At apartment 503, Sara unlocked the door and entered. She felt like she was trespassing, and tingles pricked her arms and the back of her neck. But they weren’t here to invade; they were here to look for any clues that might lead them to answers as to what happened that fateful day for Katie Carpenter.
Sean closed the door behind them and flipped a light switch on the wall.
Really, it had been bright enough before as the afternoon sun shone through a large window at the side of the living room. The place was rather open concept. The entry fed right into the living room. There was a small dining table to the back of that and a kitchen to the left. Also on the left were two doorways. One to a bathroom and one to a bedroom.
The place was decorated with a minimalist’s touch, but it was warm and homey. Framed pictures of Katie and Nicki were on the wall and tables. There were none of Katie with Levi or any other guy.
“It’s obvious that Katie and Nicki were very close,” she said, “but there are no pictures of Katie with Levi.”
“I noticed.” Sean sounded a little gruff, disappointed.
Sara touched his arm. “It might not mean anything.” She thought it might, though. After all, Katie had found time to put up photos of herself with Nicki.
Sara set out toward the small kitchen. There were no dishes on the counter, in the sink, or lying around the apartment. Katie had kept a clean home, and that observation held true until they entered her bedroom.
“This looks like a cyclone hit it.” Sean laughed.
“It does.”
Clothes were strewn on the bed and on the floor, heaped in the corner, overflowing a laundry basket.
“Easy enough to close the bedroom door when she had company,” Sara said with a gentle smile.
“Guess it’s not any different than people overstuffing their closets and closing the doors.”
“Or stuffing things under couch cushions.” Sara walked around Katie’s bed toward a nightstand. It had a lamp on it, but Sara left it off. Sunlight was also touching this room through a window to the right of the bed. Sara pulled a pair of latex gloves from her purse—it was always best to be armed when their days literally could take them anywhere—and put them on. She opened the drawer on the nightstand and looked inside.
“Sean, look.” She withdrew a slim laptop.
“Ooh, the Holy Grail.”
Sara angled her head. “Not quite, but probably more helpful to our situation.”
“It’s made Adam’s wishes come true. Her phone and her laptop. He’ll be in heaven.”
Sara grinned and left the bedroom for the kitchen. There was one thing they should check out before they headed back to the firm. She found what she was looking for in a cabinet under the kitchen sink. If anything was the holy grail in an investigation, it was the garbage can, a marvelous keeper of secrets.
“You want to get the one in the bathroom?” she said to Sean.
He made a face of disgust, and she laughed.
“Go.” She pointed a finger in the bathroom’s direction.
“After you.” He gestured for her to dig into the kitchen garbage. Apparently, she’d have an audience as she riffled through the trash.
She was still gloved up from earlier and flipped the lid. Thankfully, the odors emanating from the waste weren’t gag-inducing. No rotting fruit or deteriorating meat, but there was the odor of decaying flowers, and she could see the source right at the top: roses that had seen far better days.
She turned and looked at Sean. Nicki had said that sometimes Levi would shower Katie with roses. “Were these from Levi? And did she throw them out when they were fresh or after they were already on their way out?”
“Who knows?”
“We can see if there’s a note. That would at least tell us who they were from, and we can go from there to figure out when she received them.” She looked around. “The table will work as a place to lay everything out, but it might not be a bad idea to set something down first.”
Sean went about opening drawers until he found a roll of waxed paper. “This should work.” He took it to the dining table and laid it out in one long strip.
She started to remove items from the bag onto the table—one piece at a time.
The flowers were on top, so they were the first out. She put them on the piece of waxed paper to the left, figuring it best to work left to right. Laying things out in this manner could also establish a time line of sorts that might be useful.
The next thing she fished out was a bunch of used tissues, and she cringed with each one she put on the table. “This isn’t exactly the glamorous side of solving a murder,” she grumbled.
“Is there a glamorous side?” he countered.
She paused her movements and looked him in the eye. Most people would probably say “no,” but they didn’t understand the satisfaction in finding closure for someone and justice for the victims. Then again, maybe “glamorous” wasn’t the right word, but rather “rewarding.”
She returned her gaze inside the bag. There was much of the normal rubbish one would expect to find in a kitchen garbage. There were some fast-food containers and other packaging. For being health-conscious, Katie hadn’t cooked often. Sara kept pulling out refuse.
“Sara!” Sean cried out, and she jumped, nearly dropping the small blue package she held in her hand.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Look at what you’re holding.”
She glanced down and widened her eyes. “Isn’t that the same packaging that we found at the preserve?”
Sean slipped a hand into one of his pants pockets and pulled out the corner of blue plastic packaging they’d found next to the path. “I didn’t get it into the garbage yet.” He held it up next to what she had in her hand. There was no question the piece they’d collected came from the same product, but the package Sara held was intact.
She turned it and read the front. “More Than Just Nuts…Sunflower seeds, Sean. This can’t be a coincidence. The husks that were behind that bush…”
“Okay, but let’s think this through. Katie has this in her garbage. She could have eaten the product.”
“Sure, but we also think that someone close to Katie might have had a hand in her death. This package could have come from that person, someone she welcomed into her home.”
“We need to find out who of Katie’s friends liked More Than Just Nuts sunflower seeds.”
“I’d say so.” Sara went back into the bag. Once she was elbow-deep, the door to Katie’s apartment swung open and a scruffy, balding man in his fifties burst in.
“Who are you? And what are you—” His gaze swept over the table and the garbage bag in Sara’s hands. “You’re stealing her garbage?”
“I know how this must look,” Sara started, then shook her head. She really had no idea how this looked. “We’re private investigators.”
“I don’t care if you’re Santa Claus, beautiful lady, but you have no right to be in here. Now if you don’t leave, I’ll need to call the cops.”
“We used to be cops,” Sean said gingerly.
“Used to be? Uh-huh, and Bob’s your uncle.”
Sara didn’t think it would be the best time to tell him that she had an uncle Bob.
“Who are you?” Sara asked, plastering on an air of authority.
“I’m Henry, the building manager. Not that I need to answer to you.”
“We’re not trying to cause any trouble.” She set the bag on the table. “We’re just trying to find out what happened to your tenant, Katie Carpenter.”
Henry’s face turned from sour to reflective. “Such a shame, her dying and all.” He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You’re PIs, you say?”
“That’s right,” Sara confirmed.
&nbs
p; “The cops said she died in an accident.” Henry squinted, peering deep into her eyes.
“There are some people—ourselves included—who feel her death requires a little more scrutiny,” Sara said.
Henry’s gaze went to Sean. “You think someone killed her?”
“We are not ruling out that possibility,” Sean replied in all seriousness.
“Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?” Sara jumped on the chance to get some answers from the manager.
“Not really.”
“Maybe you could tell us about the people who visited her here,” Sara said. If Katie wasn’t the sunflower-seed muncher, Henry might be able to inadvertently point them in the right direction.
“She didn’t get many visitors. Let me think.” Henry rubbed at his stubble again, the action making a sound much like sandpaper against wood. “She had a girlfriend come over from time to time. Long brown hair, round face, pretty little thing. Don’t ask me her name, though.”
His description very well could have fit Nicki.
“What about any boyfriends?” Sean asked. “Any men come over?”
“Nope, never saw any. I think she dated, though.”
Sara cocked her head. “Why’s that?”
Henry pointed to the dozen dying roses on the table. “Those were left in the hall in front of her door.”
“When was that?” Sara asked.
“Not long before her accident. Probably a couple days before.”
So, the roses went straight in the garbage.
“If that will be all,” Henry said, “I need you to leave now.”
“Could we just have five more minutes? Please.” Sara pretty much batted her eyes at the man.
“Five minutes, but that’s all.” Henry left and closed the door behind him.
“The roses were left in the hall. Two days before she died,” Sara said immediately after the manager left.
“I was standing right here.”
Sara made haste pulling items from the garbage. “There’s got to be a card somewhere.” She made it to bottom. “No card.”
“Whoever left the roses didn’t leave a message?” Sean paced a few steps.
“Actually, darling, I think whoever left the roses did indeed leave a message.” And Sara was quite certain that what normally represented passion and love was a harbinger of death in this case.
-
Chapter 18
ON THE TREADMILL
Sean was driving through the streets of Albany, with no set destination in mind. “The roses were a message…” He was trying to grasp exactly what that message was, and all he could come up with was one thing. “Katie knew who sent them and rejected them.”
“I’d say. Too bad Katie’s not talking. And all that used tissue in her trash was under the flowers, so it wouldn’t seem it was necessarily her reaction to receiving them.”
“And maybe she wasn’t crying at all, but she had someone at her place who had a cold.”
Sara lightly shoved his shoulder. “Just to be difficult? Regardless, it seems clear she didn’t want anything to do with the roses.”
“As it would seem,” Sean agreed. “Let’s hope her phone or laptop gives us some answers.”
They’d confiscated Katie’s laptop and power cord without Henry’s knowledge, figuring it was easier than trying to explain themselves to him.
“If anything’s there to find, Adam will find it. We have time before he gets in town. I’d recommend our next stop be Lucy Fletcher, the teacher who found Katie. School would be out by now, and we might find her at home.”
“Let’s do it.”
Sara called Helen at the office and got Lucy’s address. It took them to another middle-income neighborhood, not far from Katie’s apartment.
Sean knocked on the bungalow’s front door, and feet padded toward it almost immediately. It was opened by a pleasant-looking woman in her mid-thirties. She had a lean runner’s body with brilliant blue eyes and dark brown hair.
“Lucy Fletcher?” Sara inquired.
“I am.” Lucy looked at both of them with marked curiosity. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sara, and this is Sean, my husband. We’re the McKinleys.”
Confusion marked Lucy’s facial features.
“We’re private investigators looking into Katie’s death,” Sean clarified for her, and the haze seemed to lift.
“Come in.” Lucy stepped back to let them inside. “Would either of you like anything to drink? Tea, coffee, water?”
“We’re fine, but thank you,” Sean rushed out, answering on both his and Sara’s behalf. Sara glanced over at him, brow furled. He should have known better than to turn down the offer of coffee for his wife. “Actually, Sara, did you want—”
“I’ll be fine,” Sara said and turned her attention to Lucy. “Is there somewhere we could sit and chat?”
“Yes, this way.” Lucy led them through the house to a sitting room in the back that was off the kitchen.
She sat on one couch, and Sean and Sara sat on another one.
“You have a lovely home,” Sara said warmly.
“Why, thank you.”
Leave it to Sara to always set people at ease and to be genuine about it.
“We understand that you were the one to find Katie Carpenter,” Sara began.
“I was. It was…horrible.” Lucy shook her head, and her cheeks filled with color.
“I can imagine it would have been quite the shock,” Sean empathized.
“It would have been even if I hadn’t known who it was, but when I realized it was Katie…” Her voice trailed off, and she sniffled.
“Were you close?” Sean asked.
“I wouldn’t say close, but we talked on occasion. I’m full-time at the school, and Katie was a temp. She was an excellent teacher, too. Really good with the students.”
“Such a loss to the community, and we’re sorry for yours,” Sara said, frowning.
“Thank you.” Lucy snatched a tissue from a nearby box but didn’t dab her nose or wipe her eyes. Rather, she picked at the corners and folded it into a bunch of tiny little squares on her lap. “I fidget when I’m nervous.”
“There’s no need to be nervous,” Sean said. Unless you’re guilty of something.
Lucy blew out a breath of air. “I appreciate you saying that, but I disagree. Everything about this, about her death, makes me nervous.”
Sara leaned forward on the couch cushion. “Why is that?”
“If something like this could happen to Katie, it could happen to anyone. I suppose you could just say I’m feeling my mortality more.”
Sean was confident her nervousness had more to do with something else, but they’d have to do a little pressing. “I can understand that feeling. It can make you feel afraid. Are you?”
Lucy worried her lip, folded more squares.
How small could she compact one tissue?
“Lucy?” he prompted.
“I know what the police are saying, but I think someone killed her.”
“And why do you think that?” Sean’s gaze went to the tissue in Lucy’s hand. She was starting to pick at the corners again.
“You can talk to us, Lucy.” Sara joined Lucy on the couch and put a hand on her forearm.
“Katie loved life. I’ve never seen her as happy as she has been in the last year since she shed the last of her weight, but not everyone was happy for her. Some people talked about her behind her back, whispered that she was going to gain her weight back one day. People can be so cruel.”
“They can be,” Sean agreed.
“Katie seemed to know about these people, and she just let their comments slide off her, ya know? But I think it got to h
er some days. People only put other people down when they’re unhappy with themselves or jealous.”
That motive—jealousy—seemed to keep coming up with this case, and Sean was tired of fighting it. “Who was jealous of her?”
“I hate to say this, but another teacher at our school, David Lawson.”
Sean would bite. “Why was he jealous of Katie?”
“She was young and had her whole life ahead of her. I think that would have been enough. But Katie had a quality to her that people were drawn to—the ones who weren’t jealous, of course. David is a loner and loves his cat. Anyway, he asked Katie to go out for coffee, and she turned him down flat.”
“You saw that happen?” Sara asked.
“Uh-huh, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. David’s face went so red, even his ears.”
Sara drew back from Lucy. “When did he ask her out?”
“Ah, it would have been a month ago, maybe.”
If Katie’s rejection had set David off, he’d waited a long time to act, but it was possible the feeling of rejection was compounded by Katie’s disregard for him online. Sean supposed jealousy could fit in if David had been envious of Katie paying other people attention but not him. “Katie died two weeks ago,” Sean said. “Do you think David was still upset?”
Lucy nodded. “He’d make little snide comments every now and then. About Katie thinking she was ‘all that.’ But you know, even though Katie was looking terrific, she never saw herself as above other people. She never let getting in shape go to her head.”
“But she did change,” Sean stated.
“She was definitely more confident, sure of herself.”
“Do you know her boyfriend?” Sara asked.
Lucy smiled. “Mitch? Yeah, he must be totally devastated.”
Sean looked at Sara.
“Mitch Yates?” Sara asked.
“Yeah. You know his name, but not that he was seeing Katie?” Lucy looked back and forth between him and Sara.
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