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Jack and I left the deputies downstairs to keep watch over the roommates, and we left CSI to do their thing so we could head upstairs to Cami’s apartment. We made it to the second landing and looked around.
“Kevin’s and Thea’s apartments,” Jack said.
There was a door on each side, but no common areas like downstairs.
“I wonder how everyone really gets along,” I said. “There’s tension. Between John and Thea because of the favoritism with Judge Mitchell. Maybe John and Kevin. He sounded a little resentful when he insinuated that Kevin got his clerkship because of his father’s position in Congress.”
“Yeah, not to mention John has slept with all three of the women in this house,” Jack said. “That would make things uncomfortable under normal circumstances.”
“The common denominator with the tension seems to be John,” I said.
“I noticed that,” Jack said. “Plus there’s Will’s drug problem, which probably makes things volatile.”
“And don’t forget Kevin is an alcoholic and Thea is needy,” I said.
“John was full of useful information on his roommates, wasn’t he?”
I handed Jack a pair of gloves and put on my own, and he tested the doorknob. It opened with a squeak of hinges and we went inside.
“Unlocked,” Jack said. “I wonder if that’s the norm.”
“Big space,” I said, looking around. “Tidy. Feminine.”
The room was more like an efficiency apartment. A corner of the room had a table and two chairs, a sink and a dorm refrigerator. The table was stacked with files and other papers, and there was a pair of reading glasses on top. There was a purse on the kitchen chair.
“Purse,” I said, moving over to it. “Toby said Cami had it with her when she left to go to the office.”
“Looks like she made it back,” Jack said. “Or maybe she never left at all.”
“No wallet or cell phone inside,” I said. “It’s empty. Maybe she was using a different purse.”
In the middle of the room was a small chintz sofa with a faded rose pattern and a coffee table. There was a TV mounted to the wall and a table beneath it with candles and pictures of smiling people in frames.
“None of these pictures have her roommates in them,” I said, picking up one of the frames.
“Interesting,” Jack said. “These kids have spent a lot of time together. College, law school, same workplace, and then they’re living together on top of it.”
“Maybe they’re sick of each other,” I said, putting down the picture. “I know I’d get tired of them.”
Jack snorted out a laugh. “Tell me how you really feel.”
I smiled cheekily. “I just did. I don’t like them at all. Even Toby had something about her that put me off, and she seemed to genuinely be upset over Cami’s death.”
“It’s because they’re attorneys,” Jack said. “You never like attorneys.”
“That’s because in our line of work attorneys tend to make our lives and jobs harder.”
“Yes, but in our other line of work that includes our properties and investments, our attorneys are quite likeable and have our best interest at heart.”
“Only because our best interest lines their pockets,” I said skeptically.
I ran my finger over the top of the sofa table and saw the dust on my fingers. On the far side of the room was a queen-size bed with a pale peach duvet and a lot of fussy pillows. The bed wasn’t made. There was a single nightstand with a lamp, and a door that led to a small bathroom. The floors were wood and scarred, but she’d scattered rugs over the worst of it.
“So we’ve got a twenty-four-year-old woman who’s got a prestigious job as a law clerk for a federal judge,” I said. “She’s got no vehicle, and this place screams of good taste but not a lot of money. She’s been dead too long for any contents to be in her stomach, so I can’t verify that Chinese food was her last meal. The roommate said Cami showered and changed clothes to go into the office, but we found her in sexy lingerie. And we don’t have the murder weapon or the location she was killed.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” Jack said, going through the trash. “No signs of Chinese food up here. Maybe they ate down in the kitchen. Only thing in the trash is coffee grounds and some tissues. We’ll let CSI go through that in case they can get DNA.”
“These candles are all guttered out,” I said, looking into the glass jars beneath the TV. “She either left them all burning when she left, or she came back home that night and changed into something sexy and lit candles. She could have been watching a Bridgerton marathon or she could have been expecting company.”
