“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know who it would be—the usual suspects in my life are good people. Plus, there has to be a connection to your cold case, let alone this weird P.T. Barnum stuff going on.”
“Seb—”
“What’s the story behind Meredith?” I continued, popping open my beer and looking up at Calvin while taking a sip.
He stared. “I’d rather not discuss it now.”
“Why?”
“We’re eating.”
“I can handle it.”
Calvin shook his head. “I don’t want to bring this kind of negativity home. Not to you.”
“That’s kind of you, but I’m sort of involved at this point.”
“You don’t know how to take a hint, do you?” Calvin asked, but he had a funny little smile on his face. Not entirely amused, but not wholly annoyed either.
“If I did, I wouldn’t have gotten you,” I tried, wiggling my eyebrows. “Come on, Detective. Humor me.”
Calvin leaned against the counter and took a big bite of his dinner.
I pulled up a nearby barstool and sat, waiting with as much patience as someone like me has, watching Calvin inhale his food, per usual.
“Meredith’s daughter was found dead in her bedroom by her boyfriend, who called 911. The girl’s bag had been packed and the boyfriend said she was planning to move out after too many fights with her mother. The girl’s skull had been broken in several places—medical examiner ruled the weapon was likely a hammer.”
“Let me guess. No hammer was found?”
Calvin nodded. “Meredith owned a complete and well-used toolkit, with the hammer missing. She claimed to not know where it had vanished.”
“What about her alibi?”
“She had been working. Her boss agreed.”
“Why was it not believed?”
“Because no one remembered seeing her the night of the murder,” Calvin said. “The bouncer said she never worked Tuesdays. The other dancers were shady, to say the least.”
“Afraid to speak up?”
“Likely.”
“Was there any surveillance pulled from the club?”
Calvin shook his head. “It was a shithole. No recording and backing up to drives or online storage. And the physical tape, the boss recorded over.”
“Convenient.”
“Yeah.”
“Did the investigation end there?”
Calvin nodded again. “No one would come forward, we couldn’t find the murder weapon, and the only DNA we found was mishandled by a rookie with CSU who forgot how to do their job.” He popped the last piece of food in his mouth and turned to set the plate in the sink. “Anyway,” he said around chewing. “The crime got a lot of press until the Harrison case.” He turned to me. “Do you remember that?”
“That was the nutcase who murdered his family in their penthouse apartment and tossed the bodies off the balcony. I guess people would stop caring about a poor, nobody girl after that.”
“New York,” Calvin muttered, shaking his head.
