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“No. She wanted to but it didn’t pay enough, and the attorneys did most of the work. Not much need for her. She worked for a criminal defense firm. Then she fell in love with a client. Got fired. Found a job with a different defense attorney here and moved.”
“You weren’t worried that the client she fell in love with was a criminal?” asked Noah. “Since she worked for a criminal defense firm?”
Scarlett said, “She said he’d never been in any trouble. It was all just a big misunderstanding.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what all criminals say,” Noah said. “Particularly the guilty ones.”
Scarlett shrugged. “I figured, why would she tell me the truth about everything else and not that? Besides, if he’d done something really terrible, wouldn’t he be in prison?”
He would, Josie thought. Unless he had recently been exonerated and set free.
Josie said, “It sounds like the two of you were very close.”
Scarlett smiled, the skin at the corners of her eyes crinkling. “Oh, I’m just a little lonely living upstairs by myself, is all. I took care of Keri as much as I could when she first got here. Then she started her job. Lots and lots of long hours. I tried to leave her alone so she could get on with her life.”
“Do you know where she was yesterday or the day before? The last time she was here? What time she left?” asked Noah.
“No. I’m up to my ears in repainting my kitchen. Didn’t take any notice.”
Josie asked, “Would Keri have told you if she was having trouble with anyone?”
“Like who?”
Noah said, “Her boyfriend? Maybe things weren’t as great as she made them out to be?”
Scarlett shook her head. “Oh no. I hear a lot from upstairs. All those two ever did was laugh and do the…other thing. No fighting. Believe me, if she didn’t seem so damn happy, I would have said my piece about him being here all the time.”
Josie said, “How about anyone else? New friends? Coworkers? Did she ever say anything?”
“No, nothing. Not to me, anyway.”
“What about anyone hanging around lately? Lurking, maybe even watching the house?” Noah said.
“I haven’t noticed anyone, but I’ve got video footage upstairs I can show you. I never looked for anything like that but that doesn’t mean it’s not on there. I just have the cameras in case something goes missing or there’s a break-in. You’ll probably see the boyfriend on there, too.”
TWENTY-THREE
Scarlett’s video surveillance footage captured the front of the house as well as part of the street. It also went back two weeks. She made a copy for them so that they could take it back to the stationhouse. They went through it, watching Keri come and go from her apartment with regularity. Her boyfriend also came and went quite frequently, sometimes with her, sometimes without her. Either Keri had made him a secret key to her apartment, or she’d been in the habit of leaving the door unlocked for him. The moment Josie saw him, she was struck by how familiar he looked. He was older and leaner now. His hair was shorter, and he seemed to walk with a slight stoop, but his nose was still crooked. Josie was certain it was Mathias Tobin. She pulled up his latest driver’s license photo which was dated four months earlier. He must have gotten it updated after his release.
“That’s a match,” Noah said, looking from the driver’s license photo to a still he’d pulled of Keri’s boyfriend’s face. “We’re going to need to talk with him.”
“I’ll call Scarlett,” Josie said. “And ask her to call us immediately if he shows up there.”
“We should get the ERT over to her apartment and collect DNA just to confirm. I’ll call them.”
Josie said, “I’m also going to draw up a warrant to impound the Hadlees’ white sedan. Hummel can process it for any evidence of Keri Cryer.”
They worked through the night until dawn broke on Monday morning. By the time Gretchen showed up to relieve them, Josie’s eyes were burning. The Chief arrived seconds later. Josie and Noah briefed them on the developments so far, and that they were waiting for Dr. Feist’s colleague to finish the autopsy on Keri Cryer.
“Let me get this straight,” said the Chief. “We’ve got a second victim with the same brand as Dr. Feist’s husband inflicted on her ten years ago, and this second victim also has a connection to the accident case in Bly.”
“Yes,” said Josie. “This is a much stronger connection, though. A much more obvious connection.”
“Because all of Bly thinks that our second victim’s new boyfriend killed that girl? What’s her name again? Jana Melburn?”
“That’s it,” said Noah.
“This boyfriend,” the Chief said. “How’s he look for these murders?”
