Dead Giveaway

by Chloe Kendrick

  “Good. How goes the investigation?” I tried to keep my hands busy by putting out more utensils, even though it was getting to be close to closing time.

  “I think we’ve found Longhill,” he said with a look of triumph on his face. “You’ll never believe where he is.”

  “Istanbul? Russia?” I said, thinking of places where people might easily get lost in the foreign crowds. I had no idea what countries had extradition treaties with the US, but I would have thought that would be the first place to look.

  He shook his head. “Capital City. Our IT guys tracked down the IP address of the emails he sent. They were from a library on the west side of town. We’ve got a stakeout going on there now. I hope to have him in the next day or two.”

  “He’s here?” I asked. I had a bad feeling about this revelation. I could barely go to a mall without being recognized by someone who knew me. How could someone who had “disappeared” still live in the same town and not be seen at some point by someone? His photo had been on the news and in the papers. Certainly someone had to have seen him in the six months he’d been gone. It seemed improbable at best.

  “Yeah, he even has some relatives not too far from there. Can you believe it?”

  I could, but I didn’t like the implications. I needed to talk to Aaron quickly about this.

  Danvers was rambling on. “So you can call off your questions and dinners with people. We’ve got this under control now. It should be wrapped up in 24 hours.”

  I squinted at Danvers. Had he just mentioned that I’d gone to dinner with someone about the case? That bothered me. I hadn’t mentioned the dinner with Jimmy to anyone – not Land, not Carter, and not even my family. It meant I was being watched. There was only one reason for me to be put under surveillance – information. Danvers had allowed me to start an unofficial investigation into Longhill’s disappearance, hoping that I would flush someone or something out of hiding. Then he’d had me followed so that he could see what I’d learned through deductions. And I’d led them right to the Carrs.

  Part of me fumed, because I’d been duped. Land had been right to tell me not to trust Danvers. He’d used me for information and likely to promote his own career. The other part of me was freaked out. He’d seen me with Jimmy, and likely he’d tell Land, just to get something going. I hoped that was as far as it went. If he even took a cursory look into Jimmy’s life, he’d find another disappearance – the late Mr. Carr’s vanishing moment. Even Danvers couldn’t miss the implications of that one. He’d put two and two together and get my father.

  “So what types of things is Longhill sending? What’s so important that he’s risking his hiding place to use a computer?” I asked, quickly coming up with questions to cover my morass of feelings.

  “It’s odd. Nothing too important. He’s certainly not planning any reappearance or some information dump. He’s just signing up for a newsletter or two and checking his emails, most of which are boring as can be.” Danvers looked a bit disappointed by this. Apparently a person was supposed to come back after a mysterious disappearance with a flourish, and Murray Longhill was looking like he was going to come back with a whisper.

  He finished his food and turned to go. “I’ll be sure to let you know when we catch him. I’ll text you or something.”

  I gave him a weak smile. It was the best I could muster at this point.

  Aaron pulled up shortly after Danvers had left. I was torn. I wanted to hear what Danvers was saying to Land, but at the same time, I had to talk to Aaron. Practicality won out. I would talk to Land later, but I had a feeling that he’d trust me. At least I hoped so. The memory of that kiss made me want to try it again.

  I did text Land to tell him that I was leaving the truck for a short while to handle something. He responded with a brief “ok” which could have meant that he was annoyed or that it was just okay. It was hard to tell with him sometimes.

  I left the truck to talk to Aaron. “Were any of your family on the western side of Capital City close with your uncle?” I asked as an opening gambit.

  “My cousin Paula,” he said, giving me a quizzical look. “Why? What’s up?”

  “The police have found out that someone has been on your uncle’s email accounts. The police think it’s your uncle still in town, but that doesn’t make any sense. Why would he have staged a disappearance as he did and then stay in town?

  Aaron sighed. “That sounds like Paula. They were close, and she was pretty torn up by his disappearance. She kept after the police for ages about it. She didn’t think they’d done enough.” I remembered what Carter had said about Aaron. I couldn’t help but imagine what Paula had to be like if Aaron thought she came on too strong.

  “She wasn’t in the will, though,” I said, thinking of the two male cousins who stood to inherit everything.

  Aaron raised an eyebrow at me. “You’ve read his will?” He paused for a second. “Well, I guess you would. You want to find out who had motive.”

  “So why wasn’t Paula included in the will?” I asked again.

  Aaron sighed. “My uncle was an odd duck. I think you’ve realized that already. After his divorce, he was just done with women. All of them. I like women better than he did. So there was no way that a female relative of his was going to get a dime out of him.”

  “What did Paula say about that?” I asked, thinking that I liked Murray less and less. Even so, I couldn’t give up on this disappearance, just because the victim was unpalatable. Now there were larger stakes for me to consider.

  He shrugged. “She was rightfully pissed. We didn’t learn about the will until we had to pay for a safety deposit box at the bank. It was in there.”

  “Had you known that you were a beneficiary?”

  “I could have guessed it if asked. We got along okay, and given that I was gay, he assumed that I didn’t like women any more than he did.”

  “Aaron, can you give me a ballpark on what you think the estate is worth?” I hoped for his sake that he bunted and gave me a small answer.

  “You’re asking about that portfolio. No, none of us knew about it until we got to the bank that day. We found the documents for that with the will. My mom was dumbfounded. Murray always told her that he’d lost everything in the divorce, and here he sat with a nice bit tucked away.” Aaron rolled his eyes for a second and then stopped. “Are you asking me if I wanted him dead? I didn’t know about any of that, and even if I had, I wouldn’t have wanted him dead to get it.”

  I changed the subject quickly. I did not want to cause a fight with Aaron. “Was there anything else in the box?” I asked, thinking of the trove they’d found.

  “Some notes on the portfolio. They were mostly chicken scratches, but maybe you could make some sense of them.” He shrugged; I hoped it was to signal that he didn’t think I was accusing him of murder.

  “If you could bring them over some time, that would be great. It might be a clue to solving this matter.”

  “Sure, is that all?” He took a few steps toward Carter before I spoke again.

  “I need a huge favor from you and Carter. I need you to go to the library and watch for your cousin. There will be police there, but you need to look casual. See if Paula comes in to use a computer.”

  “She has an iPhone,” Aaron pointed out. “She doesn’t need a library computer.”

  “She needs a computer if she doesn’t want to have the emails traced back to her phone,” I said. “The police have traced the IP address to the library. So it looks like Murray’s in town.”

  “Well, it’s not the date I had in mind, but we’ll hang out at the library tonight,” Aaron said. He called Carter over, who looked pleased to be given another role in the mystery.

  That delegation of detection allowed me a chance to go visit Land without Carter and Company keeping an eye on me.

  I made sure they had left before I walked over to Basque in the Sun. Detective Danvers had already left, and Aaron and Carter would be on their way to the
library at this point. I took a deep breath and opened the door to the truck.

  I thought it best to help out first before any talk of murders or relationships. The truck had a healthy following, and the early dinner crowd was already getting started today. Seven people were already in line and Land gave me a quick smile before getting back to the grill. He’d switched the menu again, adding another fish entrée and a new dessert. It kept the offerings fresh, but at the same time, it meant that he had a learning curve on getting the dishes prepared in time for the customers who were used to being served swiftly.

  I took money and brought out the dishes as soon as they were finished. The work went quickly, and in about fifteen minutes we were down to a single new customer. It felt good to work with Land again. We had an easy style, and though I was glad to have a second truck, it meant giving up that style to work with Carter instead.

  With that customer out of the way, I gave him a smile and asked, “What did Danvers want around here?”

  He rolled his eyes, a typical sign of impatience for Land. “He was trying to find out what you’d learned about the disappearance of Murray Longhill. He’s beginning to worry that he’s not going to get a proper ID on the man in the freezer, which means that anything you find would be a score on him.”

  “Apparently he’s put someone on me, to watch where I’m going,” I said, still being indignant at the use of public funds to keep track of the competition.

  “Ah, yes. He told me all about your dinner.” Land’s face didn’t give away a single clue as to what he was thinking. I wondered if we were about to have our first fight – well, our first one as two people who had expressed an interest in each other.

  “I had dinner with the son of the man in the freezer,” I said quickly. “I’ve known him since I was a kid.”

  Land looked me in the eyes. I had caught his gaze a few times before, and the intensity that burned behind those brown orbs frightened me at times. This was not a laidback man, no matter what his demeanor said. I caught my breath as I looked at him. “I trust you with some young kid. I figured it was something like that. You’re not the type to express an interest in someone, and then just run off to date a second person just like that. I know you.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. I didn’t think a thing about it until Danvers made a remark about it to me.” I thought about Jimmy and how I would have liked to have dated him at one point. Odd how things turn out.

  “So what have you learned? Now that we’re not discussing other men,” Land asked. He put some more fish on the grill and began to chop vegetables.

  “Not a lot. The Carrs have no idea that he’s in the freezer. The wife thinks he’s dead and the son thinks he’s dead too, but no one even put me together with the man in the freezer incident. So I doubt that anyone involved could have refrained from mentioning that. Mrs. Carr seemed to think it might be related to his work, but that just leads back to my dad again. I’m starting to run out of time and ideas about this.”

  Land nodded. “I know you’re stressed about the time element, but you’re not out of options yet. You have a few more people to talk to and a few more clues to follow up.”

  I swallowed hard. I knew that I had those clues to follow-up, but on the other hand, I was afraid to finish the work. If I ran through all the clues I had and found nothing, then my dad would be the most likely suspect for the crimes. I couldn’t bear to wonder if perhaps he’d been involved. Even if Danvers didn’t find a clue, I’d be left with those doubts forever.

  “Something will happen. Don’t worry. Things always happen around you,” Land said, almost reading my thoughts.

  I stayed and worked for another hour. I felt comfortable here, and my worries were limited to making change when I was here. Finally I pried myself away and headed home.

  Chapter 9

  I went home and made myself a light dinner. After all that time with food, I wasn’t really in the mood to cook a full dinner. I pulled out a book and started to read. I wanted some recreation to pull my mind away from all the thoughts about this case.

  A few hours later, I’d given up on the book and was trying to find something on TV when the buzzer for the front door sounded. I wasn’t sure whom I could be expecting at this time of night, but I quickly learned that it was Carter and Aaron. I let them in and waited at the front door to my unit for them.

  Carter practically bounded down the hall to me. “It was so much fun! Having a stakeout is exciting.”

  Since I remembered a few stakeouts where I waited for hours for something to happen and nothing had, I decided that they’d learned something already about the emails at the library. “So did you see Aaron’s cousin?”

  The other man was less enthusiastic. “Yeah, we were there about three hours, and it was getting near to closing time, and Paula walked in. She sat down at one of the computers and started typing quickly. I walked up behind her, and sure enough, she was on Murray’s email account.”

  “How did she get into his email account?” I asked. I wondered if having passwords meant anything these days. The news was always filled with stories of the latest hack. I tended to use the same password for a variety of accounts, since I didn’t think I could keep all of them straight.

  “Had the ‘forgot password’ link sent to her phone and then worked from there,” Aaron said, looking rather sad. I wondered if he had really hoped that his uncle would be found or if he was just sad that his family was that messed up.

  Carter broke in. “She felt that the police weren’t doing enough on her uncle’s case. They were all caught up in this man in the freezer situation, and Uncle Murray had been forgotten. So she decided to cause a little bit of commotion by sending a few emails under his name.”

  “Great,” I said feeling as down as Aaron. This little operation had not moved us any further toward finding out what had happened to the previous tenant. “Hey, wait a minute. Did you get the password for the account?” I asked.

  “Sure,” Carter answered. “We thought you might want to sign on and look at his emails. We’re ready to go all NSA with you.”

  I diplomatically suggested that Aaron might be the one to sign on since it was his family member, and he looked at me gratefully. He made himself comfortable on my laptop and started typing.

  I tried to ignore the fact that I was dying to read every last word over Aaron’s shoulder, but I maintained my dignity. “Honestly, I think that this case has something to do with the financial dealings of his company. So we’re really looking for anything that has to do with finances and RGF.”

  Aaron was slowly scrolling through the listings of sent emails. Every once in a while, he’d stop and read an email and then start up again. Finally he stopped and looked at me. “There’s nothing here. Man, he was boring. All of the emails were about games and gaming. Nothing had to do with finance or his company or anything out of the ordinary. Most of the emails were related to comments and message boards.”

  I thought back to Longhill’s questions on the various boards. “Can I see?” I asked, thinking that some of the questions might be relevant.

  Aaron handed over the laptop, and I began to scroll through the message boards. In most cases, the information was extremely similar to what had been posted before. Since some of the posts were older than the ones on his work machine, they had questions about the role derivatives had played in the 2008 collapse and with Jamie Dimon a few years later. I didn’t see a lot of new information and certainly no new revelations in the case.

  I decided on a long shot to visit Longhill’s spam folder. I knew that sometimes important mail was sent to the spam folder by mistake through some algorithm known only to IT people. I noticed a number of travel related ads, especially around the time that he’d gone missing. If Longhill had been looking at sites for travel, then perhaps that could explain the uptick in travel related spam. Of course, there could be any number of reasons for the uptick in the unwanted emails, but I would likely never know all of them.


  Since the desktop machine was still not around, I couldn’t hunt for websites that Longhill had visited, but I knew a little more than I had before.

  I was closing up the laptop, when the sound of typing came thunderously through the apartment. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I looked around trying to determine the source of it.

  Carter walked over to the table, and picked up the wireless speaker that I’d purchased, the one similar to the speaker Land had found inside the wall of the apartment. “Here’s the culprit,” he said. “These things are great sometimes, but they can be a real nuisance.”

  The deafening sound was gone, but I still felt a bit jangled from the noise. “How does it work?” I asked, wondering what Murray could have possibly used the speaker for. He hadn’t played music from what I could tell. His wife had indicated that the desktop was nothing special; music quality speakers would have been something out of the ordinary.

  “This is a Bluetooth speaker. There’s a particular bandwidth set aside for Bluetooth. Typically there’s a device that is the receiver. That would be the speaker.” Carter was suddenly an expert on modern technology. I was impressed.

  “So what would hook up with the speaker?” I asked. I had an idea that was starting to form in my head.

  “Anything. It just hooked up with Aaron’s phone, and he is apparently texting someone. That’s where the typing sound came from.” Carter shot his boyfriend of questionable status a look that said get off the phone.

  “Doesn’t it ask you before it just hooks up with something?” I asked, thinking of the embarrassment that might come with this device.

  “Well, it’s supposed to, but that doesn’t mean anything. The one I have synchs up sometimes without warning. It’s not good to have if you want privacy. You have to be careful too. If they decide to synch with your phone, it can run your battery down.” Carter and I looked at each other.