AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Amanda turned to Blair and Donnelly. “Still no signs of forced entry?”
Blair shook her head. “None.”
“She let them in, but didn’t trust them. We assume that because she hid her phone. Then at some point—between ten and midnight—she wanted them to leave,” Amanda said.
“After he’d been there for several hours,” Trent interjected.
“Right…” It was one of those times Amanda wished she had the power to see things. It was hard enough trying to reconcile the timing. Felicity had called Amanda less than thirty minutes before the delivery driver failed to rouse a response. That suggested the killer had turned up within that time span. The call and her mystery visitor could have been a coincidence, but Amanda felt they were linked. If so, then wouldn’t Felicity have been fearful for her safety? But she never said that much in her message to Amanda. She even sounded calm. And if she were scared, why order a pizza like it was any ordinary night? Why hadn’t she called 911? Why let the man into her house if she viewed him as a threat? Then again, maybe she hadn’t. Luis Navarro had a key to her house, which he’d claimed to have returned. Even if he had, it was possible he had copies made before turning one over to Felicity.
And around I go…
“Someone appears deep in thought,” Donnelly said, breaking Amanda’s concentration.
“I was just thinking the killer may have let himself in,” Amanda said, glancing at Trent.
“Luis Navarro,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Even still, we know that she was expecting pizza delivery. She could have easily opened her door thinking her dinner had arrived, only to be faced with her would-be killer instead. They could have talked themselves inside or coerced her into letting them in. Either way, the killer seems to have covered their tracks quite well.”
“Speaking of…” Amanda recalled the shoe prints. “You said a men’s running shoe, size ten?” They’d need to check if Luis Navarro was a match.
“That’s right. And we found more while you were gone. There are several in the kitchen and dining room,” Blair said. “Honestly, it looks like they went back and forth between the dining room and living room.”
“They have to belong to our killer then.” Her mind’s eye could play this part out clearly. The killer grabbed a tote, hauled it to the fireplace, burned the paperwork, took it back. Then repeated the process. So much work, but for what purpose? If it was about setting the scene, why was that so important to the killer? And while he was making all those trips, where was Felicity?
TWELVE
Amanda played over how the sequence of events must have worked. In her mind’s eye, the table and rug were in place when Felicity’s unwanted visitor showed up. Presumably a struggle had taken place, during which Felicity was injured and dragged along the floor. Was it more than an injury though? Was this her true cause of death? “Is there enough blood to suggest she died in the original location?”
“There is a lot of blood, but it’s hard to say,” Blair said.
Amanda would follow up with Rideout at the autopsy on this. “We’d like to look at Felicity’s phone.”
“Have at it.” Blair gestured toward the other evidence bag near the investigators’ collection kits.
Amanda gloved up and pulled the phone out of its plastic sleeve. She traced the pattern given to them by Luis Navarro and was pleased when the screen came to life.
It was full of apps including the usual social media ones, the weather network, photo gallery, and email. As she sideswiped, there were several screens full of icons. She returned to the home page and opened the email. Two hundred unread messages, with many more grayed out from being read. A trip to her Recycle Bin showed over five thousand. The settings showed one email account, but the lack of organization fit the Felicity that Amanda had met. She showed all the bulging folders to Trent. “This is going to take far longer to work through than I’d anticipated.”
“Did you honestly think you’d find a prime suspect immediately?” he asked, a smile toying on his lips.
“Too much to expect, I know.” Though she wouldn’t have turned up her nose at just one shining beacon to spotlight a nutjob. “We’re going to take this with us, if that’s all right.” She held up the phone to the CSIs.
“You’ll just need to sign for it,” Blair said. “To protect the chain of custody.”
“You got it.” She signed off and dropped the phone back into the bag and was zipping it up when Officer Cooper came inside the house, calling out ahead of himself.
“Detectives, I thought I saw you drive by,” Cooper said. “Officers have just finished talking with neighbors on the street.”
Life had taught her hope was for the foolish, yet here she was… hoping. “Tell us you have something.”
“Not a lot, I’m afraid. From talking with my fellow officers, no one saw anyone here last night, aside from the pizza guy. One person told us that much.”
Which gets us nowhere… Amanda was thinking it might not be a bad idea to have officers revisit the homes and ask if the same applied to the wee hours that morning. It would have taken hours if the killer burned all the paperwork, possibly stretching well beyond midnight. But the likelihood was slim as most people would be in bed.
“Wait. You said not a lot.” Trent angled his head. “Then you have something?”
