Dead Giveaway

by Chloe Kendrick

  I looked him in the eye. “I’ll trade you,” I said.

  “For what? You don’t want my wife’s cooking. Retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me.”

  I hadn’t moved yet to let him in my place. “I want information about the guy who used to live here. The police made some crack about him when they were wheeling the corpse out of here last night. I looked up what I could, but you know how the news is.” I shrugged to let him know that I was skeptical of anything the media might say.

  “Longhill? You got yourself a deal. You first. What the hell happened here last night?” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Now that we had agreed on a barter, I moved and allowed him to come into my apartment.

  I gave him the entire story from start to finish. I didn’t leave out a thing, mainly because there was not much to the story.

  “Huh,” he said, giving me a sheepish grin.

  “What gives?” I asked. I didn’t know him well, but I suspected that something was going on that I should know about. He didn’t seem like the silent type.

  “I might have had a hand in this matter,” he said, biting his lip nervously. If people were going to come to my door and confess, this might be an easy case, but I suspected that my life would never be that simple.

  I just waited until he spoke again. Most people will fill an awkward silence rather than let it continue. “Saturday, when all those moving guys were coming in and out, this courier guy was walking down the hall with that freezer thing. The movers were making all this racket, so I was already out in the hall, trying to find what out what was going on. I pointed the courier to your door. He knocked and one of the movers signed for the freezer and motioned him in.”

  I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t that far out of college that I’d lost my skill. The whole thing was due to a nosy neighbor trying to justify his vigilance in the hallway. “So I have you to thank for a long night and no use of my back bedroom?”

  He nodded. “I just assumed that he was for you. It made sense.”

  My eyes grew wide. “What makes sense is looking at the shipping label and delivering it to the right address. What courier was this?”

  “IPS,” he replied. “When you think of it, this really falls on him, not me. He should have checked the address before leaving it in your place.”

  “Sure, thanks,” I replied. I would have told him to get out, but I still wanted the information on Murray Longhill. This was the type of questioning that Detective Danvers had asked me to do.

  “Well, I’ll just go then,” he said and turned around.

  “Not so fast.” I walked quickly and stood in front of the door. “You told me that you’d let me know about Murray Longhill, and now I think you owe me more than that – but I’ll settle for some information for now.”

  Wayne sighed and the hands went into the pockets again. “Nobody here knew Murray very well. He kept to himself mostly. He had a dog named Spike. He had to pay out the nose for that, but he always said that Spike was worth it. Must be nice to have extra money like that.” I made a note to ask Carter to find out what had happened to the dog. It would be hard to believe that Murray would have left his four-footed friend if he was running away.

  “What about when he disappeared?”

  “The papers had it mostly right. Several people in the complex heard noises that night. Pounding and banging on the walls. If he’d been moving in, I would have thought that he was hanging pictures or something.”

  “Did anyone go check on him to see if everything was okay?” I asked, wondering what would happen to me, given some of the situations I’d been in. Would they all stay in their apartments and wait to tell the police about it later?

  “It was early in the evening. He wasn’t keeping anyone awake. So everyone just shrugged and let it go. It wasn’t until we heard a scream that we went to check.”

  “Was it his scream?” I asked, wondering what would make a man scream like that. I thought it had been a door slamming or something, but I had been wrong.

  He shrugged. “I guess so. Like I said, he kept to himself, and frankly, I can’t say that I had ever heard him scream before. So best guess, yes, but I can’t be definite.”

  I nodded. Overall, except for delivering corpses to my place, Wayne was a pretty good witness. “How long was it from the scream to the time you opened the door?” I asked. I wasn’t even sure that I could scream and then get out of the place before people were outside.

  “Maybe 30 seconds at most. Not long at all. It was creepy. The door was wide open, and he was gone. It was like a ghost or something.”

  I wasn’t sure I believed that. I’d never heard of a ghost taking a person away. It seemed a little far-fetched. Wayne looked uncomfortable now, and so I moved away from the door. “Thanks for the information. It’s just a little creepy to be staying here with one dead body being found here, and another guy that went missing here.”

  He nodded. “The landlord had a hard time renting it. The family kept the rent up for two months, and then they finally moved his stuff out. The news had done enough outside shots of the complex that people knew where we were. The landlord said that people would specifically ask not to be shown this apartment.”

  I thought back to the showing when he’d lured me with discounts and rebates galore. I had thought that I was a master negotiator, but apparently I’d been had. Little did the landlord know that I had enough experience with dead bodies that a few missing guys wouldn’t bother me in the least.

  I nodded. “Thanks for sharing all this – and now you can tell everyone about the body in the freezer too.”

  “Great. That means I have to talk to all of those idiots. I’ll just tell my wife, and she can pass the word on.”

  “One more thing before you go,” I said, thinking about the people in 362. “Do you have the name for the hipster guy who lived in 362?”

  “Yeah, hold on.” He pulled out a phone and texted someone. I assumed it was his wife, since it beeped momentarily, and he looked back at me. “His name was Zed Tucker, and her name was Arianna Something. My wife doesn’t remember her last name.”

  I nodded and scrounged a piece of paper to write it down. “Which of them was having the affair?” I asked, wanting to get the information – even though this was technically Danvers’ investigation into the freezer and not the disappearance.

  “That I can answer. It was Zed. My wife and her friends had something to talk about for weeks,” he said. Wayne did a pretty mean eye roll too. I was impressed.

  I thanked him again for the information and opened the door for him.

  .He made a small wave with his hand and walked out.

  My stomach was grumbling, but I wanted to do this first. I picked up the phone and dialed Detective Danvers. I thought about making him come over to let him see that I’d already uncovered more about the man in the freezer than he had, but I thought he would take that as an attempt to date again. So I just left a message telling him about the courier company and how the freezer had ended up at my place.

  I hung up and went in to scavenge for food in the new apartment.

  *

  I thought about sleeping in the next morning, since Carter now had a key, but I thought that would be bad form, if for no other reason than I hadn’t informed the secured lot that he was now on the list of approved people to drive the food truck out of the lot. While the thought of Carter being stuck at the secured lot for an hour or so amused me a little, it wasn’t funny enough to waste valuable morning sales. I had an apartment to pay for.

  I was at the usual spot on Elm when Carter showed up. He was beaming from ear to ear. “Aaron’s coming over at 2 o’clock,” he said. I nodded. While Land went to the other extreme of not telling me anything about himself, I didn’t want to encourage Carter to tell me too much. I was searching for the median where I knew some, but not every detail of my employees’ lives.

  “Are you two dating again?” I asked, trying to appear interested.
I didn’t have any experience with an employee who talked about his life. I wasn’t sure of the proper attitude for the response.

  “We talked about it. We’re going to take it slowly and see.” Carter gave me a smile that told me he’d already made up his mind on the matter.

  “That’s nice,” I replied as I went back to counting the money for the register for the day. I always counted at the beginning and end of the day, so that I could verify the results.

  Carter waited for a response, but when I continued my count of the drawer, he continued. “I thought you’d be happy. He got the keys to the storage unit – like you wanted.”

  I knew that I had to immediately backtrack and salvage this discussion. “That’s great. I just thought you meant you wanted to leave early. I mean, you’ve been working every day this month.”

  Carter had originally been hired part-time, which allowed Land and me to share Carter between the food trucks. It worked well for him, because he’d come home after college to take care of his mother who was having some health problems. He’d shared recently that she was doing somewhat better. She’d had a rather nasty case of an antibiotic-resistant disease. The woman had been quarantined until the hospital determined that she was no longer contagious, but even now, she had little energy. She slept a great deal, and left the other children to Carter, her oldest.

  “No, I’m fine. You said to let you know when I need time off, and I will. She’s getting better, really, but thanks for asking. It means a lot.”

  I gave him my very best 5 a.m. smile. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Carter smiled back at me. For some reason, his early morning grin seemed more sincere than mine did. “I just thought you’d want to see this stuff as soon as you could. Aaron said that his mother has started to give up hope. She told him that he could have anything he wanted from there for his apartment, and she said that you could have what you needed to solve this case.”

  “That’s pretty generous,” I replied, trying to think if I’d want a stranger to end up with my things – just because I wasn’t around to keep them anymore. I focused back on the count of the cash and making enough coffee for me and the patrons. The morning went fast.

  Detective Danvers showed up around 1:30. I wasn’t sure if he was just on a routine stop by or not. He ordered some coffee and looked at me coldly. I smiled, and took his money. No comps for him today. “How did you find out about the freezer?” he asked finally.

  I shrugged. “One of the neighbors told me about it. He was sorry, but he’d just assumed that the courier was looking for my place, just like all the moving trucks. Just one more delivery at my new apartment.”

  He sighed. “You’re not supposed to be looking into this matter. It’s an open police investigation. You’re supposed to be looking into the Longhill matter.”

  “Isn’t that an open investigation?” I asked, just to be annoying. “I mean, it’s not solved.”

  “Technically yes, but it’s beginning to feel like a cold case. A missing persons case with no leads after six months. It’s not going to get a lot of manpower thrown at it.”

  I looked over my shoulder to see Carter listening to every word we were saying. Far from being reticent about getting involved in the mysteries our food trucks somehow became saddled with, he seemed very much to want to be a part of the action. I hoped that he would be careful with his zeal. He had responsibility for the welfare of others to think of before endangering himself in any way.

  “Well, I’m going through his personal effects today. So I’ll be sure to let you know if I hear anything else about the Longhill matter. Now – have you called IPS yet?”

  “Yes, and we’re waiting for them to get the records to us. They made us get a warrant in order to get the sender’s name and address. So we were tied up doing that instead of really hunting the people behind this.”

  I took a sip of my coffee. “Have there been any missing persons reports that match the guy in the freezer?” I asked. I would think that the person who had died would be missed by others. Certainly they would care enough to seek out the police when he didn’t show up for a few days. Today was Tuesday, which meant that he’d been gone several days at least.

  “Yeah, about that. It’s not as easy as it looks. The ME’s preliminary report came back. This guy has been dead at least five years, maybe longer. He’s presumably been frozen in that freezer the entire time. Now all of a sudden, he’s back and thawing out. We’d started looking at reports that were later than that. So our missing persons reports searches are all five years or older. It’s not like just looking at the people who didn’t come home this weekend.” Detective Danvers ran his hand through his hair. The results weren’t great, which was too bad, since he’d actually been having a good hair day.

  “Well, don’t forget to go say hello to Land,” I said, thinking about counting the cash now. “I’m sure he gets lonely over there.”

  He snorted, because we both knew it wasn’t true. Land had been angling for his own truck since I’d inherited the food truck on my aunt’s death. She had apparently promised the truck to him, though leaving it to me. It had caused some anger at the beginning of our relationship, but now he was able to run a food truck like he’d wanted. I couldn’t see him being lonely about that.

  People asked why I wasn’t running the new truck and letting Land run the original truck. For starters, Land had made a deal so that he could have one-quarter interest in the new truck, which gave him incentive to work there. Also the food had to be differentiated and he was much better equipped to create new dishes and serve a more complex menu. I was the business school grad; I was more likely to know how to order out.

  Aaron approached the truck just as Danvers left. The detective did head off in the direction of the other truck. I was a bit surprised, given that I was joking when I’d said that to Danvers. I wondered what they were working on together – or if Danvers was just trying to make sure that Land kept an eye on me.

  Carter looked at me as Danvers walked away. “That man likes you. It’s painfully obvious.” He opened the door and let Aaron into the truck.

  “Please. Let’s just stick to this case.” I said, trying not to think about what Carter had just said. Danvers had made it very clear that he was not interested at all.

  Aaron held up a key on a small chain. “But Carter is right. He’s smitten. Are you ready to snoop?” he asked me. “Did Carter tell you that you can take whatever you might need for the investigation? She told me that I could just take something if I liked it. She still is insisting that I use the present tense, but she seems to be giving up hope that he’s coming home soon. I thought that was a big step for her.”

  I nodded. Aaron rolled up his sleeves and helped with the cleanup, and we were done in a much shorter time than normal. I drove the truck to the secured lot, and Aaron and Carter picked me up in what had to be Aaron’s car. I didn’t recognize it, but I liked it immediately. It was an old Buick, different model but same year as my own. It made me feel slightly better that I drove something similar to this.

  We headed across town to a storage rental place. Aaron knew exactly where he was going and didn’t stop to check. Aaron had a pass card to open the drop down bar. We drove past a few units that Aaron pointed to. He found a parking place for the big car, and we walked back to one of the units.

  I was amazed at how few people would be needed to run a storage company. They had cameras everywhere and pass cards that didn’t require people to open the gates. I marveled at the thought of having a business where you could just sit at home and collect the checks.

  “Be prepared,” he said as he swung the door open.

  I hadn’t been ready for what I saw. It wasn’t a neat organization of the things that had defined Murray Longhill’s life. What I saw was a junk pile that practically spilled out on the concrete. Every inch of the unit was jammed with possessions that no one needed.

  “It gets better,” he said as he stepped to the next un
it and revealed a second unit that was every bit as full as the first.

  I moaned – twice. “Do you have any ideas where his stuff might be in here? Please tell me that we don’t have to go through everything. We’ll be days.”

  Aaron waded into the wall of accumulations. Carter and I opted to stay outside and wait. He came back out a few minutes later. “Okay, so the things that you want are along the right wall. That has most of his personal possessions. Carter can help you – and he can pick out what he wants for himself too. I’m going to start on the second unit and see if they put anything in here. With any luck, it will all be in that same area, so we don’t have to deal with more crap than we need to.”

  I mentally cursed the proposed situation. I’d hoped by spending more time with Aaron, that I might get some more leads on Longhill. I didn’t really suspect Aaron, who seemed to be only marginally interested in the man, but he knew all of the family suspects, and I might uncover some motives for his disappearance.

  Instead I wandered into the labyrinth of junk that they’d uncovered for me in this storage unit while Aaron was in the other unit. There would be no chance for chitchat that might lead to clues when two walls and a mountain of accumulated possessions separated us.

  Carter and I managed to get back to the place where Murray Longhill’s possessions were stored. Nothing is more depressing than seeing a person’s life summed up in a few boxes, and that was definitely what we had here. There were about 12 boxes, all with the room names associated with them written in marker across the front.

  Carter sat down on the sofa after pushing two boxes out of the way. “I live at home,” he explained. “I have a room. I don’t have a place to decorate yet, so nothing here is coming home with me.”

  I nodded, thinking that my last place had not had the room for decorating either. It had been all boxy walls and tiny rooms. My new apartment had these vast expanses of beige-painted walls that screamed to be decorated.

  I flipped open the first box, which had been marked kitchen. There were only some utensils and cookbooks in the box. I flipped through the cookbooks, but if they held anything other than recipes, I missed it. It seemed hard to believe that he would have willingly left something behind that he needed. If he’d disappeared on purpose, he’d been very intentional. I doubted that he’d forgotten something if he’d had time to get his life together.