Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) (6 page)

             
“She wouldn’t dare.” Leeroy absently commented.

             
“I don’t know, Keegan can be pretty dastardly if she wanted, just saying.” Melinda cracked a grin. Her computer let out a beep indicating she had received an e-mail. “Doc Biggerson finished Cody’s autopsy and she’s going to start on Alice’s after lunch. She said and I quote, ‘If Keegan wants the damn reports so badly she damn well knows where to find me and she can damn well march her ass over to get them’. Also we, not just Keegan, are invited to sit in on Alice’s autopsy if we feel so inclined.”

             
“Until then we’re working Alice’s angle. There’s not much time before the autopsy to check in on Mason Mills. I want to have plenty of time to get to know him. So let’s see if we can come up with anything good with her. Who wants to ride along with me to Misery Real Estate?” Keegan picked up her bag and her keys. Gary was already throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder and heading towards the stairs. “You two, keep working on Cody Barr’s prior mishaps with Mason. Leeroy check out those other wolves see if they have any pops on their records especially any assaults or anything that can be linked to a hate crime. Melinda if you could stay on your end of things, keep digging on issues that might cause something this drastic to happen that would be great.”

             
“Not a problem boss.” Melinda saluted Keegan as she focused back on the monitor in front of her.

             
“We need to speak with their parents at some point. They’ve been notified but I doubt they’ve been spoken to in length.” Keegan added as a parting shot as she headed up the stairs and to the main lobby of the precinct. “Melinda check with detectives Cassidy and Hollis to see if they’ve already taken care of that and if not we need to get on that.”

             
“Adding it to the list.” Melinda shooed Keegan and Gary out of the office not needing anymore tasks added to her list. “Stop being lazy boss. Go and get some work done.”

             
“Does it feel like we’re about to step into a horror movie if we open the gate?” Gary asked in a mock-terrified whisper. “Should I leave my last will and testament beneath the windshield wipers of your car just in case?”

             
Keegan playfully shoved his shoulder, “Ignore the scary roses and the morbid looking office. We’ve got work to do.”

             
“But I don’t want to,” Gary protested even though he was already opening the gate and motioning Keegan through. “I still have so much life to live.”

             
All joking was set aside as they tromped up the stairs and let themselves into the building. A man busy chattering on the phone and typing furiously at his computer held up a finger signaling for them to wait just a moment. Keegan shared a look with Gary as if to ask
“Is this guy serious?”
She pulled her badge from her belt and set it directly on his keyboard. That got his attention.

             
He looked at the badge and then to her before he spoke into his headset, “Mrs. Davis? I’m going to have to get back to you in a little bit. Yes, I’m sorry about this. It’ll only be a few minutes and I’ll call you right back. Uh huh, I promise, good-bye dear.”

             
He picked up her badge with two fingers and his face morphed into disgust. Keegan frowned at his lack of manners, “How can I help you detective?”

             
“We were hoping to speak with the people who worked closest with Alice Barr.”  Keegan snatched her badge back clicked it back into place on her lanyard.

             
“What does Alice’s death have to do with the SIU? Did one of those monsters kill her?”

             
“Excuse me.” Gary ducked his head to look at the name tag sitting on the breast pocket of the black shirt. “Mr. Bryant, it appears Alice kept her private life, private. So unless you have anything to offer us in light of her death there really isn’t a need to explain what the SIU is doing investigating her death. So do you have any information regarding the deceased or is there someone else we can speak with?”

             
The receptionist’s mouth dropped open in outrage before he picked up his phone and stabbed a number in. “Michelle? There are some,” he paused before sarcastically continuing, “detectives here asking about Alice. All right I’ll send them back.”

             
He looked back at Gary. “The office marked Clarke is where you can head to. Straight down that hallway.”

             
“Thank you so much for you cooperation Mr. Bryant.” Gary let his eyes flash a deep red and grinned to himself at the squeak he got in turn as they headed down the hallway.

Kee
gan swatted him upside the head. “Just because he’s a bigoted jerk doesn’t mean you can pull that crap.”

“The little shit deserved it” Gary shot back.
“People like that are apparently the reason why Alice Barr hid who she was married to and what her life was like. I bet Michelle Clarke doesn’t even know who she had working for her.”

A polite cough broke into their arguing. They looked up to see a woman
dressed in a polite black pant suit gesturing for them to make themselves comfortable in her office. As soon as she shut the door she began speaking to them. “I was the only one at the office who knew about Alice being part of the supernatural community and that she was married to a human. It wasn’t something she advertised because of people like Craig out there. What is it that I can help you with?”

“Did Alice have any problems that you know of with anyone here? That maybe knew
her marriage situation and they might not be too happy with it?” Both Keegan and Gary had their notebooks out and pens poised and ready to go.

“Alice was well respected in the office. Even Craig was kind to her despite his misgivings about
the supernatural kind. Alice, she just had a way with people. She was empathetic and understood how to find a home to meet a family’s needs, not matter how demanding they were. In the five years she has worked with Misery Real Estate I have yet to receive any kind of complaint or heard anyone speaking ill of her.”

Gary placed the end of
his pen to his lips in thought. “I know this is going to sound a bit bad but did she handle a lot of Supernatural clients or did she have a mix?”

“We don’t really ask if you’re a Supernatural or not
detective. Sometimes other offices would pass on the difficult clients to her and she would manage just fine with them. But we do work a lot off of customer recommendations and with some of our clients you could tell that they were more than human. Alice made them more comfortable and in the end that’s all that really mattered.”

“Did Alice talk to you about her home life?” Keegan pulled them out of the world of real estate seeing that line of questioning going nowhere fast. “Did she mention an
yone giving her or Cody trouble of any sort?”

Michelle began tapping her fingers against the top of her desk, almost as if the motion helped her think. Just as fast as the tapping started, it stopped. “She came in a bit upset a few days ago. I asked her what happened or if she needed to talk but she just shook it off and said she didn’t have the time to sit around and gab. She had houses to show.”

“Do you remember when that was?” Keegan asked.

“It was last Monday.
” Michelle flipped through her day planner. “So the fifth. The Friday before she looked a bit stressed also but Monday, it looked like the stress had gotten worse.”

“Thank you.
” Keegan reached across the desk to shake the broker’s hand. “I appreciate you’re cooperation. If you think of anything else don’t hesitate to give us a call.”

She took the proffere
d card and gave them a sad smile. “Alice was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. She didn’t deserve to die like the papers were saying. None of her family did.”

“No m
a’am she didn’t deserve that.” Gary repeated Keegan’s gesture and shook her hand. “That’s why we’re here, to give her some justice.”

They didn’t speak to each other until they were both buckled into Keegan’s car and driving away from the buil
ding. Gary let out a heavy sigh. “It’s great to know that she worked in an office where half her coworkers were bigoted assholes and the other half seemed okay with her living her life however she pleased. But where does that get us?”

“Not
the entire world is as nice as we are Gary.” Keegan reached across the car and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezing before settling back on the steering wheel. “Even if we didn’t get much here we’ve got Doc Biggerson’s autopsy to head to. You want to go with or would you rather stay behind and get some more leg work done?”

“Give
me legwork for two hundred Alex,” Garry grinned at Keegan. “I don’t do too well with corpses. The smell, you think it’s bad for humans but for me? Gag me with a spoon.”

“
You and Melinda can’t go anywhere near Dr. Biggerson without grimacing.” Keegan shook her head. “One of these days you’re going to have to suck it up.”

Gary smirked, “But not today.”

When Keegan made it to the morgue Detective Hollis was already there with his arms folded against his chest and watching Dr. Biggerson document the wounds on Alice’s body. She set the elbowed ruler against the claw marks and photographed them.

The lithe blonde looked up over her goggles with piercing gr
ay eyes. “So nice of you to pencil us in to your business schedule Detective Morne.”

“
Well I had to be here anyways to pick up the results of Cody’s autopsy, so I figured that I might as well be here for Alice’s.” Keegan shrugged before she pulled a stool out from beneath a counter and perched on top of it.

Keegan kept her eyes focused on the progress that the doctor made. She ignored the presence of Detective Hollis. She
would rather not know if he had actually done what he threatened to do. If he found out she was a necromancer and spread it around the precinct there would be hell to pay.

When a particularly nasty looking bite mark to the throat was being documented, Keegan stood up and hovered over Dr. Biggerson’s shoulder to get a better look. She leaned closer and stared the flesh. It looked like a
shifter’s teeth.

“I’m so glad you are comfortable enough with me to
be pressed against my shoulder Keegan but you’re blocking my light.” Dr. Biggerson grinned over her shoulder at Keegan. “Is there anything you would like me to do?”

“Can you make a
cast of this,” Keegan pointed to where the punctures from the teeth were most prominent. “Half of this wound is undecipherable but the top most spot, you can probably get the canines and we can determine what type of supernatural did this and possibly get a match later on.”

“That’s going to take some time, isn’t it?” Hollis looked down at his watch and up at back up to Sarah.

“Yes detective,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “It will take a few minutes to do this. Are you in a rush?”

“I’ve got people I can be interviewing when I can come back later and get the results.” He kicked off the
counter he was leaning against. “I’ll see you later doc.”

“You might want to check in on Craig Bryant, the receptionist at Misery Real Estate – he isn’t the most receptive towards the SIU and maybe one of your guys can get more information out of him.”

“You might want to check out their alpha, you know if that hadn’t crossed your mind yet.” Hollis threw over his shoulder. Keegan let the comment slide not wanting to create anymore tension between the two of them.

Sarah set the
casting mold down on the counter behind her and went back to documenting the wounds and writing down her findings on the metal clipboard she had setting near the head of the table. “You want to explain what that was about?”

“
He asked me what I am and I don’t think he enjoyed visiting Diyo’s.” Keegan explained as she pulled her stool closer.

“Uh huh, and that would get my feathers all in a
ruffle,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “It isn’t any of his damn business what you are or what you aren’t. It isn’t like someone tried to molest him in the club, did they?”

“Diyo
teased him but I was not going to leave him all to himself in a bar full of supernaturals itching to get a piece of him.” Keegan groaned. “It was bad enough being sent to work with the mundane squad on a case but now? It’s even worse since he got a glimpse into our world.”

“Your world,
” Sarah brandished a scalpel at Keegan. “I’m as human as they come.”

“If I didn’t know any better by the stories you tell I’d think you were a
succubus.”