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“Which may explain why she ran for it. She killed the guy.”
“But how would she even know he was back in town?” Decker wondered.
“Maybe she ran into him. Or saw him and followed him back to the Residence Inn. That’s possible.”
“It ispossible, but not probable.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
Decker led the way upstairs and into the woman’s bedroom. He went straight for the closet. It had been reconfigured and enlarged, he figured, because the house was old enough not to have originally had such a spacious closet. It was packed with clothes on hangers, sweaters and shoes on shelves, and purses and handbags on hooks. He stood in the middle of the space and looked around.
Mars said, “Harper has a closet about four times the size of this one. And it’s packed to the gills. Didn’t know one person could need all that stuff.”
“Society demands that women care more about their appearance than men.”
“Wow, that’s very enlightened of you.”
“It’s not me. My wife would always say that.”
“Well, looks like Susan Richards took that to heart.”
Decker noted several empty hangers, a space on a shelf where it looked like two pairs of shoes had been removed, and a hook without a corresponding bag.
He left the closet and went over to a chest of drawers. He went through each one. Then he walked into the bathroom and examined every inch of the space, including the bins under the sink.
He got up and opened the medicine cabinet and looked at the line of prescription bottles. He picked them up and examined each one in turn, holding one bottle for a beat longer before replacing it.
“Lady is on a lot of meds,” said Mars.
“Americais on a lot of meds,” replied Decker.
They walked back down to the first floor and Decker headed over to the fireplace mantel. He looked over each of the photos lined up there.
“Her family?” asked Mars.
Decker nodded. “Husband and two kids. In an ideal world Susan Richards might be a grandmother by now.”
Mars shook his head. “There’s nothing ideal about this world.”
Decker looked around the room, his eyes taking in everything and then processing it.
“What are you seeing, Decker?” asked Mars as he too stared around the space. “Is anything missing?’
“Not really. And that’s the problem, Melvin.”
