Gene didn’t think this man was going to be helpful, and the last thing he wanted was to give too much information away.
“You’re free to go, Harry. Have fun,” he said, ending it.
The man hustled away, going after the couple who had gone into the one house.
“What did you find?” Gene asked.
Ethan knew what he wanted.
“Harold James Mulberry, age twenty-three, has lived in Damascus his whole life. His mother is a retired teacher, and his father works as a pipefitter at the local union. He has no dings to his record and looks to be a pretty popular real estate agent.”
Dannie clued them in.
“He has a billboard on a building in town. It’s on the side of one of the buildings. He also has an annoying TV commercialcalling himself the real estate agent with the‘mostest’. His word, not mine.”
Gene was curious.
“Any arrests?”
He shook his head.
“Nope. He’s clean. Not even a parking ticket on his record,” he offered. “I’ll check out his social media as we drive to the next place,” Ethan offered.
Gene was good with that.
“Let’s check this place out,” he said.
They headed onto her lawn, and Gene noticed that there was no car in the driveway, but that was likely because the cops had taken it in for fingerprints.
Opening the screen door, he saw that the front door was sealed off with police tape.
Well, that explained how the real estate agent didn’t realize there had been a crime. Gene liked when everything was wrapped up with bright yellow crime scene tape.
That made a statement.
“Get us in, Detective,” he said.
Using a code on the security box that the local police installed, he unlocked it as Gene sliced through the police tape.
Inside, they moved around, and there were a few notable things that Gene couldn’t help but pick up.
First, it was spotless.
If she was taken from here, as opposed to outside when she got out of her car, the killer didn’t wreck the place doing it.
“Well, I was expecting some overturned furniture,” Ethan said. “A ruckus. Anything. Someone was a neat freak.”
Funny.
Gene had been expecting that too.
That showed they were both on the same page when it came to this one, and also that Ivey hadn’t put up a fight.
“We are assuming she was taken here,” Dannie admitted. “Her car was locked, and her purse was found there,” he said, pointing to the counter.
Gene was taking it all in.
“She either knew her assailant, or she was surprised,” he offered. “Because there wasn’t a fight, and if I was being taken, I’d put up one hell of a fight,” he admitted.
