Leanne Baker is a blackmailing mastermind with the complicity of Tammy Mills, except for Baker escalating to being a murderer.
History[]
Baker in only one attempt passed the bar for her license as a lawyer. However, she was professionally incompetent and reprehensible, her history including two rehab admissions and one of her four firms firing her for sexually harassing her secretary when the woman reported Baker. When firms stopped hiring her, Baker met Tammy, a needy, lonely recent divorcee, on an online forum and seduced her into being her partner in crime in a series of blackmails against men they'd target. Tammy would seduce married man and gain evidence of their infidelity, after which Baker would arrange blackmail extortion under threats of exposing the men. Baker also seduced and had sex with Patrick Cardell outside of her partnership with Tammy, partly so Patrick's bar was a hunting ground and meeting location for her cons.
Baker's latest assignment for Tammy is staying in a steady affair with writer Noah Brenzer for a couple months, arranging their meeting at Daniel's bar. Baker then hired a Ukrainian woman in prostitution, Anya Pugach, who slightly resembled Tammy, to partake in a threesome with Tammy and Noah, which Tammy would record throughout its entirely for their next blackmail. However, Tammy fell in love with Noah, and she couldn't go through with the tryst. Baker snapped out of a need for avenging herself and out of panic to maintain the scheme, strangling Anya to death and tying her up in intricate knots postmortem.
Baker used photos of the murder with Noah sleeping at the scene to frame him, demanding 200 grand cash to not falsely sell him out for the crime. Baker also planted the rope at the writer's studio and blackmailed Patrick with a video of them having sex into not revealing any other meetings Noah had at the bar other than the night of the murder. The job succeeded in getting Noah arrested, and when Tammy was questioned by the detectives, Baker appeared as her lawyer and made her lie that Noah never told her about the setup. When Noah tried to call Tammy to try and insist, she back him up in interrogation, she hung up and started making out with Tammy in their car. Noah was distraught that his professional life was offer and he was ending up in jail, resulting in him committing suicide.
Noah took three tries to tie a knot that would hang him, confirming too late posthumously, that he never killed Anya. The detectives started suspecting Tammy and Baker, then got confirmation from Patrick he lied because Baker harassed him into perjury. They were brought to the station and pt through a rigged lineup, where Tammy was the only one identified to be arrested. When she was being brought to holding, where all the male inmates were stalking both women, the detectives confronted her and Baker with their evidence of Noah's innocence. What finally got the confession was when Tammy was given Noah's suicide letter to read. Despite Leanne trying to coerce Tammy from alleging they only had each other, Tammy cried and confessed to the entire blackmail plan, but the murder was all Leanne. Leanne turned cold and bitter, harassing Tammy and insulting her and Anya, criticizing Tammy over needing love because of her failed marriage, which is precisely what Leanne manipulated. This was enough for the both of them to be arrested.
Baker was found guilty of murder two, conspiracy, stalking, harassment, extortion, perjury, and obstruction and was imprisoned, likely for life. (CI: "Lonelyville")
Known Victims[]
- Numerous unnamed married men (blackmailed and extorted)
- Anya Pugach (strangled with jute rope; tied in special knots and took photos of postmortem)
- Noah Brezner (blackmailed, attempted to extort for $200,000, and framed for Anya's murder; later committed suicide in prison)
- Patrick Cardell (blackmailed and harassed into perjury)
- Tammy Mills (harassed)