by Gina LaManna
James sat back in his seat. Karen looked a little defeated but not entirely surprised. I had to wonder if Karen might be sympathizing more with Tammy in this instance than her own son. And I wondered if her relationship with James had anything to do with it.
“What are you saying?” James asked. “That Travis lied to her? Maybe he just didn’t tell her where he was going because she was such a pest to him.”
“She wasn’t a pest, James!” Karen turned to her husband. “She was suspicious of Travis’s behavior and was trying to get to the bottom of it. That shouldn’t be hard for you to understand.”
James looked somewhat chastised. There was a moment of tense silence as the Newtons both adjusted themselves on the couch.
“Look, trust me,” Jimmy said, putting a hand out to appease the Newtons. “I get it that family dynamics are difficult. I know the wound of losing your son is fresh and open. We’re not trying to pick at past scabs just to rattle you. The only thing we’re interested in is anything that might be relevant to the case.”
I nodded in agreement. “Unfortunately, Tammy’s relationship with your son is one of those things. We’ve been getting some conflicting information and are just trying to get to the bottom of it. The biggest thing is that your son was lying to Tammy about something—we know that for a fact. Do you have any idea what that might have been?”
“None of our business,” James blurted. “That’s what it is. He’s allowed some freedoms.”
“Maybe you should ask Holden.”
I looked to Karen. She looked like she immediately regretted having blurted out her last statement.
“Holden?” I asked. “Who is Holden?”
“Our other son.” James gave his wife a dumbfounded look. “What the hell would they ask Holden?”
Karen neatly folded her hands between her knees. “I’ve said too much.”
“Karen.” James’s face was growing redder by the minute. He looked almost explosive. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“I’m not saying anything more.” Karen crossed her arms and sat back. “That’s my right.”
“Ma’am—” I started.
“You heard my wife.” James stood. “That’s it. We’re done. I’m going to call my lawyer if you keep pestering us while we’re trying to grieve the loss of our son.”
“We really are sorry for your loss. We’re just trying to find out who did this to your son,” Jimmy said, extending a hand to James. When it was obvious James wasn’t going to return the handshake, Jimmy set one of his business cards on the table in the center of the room. “You know where to find us if there’s anything else. Otherwise, we’ll be in touch.”
“Well, what do you make of that?” I asked Jimmy once we were back in the car and headed south. “Not exactly the way I saw that interview going.”
“I think Karen’s covering for her son,” Jimmy said. “Her other son.”
I hit dial on my phone and got Asha on the line. “Yeah,” I said when she answered, “one more thing for you and the intern—er, Chloe—to look into. Apparently, Travis has a brother.”
“Yes. Holden. A couple of years older,” Asha confirmed. “I’m looking at his picture now. What about him?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I said. “But he just made his way to the top of our suspect list. I’m hoping you can find out why.”
BEFORE DISCONNECTING with Asha, the computer whiz gave us the address for Holden Newton’s last known place of residence. He lived in a little apartment complex on the outer edges of a suburb of the Cities called Oakdale. According to Asha, he was routinely late on his rent payments, and she was unable to tell if he’d actually been evicted or if his landlord just routinely threatened him when his payments didn’t show up on the first of the month.
Jimmy and I slipped into the apartment complex, thanks to a friendly older gentleman holding a bag of groceries. He held the code-locked door open for us. While he ascended to the second floor, we remained on the first. I located apartment number five, which was where Holden supposedly lived.
I knocked on the door. There was no answer. A few minutes later, I tried again. Jimmy poked his head up and down the hallway, but there was no sign of anyone hanging around.
On the third knock, someone stuck their head out of the first apartment a few doors down.
“What’s the racket?” An older woman with her hair in curlers stepped halfway out of the apartment. She wore a fluffy leopard-print robe. “What’s going on here?”
“Police,” I said, studying the Dolly Parton knockoff in front of me. “Ma’am, is that a gun sticking out of your pocket?”
“Oh, yeah. That.” She shrugged, and the leopard-print pocket and the gun bobbed dangerously up and down. “Never can be too careful around here. Who’re ya looking for this time?”
“You get police around here a lot?”
She shrugged again. “Sometimes.”
“We’re looking for a man named Holden Newton,” I said. “His last known residence was supposedly this apartment.”
“I’m guessing you’re not bill collectors,” she said, taking a big sniff. “Bill collectors don’t dress like you.”
“Like I said,” I repeated, “we’re homicide detectives.”
She gave a big blink. “Wow. It’s been a good long while since anyone around here killed someone.” She gave a throaty cackle. “At least that I know of.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say that,” Jimmy said. “Is there any chance you could tell us where Holden is? Does he still live here?”
“I think he’s gone for good this time.” The woman gave a disgusted shake of her head. “I told him once he was three months behind, I’d kick him out for good. His three months was coming due next week. I’m guessing he didn’t have it, so he took off before I could take any of his crap. What would I want with his crap?”
“What’s your name?” I asked. “Are you the landlord?”
“Yep,” she said. “Call me Kitty. You want to get into his apartment? I was meaning to go in there anyway and see the damage. With any luck, he cleared his crap out and left the carpet in decent shape.”
“That’d be great,” I said, glancing at Jimmy, unable to believe our luck. We didn’t have a warrant, but I wasn’t going to complain about a voluntary invitation. “Thanks.”
Kitty disappeared for a second into her home. When she returned, her leopard-print robe was noticeably lighter. I was glad for both of our sakes that she’d left the gun behind.
“Will you look at that,” Kitty said, giving a low whistle as she pushed the door open. “I knew he was one of the good eggs.”
“Good eggs?” I followed Kitty into the room. Jimmy was a step behind me. “This is considered a good egg?”
Kitty raised her eyebrow at me. “He didn’t try to steal the microwave. The carpet’s not burned to a crisp. I don’t think he smoked, either, which is a miracle. Aside from being a cheapskate, who didn’t pay his rent, he didn’t bother me much. It wasn’t like he killed anyone.” She glanced at us. “I mean, I don’t think he did. Unless you want to tell me different?”
“We are looking into someone’s death,” I said, “but unfortunately I can’t comment any further on an ongoing investigation.”
“Huh. They always say it’s the charming ones who are serial killers.” Kitty blinked rapidly as if she’d just gotten an idea. “Say, are you gonna do one of them Netflix documentaries on him? If you do, and you need to interview me, do you think I can get a budget for hair and makeup?”
Jimmy turned away from the conversation, and I was pretty sure I heard him snort.
“We’ll have to see how this all shakes out,” I said. “Though I don’t think we’ll be doing a documentary anytime soon.”
“Rats,” she said. “I always thought I’d be famous one day. Guess this isn’t my big break.”
“Can I take a look around?”
“Sure. Doesn’t look like there’s much going on here, thoug
h.” Kitty ran a finger over the counter. “Not too dusty. I’m guessing he took off a few days ago.”
“When’s the last time you saw Holden?”
She bit her bright red lip. “Actually, I must’ve seen him yesterday. Not for long. I almost forgot about that because it was a real quick thing. We passed each other in the hall, but my nails were still wet, so I couldn’t stop to talk. I just reminded him about his bills. I guess that’s why he got spooked.”
“That would’ve been the day after the murder,” I muttered to Jimmy. “Coincidence?”
“Pretty fast for him to clear out completely,” Jimmy said. “The place is empty.”
Indeed, the apartment did look empty. It wasn’t as if it was in danger of having been scrubbed clean, but it was pretty obvious that whoever’d left here last didn’t have big plans on coming back.
I took a few minutes to poke through the room. The closets were free of clothes and empty, save for a few old, empty shoeboxes. A twin bed was in the bedroom, but there were no sheets on the bare, stained mattress. The fridge was empty. Cupboards contained a few old bottles of this and that but nothing worth writing home about. If Kitty hadn’t confirmed it herself, there would’ve been nothing to let me know that Holden had ever been here at all.
“What was he like?” I asked. “Holden, I mean. Was he a party guy? Did he have friends over?”
“Occasionally, he entertained,” Kitty said. “He was a handsome guy, that Holden. He knew he had a pretty face too. I think he got by easy in life because of that face.”
“Would you recognize anyone he brought around here a lot?” I asked. “A special woman in his life, maybe a buddy who’d swing by?”
She considered, then shook her head. “Not really. He came and went at odd hours. I think he worked at a casino somewhere, maybe as a bartender. I don’t know. A lot of the time I’d just hear voices coming in late at night. Maybe some music playing through the walls, but nothing crazy. These walls are thin. I can tell what Marjorie’s cooking for lunch in apartment three by how much she’s cursing, on any given day.”
On impulse, I pulled up the files on my phone and located a photo of Travis. “Do you recognize this guy?”
She squinted. “Nope. Actually, wait. Was that his brother?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You knew him?”
“Not really. I told you these walls are thin, though. I heard him arguing with his brother, oh, maybe a week ago?”
“How’d you know it was his brother?” Jimmy asked. “Did you see him?”
“No. I was eavesdropping,” Kitty said, seeming completely unashamed to admit it. “It was late, and Marjorie wasn’t snoring too loud. One of them said, ‘You’re my brother, how could you do this to me’?”
“That’ll do it,” I murmured. “You’d never seen him before?”
“I haven’t seen him ever,” she said. “I just guessed based it on the slight resemblance in the face in that photo there. Granted, Holden’s way cuter than his brother. Guess I got the better deal out of those two. You know, just to look at. I’ve been married for fifty years. I’m not on the market.”
“About the argument,” I said, “could you make out anything else they were saying?”
“Not really. I mean, what do two brothers really argue about? Parents? Girls? It didn’t sound like the parental sort of argument.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t think two brothers would get that heated about, say, putting old pops into a nursing home or something.” Kitty waved a hand. “If you want my opinion, it was over a girl. But that’s just a theory.”
“Thanks,” I said. “This has been really helpful.”
Jimmy handed over a business card.
“Thanks, handsome,” Kitty said, batting eyelashes at him. “I bet they’d get a real hunk to play you in the Hollywood adaptation of this film.”
Jimmy gave a gruff laugh that turned into a cough. I hid a smirk.
“Please let us know if you remember anything else,” I said. “And if you see Holden again, or if he contacts you at all, please be in touch.”
“You really think he killed someone?”
I ignored the question and flicked to another picture on my phone. “Just out of curiosity, have you ever seen this woman before?”
Kitty leaned forward and took a good long look at a photo of Tammy that Asha had attached to her reports. “She’s dead?”
“Just a simple question,” I said. “Did she come around here much?”
“I knew it was over a girl.” Kitty’s eyes gleamed. “But I hate to break it to you guys. I’ve never seen her before in my life. Not to say she hasn’t been here, but it’s not been during daylight hours. And maybe that’s the problem right there.”
We left Kitty locking up Holden’s apartment. I sincerely hoped she’d stashed her gun somewhere safe. I wasn’t in the mood to be getting called back to this apartment before I’d locked up the current murderer on the loose in the Cities.
“Well, she was a nice lady,” Jimmy said. “Helpful.”
“You’re just saying that because she thinks you’re hot.”
“She said handsome.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, George Clooney. What do you think?”
He glanced at me. “I think Sandra Bullock would play you in a film.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, she’s funny without trying to be funny,” Jimmy said. “Know what I mean?”
“Nope.”
“Exactly.”
Chapter 12
AFTER OUR RUN-IN WITH Kitty, we returned to the precinct. The next few hours were spent going over our findings with Chloe and Asha. We paid another visit to Melinda to see if she’d turned up anything, but there was nothing important to add from the lab just yet.
By the time I was wrapping up the paperwork from the day’s events, I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see the end of the workday was nearing. As much as I wanted to continue the hunt for Travis’s killer, we were temporarily stalled.
Asha had put out alerts on Holden and was digging into his past. She’d put flags on his credit cards and other accounts so she’d know the second he accessed any of them. She and Chloe had their heads together at Asha’s workstation, digging into Holden’s past for names of family members or friends who might know where he’d gone to crash after giving up his apartment.
“I talked to the Newton parents,” I said, startling both women with my announcement. “They claim to have no clue where Holden’s gone.”
“How much do you trust them?” Asha straightened. “They’re his parents. For all we know, they could be hiding him in their basement. And we don’t have enough for a warrant to get in there.”
“I don’t trust them at all,” I said. “I think Karen slipped earlier this afternoon mentioning Holden’s name, and I bet she’s feeling pretty bad about it.”
“Interesting. Well, not much to do about it tonight. Speaking of tonight, isn’t your man coming into town? Shouldn’t you be home getting pretty or something?”
“You heard about that?”
“Your man?” Chloe looked intrigued.
I ignored her. “I’m actually going to head home. I’ll grab some food on the way, so there’s something in the fridge when Jack lands. Are you guys okay here for now?”
“Get out of here,” Asha said. “We’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“If you turn up anything, I want to know about it tonight.”
Asha waggled her eyebrows. “Unless someone’s in danger, I’m not bothering you until sunrise.”
“This is part business trip,” I said. “He’s bringing a buddy with him.”
“Is this buddy cute?” Asha asked. “Chloe’s single.”
“I have no clue what he looks like,” I said. “He’s here to help consult on a case. That’s it.”
“Either way, you’re allowed a couple of hours off.” Asha winked. “See you in the morning. Tell Jack I said hi.”
I ducked out of the precinct before I could get caught up in any more discussions about the case or my situation with Jack. On the way home, I stopped at Bellini’s to pick up a pizza, some breadsticks, and a side salad because I was feeling fancy. By the time I got home, I realized I was cutting it close. I’d be lucky if I had time to shower before Jack arrived.
I parked outside my house in the driveway, carefully balanced the food on one arm, and made my way toward the front door. I was halfway there when a pizza box was lifted off my arm, and I just about dropped the salad in surprise.
“I thought it looked like you needed a hand.” Jack Russo grinned brightly back at me. “Hello, Kate.”
“Jack! You’re early. Are you early? Please tell me you’re early. I was trying really hard not to be late.”
He laughed. “You’re in luck. The plane took off early, and there was no traffic from the airport. You can relax.”
I exhaled an exaggerated breath, then turned a genuine smile on him. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he murmured back.
He leaned in, wrapped his free arm around my back, and pulled me in for a sizzling kiss. When we parted, I’d forgotten all about the fact that my stomach was rumbling and there was a hot pizza inches away. That was saying something.
“Wow,” I said. “And I thought the best part of my night would be this pizza.”
“If you thought that, then I’m not doing my job.”
“How long have you been here? I hope you haven’t been waiting outside for long.”
“It’s a nice night out,” Jack said. “I don’t mind. Now if it were January...”
I gave him a playful elbow. “I’m sorry.”
“I was only here about two minutes. Just enough time to drop my suitcase at the door and come back to grab the pizza.”
“Good. Did your friend come with you?”
“Brody’s on his way to his hotel. At least, I think he is.”