Chapter Sixteen #4
When Harry turned around, he was to the point.
“I don’t like you.”
Gene laughed.
“Oh, no, then I guess you won’t be selling me a house in a city that I don’t live in. Sucks to be me. Now, answer.”
The man did.
“Sunday. I showed both houses then, and I was supposed to show them on Tuesday again, but the couple canceled and rescheduled. That’s them, the Johnsons.”
Ethan was making notes.
“What happened to her?” Harry asked.
Gene said nothing regarding that. Clearly, someone didn’t watch the news.
“Does either house have security?” he asked, taking a stab at it.
The man shook his head.
“No.”
Gene didn’t think this man was going to be helpful, and the last thing he wanted was to give too much information away.
“You’re free to go, Harry. Have fun,” he said, ending it.
The man hustled away, going after the couple who had gone into the one house.
“What did you find?” Gene asked.
Ethan knew what he wanted.
“Harold James Mulberry, age twenty-three, has lived in Damascus his whole life. His mother is a retired teacher, and his father works as a pipefitter at the local union. He has no dings to his record and looks to be a pretty popular real estate agent.”
Dannie clued them in.
“He has a billboard on a building in town. It’s on the side of one of the buildings. He also has an annoying TV commercial calling himself the real estate agent with the ‘mostest’. His word, not mine.”
Gene was curious.
“Any arrests?”
He shook his head.
“Nope. He’s clean. Not even a parking ticket on his record,” he offered. “I’ll check out his social media as we drive to the next place,” Ethan offered.
Gene was good with that.
“Let’s check this place out,” he said.
They headed onto her lawn, and Gene noticed that there was no car in the driveway, but that was likely because the cops had taken it in for fingerprints.
Opening the screen door, he saw that the front door was sealed off with police tape.
Well, that explained how the real estate agent didn’t realize there had been a crime. Gene liked when everything was wrapped up with bright yellow crime scene tape.
That made a statement.
“Get us in, Detective,” he said.
Using a code on the security box that the local police installed, he unlocked it as Gene sliced through the police tape.
Inside, they moved around, and there were a few notable things that Gene couldn’t help but pick up.
First, it was spotless.
If she was taken from here, as opposed to outside when she got out of her car, the killer didn’t wreck the place doing it.
“Well, I was expecting some overturned furniture,” Ethan said. “A ruckus. Anything. Someone was a neat freak.”
Funny.
Gene had been expecting that too.
That showed they were both on the same page when it came to this one, and also that Ivey hadn’t put up a fight.
“We are assuming she was taken here,” Dannie admitted. “Her car was locked, and her purse was found there,” he said, pointing to the counter.
Gene was taking it all in.
“She either knew her assailant, or she was surprised,” he offered. “Because there wasn’t a fight, and if I was being taken, I’d put up one hell of a fight,” he admitted.
Ethan agreed.
“Were the doors unlocked?” he asked curiously. Yes, he could look at the police report, but then why have the man help them?
“Both doors were unlocked when we got here,” he admitted.
Gene was curious.
“She has a garage, so her car was outside in the driveway?” he asked.
The cop nodded.
“The garage is filled with things,” he said. “I doubt she used it.”
The garage was also set back, and with two houses for sale around hers, that cut down on the traffic at this end of the cul-de-sac.
That would give the killer time to get in, and get out with her.
Together, they moved around, the cop following them. They peeked into the garage, and it was filled with storage containers marked ‘school supplies’ and ‘classroom decorations’. There were even holiday ones too.
At the back, there was a door.
The two Feds headed there, and when they got there, the door was also unlocked.
Ethan was curious.
He headed out, and when he did, he saw the trees around the back of Ivey’s property.
“What’s over there?” Gene asked.
Since it had been a while since he’d been here, Ethan let the cop handle that one.
“More trees and a road that leads back to a new development that’s being constructed,” he offered.
Gene glanced over at his partner.
“This is how the killer would have come in and left. There is privacy back here, and cover.”
Ethan agreed.
The detective didn’t add anything, and both Feds figured it was because the cops hadn’t considered that. Then again, it was their first missing person before being inundated with two more victims.
Sometimes, you just got buried in details.
Heading back in, they moved around her home, taking the rest of the space in.
“So, she recently had a breakup,” Ethan reiterated, reminding them about Randal Crest. “There are NO photos of any significant other here. That tells me it was probably a bad breakup.”
No one argued that.
Gene pointed.
“That one picture is her and her bestie, Tristan,” he offered, so the detective would be on the same page. “We found out that he’s not into the ladies.”
The man laughed.
“There seems to be a lot of that going around,” he joked.
Gene just looked at him.
“What?” Dannie asked. “I get it. He’s pretty,” he offered, pointing at Ethan.
Blackhawk just rolled his eyes.
As they moved around, not a carpet was moved, or a pillow was out of place.
“This is befuddling,” Gene stated.
His partner knew what he was saying.
“It’s too neat. Like maybe the killer cleaned up after he grabbed her.”
He nodded.
“Like I said, I’d fight like hell,” Gene admitted. “If someone was trying to take me, I’d be making sure they bled so there was DNA left behind.”
Ethan was profiling it.
“Unless she knew the person and let them in. Maybe the unlocked garage door is always like that,” he offered.
Yeah, that was what he was thinking.
The detective was curious.
“So, the victims knew their attacker?” he asked. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Ethan went there.
“Likely. Or the person wasn’t a threat, and they never suspected it.
He managed to grab a bartender outside of work, and he took a woman leaving the painting studio.
He either approached and they were aware of him, or they didn’t feel threatened.
We need to figure out who they all knew collectively. That’s what my gut is telling me.”
“That’s not going to be easy,” Dannie admitted. “It could be anyone then.”
Oh, they were aware.
Ethan didn’t answer.
Instead, he kept wandering around, and Gene followed him. If anything, he’d learned that Ethan was good at walking a scene. If there was something to be found, he’d locate it.
He followed his partner upstairs, and that’s when he saw a few things.
The room was also pristine, but the laundry hamper told the real tale.
That was their first indicator that she absolutely had time when she got home.
“She not only came home, but she had time to get changed,” Ethan stated, pulling on a pair of gloves he’d swiped from the cleaning cart in the hotel hallway.
Dannie was curious.
“What do you mean?”
He picked up a plaid outfit.
“The principal of the school told us what she was wearing the day she went missing. So, she came home, got changed, and then…”
Gene agreed.
“She had time, or the person was hiding here in wait,” he stated. “The only thing not put away in this room are her shoes. They are lying on the floor like she toed them off, got undressed, and then…”
Ethan was curious.
“I wish we knew if there was sexual assault. The MEs report doesn’t mention it. That’s putting us in a bad position. To know more about this person, I need more information.”
That sucked for them.
“If it’s not in the report,” Dannie began, “then Doc likely didn’t find any. I doubt he’d miss that with three skinned women.”
They couldn’t trust that.
Why?
People made mistakes. MEs who were bitchy could leave shit out to derail an investigation.
“If there was sexual assault, this changes it. We’re going to have to ask our ME a lot of questions.”
Gene agreed there.
Because Ethan wanted to get as much forensics as possible, the women’s things were coming with them.
“Do you have an evidence bag on you?”
He actually did. He always carried one in his coat pocket. You never knew when you’d need one.
Pulling it out, he handed it to him. Ethan bagged up the clothing, and then the single pair of panties that were with them.
Dannie was curious.
“How bad is this if we have a serial rapist?”
Gene didn’t miss a beat.
“BAD. But again, from what we’ve seen so many times before, if this was sexual in nature, he would have raped her here. The bed isn’t messed up. The room is pristine.”
Ethan agreed.
“He would have enjoyed violating her in her bed. That he didn’t…I’m thinking more who she was sleeping with,” he admitted. “She broke up with her boyfriend, so if we find any DNA in her panties…”
Dannie was curious.
“Uh, how long do you think that trace would hang out?” he asked.
Gene knew.
“Five days,” he stated. “So if she had sex the day before, she would still have trace in any panties she put on. Gravity,” he said, keeping it PG and letting the man use his imagination.
“We’re onto something,” Ethan said.
That had Gene’s attention.
Blackhawk went there.
“Uh, she was single, and she broke up with her man, but...,” he began, showing them.
Ethan picked up the waste basket beside the bed. Inside, there were used condoms and wrappers.
“Unless she never took the garbage out, someone was getting laid. A LOT. I count five,” he said, not touching them, but instead shaking the can.
Dannie gasped.
He had missed that.
“Well, shit.”
Yeah, that’s why they got paid the non-existent taxpayer big bucks.
“So maybe she did the dumping?” Gene admitted. “Or she had someone on the back burner.”
Ethan lifted a brow.