Chapter 11
The Moon sisters stared at me over the box of pastries from La Croissant D’Or I proffered. “You want to what?” Sienna asked, confused.
“See the room Tubbs was staying in. Um, and if you’ve already taken stuff out, if you still have it around, I’d like to see that too.”
“Why?” Carmel asked, finally glancing at the box and selecting a sugar and cinnamon dusted cruller.
I smiled and turned the box towards Sienna before giving them the story I’d worked up during Muffin’s morning walk. “Since I’m watching over Charlemagne till other arrangements can be made, I want to make sure I’ve got all of his stuff. He’s missing some things.”
“How do you know?” Sienna asked around a bite of almond croissant. “Did someone give you a list?”
Carmel rolled her eyes at her sister. “Sienna.”
“I know, I know,” she muttered. “Look, we’re not rubes. I know you know that. So stop acting like you gotta put on some show to go snoopin’ in that room.”
“I, um, I don’t—” I sighed. “Okay, yeah. I want to see if he left anything behind that’d tell me why someone might want him dead.
I mean, other than the obvious,” I added over Sienna’s snort.
“I know he had that fight with Anmorata but she’s in the wind and with Heath and the team from the MCU set on this being an accident.
.. Look, I just need to sate my curiosity, okay?
I doubt I’ll find anything other than the fact Tubbs was awful and he destroyed the room and deserved to be sued over it.
” I wasn’t sure if that’s what I was really hoping for or not.
Sienna and Carmel had an entire conversation with only their eyes and facial expressions.
Finally, Carmel took another bite of her cruller and rolled her eyes.
“I put a lot of stuff in boxes and bags, but it’s still in the room.
We’ve had a few contractors out to give us an estimate on a deep clean but nothing’s happened yet. ”
“I put personal effects into a plastic tub,” Carmel added. “Toiletries, clothes, that sort of thing. He didn’t leave behind much, but enough.” She sniffed, adding, “I don’t know what he took to that boat but it must not have been a lot. Looks like he had an entire closet full of crap in our room.”
Setting the box down on the kitchen table, I gave them both an I’m not worthy bow that made Sienna grumble and Carmel laugh. “I’ll be quick as I can. Um, I don’t guess Heath or those guys from the state have said anything about coming back?”
Carmel made a face at that. “Heath came by with a few guys and a gal in some coveralls after I called him the other day, tellin’ him Tubbs had left his stuff behind.
They poked around in there but didn’t take too long.
Heath said it was fine to let the room out again since they didn’t think it was the scene of a crime, just a mess.
” She hesitated. “He asked if you’d been by to talk to us, seem to think maybe you’d put an idea in our heads about it being a crime scene. ”
“Nice,” I muttered. “Okay, I’ll be quick and careful. Just in case they change their minds.”
I was halfway up the stairs before Carmel stopped me. “Here,” she called, rushing up to meet me. “Take these.”
“Gloves?” I asked, taking the floppy blue nitrile gloves from her. “Why?”
“Just in case they change their minds,” she repeated, giving me a half-smile. “And the ladies are still staying here, the gall, so just mind your Ps and Qs. I’ll try and slow them down with afternoon tea if they come back before you’re done.”
“Thank you,” I said fervently. “Seriously. Thank you.”
“Go, go, go,” she urged, already heading back down the stairs. “I’m gonna go grab the last eclair before Sienna steals it. You just hurry!”
#
THE ROOM WAS THE SAME one I'd been in months ago. About the size of a decent hotel room, it was far cozier than your standard Holiday Inn, appointed with antiques and handmade bedding accented by dark wood floors and trim with milk painted walls in robin's egg blue.
Well, it had been when I was there.
Even with all of the sisters’ work, the room was nearly wall to wall mess.
The bedding was piled in one corner, trash bags and cardboard boxes stood in stacks in the middle of the room.
The bed frame was crooked, pushed diagonally away from the door like someone had just shoved it wherever it would be out of the way.
The smell of stale, sour cat urine was heavy, especially near the bundled up rug I remembered as being hand-woven and ornate.
The dresser, nightstand, and chair were all pushed against the wall opposite the bed, some scratches on one side of the dresser that made me think Charlemagne had gotten bored when left to his own devices.
Carefully, I picked my way across the room and chose the plastic tub to start looking through.
The gloves were tight and my hands started sweating pretty much the second I put them on, but I was grateful for them as soon as I lifted the lid.
The contents stank of something rotten, something fishy and metallic.
Did Carmel pack open cat food in here? Jesus.
.. I wondered briefly if the sisters' cats—Alice B.
Toklas and Gertrude Stein—had got into the room and maybe buried something in the debris, leaving a present for their humans in the wrongest of wrong places.
Reluctantly, I moved the first layer of things around.
Socks—a few clean, folded up pairs but mostly loose, worn ones.
A few pairs of underpants, undershirts, two ties, and a salmon-colored Henley that would've looked awful on Tubbs.
The next layer down was papers, mostly torn up or crumpled, some heavy manila envelopes of the interoffice mail sort, all foxed around the edges from long and repeated use. Also empty.
Most of the ruined papers were receipts from places around town (I had no idea you could spend over a hundred dollars at Cucina Roma, Lester Cove's only Italian restaurant that wasn't a pizza place—it was tiny and served mostly seafood pasta and none of their four entrees were over eight dollars).
A few were from LA, names I recognized and some I didn't. One was from Lester Cove Free Library.
Which, ironically, wasn't entirely free since they charged for copies and faxing.
Because faxing was still a thing, I guess. I mean, apparently, some people still lived in the Stone Age or something.
The sound of voices in the hall made me freeze.
It was Sienna, talking to someone I couldn't hear respond. She’s just on the phone, I realized and my breath rushed out in a soft whoosh.
Shoving the receipt into my hip pocket, I kept digging.
The rest of the box wasn't fruitful, just disgusting, so I moved to one of the open cardboard boxes stacked nearby.
It was more trash, more food wrappers and drink containers.
It looked like Tubbs had been existing largely on junk food and canned seltzer water with a few beers thrown in for good measure.
There were take-out boxes from the Pelican and a few other places in town as well as used napkins from the fast-food franchises in Bangor.
He was only here one night before moving to the boat.
Did he just pack his trash in with his luggage or something? Gross.
A few more boxes and bags later and all I'd learned was Charlemagne (or one of the Moons’ cats) peed on everything fabric he could find due to the fact there was no litter box and no accessible kitty potty chair, Tubbs overpacked, and he didn't throw out his trash.
I was going to need a long, scalding shower when I got back to Witte House.
Working the gloves off was a relief, even though it was a pain in the ass to get it off of my casted hand and I considered just leaving it there till I could get some scissors and cut the glove away.
I stuck them in my pocket, part of my brain stuck on the possibility of this being evidence and not wanting to give anyone more reasons to think I was a killer.
One final look around the room didn't turn anything up, no flashing lights and pointing arrows showing me some clue I'd missed, so I eased into the hall and, once I was certain no one was coming around a corner, hustled myself downstairs.
"Damien," Sienna called before I could reach the front door. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"I don't know yet," I admitted. "Hey, do you go to the library often?"
Sienna's offended expression told me the answer.
"Sorry, sorry! Do you know if they keep records of the stuff they print out?"
She raised a brow at me. "I have no idea. I don't see why they would."
I nodded. "You're probably right. I'm heading out. Tell Carmel I said bye."
Sienna followed me to the door. "I thought of something after you left yesterday," she said in a low tone, aiming not to be overheard by Carmel's lynx ears.
"When you asked about the fight? I didn't think about this till later. Tubbs, he was angry as all get out. Not just at Anmorata. At Ms. Sommers too. A different kind of anger though. With Anmorata, it was kind of more annoyed.” She darted a glance past me to make sure we were alone.
“He got real froggy with Ms. Sommers though, told her she needs to get her head out of her ass and something about she should know how these things work. She seems like a nice enough lady, nicer than that other one anyway. But Tubbs, he was really in her face. She was just sort of... frozen, I guess is the way to describe her.”
“This was in front of Anmorata?”
She shook her head. “She’d already gone. Ms. Terhune had her PA take her back home.”
“Nate.”