AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No match to his prints?”
“Prints haven’t been run yet, he’s still being processed.” He laughed. “Another humanistic term from the world of law enforcement. So what else did you learn about Ms. Cordi on the Web?”
“She was a skillful self-promoter and seems to have avoided any other fraudulent claims.”
“If what the neighbor saw means shewasseeing clients at home, I haven’t found any evidence of it. No patient files in the house and no office listing.”
I said, “No files in the house doesn’t mean anything. Licensed practitioners have to maintain records but there are no rules governing what she did.”
“The wages of sin. Didn’t think of that. However she was making money, there was plenty of it, Alex. Six hundred thou in an investment account at Morgan Stanley plus eighty in a checking account.”
“That could be from ad royalties. She’s got twenty-five videos running online and they’re all sponsored.”
“By who?”
I told him.
He said, “New-agey hip stuff plus old-school insurance.”
“Old school could mean deeper pockets,” I said. “Going corporate could’ve been her long-term goal.”
He said, “Any weird comments on the videos?”
“The only posts are the endorsements she’s got on her website. Verbatim.”
“Controlling the info flow. Ms. Enterprising. How long do the videos run?”
“One to three minutes.”
“You think ads on something that brief could bring in serious bucks?”
“People log on to see cats with Hitler mustaches.”
“Good point. So I’ve got the possibility of a sketchy private practice full of clients I can’t identify and/or a bunch of profitable cyber-jabber. There’s a disconnected feel to this woman, Alex. Including no family relationships I can find. There was one listing on her phone for Maternal Entity, which doesn’t sound too warm and cuddly. Comes back to an inoperative number.”
“What are the rest of her contacts?”
“Business,” he said. “Not shrink stuff, the basics. Landlord, plumber, electrician, Pavilions, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, bunch of food delivery services, dry cleaner. One thing stood out: not a single restaurant. And there was plenty of food in the pantry and the fridge, so looks like she was a stay-at-home type. But you’d think just from a P.R. perspective she’d want to circulate, like back when she was hanging with showbiz types.”
I said, “That could be the reason she opted for solitude.”
“Been-there-done-that.”
“And with that much income flow, why bother? Anything else on the phone?”
“Nah, just health stuff. Physical, not mental. Dentist, gynecologist, optometrist, so maybe I can learn something from one of them. In terms of the eye doctor, I found contact lenses in a container in her nightstand drawer and a pair of glasses on top. Big black frames.”
“She wears those on her videos. I wasn’t sure they were real.”
“Putting on the scholarly image? Well, these were definitely real. Strong from what I could tell. You see where I’m going?”
I said, “Poor vision could’ve added to her vulnerability.”
“Exactly.”
“How deep were those defense wounds?”
He said, “Pretty shallow, as a matter of fact. Why?”
