Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
ELENA
E lena gripped the door handle as she winced, pressing a foot into the floor of the car. If she wasn’t so driven to find information, she’d have rethought this plan. “Maddie, you do know how to drive, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course. I got my license over a year ago.” The teen swung the car from one lane to the next on the highway, a horn blaring behind them.
Elena winced as she shot a glance over her shoulder. In the backseat, a wide-eyed Caroline clung to the seat. Elena caught sight of a driver waving a fist in the windshield of the car behind them. “Perhaps we ought to slow down. Chloe’s apartment building isn’t going anywhere.”
Maddie barked out a laugh. “If you don’t go at least this speed on the highway, people will get mad at you.”
“Maybe we should have employed a driver,” Elena suggested.
“There’s no way my dad would have let us go if he knew what we were doing. I had to drive. It’s fine. Here’s the exit we need.”
Elena blew out a sigh of relief as Maddie weaved through traffic onto the off-ramp. The GPS shouted an instruction at them, and Maddie swung the car to the left at the end of the ramp.
“Only three more minutes,” Elena murmured, rubbing a hand against her forehead as she blew out a shaky breath. “Thank heavens.”
Maddie eased the car onto the marked street, reducing speed as they approached the building, scanning the windows as they slowly rolled past. “That’s her place.”
Elena ducked to study it through the windshield. “Where is her apartment?”
“Uhh, fifth floor.”
“Hmm,” Elena murmured, her brow knitting. “I wonder…”
Maddie turned down a side street and swung the car into an empty space. “I don’t know if we can get up there, but…”
“Well, we shouldn’t go through the front door. We’ll be on camera, like your mother.”
Maddie shifted in her seat, her lips tugging into a frown. “Yeah. And no one else after her. How is that possible?”
“Let’s find out. Is there a back entrance?”
Maddie lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I was only here once when Nate was dropping her off, and she made me wait in the car. It took forever, too.”
Elena screwed up her face. “She actually made you wait in the car the entire time?”
“Yeah.” Maddie’s voice dropped, a hint of resentment flickering. “She was furious Nate picked me up. Kept complaining about how I’d ruined her evening. And when we got here, she basically begged him to go up to her place with her. She was all sweetness with him, but daggers in her eyes when she looked at me.”
“And Nate told me to wait in the car, and he was gone forever.”
“That’s awful,” Elena answered. “How rude. She could have invited you up there with them. It wouldn’t have hurt for one evening.”
“No one liked her except Nate…oh, and Stephen.”
“It is amazing to me how buffaloed men can be by a woman,” Caroline said from the back seat.
“Incredible,” Elena agreed. “Let’s get out and look around.”
Caroline leaned forward, her eyes wide. “Your Highness, are you certain?”
“We’re only looking,” Elena answered. “It won’t hurt.”
She popped open her door and climbed from the car, adjusting the large sunglasses she wore and tightening the scarf around her head. “No one will even notice us like this.”
Caroline, in a matching get-up, pulled her sunglasses down her nose. “Are you certain? I feel as though we stand out more like this?”
“No. Everyone wears this sort of thing while sleuthing. Now, come along, let’s scope out this location.”
“Scope out the location? Your Highness, where did you learn such language?” Caroline asked as they crossed to the building and began to circle around it.
“The movies. Americans always say things like this when they are sleuthing.”
“I’m not sure that’s really true,” Maddie said with a wrinkled nose.
“Of course, it is. Come on, then. Let’s–“ Elena stopped, sucking in a sharp breath as she stared ahead of them. “Look! Another door. And it’s propped open. ”
“Could it have been open on the night in question?” Caroline asked.
“My thoughts exactly, dear Caroline. Let’s go inside and see if there are any cameras here.”
Elena tugged at the thick metal door before she slipped into the building. Her gaze slid around the hall, rising toward the ceiling. “I’m not seeing any cameras, are you?”
“None,” Caroline answered.
“Nope,” Maddie added as they shuffled a few more steps down the hall.
“So, in theory, someone could have entered through that door. I wonder if it is locked after a certain time.”
“Hey!” a voice shouted from a doorway down the hall. “What are you doing in here?”
Elena tugged her sunglasses down slightly to eye the man, wearing a blue set of overalls with the name Lou in an oval badge sewn onto them. “We are investigating, Lou.”
The man’s features crinkled with confusion. “Investigating? You cops?”
“No, private investigators,” Elena answered, lifting her chin.
“Private, huh? You three dames expect me to believe you’re private investigators?”
“We are,” Elena said with a curt nod.
He raised his eyebrows. “Show me your license.”
Elena’s heart skipped a beat as she stared at him. “License? I left it at home.”
“Sure you did.” His voice turned annoyed. “Look, if you gals are here looking for some dirt on what happened in this building, you’re not going to get it. Now, get out of here or I’ll call security.”
“Just a moment,” Elena said as the man poked a finger at the door they’d come in, “I have a few important questions I’d like answered. ”
“And I’d like to finish my lunch in peace.”
She glanced around him at the half-eaten sandwich on the card table in the dingy room. “Well, what if we allow you to finish your lunch while we talk.”
“Whatever,” the man said as he shuffled back to the folding chair and collapsed onto it. With a resigned frown, he waved for her to continue.
“This door–is it normally propped open?” Elena gestured toward the metal door.
Lou paused, his sandwich mid-air. “Of course not. But today’s warm, I needed some air while I eat.”
“So, in general, when you are not eating, it is locked.”
“Of course.” He slid a thumb toward a thick stack of paper tacked to a bulletin board. “Manual says the employee entrance should be locked at all times.”
“Except it isn’t, is it?” Elena asked, her hands falling to her hips. “Now, for example.”
“Sue me, lady. I needed some air.”
“I am not accusing you of anything, merely asking a question. Could someone up to nefarious purposes have entered through that door on the night of the murder?”
“No,” the man answered with a shake of his head.
“Are you one hundred percent certain?” Elena asked.
“Please be sure,” Maddie said with a worried expression on her features, “because it’s my mom who’s being accused of this and I know she didn’t do it.”
The man froze mid-chomp on his sandwich, staring at them. “So, you’re one of the Kingsley kids. Now, I get it. You’re here trying to pin this on someone else. Well, you’re not going to pin it on me.”
“No one is attempting to pin anything on you, Lou,” Elena retorted, “we are merely searching for the truth. Mrs. Kingsley did not commit this crime. There is a murderer on the loose. ”
The man shook his head, frowning. “No, I’m not playing this game.”
“This is not a game!” Elena exclaimed. “This is a serious matter. If someone could have slipped into this building undetected, we must know.”
“Look, the cops didn’t care to ask, so why should I answer you?”
“Because honesty is important. Because you could save a woman’s life,” Elena pleaded.
He slouched in his seat, blowing out a sigh. “All right, look, you didn’t hear this from me. But sometimes the staff…they may leave that open. Is it possible that someone came in through there? Yeah. But most people don’t even know that’s there.”
“I see,” Elena said with a nod. “Still, the possibility exists. And that’s important. Thank you very much, Lou. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Like I said,” he shouted as they retreated into the hall, “you didn’t hear that from me.”
Elena offered him a solemn nod as a promise before they huddled together. “Now what? Should we go upstairs?”
“Do you think we can?” Maddie asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Elena motioned for them to follow her down the hall to a bank of elevators. She pressed the button and one slid open. Within seconds, the trio was being whisked up to the fifth floor.
“How will we know which apartment is hers?” Caroline asked as the doors swooshed open.
Elena flicked her gaze to Maddie. “Maddie, do you know?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. I told you, I had to stay in the car.”
Elena stepped into the hallway, her eyebrows raising. “Oh, well, I suppose it’s rather obvious which is hers, isn’t it? ”
Yellow and black crime scene tape stretched across one door.
“Looks like we can access it. The door hasn’t been fixed from when the police kicked it in,” Maddie added.
“Wait,” Caroline hissed, “we shouldn’t go in there. It’s a crime scene.”
Elena crouched slightly, her hand lifting the yellow tape emblazoned with CRIME SCENE DO NOT ENTER. With a cautious glance down the deserted hallway, she slipped under, her heart rate notching higher. “Oops.”
“Your Highness!” Caroline stamped a foot on the floor. “This is behavior unbefitting of a princess.”
“It is more unbefitting if I allow my mother-in-law to stand accused of a crime she didn’t commit.”
Maddie ducked into the apartment next, followed by a reluctant Caroline. “Fine, but if we are caught…”
“I shall take all of the blame,” Elena assured her. “Now, look around…see if there are any…clues.”
“Clues? What sort of clues?” Caroline asked.
“I don’t know. A diary of visitors Chloe expected. A scrap of fabric from someone’s jumper.” Elena wrinkled her nose as she stared down at the outline of a body on the floor.
“Scrap of fabric?” Caroline cried. “Your Highness, this is not Murder, She Wrote.”
“No, if it were, Jessica Fletcher would have already solved the crime, and wouldn’t be faffing about like we are.”
She scanned the room in search of anything that would help prove Victoria Kingsley was not the culprit of the crime.
The apartment seemed in order. Her stomach fluttered as she worried that the tiny bit of information they’d dragged from the maintenance worker wouldn’t be enough to help Victoria’s case.
She sighed as she approached a built-in bookcase lacking many books at all. Instead, it was sparsely furnished with select knickknacks. “Not much of a reader, was she?” Elena murmured to Caroline.
“It does not appear so. What is it you hope to find, Your Highness?”
Elena heaved a sigh, shaking her head as she let her hands slap her sides. “I don’t know. I thought I’d stumble upon something that would crack this wide open. Foolish, really.”
“I think it’s quite brave, Your Highness. You take action when action should be taken.”
“But what was the point of all of this if I can’t–”
“Can’t what?” Caroline prodded.
Elena’s forehead crinkled as she leaned closer to the single stack of three books on the shelf. One of the spines had a hole in it. “What is this?”
“Looks like the only books she owns. Out of curiosity, what are they?” Caroline asked.
Maddie sauntered closer. “Did you find something?”
“Yes, I think so,” Elena reached for the books before she pulled her hand away. “Wait. Fingerprints. I need a–”
Caroline waved a handkerchief at her.
“Handkerchief,” Elena finished with a nod. “Thank you, Caroline.”
Carefully, Elena used the handkerchief to slide the books closer to the edge of the shelf. She studied them before she flipped the cover on the top book open.
Her lips parted she peered at the interior of the “book.” It contained no pages. Instead, a solitary object sat inside.
“What is it, Your Highness?” Caroline asked.
Elena reached inside with the handkerchief and withdrew a small silver object. “A video camera.”
She twisted to eye the living room where the outline lay. “One that seems to have been aimed at the scene of the crime.”
With a knitted brow, she stared at it again. “Could this have captured the murderer and prove Mrs. Kingsley’s innocence?”
Elena’s lips twisted into a slight smile, hoping they’d found the clue they needed to help give the police another suspect.
Before she could suggest they leave, though, a voice interrupted them.
“Hey, just what do you think you’re doing in there?”
Elena’s stomach dropped, and her heart pounded against their ribs. They’d been caught at the scene of a murder. Would they be able to explain their way out of this?