by Mary Bush
Thomas started to make his way down the corridor. “Why is the bedroom door closed?” he asked Stanley.
The manager inhaled deeply before responding. “I shut it last time I was here. Kind of gave me the creeps thinking about what happened in there.”
Stanley’s simple explanation sent chills down Val’s spine as she pictured what occurred behind that closed door. She tried hard not to think about it as the group moved forward. When Thomas turned the handle and pushed the door open, she wasn’t sure what to expect and anxiously looked in. The room was empty and clean, as if nothing had ever happened there. The air of innocence was unsettling.
“You were the one who found her, am I right?” Thomas asked Stanley.
“Yeah.” He looked at the floor when he spoke.
“How did that come about?” Thomas asked.
“The pipe under her kitchen sink was busted. When I came by to fix it, she didn’t answer. I thought I’d just let myself in to get it done and that’s when I found her.” His eyes lingered on the floor.
“If you came to fix the sink, what made you decide to look in the bedroom?” Jack asked. Val was thinking the same thing.
Stanley’s eyes shot up and stared at Jack. “I called for Jeanne when I let myself in. I expected her to be here. She didn’t go out of the house at all. I thought I heard a noise in the bedroom. So, I checked in there. You know, to see if she was all right.”
Thomas circled around the empty room, his footsteps loud in the small space. He looked out the window and turned back to face the four people staring at him. No one spoke and the room became eerily quiet.
“Stanley, didn’t you find Francine too?” Thomas asked.
“Yeah. Her mail was piling up. A lot of people who live here just take off with no warning. I thought Francine might have done that. So I checked.”
Thomas raised his eyebrows and said, “I’ve seen all I need to here. Let’s move on.”
Francine’s place was on the other side of the complex. Thomas and Jack again kept Stanley engaged in conversation on the long walk. Val and Gwen followed close behind.
When the apartment door opened, Val felt as if she’d stepped back in time. Her heart began to bang nervously. The apprehension that she felt in Jeanne’s place was amplified at least a thousand times. It looked very much like it did the night she was last here. Remnants of fingerprint powder still covered the walls, light fixtures, doorknobs, and anywhere else someone would have made hand contact. Much of the furniture was still present too. Val wondered why keep it the same when Jeanne’s was emptied and painted.
“No one came for her things?” she asked Stanley.
“Can’t find anyone to give them to. I have nowhere to store this stuff, so I just keep it here. No one’s beating down the door to rent this place, so it really doesn’t matter.”
“Didn’t Francine’s sister come for her belongings?” Thomas asked.
“She was supposed to. That’s why I waited. She called and told me she would, but she never showed up. I need the furniture gone to get this place cleaned up. Can’t do much with it here.”
Thomas didn’t mention that Samantha was now dead. And Stanley didn’t seem to know. “Who took Jeanne’s belongings?”
“Her nephew,” Stanley said.
After a quick glance in the living room and kitchen, they headed to the bedroom. Val hesitated in the doorway, taking a deep breath. She jumped when she felt someone grab her arm.
It was Gwen.
“We should go in,” Gwen said. Val nodded.
Thomas and Jack were standing in the closet. As Val and Gwen walked across the room to join the men, Val’s gaze lingered on Francine’s bed. It was a bare mattress only. Bloody teeth on the pillow flashed through her mind. As quickly as the memory entered, she pushed it aside for now. Though she was most interested in the teeth, what was in the closet is what brought them all to Eastville today and she hurried to see it.
On the ceiling, faint traces of fingerprints could still be detected around a piece of drywall, obviously added as a patch. It seemed fairly new. “Did you do this?” Jack asked Stanley.
“I never fixed that,” Stanley said. “Francine must have done it herself.”
“Why would Francine be doing it? Why would she be placing drywall?” Thomas asked this time.
Stanley shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me. She never said anything about it needing to be fixed.”
“It’s a very small piece, probably no more than a foot. You don’t need to be a carpenter to manage that. It looks like it was replaced because of water damage.” Val pointed out parts of the ceiling around the patch that had brownish yellow discoloration. “I’ve done this type of work myself before. It’s not that hard to do.” She had no choice but to do some of her own home repairs. With no money to spend on a handyman, she had become knowledgeable on home maintenance. It’s amazing what can be learned on the internet.
“But still, why do it herself when she has Stanley here to do it for her?” Thomas said.
He led the pack out of the bedroom and down the hall to the linen closet. Once he opened the door, Val could easily see the area in question. A part of the wall had been altered. Not once but twice.
A small section had been cut out and replaced with new drywall. And then later it had been cut again and patched a second time. This second patch was obvious. The two pieces had a slightly different color. One was darker, suggesting a time span between alterations.
“This one’s different.” Val pointed to the lighter section. “It’s newer.”
Jack felt around the edges of the second patch. “There was water damage in the bedroom closet, but there’s nothing wrong here. Why repair it more than once? For that matter, why repair it at all?”
“Good question.” Thomas reached in and pushed on the piece. “It’s solidly in place.” He quickly walked away from the linen closet and headed back towards the bedroom. Jack and Stanley followed him. But Val stayed behind. Something caught her eye. Gwen remained with her.
“What are you looking at?” Gwen asked.
“Those,” Val said, pointing to the top shelf that held a few medication bottles. She was interested in two prescription containers partially hidden behind a bottle of cough syrup.
Gwen reached up and pulled the prescription containers down. One was empty and the other only had a few pills left. She read the label. “They’re for doxycycline.”
“Doxycycline is an antibiotic,” Val said, disappointed. Francine’s sister Samantha had many bottles of the prescription pain medication Percocet found at her place and Val thought maybe she could find a connection with the same type of drug. No such luck. Gwen put the bottles back on the shelf and they left to join the men in the bedroom.
When they returned, Jack was in the closet standing on a chair, feeling around the added section of drywall. “The repair in the hall closet was better than this. This one isn’t adapted well at all. It looks like it was done rather quickly.”
He applied a little more force to the area and the added piece slipped up as it separated from the rest of the ceiling. He pressed harder to complete the detachment. With one hand in the hole he felt around. “There’s something up here.”
When he jumped down off the chair he had a large envelope in his hands.
Inside the envelope were personal documents. A few concerned someone named Lorelei Sebastian. An address for her was listed on one of the papers. But most of the papers belonged to Jeanne Coleman.
“Jesus Christ. Francine Donohue and Jeanne Coleman did know each other,” Val said.
24
“It can’t be a dead end,” Gwen said to Val. The two sat in their tiny room at the medical examiner’s office whispering, but Gwen started to raise her voice. “Where the hell could that woman be?”
“Shh,” Val scolded. “It’s not that dead of an end, and please, close the door before someone hears you. This is private information. Gavin told me this morning that they’re not re
leasing this.”
Gwen got up and did what she was told, then quickly sat back down. “What do you mean?”
“Gavin and Warren went yesterday evening with crime scene technicians and searched the address that was listed for Lorelei Sebastian. No teeth were found there so there’s a good chance she’s still alive. The problem is, no one was even sure she was ever at that address. The landlord basically had no records of any use and couldn’t tell who’d lived there in the last several years.”
“What about the neighbors?” Gwen’s eyes were wide. “Someone must have known something about this woman.”
“It’s not the type of neighborhood where people know each other. Most of the houses are rental properties and the tenants turn over pretty quickly. If she was hiding out there, like Francine and Jeanne seemed to do in the Eastville Projects, she got what she wanted because she certainly wasn’t noticed.”
“You would think they’d remember someone named Lorelei. It’s a pretty uncommon name.”
“She might not have used her real name.” Val sighed. “This woman might as well have been a ghost.”
“Bottom line is, there’s no trace of Lorelei Sebastian.”
“At least this gives Gavin probable cause to start an investigation on her,” Val said. “Plus, there’s a little more to it. There was a life insurance policy found with Jeanne Coleman’s documents hidden in Francine’s ceiling. The beneficiary was Lorelei. So far, no one has tried to claim the money.”
Gwen stood up from the stool and paced a few feet in one direction and then turned and went in the other. In the tiny room she had nowhere to go, and simply leaned against the counter and sighed. “And Jeanne Coleman herself? What do those papers say about her?”
“She’s why the trail is still hot. A lot of her personal information was found, but much of it was out of date. An expired driver’s license, several bank statements for accounts that were closed about a year ago, but a recent application for a passport was there.”
Gwen’s eyes opened wide. “Why in the hell would a recluse have an application for a passport?”
“That’s exactly the point.” Val stopped short here. She didn’t want to tell Gwen about Gavin’s reaction. He had hit the roof when Val told him that she and Gwen were involved with the investigation at Francine’s apartment. She had cringed as he lectured her on acceptable and unacceptable professional behavior. He didn’t hold back on his opinion, letting her know how dangerous her involvement was with Jack and Thomas. “They’re going to get you fired,” he insisted.
“Did they check behind the section of drywall in the linen closet?” Gwen asked.
“Yes, nothing was there. They think that was the original hiding place and the documents were eventually moved to the ceiling in the bedroom closet. That’s why that section of wall was replaced twice.”
A knock on the door caused both Val and Gwen to jump. “Come in,” Val tried to say nonchalantly. It still sounded guilty.
“I hope I’m not disturbing anything,” Howie said.
“Just girl talk,” Gwen said. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been asked to find Val.”
“I’m all yours,” Val said, trying to sound cheery. She really wanted to continue her discussion with Gwen and the last thing she wanted right now was to be pulled away. She rose from her chair and smiled, hoping this wouldn’t take long.
“Candace is looking for you,” Howie warned. “She asked if I could find you and send you to her.”
The smile immediately fell from her face and she stared at Howie, trying to read from his expression what this could possibly be about. “Why?” she asked cautiously.
“I’m sorry but she didn’t tell me what she wanted you for. She just asked me to get you.”
“Was she in a good mood?” Val tried to joke, knowing Candace was only in a good mood when she was screwing with people.
“She looked cranky, so I think you’re safe.” Howie was upbeat, trying to make her laugh. It didn’t work.
Did Gavin tell Blythe about her involvement at Francine’s apartment? Was she fired? Val headed towards Candace’s office. Her heart was in her throat as she knocked on the open door. Candace motioned for her to come in and sit down. She had a piece of paper on her desk and flipped it around so that Val could read what it said.
“Consider this your first written warning. After one more, you will be terminated,” Candace said bluntly. Val wondered why Dr. Blythe didn’t reprimand her himself. He was clearly behind this attack. Candace was merely carrying out his orders. But Val had to admit that she was somewhat relieved. Candace didn’t mention anything about her escapade yesterday. That’s not what this was about.
“I wrote in my report that the teeth were damaged and extremely fragile due to the fire. It would have been impossible to do my job without breaking them,” Val said, surprised at the accusation as Candace questioned her competence with the fire victim. “Dr. Blythe even complimented me on how well I wrote the report.”
“Yes. It is a well-written report. However, that doesn’t excuse the fact that you did break the teeth. We’ve overlooked some of your other errors and frankly, Dr. Blythe can’t do it anymore.”
Val looked into her eyes and saw Candace was enjoying every minute of this. Candace couldn’t have cared less why the teeth broke. What Val had feared for some time was becoming painfully obvious. Her days at the medical examiner’s office were numbered. It was only a matter of time before they fired her. Candace was now simply building the ammunition needed for a proper termination.
“What other errors?” Val asked.
“Since we have no written documentation of them, it would not be in the best interest of this office for me to discuss anything considered exploratory.”
“If I’ve done things wrong, I have the right to know what they are.” Val knew there were no such errors.
Candace gave a sympathetic look. “Yes, of course you do. That’s why we’re starting here. Everything else is just water under the bridge.” She pushed the paperwork across the desk towards Val. A pen lay on top and she pointed to a blank line at the bottom of the page. “I need your signature here to document that I’ve given you this written warning.”
Val picked up the pen and signed her name in large letters. “Is there anything else?” she asked as she got up from the desk.
“I just would be more careful if I were you. And, I do mean that in a constructive way,” Candace warned.
Val exited the office and walked down the corridor, not completely sure where she was going. Her mind couldn’t grasp a single thought. At first she was seething, she wanted to scream, “Screw it all!” and walk out. They were going to eventually fire her, she was sure of it. The next time she did anything even slightly wrong, she was going to be let go. The broken teeth were beyond her control. If they were going to fault her for that, then they were looking with a searchlight for any reason to get rid of her.
She knew that this wasn’t because of her involvement with Thomas and Jack. It couldn’t have been. She would have been terminated immediately for that. Dr. Blythe wouldn’t need to be going through this in such a roundabout way.
Without even realizing it, Val had circled around the building and was now standing in front of the door leading to the loading bay, where the dead were dropped off and picked up. Several hearses were parked and undertakers were busy wheeling bodies into the back of them. Suddenly her anger was replaced with a worse emotion, dread, and the reality of the situation hit hard. She was going to be unemployed again. No job. No money. No life.
No life. The thought caught her as she watched one mortician slam the back door of the hearse. She was so busy being mad that she hadn’t even thought about this additional problem. If Blythe was involved with the murders, if he found out what she was up to, that she was trying to prove he was guilty, he wouldn’t want to just fire her, he’d want to do much worse.
“Oh my God, what am I going to do?” Overwhelmed, she grew l
ight-headed and pain radiated through her chest. With knees buckling, she slid to the ground. The coolness of the concrete felt good to her sweating skin. Looking up at the fluorescent lights, she saw someone hovering over her and thought she heard her name being called.
“Val!”
Someone smacked her cheek not once but several times, the last swipe was hard. She stared at the person who was hitting her, and then blinked her eyes.
“Val! Are you okay?” Gwen yelled. “You scared the crap out of me. I was looking everywhere for you and I finally saw you standing here. And then I watched you fall to the floor!”
“I’m okay,” Val whispered.
“Are you sure? I think I should get some help.”
“No, please don’t.” Val put her hands to her eyes and started to cry.
“What’s wrong?”
Through the sobs, Val told her about her meeting and the realization she was going to be fired and possibly killed. “If he finds out I’ve been helping Jack and Thomas get evidence against him he’s going to kill me too. Just like he killed Julia. He’s guilty. I know he is. It explains all of this.”
“If he’s coming after you, he’s coming after me too. We have to stick together.”
The thought of death made Val want to unburden herself, clear her conscience from the lie she told. Though she wanted to tell Gwen how she was hired and come clean, she hesitated confessing that she’d never met Oliver Solaris. The words just wouldn’t come out. Gwen had been a good friend to her and the one thing she didn’t want to lose right now was that friendship.
“Gwen, what are we going to do?”
The two women sat on the floor, backs against the wall, knees bent. “We have no choice. We have to find out how he fits into all of this.”