by Kara Lennox
“Someone will, someday.”
They entered through the front door into a spacious foyer. The place was elegant, but it had an eerie feeling to it. Elena took a quick tour of the downstairs; pictures still hung on the walls. A fan of magazines adorned the coffee table, along with the TV remote control. The dining room table was set.
“It’s almost like someone could come home any minute,” she said.
“The Realtor hired a stager to come in and make it look good. Not that it helped.”
“I think if you don’t want potential buyers to envision the people who used to live here, it might be better to empty the place. But that’s just my opinion. I don’t know anything about real estate.”
“It just seemed so final...clearing out Eric’s things, putting it all in storage. I mean, even if he got out of prison tomorrow, he and MacKenzie would never come here to live. Especially since it’s possible MacKenzie witnessed her mother’s murder.”
Elena didn’t even want to think about that. Could a child ever fully recover from the trauma of seeing her mother killed right before her eyes?
They entered the kitchen last.
“This is where it happened, huh?” Elena asked.
“Right on the other side of the island. Eric came home from work and found her on the floor there. Stabbed with her own kitchen knife. There was some kind of struggle—a bar stool was knocked over.”
Uncomfortable as it was, Elena envisioned the body on the floor, the bar stool lying on its side.
“The knife set is gone now, of course.”
“So, an impulsive crime. A crime of passion. Whoever did it didn’t come here intending to kill Tammy. Your theory is that her lover did it?”
“I know she was cheating on Eric.”
“How?”
“The signs were there—a new hairstyle and she started dressing differently. Evasive answers to questions about where she was all day and why MacKenzie had needed a babysitter. Certain calls on her cell phone that she wouldn’t answer if Eric was around. A sudden interest in finances—she wanted to know where all the money was.”
“Like she might be contemplating divorce. I take it Eric confided in you, told you all this was happening.”
“A lot of it I saw myself, and some I learned only after I told Eric what I suspected. He didn’t want to believe she was cheating. He was in heavy denial, or at least pretending to be. He won’t speak ill of Tammy and he especially doesn’t want MacKenzie ever to hear any suspicion that her mother was unfaithful. That’s one reason the cheating never came to light. Eric wouldn’t hear of it, and the lawyer thought that even if it was true, it would hurt rather than help Eric’s case.”
“Her girlfriends would know. Did she have any close women friends, or maybe a sister?”
“No family at all, other than the grandmother. I don’t know about her friends. All of Tammy’s personal stuff is boxed out in the garage—anything the police didn’t keep.”
“Personal stuff like what? Clothes?”
“I don’t know. We can dig through it if you want.”
“I do want.”
Elena was glad to see there were only six boxes. If Tammy had owned a computer, the police had probably kept that. Same with a phone. If Tammy had been anything like Elena, she kept all her contacts and her schedule on one or the other rather than on paper.
Elena and Travis dragged the boxes inside, opened them one by one and spread the contents onto the kitchen table—bank statements with canceled checks, credit card bills, receipts, newspaper and magazine clippings.
It was a gold mine. Elena made a pile of things she wanted to take home with her, to study at leisure later. “We can probably find out where she had her hair done, where she shopped, where she had lunch—any of those things might lead to her closest friends. Women tell their hairdressers everything.”
“I’m sure the police went through this stuff.”
“Yeah, but if they’d already made up their minds about Eric, they didn’t look too close. What’s this?” In one box, Elena found a huge accordion file. It was stuffed to overflowing with coupons—cut from newspapers and magazines and printed off the computer. “Wow, she was pretty serious about her couponing.”
“Yeah, she belonged to some neighborhood coupon club—a group of moms who would get together once a week and trade coupons and free samples. I think it was really just an excuse to socialize. Their kids would all play together.”
“That sounds like a treasure trove of gossip. Any idea who the other members were?”
“No clue. Eric might know some names.”
In the very back of the accordion file was an envelope with a greeting card. The card was one of those innocuous “Thinking of You” varieties with a picture of flowers in a wicker basket. Inside were several coupons and a handwritten message, Thought you could use these. It was signed simply, J.
“Now this is interesting. Take a look at these coupons.” Handling them only by the edges, she laid them out on the table one by one.
Travis peered at them before saying anything. “Five dollars off on a dozen roses? Get a free sample of Ciro’s Chocolate Truffles? Ten percent off all massage oils?”
“Pretty cheap gesture, giving her the coupons instead of the real deal. Probably an inside joke. But I do believe we’re looking at a gift from Tammy’s lover.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
TRAVIS STUDIED THE COUPONS. “J. That could be anybody.”
“But J, whoever he is, undoubtedly left some fingerprints on these items, not to mention DNA when he licked the envelope. The Project Justice lab can help us out.” Elena felt tingly with excitement. They’d barely started, and already they had a meaningful lead.
It took only a few minutes to sort through the rest of the boxes. The last one had some photo albums, but they appeared to be from high school and college. Elena stashed the few items she wanted to examine further into a plastic garbage bag, and they returned the rest to the garage.
One life, summed up in six boxes—how sad. Tammy clearly had her faults, but she hadn’t deserved what happened to her.
They locked the bag in the back of the truck. Travis started to open the driver’s door, but Elena stopped him.
“Aren’t we going to talk to the neighbors? We could see if any of them know J. Or if any of them are J.”
Travis looked uncomfortable. She knew he didn’t want her getting so deeply involved. Rather than give him the opportunity to object, she turned and headed for the next-door neighbor’s porch.
They must have rung twenty doorbells. They talked to a few people. Some refused to say anything, some truly didn’t even know about the murder and a few tried to help. But none of them knew anything about the coupon club. None of them knew anything, in fact, that was helpful.
Discouraged, Travis and Elena headed back to the truck.
The sound of an electric scooter coming down the street drew Elena’s attention. The girl on the lime-green scooter stopped at the curb in front of Eric’s house and pulled off her helmet.
“Mr. Riggs? Is that you?”
The scooter rider was a young woman—maybe still a teenager, maybe a little older. She had long dark hair and a tattoo of a butterfly on her forearm.
His hand on the truck door handle, Travis looked blankly at her for a few moments before recognition apparently kicked in and he smiled. “April. I hardly recognized you. You’re so grown-up.”
The girl smiled back, seemingly pleased by the compliment.
Travis made quick introductions. “April used to babysit for MacKenzie.”
“How is MacKenzie? I saw her a few times with that family over on the next block, the ones with all the foster kids. She always looked so sad. The other kids would be playing ball or whatever and she would just sit the
re.”
“MacKenzie still misses her parents, I think,” Travis said.
Elena sifted through the questions she wanted to ask this April. A babysitter could be privy to all kinds of information. Left alone in the house with only a toddler, she might have done some snooping. Or seen who was with Tammy when she came and went.
“It was so terrible, what happened to that family,” Elena said. “It must have really shaken up the neighborhood.”
April nodded. “It was all anyone talked about for months. Of course, my parents wanted to shield me from it. I was only fifteen. But it was all over the TV. Eric was so nice. We just couldn’t believe what they said he did. I always figured it was the yardman.”
“Jimmy?” Travis asked. “Why would you think that?”
“I heard he’d been in prison. And some people thought... It was probably just gossip. But Jimmy was always flirting with the ladies when he mowed their lawns, and some people thought it went further than flirting. It seemed like he spent a lot of time mowing the Riggs’s lawn.”
Travis and Elena shared a meaningful look. Could Jimmy be the coupon sender, the mysterious J?
“Do you know Jimmy’s last name?” Travis asked.
April thought for a few moments. “No. But I still see him around the neighborhood.”
“Were you at home the day it happened?” Elena asked.
“I was,” April replied. “In fact, I was supposed to come over at three that afternoon and babysit, just until Eric got home. I’d been doing a lot of sitting for MacKenzie that summer. Tammy said her day care wasn’t working out anymore. Anyway, when I went over there and rang the bell, no one answered. But I could hear voices inside.” April shivered. “They were yelling.”
“Could you recognize the voices?” Travis asked.
“Oh, it was Tammy. And a man. But not Eric.”
Travis exchanged a look with Elena and then returned his attention to April. “You’re sure about that?”
“Positive. Then I heard a loud crash, and the arguing stopped.”
“What about Jimmy? Could it have been him?”
April thought for a few moments. “Maybe. I never really talked to Jimmy that much. But it definitely wasn’t Eric. I know his voice. I didn’t want to interrupt whatever was going on—I didn’t want to know, so I just went home. I figured Tammy would call if she still wanted me.”
Travis looked as if he’d been kicked in the head by a mule.
“Did you say three o’clock?”
April nodded.
“April, did you tell the police about this?”
“No, I never talked to them. I guess they came by the house the next day, but I was gone. My parents didn’t want the police questioning me. They convinced me I didn’t know anything that could have helped find the killer and I shouldn’t get involved. But now... You’re saying I could have helped prove Eric was innocent?”
“Eric has a solid alibi up until three-thirty. April, would you be willing to tell the police what you just told me?”
“Of course! I’m eighteen now. My parents can’t stop me.”
“Great. In the meantime...it would be better if you didn’t say anything to anyone. I might be paranoid, but the real murderer is still out there somewhere, and...”
“He would just as soon I keep quiet. Yeah, I get it. No Twitter, no Facebook.”
“Thanks, April. I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days, okay?”
She nodded and then looked wistful. “I wish I’d done more. What if I’d walked into the house? Maybe I could have stopped—”
“Don’t think like that,” Elena said. “If you’d walked in, you might have been killed yourself. You did what you thought was right at the time.”
April nodded and gave Travis her cell phone number, then continued on to her house next door.
Elena barely contained her excitement. Could it really be this easy? Could they be this lucky?
“Do you think the police will even listen to her at this point?” Travis asked after they were back in the truck and on the way home.
“You don’t have to go to the police. Go straight to Eric’s attorney, the one who is handling the appeal. Is he or she someone you trust?”
“I used to. He’s a different guy than the one who handled the original trial, an appeal specialist. But why didn’t he do what we just did?”
“He was probably focused on procedural issues. That’s what most appeals are based on. Don’t be too hard on him.”
“I’ll call him as soon as we get home. Hell, what I really want to do is call him now.”
“Do it. Pull over somewhere so you don’t get a ticket and call him.” This was such an unexpected turn of events. Elena had been excited to find that card from Tammy’s lover, and that might be an interesting lead for the police to follow. But it wasn’t something she and Travis had to worry about now. All they had to do was establish the time of death at three o’clock, and they were on their way to overturning Eric’s conviction.
Travis pulled onto a random side street. He spent some time scrolling through his contacts, looking for the lawyer.
“I’m surprised you don’t have his number memorized,” Elena said.
“Not so freakish after all, am I? There it is.” After a few moments the call connected. “Richard Strauss, please...Travis Riggs...Regarding the appeal for my brother, Eric Riggs...Oh, no. How long?...Well, is there someone else I can talk to? This is kind of important. I might have proof of my brother’s innocence...Okay, yeah, I’ll talk to her...Next week? Can’t we do this any faster? There are people trying to adopt Eric’s daughter as we speak...Okay, okay, put me down for eleven next Wednesday. But if she gets any cancellations...Okay.” Travis provided his name and phone number, then disconnected.
“It’s okay.” Elena touched his arm, but that felt so impersonal, so she took his hand. “Next week will be soon enough. There may be other people applying to adopt MacKenzie, but these things take time. No way can they get it done in a week.”
“Yeah, but I hate to think of her in that place. That shelter or wherever she is.”
“I’m sure she’s being well cared for. Can you go visit her?”
“No. It’s a shelter where they take abused kids, and the location is secret. I guess they thought that was the safest place for her when they removed her from the Stovers’. The only way I can visit her is if Missy brings her to a neutral location, and I don’t think Missy is inclined to do that right now. I have to at least let her cool off a few days before I even try. Then there’s April. What if she changes her mind? What if something happens to her?”
“Don’t let this get you down, Travis. We’re still way ahead of where we were a few hours ago. Keep that in mind. You’ve got a real chance now to get Eric out of prison. And he’ll get his daughter back. Focus on that.”
“You’re right. And I have you to thank. But, Elena—”
“I know. I need to move on with my life.”
She wanted to argue. But if she tried to look at things logically, what was keeping them together? From the beginning, one odd circumstance after another had conspired to keep them rotating in each other’s orbits. Whether it was desperation, necessity, expediency, a sense of duty... Before she could always come up with a reason to be with Travis.
All those reasons were gone now. Almost with no effort, they’d come up with compelling evidence of Eric’s innocence. But Travis could take it from here. He could talk to the lawyer, who would know what to do if he had a brain in his head.
Travis didn’t need her anymore.
“There’s no rush,” he said quietly. “I understand how it could be uncomfortable living with your parents right now, so you’re welcome to stay until you find something else.”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks.”
Elena didn’t understand what was going on. She still wanted to be with him. But apparently he didn’t return her feelings. With all the heightened emotions of the kidnapping and the drama of MacKenzie’s situation, maybe Travis had simply needed a physical and emotional outlet, and she’d been handy.
Now, with a solution to his problems in hand, it appeared his desire for her had deflated right along with the tension.
Elena would simply have to accept that this chapter in her life was over. She needed to get on with her life—a life without Travis.
She would leave him with one gift, however. Provided Daniel would cooperate.
* * *
TRAVIS FOUND HIMSELF pacing from the living room, through the dining room, into the kitchen and back again. It wasn’t a very big house.
He should be elated—on top of the world. He finally had the means to prove his brother’s innocence, or at least introduce a truckload of doubt. Elena was right—he had some breathing room with regard to anyone adopting MacKenzie. Father and daughter would be reunited, and they could all go about the business of rebuilding their lives.
Of course, he now owned a house that was way too big for his needs. But once he finished fixing it up, he could flip it if he decided he really preferred apartment life.
No, the reason for his dissatisfaction was upstairs in her bedroom, updating her résumé and applying for jobs.
Every time he relived their last conversation, he felt sick to his stomach. Politely asking Elena to remove herself from his life had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. But it was the only decent thing to do.
He’d sensed that Elena might have stuck around if he’d given her any encouragement. She was a woman who liked to help. She liked to get people organized, to straighten out their lives, and in Travis she undoubtedly saw a great big, blank canvas on which to apply her art. A frigging diamond in the rough.
The fact that they were dynamite in bed was just icing on the cake.
But how long could a relationship last based on such a flimsy foundation? He already knew—a couple of years, tops, based on his experience with Judith.