Chapter 9
NINE
Before leaving Charmed Court, Amanda plugged Christine’s phone into the portable charger and tucked both back into her purse. She also slipped upstairs to notify the CSIs they found Christine’s purse in the entry closet. They gave little reaction to the news, but at least Amanda shared the update.
Amanda called Riley’s number on the way to Spencer’s and got her voicemail, where she left a message. It was two thirty by the time they were pulling into Spencer’s driveway.
“The whole thing is just unsettling,” Trent said as they trudged up the sidewalk to the house. “The tarp, the placement of the body. It’s like…”
“Don’t say ‘serial killer.’”
“Well… Ordinary people killing with ordinary motives don’t usually put their victim’s body in a tarp.”
She couldn’t deny that logic, but she didn’t want to leap to this being the work of a serial killer either. It was far too soon to go down that path. “We’ll follow where the evidence takes us.” Upon saying that, a wave of doubt rolled over her. Could Spencer have done this?
The front door was flung open before they reached it, and Spencer was standing there. “Is she…?”
Amanda stiffened. “It’s best we talk inside.”
“Ah, sure.” Spencer retreated into the house.
“You remember Trent?” she said as they followed. They had met during another investigation, where Spencer’s crew had been called to fight a fire in the woods and stumbled on a shallow grave.
“Yeah.” Spencer closed the door behind them.
The three of them sat in the living room, and the silence swelled for several seconds.
“Please, guys, just tell me what’s going on. Did you find her?”
She forced herself to meet her half-brother’s eyes, fearing she’d get sucked in by a strong emotional response. Her weakness was feeling too much for what others were going through. “We found her Lexus, purse, and phone at a client’s house in Woodbridge, in the Agee subdivision.”
Spencer inched forward on the couch cushion. “She had a listing there. On Charmed Court.”
Amanda nodded. “That’s where all her things were.”
“And Christine?” Spencer swallowed, his Adam’s apple kicking out.
Trent glanced at Amanda, and she nodded for him to put it into words.
“A body was also found at the house,” Trent said. “It seems likely it’s Christine, though we can’t confirm this yet.”
“How can you not know if it’s her?” Spencer’s forehead scrunched up while pain and confusion clouded his eyes.
Amanda licked her lips, trying to summon her voice. She couldn’t tell him about the tarp without crossing a line. “We can’t disclose that, Spencer.”
He blanked over and tears fell.
An ache burrowed in Amanda’s chest. “I’m sorry we can’t say any more.”
“You’re sorry?” Spencer shot to his feet and paced the living room. He stopped a few moments later, facing her. “When will you know… if it’s her?”
“It shouldn’t be too long from now. A handful of hours. Less?” She ballooned the timeframe. Liam made it sound like unwrapping the tarp would be their priority upon returning to the morgue. “We hoped you might help us with something.”
“Name it.” Spencer dropped back onto the couch.
“It could help the investigation if we could log into her phone,” she told him.
“The investigation,” he parroted, his voice cracking.
The clinical phrasing helped her with objectivity, but coming back to her, she heard how insensitive it sounded. “We were wondering if you know her PIN or pattern to unlock her phone.”
“And possibly the code for her voicemail?” Trent wedged in.
“Her phone is a pattern.” He traced it in the air, and Trent recorded a diagram on his notepad. “The code is thirty-six twenty-three.”
“Thank you, Spencer.” For him to know this, they must have been close, which made Amanda feel more empathy for him. “Have you and Christine been seeing each other for a long time?”
He bobbed his head. “About a year.”
“Pretty serious then,” Trent commented.
“I’d like to think so.”
Amanda bristled. “Christine didn’t feel the same?”
“I believe she did. She was just hesitant about giving her heart away. She’d been burned before, married for ten years before it blew up.”
“When did it blow up?” Trent asked.
“Five years ago. Though they have a decent relationship now. I hoped that one day I’d convince her to take a chance on me.”
Amanda’s heart constricted. This wasn’t just a casual affair for her half-brother. “You were thinking of proposing?”
Spencer pressed his lips and nodded. “At some point.”
Again, another spike of empathy shot through her chest. If she wasn’t careful, her emotions would derail her. “Do you know of anyone who might have reason to kill her?” And wrap her in a tarp? The thought flashed through her mind and, like a drive-by shooting, inflicted damage.
“No, everyone loved her.” Spencer’s voice cracked, but he pushed out, “Riley might know of someone. Dear Lord, Riley. Should I call her?”
“Please leave that to me, okay? I’ve already left her a voicemail.”
Tears rolled down Spencer’s cheeks as she locked eyes with her half-sibling. If she were standing, her legs may have given out on her. Her empathy, her human compassion, was both a strength and a curse.