The Killings (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 1) (7 page)

“I don’t know, Liv,” Melissa said. “Who knows who it was?”

“It could be harmless,” Olivia said. “Maybe he’s a reporter. Or maybe he’s a guy worried about his safety and wanted to ask me about what I saw that night. Or it could have nothing to do with the murders at all.”

“Well, that isn’t comforting. Someone else could be following you?” Melissa said. “God.”

“It’s possible that it was just someone looking for information. Then decided not to approach me,” Olivia said.

Melissa made a disbelieving face, but said, “I hope so. I hope that’s what it was.”

Olivia turned to Kayla and asked, “Do you have any idea who would want to hurt Christian? Did he seem worried about anything? Had he ever been threatened?”

“He never told me anything like that,” Kayla said.

“Never mentioned a fight with someone?” Olivia asked. “Or some trouble that his roommates were having with anybody? What about Gary? Did Christian ever say that Gary was having trouble with someone?”

“No. Nothing,” Kayla said. “Nothing like that came up. He wasn’t worried about anything. At least, he never told me that he was.”

A thought popped into Olivia’s head. She hesitated, but then asked, “Were you and Christian together?”

A slight blush tinged Kayla’s cheeks. “We hooked up a couple of times. It was casual.”

“Can you think of anything else that might help? Anything that could point to someone who might’ve done this?”

Kayla shook her head. “I just wanted you to know that I wasn’t the killer. And, that you had a shadow following you around.”

Olivia nodded. “Thanks.”

“I guess I’ll take off then.” Kayla rose from the sofa.

“Do you live around here?” Olivia asked.

“In Cambridge.”

“Where do you work in Kendall? In case something comes up,” Olivia said.

“Cream and Roses Café. It’s right on Mass Ave.”

“Let us know if you think of anything?” Olivia asked.

“Sure.” Kayla started to move to the door as Olivia and Melissa stood up.

“Oh.” Olivia bent towards the coffee table. “This is yours.” She held the ski mask out to Kayla.

Kayla looked at the mask like she wanted nothing to do with it. “Where did you find that?”

“Right where you put it,” Melissa growled.

Kayla looked blank. “I didn’t put it anywhere. I ripped it off when I ran from Christian’s apartment.”

“Did you hang it from our door knob?” Olivia asked.

“What? No.” Kayla looked from Melissa to Olivia like they were crazy. “I threw it on the street.”

“You haven’t had it since the night of the murders?” Olivia asked.

Kayla shook her head. “No. I threw it down when I left Christian’s apartment building.”

“Where did you throw it?”

“I pulled it off after I ran from the apartment. I threw it as I ran. Maybe a few houses away from Christian’s.”

“Well who the heck put it on our doorknob then?” Melissa asked.

“How would I know? I don’t want it.” Kayla pushed it back to Olivia. “Throw it away. I don’t ever want to see it again.”

“That makes two of us,” Melissa said.

They walked Kayla to the door and Melissa locked it after the young woman went out. Melissa watched through the peephole to be sure Kayla went down the stairs, and then she turned around and went back to her seat on the couch.

“What do you think?” Melissa asked.

“About what part?” Olivia plopped on the sofa and tossed the ski mask back on the coffee table.

“God, I don’t know.” Melissa rubbed her temples. Neither one spoke for a few minutes.

“How’d Kayla get into this building anyway?” Olivia asked.

“She must have buzzed some other apartment and they let her in.”

“Great security,” Olivia said. “What about the ski mask?”

“Do you believe she didn’t hang it on our doorknob?” Melissa asked.

“She looked shocked when we told her it was on our doorknob. Either she didn’t do it or she’s a great actress.”

“Who did it then?” Melissa asked. Her hands fiddled with the blanket draped over the arm of the sofa. “Did the killer do it?”

A cold chill ran over Olivia’s shoulders. She didn’t want to think that was a possibility. She brushed the idea away. “Is it someone playing a joke on us? Could that be all it is? Maybe it was someone who read about us being at the murder scene?”

“It isn’t funny,” Melissa said. Her face scrunched with anger.

Olivia changed the subject not wanting to think that the killer had been outside their apartment. “Did you notice Kayla blush when I asked if she and Christian were together?”

“I noticed she seemed a little uncomfortable.”

“I’d bet it wasn’t casual,” Olivia said. “Why do I think there’s more to what she told us?”

“About being with Christian?”

“That, yes. But what about other stuff too? Do you think she was telling the truth about a guy following me?”

Melissa’s face looked serious. “I hadn’t thought about that. Was it a lie?”

“It crossed my mind.” Olivia stood up and moved to the window. She pushed the blind back an inch to look outside. “Did she say her last name?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t remember if she did.”

Olivia spun towards Melissa, her face serious. “Kayla was outside Jack’s building when we were there. Right after Jack was killed. How the heck did she know that something happened to somebody? Why was she there? She said she lives in Cambridge. She isn’t a student at this university. She wouldn’t have gotten a tweet or a text about it.”

Melissa sat up wide-eyed. “Holy, God.”

“I guess tweets could have spread out from the university community,” Olivia said. “Maybe she knew Jack or has a friend who knew Jack? We should have asked her.”

“It’s possible,” Melissa said. “She was there damn fast though.”

“Could she be the killer?” Olivia asked. “Could she be the one who killed all three of the guys? Did she just show up here to throw us off?”

Melissa’s face blanched.

Olivia leaned forward. “Maybe we should wander down to Kendall Square someday and see if she really works at that café. And ask her how she happened to be outside Jack’s building right after he was killed.”

Melissa narrowed her eyes. “
That
is a very good question.”

Chapter 10

Olivia and Melissa trudged up the hill through campus heading to their morning classes.

“My back hurts.” Melissa adjusted her backpack so that she could knead her lower back with her fingers.

“Why don’t I take the sleeping bag tonight and sleep on the floor in your room? Then you can sleep in your bed,” Olivia told her. Melissa had been sleeping on the floor next to Olivia’s bed since the night that Gary and Christian were killed.

“Or we could move my mattress into your room and put it on the floor,” Melissa said.

“We’re acting like babies,” Olivia said.

Melissa sighed. “You’re right. Like we said the other night, the killer doesn’t seem to be after women. He is only killing men so far. Maybe we’re safe?”

Olivia said, “It seems like it.” They were almost to their classroom buildings. “What about Kayla? Do you believe her story?” The girls had been discussing Kayla’s visit off and on throughout the night and into the morning.

“I don’t know. It’s pretty odd that she happened to be at Christian and Gary’s the night they were killed and was right outside Jack’s building a little while after he was murdered. Makes me suspicious of her,” Melissa said.

“I guess people could be suspicious of us then too since we were at Christian’s and Gary’s the night they were killed and we spoke to Jack just before he was murdered. And we stood outside his building right after his body was found. We seem to be in odd places at odd times,” Olivia said.

Melissa harrumphed.

“Meaning what?” Olivia asked.

“Meaning we’re innocent. We have nothing to do with these killings.”

“We just happen to be nearby when they happen,” Olivia said.

“Correct.”

“Using that logic, then Kayla is also innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“If you had to guess,” Melissa said, “what does your gut tell you about Kayla?”

“It tells me I need more information before I believe what she says, or not. We need to go to that café she said she works at and talk to her again.”

“Yeah, and we ought to find the guy Christian was going to move in with,” Melissa said. “Maybe he knows someone who had it in for Christian.”

“We should try and contact him soon. It was Luke. What’s his last name? Smith?”

“Colleen said it was Smithson,” Melissa said.

“That’s it. She said he’s at MIT. Let’s look him up tonight, send him an email, ask to meet. Maybe he has some insight into why the guys were killed.”

They approached the split in the walkway with one side heading to the science and engineering departments and the other leading to the humanities building.

“Are you going to be home for dinner?” Melissa asked.

“Yes. Why don’t we cook something tonight?”

“Okay. Whatever you want to make is fine. I won’t be back until 6pm. I have lab this afternoon. If you want to wait for me, we can make dinner together.”

***

When Melissa arrived home after a long day of classes and lab, Olivia sat hunched over the coffee table intent on the papers in front of her. The room was warm and cozy with lamplight casting a pleasant glow.

“What smells good in here?” Melissa asked. She put her backpack on the floor next to the sofa.

“I made veggie lasagna. I got back early. If you’d rather have something else, I can freeze it and we can eat it another time,” Olivia said without looking up.

Melissa kicked off her shoes. “I don’t want anything else. It smells delicious. Thanks for making it.” She plopped next to Olivia. “I’m exhausted. You studying?”

“No. Look at this. I’m writing down facts about what has been happening.”

Olivia had index cards laid out on the table in front of her. Each card had one fact with details written on it. Melissa eyed the cards. She picked one up. It had “Christian” written at the top with details about him printed beneath his name. There was a card for each murder victim and cards for each person who was present at the apartment before the police were called. Olivia had a pad of paper in her lap and was adding to a list of questions she thought of.

“I’m looking for patterns or connections that tie people together,” Olivia said. “Like where they grew up, where they attended university, hobbies, clubs, friends. Things that might make them a target.”

“Find anything?”

“Not really. Just that the guys who have been killed are recent graduates who had new jobs. They didn’t go to the same university. They weren’t all best friends. They weren’t in the same field. They didn’t have the same hobbies. Christian and Gary grew up in the same town and went through school together, but that doesn’t link them to Jack.”

“Maybe Jack only got killed because he happened to be at the apartment the night of the party?”

“I wondered about that,” Olivia said. “I haven’t been able to determine any real links between him and the other guys except that they were friends.”

“Liv, do you think Kayla killed them?” Melissa pulled her legs up under her.

Olivia leaned back on the sofa, closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know. Her story about being in the apartment was plausible. How could Kayla kill both guys all on her own? She doesn’t look that strong.” Olivia’s eyes flicked open. “Is
one
person the link? Like all the guys knew Christian, so are all young men who knew Christian at risk?”

Melissa thought about that as she read over the cards on the table. “I don’t know. That seems too vague. I keep going back to Kayla. If she had a knife and was fast, couldn’t she kill two guys within seconds? She would have had surprise on her side.”

“I guess she could have done it, but I’m having a hard time picturing her as the killer,” Olivia said. She tapped the pen against her chin. “It’s unusual that only men are the targets. Maybe we should look up about serial killers and how they choose their victims and see if that helps us figure out what’s going on here.”

“Serial killer?” Melissa said. “God, this is a serial killer? I hadn’t even thought about that.”

“We should look up Luke Smithson after we eat and try to send him an email,” Olivia said. “Ask him to meet with us to talk about Christian. See what he knows, if he has any ideas.”

“Yeah. Good thinking. He should be easy to find on the MIT network. Maybe he can think of someone who had it in for Christian.”

The oven timer went off and Olivia walked to the kitchen and pulled out the lasagna and a tray of garlic bread. She set them on top of the stove and the fragrant odor filled the apartment.

“I’m drooling,” Melissa called. She got out the plates and silverware and set the small table that was pushed up against one wall of the living room.

Olivia removed a salad from the refrigerator, carried it into the living room, and placed it on the table. “Maybe we should give this a rest. Stop thinking about it all the time and just let the cops figure it out. We don’t have any idea how to solve a crime.”

“It’s just hard to stop thinking about it since we’re the ones who found the bodies,” Melissa said. “The image of the guys dead in their living room pops into my head off and on all day. It’s horrible, Liv. I hate it. I wish it never happened.”

“I know,” Olivia said. “The same thing happens to me. It’s in the back of my mind all day. I wake up at night in a cold sweat. That’s why I’ve been trying to make some sense of it. It makes me feel less helpless.”

Melissa gave a slight nod. She had dark circles under her deep brown eyes.

Olivia hated to see the sad look on the face of her friend and wanted to make Melissa feel better, so she crossed to the coffee table and scooped up the index cards. “Let’s take a break from thinking about it, for tonight anyway.” She opened the drawer of the side table, plopped the index cards into it, and closed the drawer. “There. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“Good idea,” Melissa said. “Let’s just eat and talk about other things.” She carried two dinner plates to the kitchen to get squares of lasagna and a piece of garlic bread for each of them. “Let’s watch something mindless on television after dinner. A crime show or something.” She caught herself and looked up at Olivia. They both smiled. “Um. So, maybe not a crime show.”