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“Trevor’s cat.” I explained how Julia and I found Leo.
“Wasn’t he the cat that was in Annisa Choi’s apartment?” Officer Vega asked.
“Yes, when we brought him with us to San Francisco, Annisa didn’t want to be alone, so she took him with her,” I said. “We still have the key if you want to look inside Trevor’s apartment for yourselves.”
I hoped to get in the police officer’s good graces by volunteering that we still had the key, but it didn’t work. Instead, he asked incredulously, “Didn’t you give it back?”
“We had planned to, but when we went back to Sully’s shop, he had closed down early,” I said, giving him an apologetic shrug.
Officer Frankel gave me a disapproving look. I wasn’t sure if it was because I held onto Trevor’s key or because he thought I was meddling. He motioned to the other officers to step outside.
“Wait here while we talk,” he ordered.
When the officers stepped outside and closed the door, I said, “I’m calling Aiden. I hope we don’t need it, but it might be helpful to have Aiden’s legal expertise here.”
“Good thinking. I didn’t like the way Officer Frankel looked at you when you told him that you still had the key,” Julia said.
I took out my phone and pressed his number.
Aiden answered the call and said, “Hi, Claire, how are you doing?”
His reassuring voice settled some of my uneasiness, so I automatically answered, “I’m okay.” But I knew I wasn’t. Finding Annisa’s dead body was still etched in my memory, and I couldn’t push aside the information that her murder could have been gang-related.
I took a deep breath and said, “I’m with Julia and Tristan at the Monterey Police Station.”
“Why are you back in Monterey?”
“Oh goodness!” I cried out. I forgot that he didn’t know about Annisa. I explained how we came to be at the police department and how we found Annisa murdered in her apartment.
“This is crazy! I can’t believe Annisa’s dead,” Aiden said, echoing my earlier sentiment.
“I can’t either,” I said softly.
Aiden was silent for a few moments, but when he got back on, he sounded professional. “What did the police tell you to do?”
“They told us to wait while they confer.”
“Hmm.. if I leave the office now, I can be down in an hour and a half,” Aiden mused aloud.
“What should we do while you get here?” I asked.
“Tell them your attorney is coming, and you can’t talk without me there,” Aiden said quickly.
“Aiden?” I said his name hesitantly, not wanting to give him more bad news.
“Yes?” he answered distractedly.
“I should tell you that we found a lease agreement that Annisa was hiding on top of her kitchen cabinet,” I said, explaining our discovery.
“Who’s we?” he asked.
“Actually, it was Will who found it when he climbed up to get Leo, who was stuck on top of the cabinet,” I said in clarification.
“What? Why was the cat on top of the cabinet?” he asked, sounding confused by Will and Leo’s involvement in the story, but he must have realized that the information wasn’t important and said, “Never mind. Did you tell the police this information?” I heard the cautious tone in his voice.
“No, Will motioned for us not to when we were still at Annisa’s apartment,” I said, hoping that we weren’t going to get into trouble for not telling the police what we had found.
I heard Aiden let out a deep sigh. “Do you have Will’s number? I’ll call him on the way down.”
