Sifting for Suspects

by Cindy Bell

  “I remember.” Lucy closed her eyes as she recalled that horrible day. “Well, I’m sure things will straighten out between him and Noah.”

  “I sure hope so. Let me know if you find out anything else, Lucy. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

  “Thanks Chantelle. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  After Lucy hung up the phone she continued to scratch Mia’s ears and stroke her back. Her mind drifted back to a memory of Derek after an evening out with Greg and his parents.

  “You know, Noah’s pretty hard on him.”

  “You think so?”

  “Sure. He’s always correcting him and telling him to watch his mouth. Greg’s a good kid, he doesn’t need that much strictness.”

  “Ah, careful there, Derek, your non-parent card is showing.”

  “Just because I haven’t had any kids doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion. He should be building Greg up, not tearing him down.”

  “Noah adores Greg, he would never do anything to hurt him.”

  “Maybe not, but people don’t always notice these things when they’re doing them. Haven’t you noticed the way that he dominates Greg?”

  “I really haven’t. I think Noah’s been wonderful with Greg. You haven’t been around to see everything I have. Greg’s had some very hard times and Noah got his behavior in check when Chantelle couldn’t. So maybe he’s a little overbearing, but aren’t all fathers?”

  “I won’t be.” He shook his head with a look of determination. “I’ll support my child no matter what.”

  She’d chosen not to point out that she had no interest in having children. At that point she already knew that their relationship was probably not going to last. But the memory of his opinion of Noah struck her hard. Was she overlooking things because she’d known Noah for so long?

  That night as she fell asleep her heart was heavy. In two days Derek would be buried, and she didn’t want to say goodbye. She wanted him to be there to pick up the phone. She wanted the chance to be friends with him. Between awareness and sleep she heard his voice again. He said something that he’d said to her a thousand times during their relationship.

  “Take care of yourself, Lucy, you’re worth it.”

  Chapter 8

  Lucy woke with a start several hours later. Was someone in the room with her? Her heart raced as she peered through the shadows of the pale morning light. After a few seconds she realized there was no one else there. It wasn’t the first time she’d woken like that, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. As she wiped the dream from her mind she tried to focus on the real world. She had the day off from the patisserie, and she decided she was going to use it to do some investigating of her own. She showered, dressed, and fed Mia all with her mind focused on finding Derek’s murderer.

  Mia looked up at her with confusion when she found her food in her water dish, but Lucy didn’t notice. She left the house without a second thought about the laundry that needed to be done, or the dishes in the sink. What had happened to Derek filled every inch of her mind. When she arrived at the gym she remained in the car for a few minutes. She’d driven there to pick up Derek many times. She’d also watched him compete in many weightlifting competitions. The building was full of memories of Derek.

  Lucy forced herself out of the car and through the glass double doors. The gym was both a showroom and a private training area. The newest exercise equipment was on display for the salesmen to try out, and also for anyone to train their private clients. Derek spent most of his time there when he wasn’t out making sales. The place had a certain scent. It made her scrunch her nose every time she walked in. It was a combination of sweat and sanitizing solution. She paused at the front desk and smiled at the petite woman behind it.

  “Hi Alice. How are you doing?”

  “About as good as everyone I’d expect. We’re all just so shocked. How are you?”

  “I’m shocked, too.” Lucy sighed and leaned against the desk. “I guess I just wanted to come here to see if maybe he left anything in his locker.”

  “I checked it and boxed everything up. I thought maybe you would want it, or his family.”

  “He didn’t have any family. None close, anyway. His parents died early, that’s one of the reasons why he was so fixated on his health.”

  “It paid off. He was flawless. He sold the most because people wanted to look like him. None of the other salesmen here could compete.”

  “Did any of them hold a grudge about Derek winning the salesmen of the year award?”

  “A grudge? Well maybe. It comes with a hefty bonus, plus the winner gets the best client list. But no one celebrated his death, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Not exactly. I just wondered if maybe there was someone in particular he was having a problem with.”

  “You’d have to ask Lance about that. I don’t keep track of all of their towel snapping. In fact, I do my best to stay out of it. Someone’s always trying to fight someone else with all these muscles flying around here.”

  “But nothing too serious?”

  “Nothing that I know about. Like I said, you’re better off asking Lance about that. He and Derek were pretty close for a while, but lately I haven’t seen them together as much.”

  “All right, thanks Alice.” Lucy thought about Ben’s mention of Lance and Derek having an argument. Maybe there was more to it than just a disagreement between friends.

  “I’m sorry for your loss, Lucy. I always thought you two were great together.”

  Lucy forced a smile, and nodded. She wasn’t sure if Alice knew that Derek and her had broken up, but it felt wrong to mention it at that moment.

  “Alice!” One of the other trainers walked up from the weightlifting section. “There’s some dumbbells missing. How can I get someone to do bicep curls with one dumbbell? How am I supposed to look professional in front of my clients if we’re missing equipment?”

  “I’ll look into it. You know the trainers often borrow them. Maybe they just forgot to return some. Just try to calm down. There are plenty to go around.”

  “That’s not the point is it?”

  Lucy sneaked away from the desk before she got caught in the middle of their argument. As she walked through the gym she noticed that several of the new machines were in use. She recognized and nodded to a few of the men who worked on them. In the larger floor exercise area she spotted Sharon, one of Derek’s closest friends, working with a client. She was tempted to wave to her, but she didn’t want to distract her. Instead she continued towards the locker room to collect Derek’s things. Just before she reached it, she caught sight of Lance by himself. He stared hard into the mirror and flexed his arms to push out every muscle he could.

  “Lance.” She paused a few feet from him.

  “Lucy.” He turned to face her. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so. Are you?” She studied him.

  “I will be, I guess, in time. I’m having a hard time believing it.”

  “So am I.” She paused a moment, then decided to move forward with her idea. “You know, Derek and I broke up a few weeks ago.”

  “I did know that.” He folded his arms. “He was a fool.”

  “No, he wasn’t. It was mutual. I still cared about him, and I looked forward to a friendship with him. Now that he’s gone, all I can think about is what if I’d tried a little harder to make it work. Maybe we could have patched things up.”

  “I know the feeling. Derek and I were kind of on the outs.”

  “You were? But you two were always so close. What happened?”

  “It was my fault really. I thought something was going on that wasn’t. I accused him, he denied it, and then I shoved him. It was childish.”

  “I’m sorry, Lance. Did you get a chance to talk it out with him?”

  “A little. He was still offended though, I could tell. Derek didn’t believe in violence of any kind, so I crossed a line when I put my hands on him.”
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br />   “I’m sure he let it go. You were a very important part of his life.”

  “So were you.” He smiled. “He talked about you all the time.”

  “He did?”

  “Yes. He loved your creativity and your passion. He said you balanced him out.”

  “I guess a little too much.”

  “Sometimes friendship can look like romance at first.” He shrugged. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

  “I’m just picking up Derek’s things from his locker.”

  “I’ll carry the box for you.”

  Lucy was about to decline the offer, but she decided against it. Lance wanted to help, and she didn’t need to resist. Maybe he would tell her more about their argument on the way out to the car. In the locker room Lance picked up the box, then nearly dropped it when he looked inside.

  “What is it, Lance? Are you okay?”

  “Yes, sorry. It’s just hard seeing all of his stuff, harder than I expected. Maybe you should take it yourself.”

  “Okay, I can do that.” As he hurried off she stared after him, then she looked down into the box. What had he seen that startled him so much? She decided to get the box home before anyone else had the chance to look through it. She set the box in the passenger seat of the car and drove back towards her house. It was hard not to imagine Derek beside her instead of his box of things. Derek’s one weakness was music. As peaceful as he was, as balanced as he was in everything else, when it came to music he liked it loud and rough. She’d gotten used to his hard rock tunes, but it took her some time. She turned on one of his favorite stations.

  “Derek, if you can hear me, you need to help me out here. I don’t know what happened, but I want to figure it out. I will try to listen, if you have something to say.” All the way to the house and for several minutes in the driveway she listened. After hearing nothing she decided that looking through the box of his things might be more effective. She carried the box inside the house and set it down on the couch. Mia jumped up to take a look. As she nosed through the box Lucy prepared herself a quick lunch along with a little treat for Mia. As she started back into the living room she heard a loud crash. She rushed in to find the box upside down on the floor. Mia’s fluffy black tail stuck out from under the box.

  “Mia!” She frowned and set her plate down then flipped the box back over. Mia gazed up at her with huge green eyes. A gold necklace hung around her neck, with a small gold emblem that dangled from the chain. “You naughty kitty. I would have let you look if you waited.” She sighed and collected all of the items that were scattered on the floor. Then she plucked the necklace off Mia. Mia yowled with annoyance, then pranced away. Lucy rolled her eyes.

  “Cats don’t wear necklaces, Mia.” She left the empty box for the cat to play with, then began to sort through the items on the coffee table. There were several of his favorite nut bars, a few extra bottles of water, spare workout gear, and his portable music player. The only item that surprised her was the gold necklace. She held it up to the light in an attempt to see the emblem better. It looked like it was just an etched swirl, nothing distinct about it. She’d never known Derek to wear jewelry and she’d seen him shirtless plenty of times. She set the necklace aside and sorted through the music on Derek’s music player. It was the rock music he liked, until she reached another playlist. Then the music shifted to quiet, dramatic, emotional music. It was more her taste, but quite odd for her to find on his music player. Was he trying to find music she would like to motivate her to work out with him? She thought it might be possible.

  Lucy stole the box back from Mia and put everything but the necklace back inside. The necklace she carried to her room and left on her dresser. She didn’t intend to keep it, but she hoped to find out more about it. Just as she started to make herself a snack her cell phone rang. She saw that it was the gym calling.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Lucy, it’s Alice. I’m sorry to bother you, but I was supposed to ask you for a favor when you were here and I forgot.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Derek has some exercise equipment that we hired to see if we wanted to try to start selling it and stocking it at the gym. It is not very heavy and he was keeping it at his house because he was testing it out. At the moment we can’t access it and we need to return it, so we were hoping you might be able to. I thought maybe you would have a key?”

  “I do.” She pursed her lips. Derek hadn’t asked for it back and she forgot until that moment that she even had it. “I can get the equipment for you.” Her voice trembled a little at the thought of going into Derek’s house, however she didn’t want to let Alice down. Derek would want the gym to have their equipment back. With a deep breath she sorted through her key ring to be sure the key was still there. She planned to return it to him the next time they spoke, but next time never came. Once she found it she held it for a moment. She never imagined using it again and the thought of opening the door to Derek’s house, knowing he wouldn’t be there, made her heart heavy with dread. Still, she got into her car and drove to Derek’s house.

  Chapter 9

  As Lucy pulled up to Derek’s house she noticed that there was no police tape, nothing to indicate that something horrible happened inside the plain, small house. Derek had the money to buy a larger place, but he didn’t, he liked the house he lived in. She walked up to the front door and took a deep breath. She could feel him there, like an echo that was almost too faint to hear, but definitely there. She fiddled with the key for a moment and wondered if it was really okay for her to step inside Derek’s house. She’d let herself into his place plenty of times when they were dating, so why was this different? Because only a shadow of him would be there. It wouldn’t ever really be Derek’s house again.

  She gritted her teeth, then slid the key into the doorknob. With one twist she was in through the door. Once she was inside, everything felt familiar. Despite the mess the crime scene techs had made of the place, Derek’s personality still shone through. All of his inspirational posters hung on the wall. His yoga mat was still rolled out on the floor in front of the space where a television would normally be. Instead of a television there was a hydroponic garden, that he obsessed over. Now the leaves drooped and there was no chance of reviving them. Her heart ached as she saw them. Derek would be so disappointed.

  Lucy stood in the middle of the living room and counted her heartbeats. She was drawn to look at the bathroom, even though the thought made shudders course down her spine. Before she could lose her nerve she moved through the living room into the bedroom, and steeled herself for what she would see when she opened the bathroom door. There was still a bit of crime scene tape on the frame. She tried to ignore it as she stuck her head inside. The bathroom was spotless. She guessed the crime scene technicians had vacuumed it clean for any evidence they could find.

  Even though there wasn’t much left to see, the moment that Lucy rested her hand on the bathroom sink, she saw Derek crumble to the floor. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit down into her bottom lip. As tears sprang to her eyes, she blinked, and saw that Derek wasn’t there. After a few seconds to calm herself, she reached for the frame of the shower. When her fingertips grazed the tile, she saw Derek again. This time she allowed herself to see the scene as it played out. Even though she could see Derek just fine, she couldn’t see the person who stood behind him. However, she could sense that there was certainly a person there.

  “Derek, who did this to you? Who?” She sighed and wiped at her eyes. “What is the point of having intuition if when I need it the most it fails me?”

  A sensation of warmth flooded over her upper arms, chest, and back. She closed her eyes and savored what felt similar to a hug. Was it just a memory of the way that Derek would comfort her, or had he found a way to reach out to her? Either way it didn’t matter.

  Lucy focused on the reason she was there, to get the box of equipment from the mudroom outside the kitchen. As she headed for the box she n
oticed a smell in the kitchen. Derek’s house never smelled. There were no dishes in the sink, and when she checked the refrigerator it was just the usual fare, eighty percent organic fruits and vegetables, twenty percent meat. On the bottom shelf there was a container of food that must have spoiled. She reached for it, and as she did she noticed a large plastic jar at the back of the shelf. It was protein powder, something that Derek never used. She took out the offending food, then took out the jar as well. The lid was open and the jar was half empty.

  Maybe he’d started drinking it after they broke up. She doubted it, and wondered if the person that Derek met that night might have brought it. But why was it in the refrigerator, as far as she knew it was meant to be kept at room temperature. Was he trying to hide it? Just about every other trainer used some kind of protein powder. It would take a little research, but she hoped she might be able to find out who the container belonged to. She tucked it into her purse, then carried the spoiled food to the outside trashcan. Along the way she spotted the box of equipment. Next to it was a dumbbell. She presumed it belonged to the gym. She bent down to try and pick it up, but it wouldn’t budge. She sighed and grabbed the box of equipment. It was just light enough for her to be able to carry. She took it out to the trunk of her car. When she returned to the house she took one last look around. Everything was in place, as it always was with Derek. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  Lucy left the house just about the way she found it and locked the door on her way out. After she dropped the box off at the gym she returned home. With the protein powder still on her mind she took it out and looked up the name of it. She found that it was one of the company’s sponsored products. Still, she didn’t think it could be Derek’s. As far as she knew he wouldn’t touch the stuff. So who did it belong to and how did it end up in his fridge? She skimmed through some of the reviews posted on the company’s website by different trainers. Right away she noticed that Lance was one of them. He promoted the powder as if it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Another trainer, Sharon, promoted the powder as well and insisted that all of her personal training clients used it. She hadn’t even thought about the clients. Any of Derek’s clients could have also had the powder. Which meant they could be responsible for the jar she found. She sighed as she realized the list was growing, not narrowing. As difficult as it was for her to believe that Derek had any enemies, clearly he had at least one, and finding that one was turning out to be difficult.