“She never said he hit her. He had a nasty temper sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he abused her. Now that I think about it, Charlotte dressed conservatively though. I suppose it’s possible if she was being abused that she hid it from everyone.”
“What about the other women, did she ever talk about them?” I said.
She shook her head.
“The ME found no sign of abuse on her body. No bruises, scars, or anything to suggest he abused her. The only injuries she had were the ones she sustained in the accident.”
Audrey glanced at the clock on Charlotte’s wall and then reached for her handbag.
“I’m sorry, I need to run. Vicki left some items at the office for me––Charlotte’s effects and other things from her desk she thought I might want, but stay as long as you need to and do whatever you need to do.”
“And if you get the urge to confront Parker, call me first, okay?” I said.
“I can’t guarantee to stay away from Parker forever, but for now you have my word.”
She reached into her bag and took out a pack of cigarettes.
“Just nail that son of a bitch before I change my mind.”
CHAPTER 23
Charlotte’s condo presented itself as clean, but not meticulously so. In the kitchen a glass rested on the counter that was half filled with water. I found another in the living room. Her walls were painted dark red and replicas of Picasso paintings adorned them. A pair of heeled shoes lounged on the floor in front of the sofa. One had tipped over and was on its side. Everywhere I looked I saw signs of life that someone once inhabited the space. Her apartment was like a piece of history frozen in time. A part of me felt like a trespasser and that at any moment Charlotte would turn the key and step inside and wonder who I was and what I was doing there.
In the bathroom a soap dish displayed the words SOAP in giant black letters across the front of the dish. It matched the wastebasket which had TRASH etched on it. It seemed absurd to me that a person would decorate in such a way. I wondered what I would find next––a tooth cleaner with the word TOOTHBRUSH written on it?
There were two bedrooms in Charlotte’s condo. One to the left and one to the right of the bathroom. In one room I observed a desk, I started there.
Charlotte’s home office had an ornate brown desk that sat majestically in the middle of the room. It reminded me of a piece of furniture Henry VIII might have used in his day. The top contained a single item, a laptop computer. It was closed.
In the corner of the room stood a tall bookcase with three shelves. The first and third shelf contained books, most of them real estate related. The middle shelf posed as a shrine to her achievements in the form of crystal-like objects. Each contained words like, Presidents Club 2009, Realtor of the Year 2010, and the like.
I switched my focus to the laptop and therein found my first impediment––I didn’t know the password. I hoped a quick call to Audrey would give me the answer I needed.
“Try Charlie,” she said.
“Charlie?”
“It was a nickname my dad gave her as a kid.”
It worked.
I started with her internet files, the majority of which were left unread. The inbox showed over six hundred of them, most related to real estate in one form or another. PRICE REDUCED ON GORGEOUS ALPINE HOME proved the favorite with a grand total of eleven emails that all said the same thing.
Sheesh.
I sifted through her inbox and ran a search on the name Parker. It turned up nothing. On the days that led up to the murder most of the emails in her sent folder contained responses to real estate questions and follow-up with clients. I also found a monthly meeting she had with the real estate board and a couple of random emails to friends, but nothing out of the ordinary.
The top drawer of the desk contained the usual; a stapler, paperclips, pens, sticky notes, a box of thank you cards, and markers. I tugged on the second drawer, but I couldn’t get it to open. I tried a little harder, it wouldn’t budge. And that’s when I noticed it, a sunken in hole on the side of the desk about the size of a dime, just big enough for a tiny key to fit through. I tried to put myself in Charlotte’s place––if I needed to hide a key, where would I hide it? I felt along the ridges of all the doors but it wasn’t there. I looked through drawers and jewelry boxes, pill boxes and cups, all to no avail. Maybe it wasn’t in the condo at all. On the other hand, if she accessed the drawer often enough the key would need to be somewhere convenient which meant one thing––I needed to look again.
I returned to the desk and opened the top drawer once more. I pulled out the box of thank you cards and shook it. It rattled. I opened the box, but I didn’t see a key. I dug through the cards and the envelopes, and there at the bottom was a shiny silver piece of metal which fit into the hole and when I turned it, the drawer popped open. Inside were two items; a notebook of some kind and a single file folder. I flipped open the notebook and there on the first page scrawled on a post-it note were three names:
DANIELA LUCIANA
ZOEY KENDRICK
KRISTIN ???
Charlotte had known about Parker’s other women, but for how long?
On the opposite side of the page was a paperclip with a business card attached. It read, Marc Benjamin, PI, and beneath the card was a small stack of photos. In one Parker was engaged in a kiss with Daniela. Another was of Zoey and had been taken through a sheer window. From the waist up, she didn’t have a stitch of clothes on and she flaunted her naughty bits for the entire world to see. A third photo showed Parker in a tight embrace with a brunette. Kristin maybe?
I pulled out the second item in the desk, a file folder. It included an agglomeration of real estate transactions for the past year all arranged in chronological order. Nothing unusual about that. I glanced up at the wall clock in the hall. Maddie would arrive any moment now. Chief Sheppard expected us in fifteen minutes. I shut Charlotte’s computer down and grabbed the contents of the locked drawer.
Once I turned off all the lights inside the house I stepped outside. Charlotte’s porch light was out so I relied on the soft glow of the moon to lock the door. There was a faint aroma in the air that reminded me of sugar cookies and I figured one of the neighbors must be baking.
A wave of hot and then cold air brushed across my neck. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a large crystal-like object hurdling toward me. I ducked, but not in time. My head burned and something wet and runny slid down my neck. I touched it. Blood! And then my legs caved in beneath me and everything went black.
CHAPTER 24
I woke in a field overflowing with white daisies. The sun blazed down and its warmth coalesced on my skin. I felt a sensation in my toe like something was pricking it over and over again with a needle and when I opened my eyes a dainty red and blue butterfly was perched there.
I sat up and looked around. The place was unfamiliar to me and yet I was at peace, more so than I had ever been in my entire life. My body was weightless, as light as air, and I closed my eyes for a time and soaked it all in.
The butterfly spread its wings and fluttered away.
A voice called out to me, but I couldn’t make it out. It was soft and melodious, like the rhythm of a song and the more I listened, one word became clear––my name. I took my hand and shielded my face from the sun and tried to see through the lambent light. When I did I beheld my sister clothed in a summery white dress. She was far away, but I recognized her diminutive frame. I stood up and the stems of the flowers brushed along my feet as I ran toward her.