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“Eventually,” Will said and placed the evidence bag inside his jacket pocket.
I checked to make sure that we were the only ones around before I asked him, “Did you find anything in Annisa’s closet?”
“No, it seems like whoever trashed the apartment and killed Annisa took everything inside her bedroom and the guest bedroom closets, so it’s hard to tell if her killing was related to Trevor’s death or if she was the target,” he answered forthrightly.
Before I could ask another question, I heard footsteps heading toward us. “Alright, I need everyone to clear the apartment,” a man’s voice called out to us.
I bit my lip in frustration and turned around to face a man with a medical examiner credential badge hanging around his neck. The ME was an older man with a goatee and round spectacles. He looked quizzically at Will, who was still on the counter.
“Everything okay?” the ME asked.
“Yes. The cat was stuck on top of the cabinet, so I went to rescue him,” Will replied smoothly.
The ME looked at Leo snuggled up in Julia’s arms, and he nodded. “Well, if that’s it, please go on out, and I’ll try to be as quick as possible.”
When we walked out of Annisa’s apartment, Julia handed Leo to Derrick. “We brought Leo’s cat food with us when we came yesterday. It should be in the cat carrier. You should be able to retrieve it when the ME says it’s okay to go back.”
“Don’t you worry, honey. We’ll be alright. Just find out what’s going on and who killed the poor, sweet girl!” Eric said as we waved goodbye to Annisa’s neighbors.
When we stepped outside, I grabbed Will’s arm and tugged on his blazer. He turned around in surprise and said, “What’s wrong, Claire?” He glanced down at my hand because I was still holding onto the fabric.
“Sorry,” I said and let go of him. “I was curious why you aren’t coming with us to Monterey.”
He nodded and said, “I didn’t find any evidence inside your friend’s apartment, but based on the stuff that was taken and the way the place was turned over, it looks like it might be gang-related.”
“What?” Julia cried out. Again, Will had dropped another bomb on us.
He shook his head and put up one hand to ward off the questions I was going to ask. “I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want to confirm anything, but I’m going back to the office to do some research. When you told me and Tristan that Annisa’s cousin might be a guy named Sung Chol, that name didn’t ring any bells. But later, when I was at work, it hit me that her cousin could be Choi Sung Chol, the leader of a local Korean gang in the Bay Area.” Will referred to Annisa’s cousin by his last name first and then his given name like the Koreans did.
“Look, you guys need to head down to Monterey, and I need to dig into some stuff at the office. I’ll let you know if I find anything,” Will said abruptly and jogged to where his car was parked on the other side of the street.
We stared after him with our mouths hanging open. “Oh my gosh! This is crazy,” I said, turning to face Julia and Tristan. Both of them nodded in agreement, but they were too stunned to say anything. Finally, after a few seconds, Tristan said, “We better head down before we get into more trouble.”
With glum expressions on our faces, we silently got into Tristan’s Tesla. As the city skyscrapers disappeared from view, I wondered if our lives were in any danger.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Where did you say Trevor’s dive shop was located?” Officer Frankel asked me.
We were sitting around a conference table with the officers from the San Francisco P.D. and the Monterey P.D. staring at us. We had already explained what we had found in Annisa’s apartment—apart from the rental agreement in Pacific Heights that Will found.
“It’s in Cannery Row near the aquarium.” I described the location and Officer Shin nodded with familiarity. However, Officer Frankel narrowed his eyes and looked at me suspiciously. “How did you find out this information?”
I gulped and fiddled with my watch. “Um, when Julia and I were in Trevor’s apartment, we found a lease agreement with the dive store address.”
“Hold on!” Officer Frankel held up a hand. “Back up. Why were you in the victim’s apartment, and how did you get in?”
“Sully gave us a key,” I said lamely. I knew this was going to open up the floodgate for more questions, and sure enough, Officer Frankel started with the most obvious one.
“Why did Mr. Sullivan give you a key to go into his employee’s apartment?”
“We told him that Trevor was holding onto some of Annisa’s things, and he agreed to give us the key if we went to check on Trevor’s cat.”
Officer Frankel raised his eyebrows at our flimsy excuse and asked, “Was he holding onto anything that belonged to Miss Choi?”
“Not that we could tell. I didn’t find anything surprising other than the lease and Leo.”
“Leo?” Officer Frankel asked and looked at me quizzically.
