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I reflected that it definitely was. After making a murmur of assent, I said, “But you don’t know anything specific about who might have considered Jeffrey an enemy?”
“Not really,” Sara replied. “I have to admit I wasn’t too surprised to hear that he’d been murdered, just because of the whole private-detective thing, but that’s about it.”
Maybe the information I needed was still locked up in his office, where I assumed he must have kept various client files. However, I doubted I’d be able to access any of it. Burglary really wasn’t my thing.
Unless….
“Did Jeffrey have any family, someone in the area who might have a key to his office?”
At once, Sara shook her head. “No, he was a transplant from somewhere in the Midwest. Iowa, I think. But you don’t need someone from his family to help you out with that. I’ve got a key.”
About all I could do was blink at her again. “You do?”
“Yes, he gave it to me a couple of months ago when he was going to be out of town for a while and he needed me to come in and feed the fish.”
Well, there was an unexpected stroke of luck. “He didn’t ask for the key back?”
“No. I asked him about it, but he said it was probably better for me to have it, since I was his only real emergency contact in the area.”
Although what I’d heard about Jeffrey Sellers so far definitely made it sound as if he hadn’t been the world’s nicest guy, I still couldn’t help experiencing a twinge of pity at hearing that revelation. Even though he’d apparently lived in the Phoenix area for years, he didn’t have anyone he could trust beyond his current dance partner, no family, no close friends.
“Would you mind if I borrowed the key for a bit? I’ll bring it back as soon as I’m done looking around his office,” I said then, knowing even as I spoke that it was an awfully big ask.
Sara hesitated. Although she didn’t quite bite her lip, I thought I saw her teeth catch on it for a second.
“He’s got confidential stuff in there,” she said, her tone reluctant in the extreme.
“I know,” I replied. “And I would never go poking around in it if I wasn’t trying to find something that could prove Victoria is innocent. I won’t share what I find with anyone…unless I turn up something that seems to show someone else had a motive for killing Jeffrey.”
A long, fraught moment passed. I had to force myself to sit there quietly, to wait until Sara had given herself the necessary time to wrestle with her conscience and decide whether to hand over the key.
Then she said quietly, “Give me a minute.”
She got up from her spot on the couch and headed toward the stairs. I could hear her moving around in one of the rooms on the second story, and the sound of a drawer shutting. The townhouse was very nice, but its walls were paper-thin compared to the thick adobe I was used to in the home I shared with Calvin.
Then she came back down to the living room and extended a plastic fob with a brass key hanging on it. Stamped on the fob was the legend, Sellers Investigations…Prompt, Thorough, and Discreet.
I didn’t know how discreet it was to announce your private investigation business on a key fob that you handed out to clients, but whatever. The important thing was that Sara was actually giving me the key to Jeffrey Sellers’ office.
“His office is in Mesa, on 2nd Avenue,” she said. “It’s about fifteen minutes from here.”
Perfect. Calvin and I could grab an early lunch to fortify ourselves, and then we could head over to Mesa to see what we could find.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” I told Sara. “Are you going anywhere today?”
Her mouth quirked. “No, Sunday is laundry day around here. I was just about to put a load in when you rang the doorbell.”
Even better. At least now I wouldn’t have to worry about making Sara hang around the house while Calvin and I got something to eat and then went to investigate Jeffrey Sellers’ office.
“Then I’ll be back with the key in no more than a couple of hours,” I promised.
“Sure,” she said, then added, “Could you feed the fish while you’re there? I took care of them yesterday, but….”
“Of course,” I said, again experiencing one of those sad little pangs. The fish could not understand that the person who’d faithfully fed them every day was now gone forever. I supposed Sara — or maybe Jeffrey’s family, since I assumed they’d need to fly in from Iowa at some point to handle the aftermath of his death — would have to find a new home for the fish and their tank, but for now, I was happy to take care of them.
Maybe that would make me feel a little less guilty about pawing through people’s private business in my hunt to find Jeffrey Sellers’ real killer.
I thanked Sara again for her help, then headed back out to the car, where Calvin had been sitting with the driver-side window rolled down so it wouldn’t be too obvious to anyone watching from the house. The day was definitely too warm for him to have sat there with zero airflow, and since he hadn’t known how long I was going to be inside Sara’s townhouse, keeping the Renegade’s engine running wouldn’t have been a very good idea.
