Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Amanda was still processing Liam’s text. The way Christine had been murdered seemed surreal. And Trent’s words, it sounds like a hit, kept ricochetting in her head. “What if you’re right? That this was a hit or execution?”
“If it is, we need to consider the person who requested the showing may have lured her here to kill her. Even if Dominique Sharp was in town, homeowners step out during showings. If this person made the appointment, they would have wagered they’d have some time to do what they… well, what they did.”
“Sure, but why target her here? And if this was the client, they took the chance she wasn’t going to notify her office.”
“Maybe they didn’t care. They’d be gone before anyone would check on her.”
“True enough.” Amanda put on gloves and went into the closet for Christine’s phone. She found the device right where they left it charging. After turning it on, she handed the phone to Trent. “You want to trace the pattern?”
Trent swiped the screen.
“Thanks.” She looked at the call history first and saw that Riley had called her mother at 9:44 PM on Friday night.
The call lasted a minute, so Christine had answered.
It was likely within moments of her death.
She shared this finding with Trent. There were also calls that morning from Art Beasley with Best Homes Realty that came in after Amanda spoke with him.
He must have wanted to try reaching her himself.
Amanda also saw Spencer’s attempts over the weekend.
Next, Amanda called in for the voicemails. She did this on speaker and entered the code of thirty-six twenty-three that Spencer had given them.
“You have twelve new voicemails,” the automated voice greeted them.
Amanda glanced at Trent as they prepared to settle in for a bit.
There were a few messages from Spencer, five from clients requesting showings on various properties or following up, and one from Art Beasley. But four flagged for Amanda. Three were from the same caller and had taken place over the weekend.
“Christine, I need the code for the box and alarm system for Charmed Court. I have an interested client.”
This message was attached to a contact in Christine’s phone, and it was a name Amanda recognized. “Wasn’t Marcy Maxwell the top agent for Best Homes Realty last year?”
“Uh-huh.”
The next message played out from Marcy, sounding more hostile.
“You can’t just ghost me, Christine. Call me back.”
By the third, Marcy resorted to a whiny voice.
“Hello? Christine? Why aren’t you calling me back? Are you threatened by me?”
Amanda stopped the voicemail from playing out. “We’ll need to have a chat with Marcy, find out the story between her and Christine.”
“Agreed. It doesn’t sound too friendly.”
Amanda shook her head. Could it be as she thought earlier? That a rival agent had targeted Christine?
The other message that had Amanda’s attention was from a woman who wasn’t in Christine’s contacts. It was left at ten thirty on Friday night.
“It’s Melanie. We’re at the house. There’s a Lexus in the drive, but there’s no answer at the door. If you’re inside, call me back. We’ll wait around for five minutes, but after that we need to leave.”
Amanda saved the message and looked at the call log attached to the number. “There were two calls on Friday from this number. Presumably, one requesting the viewing, and the follow-up that landed in voicemail. But there is also one from two weeks ago and a return call from Christine the same day.”
“They’ve been in touch for a bit, but that doesn’t necessarily exempt this person from suspicion. I say we track the number back to who it’s registered to and follow up.”
“Easy enough. Did you notice the woman said we? There were at least two people here to see the house.”
“Right. Well, a partnership could be responsible for this.”
“From the call history, Melanie never tried reaching Christine again. Leaving this message could have been a defense ploy.” She offered this, realizing it was what Malone had said about Spencer. “Whatever the case, we need to track these people down and have a chat.”
“Same goes for Marcy Maxwell, but we have two other stops to make first.”
“Yes, I know. But I’m not notifying Spencer until we’ve gotten a hold of Christine’s daughter, and this isn’t news I want to give her over the phone.”