Chapter 5
Mina
This was not happening.
I clutched the paper coffee cup between my fingers and stared out at the street from a table in my coffeeshop, watching the police rope off the area in front of my newly purchased building.
Why was there a skeleton in the wall?
Better yet, who would do such a thing?
Was Mr. Shuman a murderer?
If so, why would he sell me the building? He knew my plans for the space.
Mostly.
I leaned forward and absentmindedly chewed on a fingernail. He knew I wanted to knock down the wall between the spaces, but I never told him I planned to knock down any part of the wall separating the employee area from the main storefront.
But still, he had to know that anyone who bought the place would want to conduct renovations. Even if they didn’t move that wall, it needed repaired. The water damage was obvious.
An inelegant snort escaped me. Water damage… More like body damage.
I shuddered, thinking about that body decaying in there. How did no one smell it?
Lifting my coffee, I took a sip. Maybe they did and thought it was just a dead animal. That happened all the time.
The front door opened, and Claire’s boyfriend and resident detective, Ozzie Quartermaine, stepped inside.
My gaze roved over his tall, powerful figure, and a bit of calm settled over me. Ozzie would figure it out.
But it was the man coming in behind him that I wanted to have wrap his arms around me and reassure me that this would all blow over soon.
I locked eyes with Luke.
A spark of attraction zipped through me, but I batted it away. Now was not the time to lust after my contractor—or anyone, for that matter.
The two men walked up to my table. Ozzie dragged a chair over from another, while Luke took the seat across from me.
I wished he were beside me. While Ozzie’s presence reassured me he’d get to the bottom of this, Luke’s was the one that offered sympathy and comfort.
I just wanted to lean on those broad, muscular shoulders.
My eyelids slid shut, and I looked away. What was wrong with me?
Admonishing myself to get my mind out of the gutter, I looked at Ozzie.
“How’re you doing, Mina?”
“Still shellshocked. I don’t suppose there was any ID on the body?”
He shook his head.
My mouth twisted. “Didn’t think so.”
“Not that we’ve seen yet, anyway. Forensics just got here. They’ll remove the remains from the wall, and we’ll know more then.” Ozzie shifted, leaning forward. “Tell me what happened. How did you find the body?”
“We were just knocking down the wall.” I traced the rim of the lid on my coffee. “I came over in time just to see the start of demo and saw Luke busting up the wall. I asked if I could take a few swings. We found the plastic soon after.”
“Did you touch anything?” Ozzie looked between us.
“Just the edge of the plastic,” Luke answered. “I had gloves on.”
“I didn’t.” My hand twitched on my cup.
“That’s okay,” Ozzie said. “We’re taking prints from everyone who was there, so we can exclude you from what we find. Mina, do you know where Mr. Shuman is?”
I shook my head. “No idea. Talk to Miranda Bennett. She might know since she had to get the real estate contracts to him. He’s not in town, I know that much.”
His nose wrinkled, and I knew he was not looking forward to that. Likely, he’d heard enough of Claire’s horror stories about her colleague to know it wouldn’t be an easy task to get information out of the woman. I didn’t envy him the challenge.
“Okay.” Ozzie turned his head toward Luke. “What made you start with that wall? Just random choice?”
“Actually, no. I noticed the water damage when I walked through with Mina last week. I decided to start there today so I could see if there was an active leak somewhere and to determine if we needed to fix any of the supports behind the plaster.”
Ozzie nodded. “Did you notice anything else out of the ordinary about the wall?”
“No. Well, maybe. The location of the water damage. It was low, but there were no pipes there. I mean, I get now why that’s the case. It’s not water damage, it’s… seepage.” Luke frowned. “But yeah, I guess that struck me as odd. My original thought was possibly there was a roof leak.”
“Do we have any idea who this could be?” I asked. “I mean, someone’s been missing for many, many years. That should tell us something, right?”
“It does, but I haven’t had a chance to go through missing persons cases yet.
The chief might have an idea, but we haven’t talked since I got the call.
Let us get the body out and maybe get a timeline established.
That will give us a better idea of who it could be. And how they ended up in your wall.”
The bell over the door jingled again as a frazzled-looking Claire hurried through.
“Mina!” She skirted a table and a set of chairs to envelop me in a quick hug. “Are you okay?”
I squeezed her back. “I’m fine. Just a little freaked out.”
Claire stepped back and grabbed another chair, pulling it close to Ozzie.
“Babe, I’m conducting an interview.”
“Oh.” She paused halfway into her seat. “Sorry. Do you want me to get some coffee and come back?”
He sighed, a small smile tilting his mouth, softening his stern features. “No. I think we’re done.”
She shot a mock glare at him and lightly slapped his chest. “Don’t toy with me, Oscar Allen. This is a serious time. Don’t you remember how traumatized I was when I found Mrs. Hammond?”
The levity left his face. “You’re right.” He looked at me. “I’m sorry, Mina.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I offered him a small smile. “I appreciate you trying to make me smile.”
“So, what do we know?” Claire asked, diving in.
Oscar gave her a quick rundown, which wasn’t much.
She frowned at him. “What are you still doing sitting here? Go find out who’s in the wall.”
He chuckled. “Slow down, babe. Forensics has to get the body out of the wall first. I don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman.”
Claire whipped out her phone.
“What are you doing?” Ozzie asked.
“Your job. I’m looking up missing persons from this area.”
He groaned. “Will you let me do this my way?”
“No. My way is faster.”
Luke chuckled and met my gaze. I understood his amusement. Claire could be a wrecking ball.
“How long do you think that body’s been in there?” Claire asked, staring at her phone.
“I don’t know.” Ozzie pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s why we need to wait for forensics to get it out of the wall.”
She let out a soft grunt. “We’ll just do a general search for missing persons.” Her fingers flew over the phone keyboard. She paused as the search results came up, then lifted one eyebrow. “That’s a lot more people than I thought it would be.” She tipped the phone toward Ozzie.
He plucked it from her hand and scrolled. “Yeah.” Running his palm over his jaw, he read a few of the article descriptions, then handed it back. “We just need to wait on forensics. I can’t narrow it down until I get at least the gender. An approximate time of death would be even better.”
Claire huffed and laid the phone face down before resting her chin in her hand. “Fine.”
Ozzie put a hand on her back and rubbed small circles. “I’ll get to the bottom of it. You just have to give me a chance.”
“What else can we do to help?” Luke asked.
“Not much, honestly,” Ozzie said to him, then turned to me. “And I’m afraid work will have to stop on the café until we get all we can from the building.”
I grimaced but knew he was right. “I figured. You should know, the basement is full of junk. I don’t know if any of it is important.”
“Claire told me about it. We’ll probably haul it all out and to a secure facility for processing.” He rolled his neck. “The chief is going to love this.”
“I’ll bring you all the things I took from the building. It’s not much. Some art, a couple of decorative knick-knacks, and some planters.” I scooted away from the table. “In fact, some of it’s here.”
“We have that stuff at home, too, don’t forget,” Claire said, waving a finger at him.
Luke stood. “I’ll help you gather things.”
I glanced up, surprised at the gesture. “Oh. Thank you.”
A lopsided smile appeared on his face, bringing out a dimple. “You’re welcome.”