It Takes a Photographer

by Edward Kendrick

  "That comes from handling one too many cases at a time," Quint said. "And since this one is only semi-official—or was, until just now…"

  "Yeah, I get that. I wonder. Has anyone checked to see if Beth really does have a job as a secretary somewhere?"

  "I haven't. Why?"

  "When I ran into her in the hall yesterday, she said she'd come back for some papers she'd forgotten. But I know from searching her apartment that she was lying. What if she doesn't really have a job and Seaver was, or still is, supporting her?"

  "Rather than paying her alimony, on top of what he's giving Coleen Rogers?" Quint grinned, briefly. "It would still cost him, if he is, but at least he'd be getting some benefits."

  Rory rolled his eyes, replying, "It's just a thought."

  "See if you can find out from her."

  "If she's even speaking to me now," Rory said dryly. "I didn't run into her this morning, but that could just mean she left earlier, or later, than I did. Whether that was intentional…" He shrugged.

  "You'll find out tonight."

  "Oh, really?"

  Quint grinned. "Yep. When you knock on her door and ask if she's free for supper again. The lonely man, new in town, and wanting some companionship."

  "How the hell did I let myself get roped in to this?"

  "Because you love a good mystery, and, more than that, you love Lou and would do anything he asks."

  Rory snorted. "Not anything. But, yeah, you're right."

  He jumped when Lou said from behind him, "There are some things you wouldn't do for me?" then gave him a hug.

  "Not many," Rory replied. "So, what did you find out?"

  Lou chuckled. "They want to know if they can hire Olivia as a consultant when they need her. Apparently she did a fantastic job in enhancing that shot. They weren't able to bring out the woman's features any better than Olivia did. And with the lighting—since the woman's not a blonde—her hair could be any color."

  "Including black, like Beth's. Now this could be way off base, but what color is the second Mrs Seaver's hair? Umm, Coleen Rogers, right?"

  "Right. And hers is medium brown." Lou told him. "What are you thinking?"

  "That Seaver might have gotten tired of paying… No, never mind. You visited Ms Rogers, so we know she's alive."

  "Beside which, the bruises on Beth Garland's throat say she's the woman in the photo," Quint pointed out.

  "This is making me crazy," Rory muttered.

  "Welcome to the world of real detective work," Lou replied, ducking when Rory took a swipe at him. "Speaking of which, we'd better get back to work. Yeah, yeah, I know this is part of it now, but—"

  "I should get moving, too. I'm supposed to be out selling, whatever, to interested clients," Rory said. "Not that Beth and whoever is checking that out. At least, I hope they're not."

  "Other than following you, there's no way they could," Quint said.

  "And they aren't. I made sure of that before I came here."

  "Good. All right. Let us know if you find out anything more, and we'll do the same if the bugs or Dave Thomas do."

  Lou accompanied Rory to his car. They hugged and kissed quickly, then after Rory had gotten into the car, Lou said, "You be real careful. The fact someone got into your place…"

  "I know." Rory chuckled. "I put a chair under the door handle before going to bed last night. That place needs to install deadbolts. Maybe I'll suggest it to the manager. As far as I can figure—and I do know what to look for—whoever got in probably used the old credit card trick."

  "Or owns lockpicks. Although, why either Seaver—or anyone else Ms Garland knows—would is the question."

  "Exactly."

  "Still, be damned careful," Lou reiterated before kissing him again. "I love you, and I don't want anything happening to you."

  "Love you, too," Rory replied softly. "So I will be."

  *****

  Lou called Rory late that afternoon to tell him that bugs had been installed in Seaver's apartment. "Beth wasn't there, obviously. I did run a check on her. She's with a temp agency and gets sent out on jobs as a secretary."

  "That might explain why she came back home yesterday morning, if they didn't need her. But why lie about it?"

  "Human nature. Not having a full-time job embarrasses some people. That's for you to find out."

  "I'll do my damnedest." Rory hung up, then went to let Kevin know he was heading out, as it was closing in on six. He'd spent the rest of the day, after leaving the precinct that morning, at the gallery. He couldn't return to the apartment, since he was supposedly making calls on clients, and he didn't want to kill the time by going to a movie or whatever.

  He was almost to the door when Olivia came in. Seeing him, she asked, "Is Lou here, too? No, he wouldn't be. Damn it."

  "What's wrong," Kevin asked with a worried frown as he joined them.

  "I have something to show him." She set the file folder she was carrying down on the front desk then flipped it open. "I was going through all the photos I took with my mirrorless camera at the party Friday." She glanced at Rory. "That's a digital camera that doesn't have a mirror reflex optical viewfinder."

  "If you say so."

  Olivia smiled. "I do. Someday, when you have the time, I'll explain in more depth. For now, as I was saying, I'd traded my analog camera for one of my digitals."

  "Now you know why I was lugging around a dozen camera bags," Kevin said, rolling his eyes.

  "Shush," she muttered, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Now, can I continue?" Both men nodded. "So, I was going through the photos on the memory card, to either transfer them to my computer or get rid of the ones I didn't want, and I found these two." She took the printed photos from the portfolio.

  Again, the subject was Quint, Clay, and Jamie, this time standing by the railing—a few feet from where she'd taken ones of them seated on the lounger that had set Lou and the others on the trail of Floyd Seaver.

  "There," she said, tapping one of the windows in what Rory now knew was Seaver's apartment building. It was next to the window where she'd caught Seaver apparently trying to strangle a woman.

  In both of the new photos, two women were visible, facing each other. It looked as if they might be arguing—or at least having a very serious discussion. Again, the lighting wasn't the best, but, even so, Rory recognized Beth Garland from her profile. The other woman was a bit taller and stockier, with shoulder-length brown hair. In the first she was turned away from the window. In the second she was in profile, one hand raised, as if emphasizing a point.

  "I should have done this as soon as I realized what I'd caught in the other picture," Olivia said apologetically.

  "You didn't have any reason to think…" Kevin started to say.

  "That's just it. I didn't think! I presumed I'd caught all there was to catch," Olivia replied crossly.

  "Livy…"

  "Don't Livy me." She sighed. "Sorry. I shouldn't take it out on you." She turned to Rory. "Can you get these to Lou or Quint, now?"

  "Definitely," he told her, as she put them back in the folder then handed it to him. He called Lou to find out where he was and ask if he was in a position to look at something—telling him about the photos. Lou grumbled that he wasn't, since he was at a homicide, and he told him to call Quint. Rory did, reaching him at home, and, a couple of minutes later, he was on his way to the loft.

  *****

  "Where's your other half?" Rory asked when Quint let him into the loft. He could see Jamie on a mat in the middle of the main room. Clay was nowhere in sight.

  "At his gallery," Quint replied. "Their newest artist has an opening tonight." He chuckled. "He asked me if I would take his place. In case he hasn't mentioned it, he hates openings."

  "Yeah, he's said that a time or three. I'm not big on them, either, but they're a necessary evil." Rory went to kneel by the mat, holding out his hand. Jamie looked at it—and him—then started to cry. Rory pulled back quickly, giving Quint a distressed look.r />
  "It's okay," Quint said to the baby, picking Jamie up. "He's a friend." When Jamie didn't look convinced, although he did stop crying, Quint told Rory, "Apparently all babies go through this phase where they don't trust strangers at first. The only person I've seen him take to right off is Olivia. Not counting Wendy and Amanda, of course, but they've been around since he was born."

  Rory grinned. "Sounds like he's going to be a lady's man." He reached out slowly to tickle Jamie under the chin. "Well, at least this time he didn't cry," he said when Jamie turned his head into Quint's shoulder. "Speaking of Wendy, did she get off all right?"

  "Yep. Amanda took her to the airport Saturday morning. From all reports, her family was relatively glad to have her home. Or, as she put it when she called to tell Amanda she'd arrived safely, 'They let me have my old bedroom instead of sticking me in the one in the attic so I'd be out of sight and out of mind.'"

  "Poor kid."

  "She'll be okay. She's got what it takes—brains, common sense, and ambition." Quint hugged Jamie. "If he turns out half as well as she has…"

  "With you and Clay as parents, he'll be fantastic."

  "I can only hope." Quint smiled at his son. "Yeah, Rory's right. You will be the best man ever, if we all survive your teens." He sat on the sofa, juggling Jamie on his knee, then said, "Let me see the pictures."

  Rory took the first one from the folder, giving it to Quint.

  "Unless I miss my guess…" Quint set it on the coffee table then took the other one when Rory handed it to him—the one where the second woman's face was more visible. "Interesting. Why was she there?"

  "Who?"

  "The second Mrs Seaver. Coleen Rogers. I recognize her from a photo we have in our files on Seaver. Lou can verify it, since he's talked with her in person."

  "Seriously?" Rory leaned over to take another look at the woman. "These were taken after the one of Seaver trying to strangle Beth. Maybe, if Ms Rogers was there when it that happened, she stepped in to stop him and no more Seaver."

  Quint nodded. "That's one scenario. Given the time frame, she had to be in the apartment when that happened. But why?"

  "You're asking me?"

  Quint chuckled. "Nope. The universe." He handed Jamie to Rory, much to both Rory's and the baby's surprise, then went to the desk in one corner of the room. For a moment it seemed as if Jamie was going to start crying again, so Rory tried bouncing him on his knee, relieved when Jamie started laughing.

  By then Quint was back with a pad and pen. "If I remember correctly, the time stamp on the strangling photo said it was taken at four seventeen. The ones on these are 4:22:15 and 4:22:25." He wrote the figures on the pad. "That gives them five minutes between his trying to strangle Beth and what looks like an argument between the two women."

  "What if Ms Rogers hit him with something to save Beth? And in these two"—he tapped the photos—"they're debating what to do with him, or about him, depending on whether she hit him hard enough to kill him or just knock him out."

  "If they killed him, how did they dispose of the body?"

  "They're two healthy females," Rory replied. "If they waited until much later that night when there was less chance of anyone seeing them, then got the body down to one of their cars, they could have taken it who knows where to get rid of him. The back door of the building is only a few feet from the alley. Pull into it, open the trunk, then stuff him in, and that's all she—or both shes, to be technical—wrote. "

  "We haven't had any reports of someone finding a dead body." Quint grimaced. "Well, not his body, anyway. God only knows, there have been others."

  "It's a twenty-minute drive to get to the foothills, a bit more to go deeper into the mountains. He could be anywhere up there, dumped in an abandoned mine shaft or what have you. It could take months, years, before someone finds his bones."

  "True," Quint agreed. "Or they could have left the body in a vacant building here in the city. Or in a dumpster, as far as that goes. It gets emptied, the contents crushed, and the body becomes another bit of landfill."

  "Now we just have to prove it. That means I'd better get back to my apartment then see if Beth would like to go to supper again."

  "She's not going to tell you she and Ms Rogers killed Seaver."

  "No shit. But if I can get her talking about him, maybe she'll let something slip that we can use. Well, other than the fact he's supposedly in New York. You've checked to make sure he's not?"

  "Yes, Rory, we have. If he is, he's not there under any of his known names." Quint started to take Jamie from Rory, then grinned when Jamie grabbed Rory's finger, as if to stop him. "Looks like you've got a new friend."

  Rory carefully loosened Jamie's grip then handed him to Quint. "As much as I might like kids, I'll pass on taking him with me."

  Quint cocked an eyebrow. "Might?"

  "They're okay, as long as they're someone else's."

  "Famous last words," Quint replied as Rory got up. "Keep in close touch with me or Lou. And I mean that. They didn't break into your place to check out the furniture."

  "I know. I'll be careful. Damn, between you and Lou, you'd think I've never done undercover work. I do know what I'm doing."

  "Again, famous last words."

  *****

  "Tony?" Beth seemed surprised when she opened her door to find Rory standing there.

  "Hi. I was hoping you'd be free for supper."

  She smiled but didn't move aside. "If you'd tried half an hour ago I might have said yes, but I just finished eating. Sorry."

  "I was afraid of that. I got hung up with a client. How about going out for a drink?"

  "No can do. I'm expecting a friend."

  Rory leaned casually against the doorjamb. "I have competition?"

  "Tony"—she shook her head—"I hardly think you have to worry about competition, since you'll be leaving in a couple of weeks."

  "True." Rory smiled. "I hope our going out to supper last night didn't cause you problems with him." He almost said Floyd, stopping himself in time. I know his name, but there's no reason I should, as far as she'd be concerned. Only his last name on his mailbox.

  "There is no him. I'm divorced and happily so. I don't intend on looking for a replacement in the foreseeable future. We had fun last night—or at least I did. I guess you must have too, since you're back again tonight."

  "I did, but I get the message. I won't bother you again."

  "You're not bothering me. If I were free, I'd take you up on the drink offer. Maybe tomorrow night?"

  "Deal," Rory replied with a smile. "Seven okay?"

  "Sure. I'll see you then." She stepped back and closed the door when Rory moved away.

  Well, that was a bust. I wonder if she'll come up with some excuse to back out tomorrow.

  He tapped his foot as he waited for the elevator. When the doors opened, he started to get on before realizing someone was getting off. He recognized the woman, having seen her photo half an hour previously. Coleen Rogers gave him a cursory glance then started down the hallway toward Beth's apartment.

  Curiouser and curiouser, to quote Alice. Or maybe not. We know from the photos that she and Beth are…friends? Two exes ganging up on Seaver for some reason? Did he come home Friday afternoon, walk in on them, and get upset that Coleen was there? Maybe, if he was expecting to catch Beth with another man.

  Rory went back to his apartment just long enough to change clothes, since he was wearing a suit as part of his salesman persona, then he left the building. Crossing the street to the coffee shop, he ordered a drink and a sandwich, then found a table where he could watch the front of the building without being seen. Half an hour later, he saw Coleen Rogers leave. Her car was parked a quarter of a block from the front door, so it didn't take long for her to drive away. Then, a few minutes later, Beth left as well, dressed for an evening out—or so it looked to Rory.

  He knew the police had someone tailing her, but his curiosity got the better of him, so he decided to follow her,
as well. He was immediately stymied, as he had been the last time he'd tried, when she went to the lot where she parked her car, got in then took off. I have to start parking there, too. Of course, if I did, she might wonder why, or think I was stalking her and call the cops. He chuckled. She'd be right, but for the wrong reason.

  Frustrated, Rory returned to his apartment. Then it occurred to him that, with Beth gone, he could take another shot at searching her apartment. A few minutes later, thanks to his trusty lockpicks, he opened her door and stepped inside.

  *****

  As soon as he got off work at ten, Lou called Quint to ask if Rory had been in touch with him.

  "He has. He came by to let me see the photos Olivia took. Both of them show Beth Garland and Coleen Rogers in what I'm presuming is the living room of Seaver's place. Hard to tell for sure, because of the lighting, but it was definitely them, and not in the same room where he was trying to strangle Beth."

  "Yeah, Rory told me who was in them. I find that very strange, because I got the feeling from talking with Ms Rogers that there was no love lost between her and Beth—at least on her part."

  "Just because she said that doesn't mean it's the truth."

  "True enough. Was Rory going back to the apartment?"

  "He didn't say, but I presume so," Quint replied.

  "Then why isn't he answering his phone? I've been trying to call him for the last hour or so."

  "Maybe he turned it off. Probably did, since he was going to ask Beth to go to supper with him again."

  Lou frowned. "He should be home by now."

  "And forgot to turn it on again. I do that. Too often, according to Clay." Quint chuckled. "Way too often."

  "Yeah. Probably. Still, I'm going to go check on him, just in case."

  After hanging up, Lou left the precinct house, heading to Seaver's apartment building. As much as he tried not to worry about his husband, he did. He was somewhat relieved when he saw Rory's car in a lot at the end of the block. After parking next to it, then making certain no one seemed interested in him, he strolled to the apartment building and buzzed Rory. A moment later, Rory's voice came over the intercom, asking who it was. When Lou told him, Rory buzzed him in.