First to Die (9 page)

"Call me Dori." She looked at me with her soft, blue eyes. "Terrible loss for the community. Your mom and dad were such a wonderful couple."

"I prefer Sam." She turned around to look at me from head to toe. "Were you friends with them?" I asked.

"I did quite a few charity functions with your mom. In fact, I was a little startled when I first saw you. You look like her. Simply remarkable." We followed her up the walk to the front door. "I sold this house to Louise. I couldn't believe it when it happened," she said as she entered a secret code in her smart phone and aimed it at the electronic box hanging on the door knob. "I hate these new-fangled electronic things. I wish they'd just give use the old boxes back. It was so much easier." After a second try and a few seconds later, it beeped. She popped the lid on the box and pulled out a set of keys. "Voila," she laughed. She jingled them in front of us and then unlocked the door. "Your mom helped her pick out the house. From what I remember, they were best friends."

I stood there, dumbfounded, shaking my head. "I didn't know that. Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. They were inseparable."

I thought of my mom as we entered and stood in the foyer of the cozy little house. I wondered how many times she’d stood in the same place as I was now. I looked at Jason, who was quieter than normal. The blotchy, white patches forming on his face told me that he was as shocked as I was. I had a strange feeling in my gut. I didn't feel good. Jason grabbed my arm for support. I was spinning so many questions around in my head. I didn't know that my mom had had a friend named Louise. I didn't know that her friend was murdered. There were lots of her friends that came to the house—she had to of been one of them. I would never have recognized her from the awful pictures in her file.

"Do you want to leave?" Jason leaned over and whispered.

"No, I'm fine,” I said. “I just need to catch my breath."

"Say the word and we're out of here."

"Is there anything you remember about Louise?" I asked.

"Everyone adored her. Always kind and loving and no shortage of friends," she said. "She was dating—oh, what's his name?" She rubbed the top of her forehead. "Raymond, Reynolds, Rudy...?”

"Randall." Jason and I both blurted it out at the same time and followed her into the kitchen.

"Yes, that's it, William Randall." She clapped her hands together. “She also had a secret admirer that sent her cute little poems.” She walked over and looked out the window. “Louise and your mom got a big kick out of it, used to laugh about it all the time.” Her heels clicked as she headed toward another room.

“Secret admirer, did they ever find out who it was?” I asked as Jason and I trailed behind her.

“They tried, that’s for sure,” she said shaking her head. “Unfortunately, no, but everybody thought it was Randall. He was an odd fella.”

“Did they ever show you the notes or talk about them?” My voice echoed through the empty house.

“No, I wish they had.” She veered off to the left.

"Unbelievable." I stood there with my hands on my hips, looking at Jason. "Why don't I know any of this?" I closed my eyes, hoping to latch onto a memory. "My dad should have told me."

"I'm sure he was trying to protect you. You were already dealing with enough pain." His face was soft and sincere.

I wanted to agree with him, but I couldn't because now he was trying to protect me.

"Maybe." I walked off looking for Dori and found her in the living room. She perked up when I came in. Jason was on my heels.

"Is there anything special that you’re looking for?"

"No, we just needed to look around," I told her.

"Okay, feel free to take your time. I need to make a few calls, so I'm going to step outside and leave you to your business." She walked to the front door. "Give me a holler if you have any questions."

"Thank you, I will," I yelled back.

I yanked at Jason's sleeve. "I just want to take a quick look around and then we can go. Is that all right?"

"No problem." He pointed to the back of the house where she was found. Max followed us down the hall.

The bedroom was small, with hardwood floors and a closet on the north wall. There were two windows, one to the left of the closet and another on the west wall. It was spotless. The floors had recently been refinished and fresh eggshell white had been painted on the walls. "What are we looking for?" Jason said.

"Nothing, everything. I wanted to see it. I have a gut feeling that in some way they are connected." I walked over to the closet. "I know that there's something that we're missing with all of them. And, I'm having a hard time swallowing that she had a thing going with Bill Randall."

"He'd be on the top on the list as person of interest. Nothing in here. Let's head to the basement." He raised his eyebrows waiting for my reaction.

"Let's go." As long as I had someone with me, I could handle the creepy crawlers and cat-sized rats.

We opened the door and I could smell the mildew from the dampness. Another dirt floor with stone walls. I didn't expect anything less.

Jason switched on the light at the bottom of the steps. "Pretty clean down here."

I moved my hand along the stone wall. "I'm sure the bank pulled in a crew to fix everything up for resale."

"Look at all these doors." There were little cubbies and doors all along the back wall. We started opening them one-by-one. Jason opened a door that led to a room that was probably used for cold storage before the invention of refrigeration. Most of the houses in the district had a room like this. My house had one, but I never went near it.

"What's that other door in the back?" Jason turned around and asked me.

"I don't know, open it." I automatically stepped back, so I could run from a rabid raccoon or worse, a snake.

Jason jiggled the latch and pulled on the door, but it wouldn't move. He rammed it with his shoulder and still no luck. "I'll be right back."

"What do you mean? Where are you going?" I wrinkled my face up to protest.

"To get a crowbar. Sit at the bottom of the steps with your guard dog, chicken shit, until I get back."

"Hurry up, dammit." I heard his laughter roll down to the bottom of the steps.

Jason was back in no time with a large piece of metal in his hands. "I don't think we should start tearing things up in here. Did Dori see you with that?"

"Yeah, and she didn't have a problem as long as I didn't pull the door off the hinges. “I'm just going to pry the latch."

Jason strong-armed the door for several more minutes and it wasn't opening unless he took a sledgehammer to it.

"Give it up, I don't think that there's anything behind it. That lock looks like something from the dark ages. Probably the dungeon of horrors." I laughed, trying to make light of the fact that Jason "The Bull" Bradford couldn't open a little wooden door.

Chapter 13

I
made sure the door was back intact and went upstairs to find Dori. I saw her outside talking on her cell. I put Max in the car and walked in her direction.

"Hi, Dori." I waved.

"Did you get everything you needed?" She was fishing in her purse for something.

"Yes, and thank you for coming out so quickly to get us inside."

"My pleasure, I'm happy to help." She handed me her card. "It was so nice to meet you, and please call if you need anything.” She smiled. “Anything at all."

"I just might do that." I smiled and ran for my car.

***

Jennifer Edwards’s house looked smaller in the daylight. It had been built in the late 1800s, but it was just as nice as one of the new homes over on the west side. It was a soft gray color, sealed tight and trimmed with bright yellow tape. I parked in the street and waited for Jason. The front flower boxes were filled with drooping greenery and pink impatiens that were burning in the harsh morning sun. No owner. No water.

Jason pulled up behind me and tapped his horn. I checked my rear view mirror. He was on his cell. I waited for a few minutes, and Max and I got out to nose around. Jason caught up as we were heading for the front door. "Let's check the entire perimeter first. I want to make sure that we cover every inch of this house."

"Sounds good." He was right. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and we had to take advantage of the light that we hadn't had the other night. Several teams had already turned this place upside down, but maybe they’d missed something.

"Start at the front door, work your way around the west side. I'll hit the east and we'll meet in the back." He nodded his head for confirmation. "Sam, if anything looks suspicious let me know."

"I will." After checking around, the front was intact. The door and window didn't have a scratch on them. No pry marks. Nothing. We met in the back of the house at the cellar door. Padlocked from the inside.

"I got nothin." Jason shook his head.

"Same here. We're missing something. Did you tell Simpson to bring the keys?"

"Yeah, he's on his way right now." I heard the faint sound of radio chatter coming from the front of the house. He was already here.

We walked back to the front and signed for both sets of keys. "Drop them in the marked evidence bag outside the door when you're done and don't forget to sign the paper like last time.

"What are you talking about?" Jason piped up.

"The keys were taken yesterday afternoon, no signatures. I didn't find them until I got back this morning, sitting on the counter. Thought you guys had them." He lifted his shoulders and turned his hands up.

"Why didn't you say something?" I said

"I figured you needed them." He jumped back in the vehicle.

"Who else has been requesting evidence?" I asked.

"Nobody, I just know that these particular keys were missing." He headed back to his vehicle. "It's gonna cost you for the delivery." He laughed and drove off.

Jason was furious. "This is fucking bullshit." Those veins of his were popping out on the sides of his head again and they looked like they were going to explode.

"It's not a problem, we'll figure it out." I tried to calm him down.

We spent at least an hour inspecting the main floor and again, nothing looked out of place. Jason opened the door to the basement and I pulled my shirt up as a makeshift mask to block the smell. It wasn't working. He made it down the step before me and turned on the light. Another one in the center of the room with a long cord. I felt a chill run up and down my spine.

From the garden out back and the elaborate shelves in the basement with countless mason jars, we could tell that she’d loved to do her own canning.

There was only one door in the basement and we went straight for it. The door opened without any effort to an empty storeroom with more built-in shelves. We fanned out again, but it was clean.

"Well, we got nothing." Jason huffed and walked back-and-forth.

"Maybe we'll find something at the Mason house." I put a little pitch in my voice to sound enthusiastic.

Jason moved toward the steps and held out his hand. "Let's go." I hesitated, but I grabbed his hand and held it all the way to the front door. "I'll meet you at the Mason house." He walked off after locking the door.

The rest of the morning was disappointing. The Mason house was in the same perfect condition as the Edwards’. No locked doors. No secret rooms. We came up empty-handed. "Let’s head back to the station. I want to talk to Hayes about the Harper murder again. I want to know the details that they left out of the report."

"I'd like to hear what he has to say, but first I want to check around and see who snagged those keys." He kicked at the pebbles in the driveway one by one like he was shooting targets at the range. "Don't go in there without me."

"I won't," I said and opened the passenger door for Max.

***

I waited as long as I could for Jason, but he was nowhere to be found. I took a deep breath before I knocked on Hayes' door. He didn't answer on my first attempt, and I tapped three more times. I had my ear on the door and listened for any movement. He was talking on the phone, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I couldn't believe I was spying on him, but I had a feeling that he was hiding something.

"Do it," I heard him yell, and then I heard the phone hit its cradle like a hammer and the force of it pushed me back a few feet. The smartest thing to do would be to walk away, but the adrenaline that was still flowing through my system gave me the illusion that I could out-maneuver him. Silly me. I knocked again.

"Come on in," he shouted from the other side of the solid wooden door.

I walked in, went directly to his desk and sat the Harper file down on it.

"I know both of us have looked at this file, but the only information in here is from the M.E." My voice was steady. "Everything from the investigation is pretty much gone.” I hesitated. “Do you know where it is?" I looked him directly in the eyes.

"Sam, that was a long time ago." He sat back and clasped his hands together.

"It doesn't matter how long ago it was. Everything from the case should be in this file, and it’s empty." I didn't blink. "Why?"