by Dale Mayer
Flynn grabbed his phone and sent a text. “I’ll just let Levi know. I doubt we’ll be allowed into Jonas’s living quarters, but the police should have gone through it already.”
“We can go ask his mom,” she said slowly. “I can make up some kind of an excuse. I don’t know, maybe he had some pictures or something of mine.”
He studied her intently for a long moment and then nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.” He sent off another text to Levi with an update. Then turned to her and asked, “What about the dogs? Do we leave them in or out?”
“I’d rather leave them in.”
“Good call. Grab your jacket. Let’s go. We’ll stop at Jonas’s place to see if we can get in and take a look around. Then we’ll head to the grocery store or for a meal first. I’ve been starving for hours now.”
Chapter 9
At Jonas’s mother’s house, Anna walked, keys in hand to the downstairs living quarters, nodding at Flynn. “Her name is Evelyn,” Anna announced. “She doesn’t mind us taking a look. She’s having a hard time with what happened. She appreciates anybody coming by.” Anna was really sad for that. The meeting had been tough as it was. Evelyn had been almost pathetically grateful that someone cared enough to stop by. “She said Jonas had been very odd at the best of times, but the last few weeks he seemed a bit more over the top. She’d wondered if he was doing drugs.”
“Did he have a history of it?”
Anna nodded. “He was a regular user, I believe. He offered to share at one point.” She shrugged. “It was just part of who he was.”
She unlocked the door to the downstairs suite and pushed it open. And froze. The place had been trashed. Everything was upside down and dumped. “Oh, boy.”
Flynn stepped in behind her and closed the door. And again he pulled out his phone and called Levi. “We’re at Jonas’s place. It’s been trashed. Don’t know if someone was looking for something, but it’d be damn hard to find out what now.”
Anna left him standing where he was and made her way into the kitchen. It wasn’t as destroyed as the living room. However, it was a mess with food all over the place. Wow. Did people really live like this? Did Evelyn know? This wouldn’t be fun to clean out. Leftover take-out, coffee cups—both empty and not, from various coffeehouses—littered the table. Enough pizza boxes were on the table to feed several men. For a few days.
Carrying on, she pushed open the door to the master bedroom with her boot. Inside was messy, but not like the living room. The clothing was disheveled on the open shelving, but at least it wasn’t on the floor. Then her focus landed on the bed. Instantly, she called out, “Flynn, come here.”
When she didn’t hear his steps, she walked back into the living room to Flynn, standing in the middle of the room, still talking on the phone, and she motioned for him to follow.
“Levi, I’ll call you back.” He ended the call and asked, “What’s up?”
She pointed to the bedroom.
He stepped in, glanced around, his eyes landing on the bed. “Oh.”
“Someone has been staying here with Jonas from the looks of it. What’s the chance it’s the killer?”
“Given this mess, I would have said no. But now that I see that bed … made up military style and damn clean in comparison …” He turned to look at her. “Did Jonas have any military training?”
She shook her head. “No idea.”
“This does not match up with the rest of his living space.” He turned to look at the kitchen.
She pointed at the coffee cups. “Beside the fact that whoever was here wasn’t a housekeeper, the cups came in twos. Not just one set either, but three sets on the table.”
“So Jonas and someone.”
“Unless Jonas was already dead, and we’re looking for two others. But this could be the man that Jonas was talking about.”
“Let’s hope the police have swabbed this place for fingerprints.” But he looked around and saw no evidence a crime scene forensic team had been here. And that made no sense to him. He quickly sent a text to Levi explaining what they had. He took several photos and fowarded them. “We need to find out why not.”
“I can ask his mom.” She walked back to the front door and headed upstairs. She knocked on the door again to see Jonas’s mother. “Here are the keys. I promise to lock up when we leave. But I wonder, have the police not been here yet?”
“Yes,” she said. “They have been. They came and got fingerprints from his bedroom and everything up here.”
“What? I thought Jonas lived downstairs.”
“Jonas was,” his mom corrected. “But not for the last few weeks. He had a friend down there off and on, one who liked to be alone as much as possible, so Jonas started to sleep upstairs much of the time. I haven’t seen or heard anybody down there for days.” Tears came to her eyes again. “Everything is just so confusing now. I don’t know who it was. But once I told the police another man was living downstairs, they didn’t seem too interested. They wrote down the info but wanted to see Jonas’s bedroom up here.”
“Would you mind if I took a look too?” Anna pulled out her phone and quickly sent Flynn a text, telling him to get upstairs and join her.
At Jonas’s bedroom door, his mom said, “You’re welcome to look around, just don’t take anything.”
“Of course not,” Anna said with a smile. “I’m sure you want to keep his things.”
His mom shook her head. “I have no idea what I’m gonna do.”
Anna wasn’t sure she should warn Evelyn about the state of the rooms downstairs. As long as it was all part of the crime scene, she didn’t think she could do anything yet. Then again the police didn’t seem to feel the downstairs apartment was of interest to anyone. She opened the door to Jonas’s bedroom and stepped inside.
And it was like a time warp. Posters from Back to the Future were on the wall. What looked like high school awards and mementos were all over the shelves.
At the sound of voices she turned to see Flynn talking with Jonas’s mom outside the doorway. He stepped inside with a smile for Anna. “Did you find anything?”
Checking that Jonas’s mom was down the hallway, Anna said, “It’s still like a kid’s room.”
Flynn stopped and took a good look around and nodded. “Stunted growth?”
“He was immature in many ways. But how much of it was because he was always on drugs?” She opened her arms to the room. “But this kind of explains it a bit. Maybe he did have a mental illness and never quite matured past a specific point.”
“Or this is his world before drugs. And the apartment downstairs is his world after.” He nodded at the desk that was perfectly clean. “Just think about the apartment downstairs. Often drugs don’t affect people in this way, but when it becomes the dominant factor in somebody’s life, to the point they’re addicted and no longer functioning well in society, often their surroundings no longer matter. What does is getting that next fix.”
“He might have been getting to that stage, but I don’t know for sure,” she murmured in a low voice. The last thing she wanted was for Jonas’s mother to hear them. This had to be hard enough without realizing to what extent your son had fallen.
She walked to his night table and pulled open the drawer. She didn’t have hope of finding anything important, not once the police had been here. The drawer was empty. The shelf below it was too. She bent down on her hands and knees and checked under the bed. Outside of dust bunnies, it was also clean. She didn’t really know what she was looking for, just something that would help her identify who the new person was that had been living downstairs. But then, why would that information be up here? Still she forced herself to go through the motions and checked everything she could.
In the closet she saw one of the coats Jonas wore on a regular basis. She pulled it out and turned to Flynn. “He wore this almost every time I saw him. Odd he wasn’t when he was shot.”
“So maybe he was living in this room toward the end, if
his favorite clothes are here.”
She shrugged. “Or he left it upstairs, and his mother hung it up for him.”
She returned it where she’d found it, then checked the pockets. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper—a receipt for fast food from three days before. She handed it to Flynn and went systematically back to the coat again. In the inside pocket she pulled out a small slip of paper, with a phone number and name, one she recognized. She spun and held it up for Flynn. “Is this the guy you were talking about?”
*
Flynn stared at the note in Anna’s hand. Confirmation. Something he hadn’t really expected to see. He reached out and took it, looking at both sides. It was torn from a store advertisement, a local one here in town.
He pulled out his phone and dialed the handwritten number on the reverse side. The phone rang multiple times. Not waiting to see if anything else happened, he hung up, then dialed Levi. He quickly updated him, adding, “Can somebody put a trace on this number and see what we get?”
“We’re on it,” Levi said. “We’ll also check the police files for that address.”
“Good idea. If there’s been any disturbances at that address, the neighbors would probably know something.” He stared out the window and said, “I think after I’m done in this room, maybe we’ll talk to a couple neighbors here and see what they might have to say.”
“Good idea. Touch base in, say, thirty minutes.” Levi ended the call.
With a last glance around, he motioned toward the doorway. “Are you ready to go?”
She nodded. “Nothing else of interest appears to be here.”
They walked back out, thanking Jonas’s mom for letting them see his room.
Back outside, Anna asked, “What was that about going door-to-door?”
“We should check with the neighbors and see if they saw Brendan. Somebody should’ve seen something.”
“Wouldn’t the police have asked?”
“Would they? As far as they were concerned, a friend was staying downstairs in the apartment. They didn’t seem to care about the other guy. Then again, it’s not like the police have much time to worry about this case.”
“But we do.” Resolutely, she walked across to the first house beside Jonas’s mother’s place. She knocked on the door. When an older woman came out, Anna quickly explained that she was a friend of Jonas’s and wondered if the woman had seen anything suspicious in the last few days.
The neighbor shook her head. “Jonas has always been a bit suspicious on his own. But since he started hanging out with that creep…” She shook her head. “He’s just been on a downhill slide. I’m not surprised he was murdered.”
Inwardly agreeing with the woman but needing to keep her talking, Anna said, “Have you seen other people around here lately?”
“A black truck. Don’t know the man. But it was parked in the front a lot.”
“Any chance you know the license plate?” Flynn asked from behind Anna. “Even just a letter or two?”
The lady shook her head. “It always came in the dark and was gone in the morning. It gave me the creeps actually. It’s kind of ghostlike.”
She gave Flynn a hard glance.
“Nothing good ever comes of people who only come and leave in the dark. Definitely shenanigans going on in that place,” he said.
“Well, hopefully that’s all over with now,” Anna said gently. “The neighborhood should be safe again.”
“Harrumph. I hope so.” And the woman closed the door in their face.
Flynn proceeded to check with the other neighbors, but everybody said the same thing. Large black truck, nobody had seen the license plate. As for the driver, no one saw him. The only extra information they got was the truck was full-size, solid black, with no contrasting trim, obvious bed liner, or canopy. As far as being helpful, it wasn’t much. This was Texas—everyone had trucks.
When they were done and walking back to Flynn’s truck, Levi called. “The phone is registered to Brendan McAllister. And it’s a Houston number.”
With his breath coming out in a gush, Flynn said, “That’s the best confirmation we’ve had yet.”
“This is good stuff,” Levi said. “That puts Brendan together with Jonas. We can already place Jonas at the house. If we can place Brendan there too, that would lock it down.”
“Do we have motive? Means wouldn’t be too hard, as Brendan is a weapons specialist.”
“Right. I should phone the cops and see if we can confirm the murder weapon. He’s unlikely to be so stupid as to use his own gun, but…” Levi’s tone changed. “What are you two doing now?”
Flynn turned to look at Anna. “We need to stop at a grocery store, and then we’ll be back at the house.”
“Staying there for the night? The others are planning to leave soon. Except Logan, he’s staying at his father’s for the evening. This would be your last call for a ride home until then.”
“Good to know. Thanks. I’ll touch base with Logan later.” He ended the call and turned to face Anna. “Groceries?”
She nodded. “I’m starved.”
Chapter 10
She walked up the steps, unlocked the door, picked up the two bags she’d brought from the car and headed to the kitchen. The dogs barked and milled around her in joy. She put the groceries on the table, then reached out to give them each a big hug. “So how was it being inside, guys?”
She glanced around, but it appeared they hadn’t had any accidents. For that she was grateful. At least they had each other for company. She could put them back in their cages, but that didn’t appeal.
“I’ll cook tonight if you want to put stuff away,” Anna said.
Flynn nodded and gave her a smile.
She checked the answering machine to find that her earlier phone call had resulted in something very positive. The couple would come by this evening to look at the two little dogs, if that was okay with her. She picked up the phone and called them back. “I’ll be here this evening if you can give me a time.”
The man said, “How about right after dinner. Maybe six thirty?”
“Perfect.” She put away the phone in a much happier frame of mind, then began a chicken Caesar salad for each of them. She snagged the garlic bread, prepped it, set it aside to go in at the end. It would give them some substance to go with the salad.
Flynn was a big man. He had already demonstrated a decent appetite. She didn’t have anywhere near the appetite he did, but she was starved. Right now, she could eat both his meal and hers. As soon as she got the chicken breasts in the oven, she called out, “The couple is coming tonight to take a look at the two little dogs.”
“That’s great,” Flynn said. “You should take a walk down there to ensure the cats are okay.”
She shot him a horrified look and raced outside.
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to make you panic.”
“The last thing I need is something else happening around here,” she said.
Flynn followed her. “Hey, since Jonas’s body was found here, and with the police presence off and on, we probably don’t have to worry about Brendan showing tonight. No guarantees, but just saying…” When she nodded at him, he sauntered back to the kitchen.
She arrived at the cages and opened the cat door to find everybody still where they belonged. The four dogs had followed behind her, and smaller ones barking like crazy. Jimbo stuffed his nose against the glass of the cat door. She reached down and hooked a leash on each of the two little ones and took them out on the small dog run. With any luck they would have a new home tonight. She walked the other two out to the back dog run and set them free. They needed an hour or so to themselves.
None of the animals appeared to be disturbed or upset. She’d take that as a good sign there was no intruder around. The cats would need food soon. As she headed toward them, Flynn was already outside again, saying, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll feed the cats now. You worry about dinner.”
That worked for her
.
When Flynn was done, he walked inside, sniffed the air experimentally and said, “That smells good.”
She smiled at him. “Just like old times.”
“It sure is.”
When he’d been here before, they’d taken turns cooking meals. She did a tastier pasta, but he cooked a better steak.
She sat down, checking her watch. “We have twenty minutes to eat before the couple arrives.”
“It’s all good.”
She settled in to enjoy her chicken Caesar salad. She glanced at Flynn to find him halfway through his meal. When she was done, she started the dishes. Before she got the sink filled, Flynn said, “Remember our old times? If you cooked, I cleaned, and we switched off as needed. Go deal with paperwork in case they want the dogs tonight.”
At that reminder, she headed to her office to grab some adoption papers. There was nothing wrong with feeling positive. It had been a hell of a day already. If she could find homes for these two, it would be perfect.
An hour later, she realized it had been the best day she’d had in a long time. Tears were in her eyes as she watched the couple take the two little dogs out to their car and place them in the backseat.
Flynn walked out and put an arm around her shoulder, tugging her close. “Nice job.”
She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “It’s so good to see them leave, going to a good home, but it’s also damn hard.”
He laughed. “They are yours when they are here. But, like all babies, they have to grow up and move on.”
“I really need to do something to help the cats now too. We’re down to just the two large dogs, a hamster, snake, rabbit, and four cats.”
“You barely have enough animals to call yourself a shelter anymore. It’s a good time to shut it down, if that’s what you need to do.”
“Now that I have the money, that’s not gonna happen,” she said robustly, once again buoyed by success. “What I need to do is contact the other shelters and see how many animals need to be rescued before they hit the kill door.”