Chapter 2
"Idon't think he ever hit her or anything," Grace said. "Noah’s a really nice guy. Maybe a little too nice,” she said, cringing. “I think Abigail got a little bored.”
"It's the nice ones you've got to worry about," Jack said.
Her face wrinkled. "You think he could have killed her?”
"You tell me," I said.
Grace thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. I can’t imagine Noah would do something like this, but he was a little off at times.”
"What do you mean?”
"He’s just a little strange. Kinda nerdy. He could get really quiet.”
From the way the killer had draped a cloth over Abigail's face, I figured he knew the victim or had been following her around for a while. Perhaps he had developed some type of para-social relationship with Abigail. It was hard to say at this point.
"I need contact information for Noah and Brandon,” I said.
Grace cringed. “I can give you Noah's number, but I don't have Brandon's contact info. I think she sent me his social media page once. I'll see if I can find it for you.”
"I’d appreciate that.” I dug into my pocket and handed her a card. "Can you think of anybody else who might have wanted to harm her?”
Grace frowned and shook her head. "Not really. I mean, Abigail got along with everybody. She was gorgeous. She was always getting hit on. Abigail was with Noah for so long, I think she just kinda wanted to see what else was out there. That girl had a lot of options.”
"How long have you known each other?”
Grace shrugged. "I guess we met sometime last year, when she started working at Heartbreakers. We just kinda hit it off and have been best friends ever since."
Heartbreakers was the kind of place you could get an overpriced pitcher, eat spicy wings, and watch the game all while taking in the delightful scenery—buxom beauties in skimpy attire.
"Is she from around here?”
Grace shook her head. "No. She's from Iowa, I think. I moved here from Texas. I didn't know anybody, and neither did she. We hit it off right away.”
"How long had she been seeing Noah?”
“She’d been dating him for a couple of years. They were together up in Iowa. Then she moved out here, and he followed.”
"But they weren’t living together?”
"No. He was pushing for it, but she didn’t want that kind of commitment.
” Grace frowned. “Honestly, if you ask me, I think she had been wanting to break up with Noah for a long time.
I think maybe that's part of the reason she moved out here.
To get away from him. But he followed her.
I think they had broken up when she first moved, then got back together.
She told him she wasn't going back to Iowa, and he stayed here. I think they had been trying to make it work for the last year, but…”
I thanked her for the info.
JD and I stepped back into the bedroom, and I found Abigail's cell phone on the nightstand by the bed. I put on a pair of nitrile gloves, then brought the phone to her face after Brenda had removed the cloth. The security screen cleared with facial recognition, giving me access to the device.
I scrolled through her recent calls and texts, taking screenshots. I sent them to my phone. I read some of the recent text messages. There were several calls and messages from Brandon, several from Grace, and dozens of spam telemarketers.
When I was done, I gave the phone to the forensic guys and headed down to the main office with Jack.
Paris accosted us as we stepped out of the apartment. The camera closed in. “Deputy Wild, can you confirm the victim was strangled?”
My eyes narrowed at her. “I can’t discuss anything at this time.”
She had a source inside the department and knew just about everything as it happened.
The property manager had let the police into the unit. Tabitha was aware of the incident, but she didn't want to stick around any longer than she had to.
I knocked on the door to the leasing office and pushed inside. I flashed my badge, and Tabitha looked at me with a grim face. She was in her late 30s, with short auburn hair and ice-blue eyes.
"That's just so terrible what happened to Abigail." She shook her head. "She was such a sweet girl." A look of fear crept into her eyes. "How worried do I need to be? Do you think someone targeted her specifically? Are the residents at risk?"
"I wish I could tell you more," I said.
"I suppose you want security footage?”
I nodded. "That would be a huge help.”
Tabitha forced a solemn smile. "Well, you're in luck. I thought ahead and pulled it up for you. If you tell me when you think this happened, I can scroll back through the timeline and see what we see.”
I gave her the approximate time of death, and Tabitha reviewed the footage.
"I only have feeds for the lobby and the parking garage. We don't have cameras in the hallways, but we do have a camera on the rooftop pool."
JD and I huddled around Tabitha's desk and looked at the monitor. At that time of night, it wasn't particularly busy. A few people came and went.
I didn't see anything unusual. I told Tabitha to scrub back through the timeline.
She did, and we didn’t see anything suspicious. Just normal traffic for that time of night—people coming back from the bars.
No Abigail.
We looked at the parking garage feed. Something struck me as odd. Around 3:20 AM this morning, a guy in a motorcycle helmet stepped off the elevator, walked across the garage, and waited in the shadows until the gate opened when a car entered.
I pointed at the screen. “That’s our suspect.”
I asked Tabitha to keep scrubbing back through the footage to the night before last.
She did, and we saw what appeared to be Abigail enter the lobby around 2:45 AM. She waited for the elevator, stepped aboard, and presumably went up to her apartment.
We checked the feed from the parking garage that night, and there was nothing unusual. Nobody loitering around. No one had entered from the garage around that time.
I told Tabitha to scroll back a little further.
She did.
Around 2:00 AM, the gates to the parking garage below the building opened, a car drove in, and found a place to park.
Before the gate closed, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet with a blacked-out visor stepped into the parking garage. It was the same guy who left the following morning around 3:20 AM.
He waited in the shadows until the person in the vehicle got out of their car and walked to the elevator. Then Mr. Motorcycle followed him to the elevator and presumably took it up to the sixth floor.
I looked at Jack and said, "The assailant went up to the apartment, broke in, and waited for Abigail inside.”
"You think he had a key?" Tabitha asked.
I shrugged. "If not, he knew how to pick a lock.”
The thought mortified Tabitha. "Is that easy to do?"
"If you know how.”
That didn't settle her nerves any.
I asked her to cue up a nice shot of Mr. Motorcycle. I snapped a photo on my phone, then asked her to keep scrubbing through the timeline.
The killer stayed in Abigail’s apartment all the next day and all evening until 3:20 AM.
It was terrifying.
"He had damn near 24 hours with her," Jack said.
Tabitha looked unsettled.
I thanked her, gave her a card, and asked her to send me a download link.
“You got it. I sure hope you catch the son of a bitch who did this.”
“We will do our best.”
We left the leasing office and headed back up to Abigail's apartment. I found Grace on the couch and showed her a picture of the suspect. "Does Noah have a motorcycle?”