Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(39)

Debby nodded and pointed toward the garage. “I have the keys in my pocket. Come on back, and I’ll let you in.”

A stone pathway meandered around the side of the house and led to a courtyard covered with a large pergola shielding the paved patio against the intense Texas sun. Several tables and chairs were arranged around the patio. It was a comfortable space designed for a couple who enjoyed entertaining.

The stone path continued from the patio to the back of the small yard, where the garage was located. Two large carriage-style doors were positioned on the east side of the building, while the door to the apartment was on the south end and was flanked by two small windows. Debby used her key to open the door and then turned away, tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffed and pulled a tissue from her pocket.

“There’s no need for you to stay.”

“Did you know her?” she asked.

“I knew her through Josie and Dillon.”

“She was a sweetheart, Otto. A genuinely nice person.” She began crying openly and turned from him, toward the house.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve gotten what I need.”

She nodded and walked away.

*

Otto entered the apartment wearing gloves as a precaution, even though two state troopers had fingerprinted the apartment the day Christina was found murdered. He found a light switch just inside the door and flipped it on. The apartment was the size of a typical two-car garage, approximately twenty-five by twenty-five feet. It was an open floor plan with the living room located to the right of the entrance door, and the connected efficiency kitchen and dining room off to the left. A door located where the kitchen and dining room areas met was open and led to what looked to be a messy bedroom.

The living room consisted of a couch upholstered in a small floral print and a matching chair—typical starter furniture, nothing fancy. The apartment seemed neat and well ordered until he stepped into the bedroom. The closet doors were open, revealing a bar that looked as if it might break under the considerable weight of the clothes hanging from it. More clothes were folded and piled high on the shelf above the bar, and boxes of shoes filled the bottom of the closet. Clothes covered a small chair in the corner of the room and the top of the dresser. Jackets hung off the corners of the mirror attached to the back of the dresser.

After thirty years in law enforcement he was good at being detached, but the sight of the clothes, the awareness of her love of fashion, the memory of her blood-soaked skirt almost made him weep. He took a deep breath and quickly searched the drawers, the piles of clothing, and the bedside table for any notes or paperwork that might have information about the final days of her life.

Inside the small bathroom off her bedroom he found a collection of makeup and beauty supplies. The drawers and cabinets were packed with bottles and tubes and spray cans. He found a prescription bottle half filled with antibiotics from two years ago, but he found no birth control or other paraphernalia that might suggest she was in a relationship of any kind.

The dining room contained a table large enough for four, and an old wooden teacher’s desk located in the corner behind the table. The desk appeared about as unorganized as her clothes closet, with piles of opened bills and paperwork crowding it. Otto found three months’ worth of bills lying on the table but with their actual notices removed and the return envelopes gone. It looked as if she had written out the bills but hadn’t filed away the paperwork. He also discovered two credit card statements with charges from Macy’s, J.Crew, Anthropologie, and several other stores. All appeared to be online purchases. Seeing no desktop computer, he looked around and noticed a laptop lying on the couch across the room.

There was one phone in the apartment, a landline with no answering machine attached to it, located on the corner of the desk. Hoping the phone had been activated with the two credit card accounts, he dialed both companies and, after providing the account number on the statements, was given the current balance and recent transactions for both cards. No purchases had been made on either card since two days before her death. As had been the case with Dillon, her credit cards didn’t appear to have been compromised. He was surprised that neither Christina nor Dillon’s personal finances had been tampered with since the kidnapping. It had become fairly obvious to him that they weren’t dealing with petty thieves.

Otto had already been monitoring the messages left on her cell phone. He had discovered it inside her purse, which had been kept inside a coat closet at the office. The only messages she had received over the past few days were from a phone number in St. Louis that he had tracked down to be Christina’s mother. The first two calls from her mother were confusing to Otto, as at that point she had known full well what had happened to her daughter. Earlier that morning Mrs. Handley had called again, just before her daughter’s memorial service. He had listened to the voice mail and heard the woman sobbing on the other end. Using the number listed on her phone bill, Otto called Christina’s number from his own phone and heard her pleasant voice stating that she couldn’t be reached, but would call back as soon as she could. “Have a great day!” she said.

*

After finishing at Christina’s apartment, Otto drove to Artemis, intent on getting Josie to take a thirty-minute break from the case and sit down with him to eat lunch. He reached Josie on her cell phone as she was driving back into town after meeting with Hec.

“It’s well after lunchtime. Let’s meet at the Tamale. My treat,” he said, attempting a lighthearted cheer that sounded flat in his ears.