If you couldn’t tell already, I’d never been on a crime scene before. Sure, I’d read about them in books and seen them on television, but this was much different. The specter of death hung in the air and made my skin crawl. It was the most uncomfortable feeling I’d ever experienced.
As we entered and Kaitlin led me to the living room, I couldn’t help but feel like the place was haunted. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the outline of Sid’s body on the hardwood floor. It was only an outline, but that was enough to take my breath away for a moment. The body had been brought to the coroner’s office for examination. I could only imagine how much my stomach would twist into knots if it were right in front of me.
For a moment, I briefly questioned my idea to come here in the first place. Could I really handle this, or was I just fooling myself? While my stomach told me one thing, my instincts told me another. My gut was urging me to find a way to push past my reservations.
This was a discomfort, but it was temporary, and not insurmountable if I could help bring justice to Sid. Besides, I knew that if something heinous like this had happened to me, Sid would have done the same for me. The least I could do was make the effort. I took a deep breath, knowing that if I was going to truly give this case my best effort, I needed to give it my undivided attention.
After looking at the pained expression on my face, my daughter grew concerned. “Are you okay?”
It took a few moments, but I was finally able to calm down and get control of myself. “Yeah.”
“So, here’s where it happened. I don’t know what you expect to find that my team didn’t,” Kaitlin said.
For someone who was a self-proclaimed lone wolf, my daughter was awfully defensive of her team.
I replied diplomatically. “It doesn’t hurt to look.”
“My team spent hours looking.”
“A few extra moments won’t hurt, then.”
I scanned the room, looking around for anything out of the ordinary, just in case the police happened to miss something. My daughter informed me that they’d been thorough, but like I said, an extra pair of eyes never hurt. Besides, being at the scene helped me to visualize how things happened.
As I looked over the scene, my mind raced with questions, which I began peppering Kaitlin with.
“Who found the body?”
“The 9-1-1 operator got a call from one of the neighbors about a suspicious noise coming from Sid’s house. A patrol car was dispatched, and one of my deputies found the body.”
“Did that neighbor who called see anything?”
“No. They said it was too dark outside to see anything. They just heard the noise, holed up in their house, and waited for the police to arrive.”
“What time was this?”
“The call came in shortly after midnight.”
“At least you know the time of death.” I kept looking around the main floor for anything that could be used during this investigation. “How did the killer get in?”
“That window was open when we got here.”
I moved over to the window, hoping the killer might have dropped something on their way in or out, but didn’t spot anything useful.
“Were you able to pull any fingerprints from the windowsill or windowpane?”
She shook her head. “Not even a partial. My forensics team wasn’t able to pull a single print from the entire scene.”
“It’s a safe bet that the killer was wearing gloves, then,” I said.
“That was my thought.”
“In that case, I guess you couldn’t get a thing from the murder weapon either.”
“Actually, we couldn’t find the murder weapon. There was just a baseball bat found beside his body with no prints or blood on it.”
“Wait. You don’t believe the bat was the murder weapon, then?”
She shook her head. “No. There was no sign of blunt force trauma on his body.”
“If not the bat, then do you know how Sid was killed, then?”
Kaitlin nodded. “He was stabbed in the back. There’s no doubt about that after seeing the large stab wound.”
I winced. Ouch. What a painful way to go. Even more, that meant he probably didn’t even see it coming.
“How did it happen?” I asked.
“This is just my theory, but I believe he was upstairs when he heard a rustling coming from the living room, probably the sound of the window opening. From there, he went downstairs to investigate with the baseball bat in his hand. But, he wouldn’t get a chance to use it. As he reached the bottom of the stairs and headed into the living room, I suspect the killer came up behind him from the hallway and stabbed him in the back.”
That would explain both the stab wound, the lack of murder weapon at the scene, and the baseball bat on the ground. At the same time, it also meant the killer had been very meticulous in trying to cover their tracks, perhaps a tad too much so for their own good. I looked over at the filing cabinet in the corner of the room, as it was the only loose thread to go on at the scene.
“I have a question for you,” I said.
Kaitlin looked over the scene again with a significant amount of frustration. “Only one?”
“I have many, but I’ll start with this one. If you’re the killer, and you’ve taken all these steps to try and cover your tracks, why do you bother to take the risk of stealing an old case file in the first place?”
“I think you might have answered your own question. I think because the killer was so detail oriented, they probably assumed that after what happened at the reunion, the names in that Widmark file would become our prime suspects and wanted to get their hands on the file so we couldn’t.”
“Right, and instead they slipped up and didn’t notice that the label sticker on the file had fallen off, pointing to one of the names in that file being the killer instead of covering their tracks like they’d intended.”
“There’s no such thing as a perfect crime because people themselves are imperfect. It’s our job to find those flaws and use them to our advantage.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
While I thought that theory about the stolen file was a sound one, my daughter wasn’t done hypothesizing.
“Of course, there’s another reason the killer may have taken the file.”
I had a bad feeling about where Kaitlin was going with this but didn’t want to say it aloud. The scenario I’d been picturing was terrifying. At the same time, we were in the business of uncovering the truth, no matter how awful it was.
I cautiously broached the subject. “As in?”
My daughter did not tread nearly as lightly as I did. “Maybe the killer wanted to get all the dirt they could in case they were looking to strike again?”
Her answer filled me with a sense of dread, mostly because it was exactly what I’d feared. As much as it troubled my mind to do so, I indulged Kaitlin’s line of thought.
“You’re saying there’s a chance the killer has just begun and that maybe Sid is just the first victim.”
She nodded, confirming my worst suspicions.
I let out a groan. “That’s bleak.”
Kaitlin attempted to soften the blow. “I didn’t say I liked that theory, just that it was a possibility.”
I sighed. “Yeah, unfortunately.”
As we both let the unsavory possibilities sink in, the conversation fell silent. I became just as lost in my thoughts as my daughter did with hers. An awkward tension came to us that only grew as the seconds ticked by.
She was the one to snap out of her haze of negativity first and broke the silence. “Are you ready to go?”
My first instinct was to say “yes” and bolt out of there as quickly as possible, but I decided to give the scene one last look before leaving. Unfortunately, my efforts proved to be fruitless, as I didn’t find anything useful.
Apparently, I lingered a little too long, because Kaitlin grew tired of waiting for me.
“Mom?” she said
.
I finally gave up my search. “All right. Let’s go.”
Chapter Nine
That was a disheartening stop, to say the least. I would have been willing to shoulder the emotional strain had it led to results, but to be leaving empty handed was crushing. Part of my discouragement was the fact that my instincts had been so strong in urging me to come here in the first place. How could I have been so wrong?
While I was kicking myself, Kaitlin tried to bolster my mood.
“Mom, don’t get down on yourself. Even the best of us hit some dead ends sometimes. Besides, the investigation is just beginning.”
It wasn’t the most rousing of pep talks, but at least she tried.
“I guess,” I replied.
I’d acknowledged her words but wasn’t quite able to boost my sagging spirit.
Then, just as my hope was in greatest need of refreshing, I saw something that made me realize my instincts weren’t so misplaced after all.
As we returned to my daughter’s car, we happened upon a very peculiar sight. A dark-green sedan came down the street and began slowing down as it approached Sid’s driveway. All indications were that the driver was about to pull up to the house.
At the last minute, the driver spotted us and changed their mind. They kept going, even accelerating to the stop sign at the end of the street. What the driver didn’t appear to realize was that they’d slowed down just long enough for me to get a good look at them. I immediately identified the driver as Olivia Widmark.
Even though it was no longer technically correct to do so, I referred to her as having the surname of Widmark because that was the last name I remembered her by—the one she had when her former husband’s infidelities were originally brought to light. After divorcing Peter Widmark, Olivia went back to her maiden name of Blair. With so many suspects for me to juggle in my head, proper surnames were less important to me than motives and alibis.
As Olivia drove away, I stood on the front lawn in a state of stunned disbelief, almost doing a double take in the process.
My mind began racing, but I thought I was too busy still processing what I’d just seen to respond just yet. Apparently, my mouth had other ideas as a stream of consciousness reaction spilled out. “That was weird.”
It may not have been my most eloquent moment, but my daughter got my drift. She seemed to be thinking the same thing as she stood beside me, equally stunned. No doubt she had the same question on her mind that I did. What was Olivia doing showing up at the scene of the crime, and why was she suddenly in such a hurry to drive away?
While that was at the tips of both our tongues, Kaitlin didn’t seem to feel the need to vocalize that question aloud. Instead, she looked ready to bound into action.
“That wasn’t just weird. It was highly suspicious.”
Even though my mind was more active than ever, my feet felt like they were stuck in cement blocks. I could blame it on my age, but it was more that I was trying to transition from one extreme emotion to another. I’d gone from shocked to relieved. After dreaming of my dead husband last night in such vivid detail, I had to make sure I wasn’t just imagining things again. Luckily, my daughter was able to confirm what I’d seen.
I grabbed my chest and breathed out. “Phew. So I wasn’t just hallucinating.” Then came the most important question of all. “What was Olivia doing here?”
Kaitlin darted to the driveway. “Get in the car. We’re going to find out.”
***
Olivia had a head start on us, but Kaitlin knew how to make up ground in a hurry. My daughter pulled out of the driveway and put the pedal to the metal in hot pursuit. She flashed the police siren on in the car and began making serious tracks.
Thankfully, we were in a heavily residential area, which meant traffic was at a minimum. It was important that Olivia wasn’t able to get to Main Street. While Happy Creek was the kind of small town where traffic was practically nonexistent, if Olivia made it downtown, there would be other cars and pedestrians that could get caught in the fray if she refused to pull over or an accident were to occur.
As Kaitlin turned onto Greeley Drive, we spotted Olivia at the next stop sign a hundred feet away. Seeing that there were no cars between her and us, Kaitlin zoomed up behind her with the siren blaring. When we finally caught up to Olivia’s car, I said a quick thank you to God. By then, my ears were nearly ringing, and my heart was practically beating out of my chest. I felt like I’d just finished a double-looped roller coaster ride.
I couldn’t breathe too easy quite yet. Despite that fact that we were right on her tail, Olivia initially seemed reluctant to pull over. What was she waiting for? I had a creeping suspicion that she might take off and try to lose us. With every fiber of my being, I hoped that I was wrong. I didn’t even like watching police chases on television, much less being right in the thick of one.
Up until that point, we hadn’t had a single lucky break. Finally, we got one, and just in time, too. Olivia ended up pulling over just short of Main Street.
I took a moment to catch my breath and vented my frustration. “That was a little too much excitement for my taste.”
Kaitlin jumped out of the car without skipping a beat. Ah, the spoils of youth, when energy was in plentiful supply. My daughter laughed off my statement. “We’re just getting started. It’s time to go to work.”
Chapter Ten
We cautiously approached the driver’s-side window to Olivia’s car. Kaitlin didn’t have her hand too far away from her gun, on the off chance that she might need it. The chances were that she wouldn’t, but like a good detective, she wanted to be prepared. After all, we were approaching a murder suspect. This was one time when I was happy to be bringing up the rear.
As we reached Olivia’s car, it was befuddling to see that she hadn’t rolled down her window yet. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why she’d do something like that. It was just common knowledge to do that when the police pulled people over. Of course, nothing Olivia did should have surprised me. Her behavior had been erratic all morning, from driving up to Sid’s place, to almost not pulling over, to this.
“Roll down your window,” Kaitlin demanded.
Olivia was a brunette in her late fifties with a bob haircut, an oval face, and an athletic body. She wore a teal-colored sundress and a floppy hat with a fake sunflower on the front of it.
She looked exasperated, which was only amplified by the sound of desperation in her voice. “What did I do wrong?”
It shouldn’t have been surprising that she decided to play dumb. Even during a routine traffic stop, Kaitlin told me most people pretended like they had no idea why the officers wanted to talk to them. Yet, with all the times that people played dumb, it rarely ever worked. It would certainly fail here.
Kaitlin went right after her. “Don’t worry, we’ll get to that. But first, I want to know why it took you so long to pull over.”
Olivia’s eyes were darting all over the place. That kind of shiftiness did not lend itself to taking her words as the truth. The general rule was the more nervous a person was, the more they were trying to hide.
“I didn’t see you at first,” Olivia said.
That reply did not inspire confidence in my daughter. “I find that hard to believe. Need I remind you that I’m a police detective and that I expect the truth?”
Olivia remained curt, like this was all one big inconvenience that she shouldn’t have to sit through. “What’s this about?”
Even if my daughter hadn’t joined the police force, I knew the first rule of talking to an officer of the law was to not get combative. Despite that being a pretty basic principle, Olivia completely disregarded it to her own peril.
Kaitlin responded with a tight-lipped expression of her own. “I’ll be the one asking the questions here. Now, why were you just driving by the scene of the crime?”
Olivia’s demeanor instantly changed. She went from borderline belligerent to quiet as a mouse. Had th
e gravity of the situation finally hit her, or was she just having an unexpected amount of trouble trying to answer a simple question?
After catching sight of Kaitlin’s penetrating stare, Olivia replied, “When I heard Sid had been killed, I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to see it for myself.”
Kaitlin was still critical of her story. “If that’s true, then why did you speed away from the scene the minute you spotted us?”
Olivia continued her argumentative streak. “I didn’t speed away. When I saw your police car and the yellow tape stretched across his patio, I knew what I’d heard was true.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you left in such a hurry,” Kaitlin said.
Olivia took another stab at convincing us. “I sped away because the sight of that police tape was just so disturbing to me.”
Kaitlin stared her down, analyzing every bit of her body language for any sign that this was just an act. “You realize that explanation is far fetched at best.”
While my daughter seemed to be trying to call Olivia out on what she perceived as a bluff, to me, there was a more intriguing question waiting to be asked.
“Who told you he’d been killed?” I said.
Olivia didn’t expect that question, which sent her fumbling around. She tried to laugh off my question, but there was a nervous undercurrent. “Are you kidding? This is a small town. Everyone is talking about this.”
As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t dispute that. In a town as small and typically tranquil as Happy Creek, a new stoplight being installed usually constituted as breaking news. So for something as serious as a murder to occur set the whole place abuzz with gossip.
Even so, despite the fact that Sid’s murder was no doubt making the rounds, there was something off about Olivia’s reply. I was determined to get to the bottom of it. “You didn’t answer my question entirely.”
Olivia looked at me with confusion. “What do you mean?”
I elaborated. “Sure, everyone in town is talking about the murder, but who specifically told you about it?”
Meredith Potts Fourteen Book Cozy Mystery Set Page 79
