from her seat in the pew, then went to the ladies’ room.

For the next five minutes, Greg waited patiently in his patrol car for Tasha to finish attending to her personal business. She eventually came out, looking as refreshed as ever with her youthful glow of her rosy cheeks, which brought out the baby blue of her eyes that complemented her long, dirty blonde hair that she covered with a stylish black fedora that she’d worn specifically for her mother’s service. She sat next to Greg in the passenger seat, and as he drove to the station, he couldn’t help but glance at her every few seconds or so, trying to see how she was handling all this. She began using her phone, probably as a good way to keep herself distracted and to let others who knew her and the family best that she was handling everything as gracefully as she could.

“And here we are,” Greg said as they eventually arrived at the station. They went in, and Greg greeted his co-workers, some of whom were also working the case with him. He and Tasha went into an interrogation room, and he shut the door after her as he offered her a bottle of water. “Okay, so I’ll need you to think really long and hard about that night, and take your time to remember what you can. If you want to write it down instead, you’re welcome to do that.” He gave her his notepad and pen.

“Thank you.” She smiled as she began taking notes of her account of that fateful evening’s events. For the past ten minutes, she wrote nearly two pages in the notepad detailing her mother’s murder. Apparently, she did not see her mother’s attacker, but she heard “a lot of yelling” coming from upstairs in her mother’s room that she used to share with Ned.

After she finished writing, Greg read her statement and asked her, “Are you absolutely sure you didn’t hear the attacker make his way into the house?”

“I’m sure.” She nodded.

He was inclined to believe her; he knew there’s no way she’d ever lie about that, but then again, he wouldn’t blame her if she was lying, seeing as though she was in mourning and her memory might be a little fuzzy from time to time. “It’s okay,” he reassured her. “We’ll do our best to get to the bottom of this, but for now, you’ve been very helpful in remembering what you can. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime you remember anything else, whether it’s a minor detail or not. We promise to look into it right away. Okay?”

“Thanks.” A tear fell down her face, and she quickly wiped it off with her hand.

As soon as they were about to leave, Greg asked her, “I just want to know… Do you have a steady place where you can stay for now? Your house is now a crime scene, and I wouldn’t advise you to go back there.”

“Oh.” Tasha sighed. “I haven’t actually thought about that.” After a moment’s silence, she replied, “No, I don’t think I’ve considered anywhere else to stay for the time being.”

Greg was amazed. “Really? What about your relatives? Friends from school? Boyfriend?” Tasha shook her head, indicating that no one was willing to keep her company for the time being.

“Greg… I want to stay with you.” She gave him a small smile.

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Greg, I…” She smiled, a little more hopefully than expected. “I want you to know that you’re not just a stranger to me. You’ve been a very close friend to my family all these years, and if I’m being honest… I see a little bit of my father in you. I know, it sounds totally weird, doesn’t it?” She chuckled as she shook her head. “What am I saying? I don’t want to make this weird for either one of us.”

“No, no…” Greg cleared his throat. “It’s fine. Okay, here’s the thing. Why don’t I drop you off at home so that you can start gathering all your stuff, and when I’m done with my shift, I can pick you up so you can stay with me for a while. What do you think?”

“I’d love that.” Her cheeks gave off that rosy glow filled with hope.

“I’ll need to discuss this with Lindsay first, see what she has to say, but in the meantime…”

“I’ll just get a Lyft home instead, Greg. Don’t worry about me for now. The fact that you’re willing to let me stay at your place while you solve my mom’s murder is proof enough for me that you really care about me, and I appreciate it.” She put her hat back on and grabbed her purse.

“That’s what I do. I care about you and your family, and I believe your mother deserves to have someone speak for her because she can no longer speak for herself. I have to be her voice, and so do you. She was a great woman, Tasha.” He took a sip from his water bottle to keep himself from becoming emotional. “Anyway, you have my number, so just message me to let me know that you made it home safely, and when my shift is over, I’ll come to pick you up.”

“Thank you.” Tasha went up to him to give him a nice, long farewell hug before leaving the station to get to her Lyft ride.

After Tasha left, Greg spent the next few hours working with his colleagues on the Samantha Halloway case, who each performed their respective tasks of getting interviews from witnesses and close friends and relatives of the Halloways, as well as gathering forensic evidence from the crime scene. During his break, Greg called his wife Lindsay to tell her that Tasha was planning to stay with them for an unknown amount of time. 

At first, Lindsay was against the idea, and rightfully so. It wasn’t clear how long Tasha planned to stay with them, nor did Tasha have any idea as to what she wanted to do next. She was currently enrolled at the local university and set to graduate in a few months, but she didn’t live on campus because she apparently found it difficult to get along with her roommates, for whatever reason. Greg figured that with her mother’s death, Tasha wouldn’t bear the thought of returning to campus, so he had no choice but to welcome the grieving young woman into his family’s home with their 12-year-old son, Jonathan.

After Greg wrapped up his shift, he went over to the Halloways’ residence as promised, and helped Tasha with her bags of belongings and various personal effects including her purse. They made their way to his house, and Lindsay greeted her with a warm, welcoming hug while Jonathan shook hands with her, doing his best to remain polite.

In the weeks that followed, Greg and Tasha formed a connection that was deeper than ever, a bond that seemed more like father and daughter. She was a beautiful young woman, with her magnetic blue eyes and youthful soul, but as a married man and father… He did his best to not give into temptation. He was her father’s closest friend, and he had a duty to get justice for her mother, not to become smitten with the Congresswoman’s daughter.

But apparently, Tasha had other plans…

It was not his imagination, but Tasha appeared as though she was trying to seduce Greg. It was in the way that she walked, talked, and carried herself in general when she was with him. The way she would gently touch him on the arms, shoulders, and wherever else… How deeply she stared into his blue eyes… Was it possible that she saw him as more than a mere father figure?

One night, when Lindsay was away spending the weekend with her siblings, leaving Greg, Tasha, and Jonathan behind, Greg went to Tasha’s room to address her behavior. “I think it’s time you and I had a talk,” he said as he sat next to her on the bed.

“What about, Greg?” she said in a seductive tone of voice, giving him a wink as she moved a little too close to him.

“Tasha, this can’t happen between us, okay? I’m married; surely you must know that already.”

“Oh, I know.” She began to put her arms around him when he resisted.

“And that needs to stop. No touching. No physical contact with each other. Tasha, this isn’t supposed to happen. Okay? I know you’re still grieving your mother, but I have a responsibility to do my job to help solve her murder and bring to justice the sick bastard who did this to her. I can’t let my personal feelings get caught up in all this. Let’s respect each other’s distance from now on, okay?” He sounded a little firm but gentle. He was giving her much-needed tough love. “You’re grieving, so it’s natural for your feelings to be all over the place. Let’s try not to make this a habit for now. I hope you understand.”

“I’m sorry, Greg.” She sighed. “I don’t know what’s gotten over me, but I understand you loud and clear. I promise this won’t happen between us again.”

But Tasha proved him wrong, and she still had an infatuation with him that she couldn’t control. By the following week, Greg and Lindsay made the final yet tough decision to kick her out of their home. Lindsay shared her suspicions with Greg, insisting that her intuition about Tasha had been right all along: there was something “not quite right” about Tasha’s overall demeanor since she first moved into their house. Especially with Tasha’s uncharacteristically volatile reaction by throwing a rock at the McGurneys’ front window. That was when Greg saw firsthand how mentally unstable the young woman was, and he dodged a huge bullet by kicking her out.

The next day, a young man showed up to the police station, demanding to speak with Greg. He introduced himself as Leland, Tasha’s ex-boyfriend who’d broken up with her a week or so prior to her mother’s murder. In his interview with Greg, Leland was able to confirm that Tasha was mentally unstable and had a fractured relationship with her mother prior to the murder.

According to Leland, Samantha Halloway did not approve of Tasha dating while she was in school because she wanted Tasha to focus on her academics and improve her GPA. Tasha’s grades had been slipping, and Samantha had received an email from the university, saying that they were threatening to have Tasha expelled if she couldn’t keep her grades up. Tasha was living the reckless, party-girl lifestyle on campus that caused her to be an outcast among her peers and roommates, which explained why none of her roommates wanted anything to do with her. Leland even broke up with her at some point because, in his own words, “she’s just too crazy.”

Additional interviews with Tasha’s peers confirmed Leland’s account of her occasionally unstable mood swings and drug addiction, as well as her troubled relationship with her mother. Samantha’s public image relied heavily on Tasha’s personality, and if the town found out that the Congresswoman’s daughter was a drug addict, that could be justified as merely reckless behavior as a way to rebel against her family’s perfectly clean-cut image.

This left Greg with the most frightening yet unimaginable conclusion: this young woman was responsible for her mother’s death.

To test out that theory, Greg and several agents went over to the Halloways’ residence to re-evaluate the crime scene in Samantha and Ned’s bedroom where the attack had occurred. The green neck scarf—the weapon—held the most vital clues for forensic DNA. And it came back as a match to one person, guess who: Tasha Halloway.

Hours later, law enforcement had Tasha taken into custody, and she was placed in an interview room with Greg, who was ready to grill her to death. With a knowing smile, he said, “So, I have a million theories as to what could’ve happened to your mother, but I want you to tell me something. Do you know who killed her?”

Tasha, as if she was trying to be equally clever, shook her head as she smirked. “No, Greg. Why don’t you tell me who you think did it?”

“I think you know, and you’re starting to realize you’ve just been caught.”

She scoffed. “What, so I’m a killer now? The Congresswoman’s own daughter kills her in cold blood? That’s what you’re saying?”

Greg smirked. “You just said it. And it’s on record.” He took out the recording, which had picked up on their conversation.

Tasha shook her head in disgust. “Unbelievable! I think I need a lawyer.”

“Better damn well hope it’s a good lawyer because you’ll be spending the rest of your life behind bars for first-degree murder and a million other charges stacked against you.”

And then, Tasha was officially charged with first-degree murder, as well as countless other charges for the death of her mother, Congresswoman Samantha Halloway. The whole town was in utter shock and disbelief that this innocent-looking young woman was capable of such violence toward her own mother, but once they eventually deemed her as culpable, they hoped for the day that she’d serve her time for her crime.