Page 33 of Beyond Her Reach (Bree Taggert #10)

“I’ll have my deputies do the outside search.” Bree found Zucco and issued instructions. “Have Juarez assist.”

“Do you want us to do that now?”

Bree scanned the dark yard. “No. The sun will be up in two hours. May as well wait until you can see. Watch for footprints.”

She went inside and stopped at the office doorway.

With the body removed, it was easier to view the scene more clinically.

A second forensic tech was photographing blood spatter on the wall.

Yellow evidence markers dotted the space.

They’d be here all night. Collection of trace evidence was a painstaking process.

Everything found would be compared to the first crime scene.

Unusual finds and any item collected from both scenes would be sent for analysis.

Matt spoke from behind her. “There are no neighbors to interview. No one would have seen a car coming or going. No doorbell camera or other security devices.”

Because people thought they were safe in the country.

“Let’s start in the bedrooms.” Bree donned fresh gloves.

Matt did the same. The house was about fifteen hundred square feet and comprised three bedrooms, two full baths, and a combo living room / kitchen.

Janet and Alice each had their own bedroom, with the third used as Janet’s home office.

Alice worked in her employer’s office in town, about twenty minutes from home.

They divided their efforts. Bree veered into Janet’s bedroom while Matt searched Alice’s.

Janet’s dresser was clear except for a row of framed photos.

Bree lifted one and stared at it. Janet crouched next to her father, who sat in front of a birthday cake laden with lit candles.

Bree picked up another, a wedding picture of the same man, much younger, with a woman Bree assumed was Janet’s mother.

The third photo was Janet and her father again, arms around each other, grinning in front of a restaurant.

Bree looked closer. The photo had been folded.

She carefully turned over the frame and removed the back.

The photo slipped out, and Bree unfolded it.

Troy Ryder’s face smiled back at her.

Bree found a pair of small stud earrings that might be diamonds and fifty-five dollars in mixed bills in a small bowl on the nightstand next to an electronic tablet.

She bagged all as evidence. Janet kept the rest of her jewelry in a box in the top dresser drawer.

Bree opened it to find big hoops and sparkly dangles.

She was no bling expert, but all appeared to be costume.

Janet didn’t seem to harbor any deep, dark secrets.

The most controversial item in the bedroom was a vibrator in the nightstand.

Matt appeared in the doorway. Bree looked up from Janet’s sock drawer. “Find anything?”

“Nothing interesting. You?”

She lifted the evidence bag. The earrings caught the light. “Some cash and a pair of decent earrings on the nightstand.”

“This wasn’t a burglary,” Matt concluded.

Not that either one of them had seriously thought it was. Still good to rule it out.

She showed him the folded-over picture of Troy.

“Relationship confirmed,” he said.

“Find any drugs?” Bree asked.

“Over the counter only.” He shook his head.

She glanced around the room, every sign pointing to the life of an ordinary woman who worked hard and hung out with her dad and roommate. “She seems so normal. So why is she dead? Because she dated Troy Ryder?”

“We’ll figure that out.”

“Feels a little late. I should have warned the public. I shouldn’t have said Kelly’s death was personal. We don’t know that for certain.” Guilt surged through her.

“You always say we should follow the evidence, and that’s what it suggests.” As usual, Matt knew what she was thinking. “Would you rather shake a Magic 8 Ball?”

“Maybe that would be more effective. Either way, I feel responsible.”

“You couldn’t have prevented her death.”

Bree nodded, but inside she thought she might have. What if she had given the public a serious warning? What if she’d told them to be on the lookout, to be extra vigilant, instead of telling them she believed Kelly’s murder was a one-time thing?

Would a warning have prompted Janet Hargrave to lock her dead bolt?

If she had, she might not be dead.

A second thought nagged at her. If she’d been willing to arrest Troy Ryder, would that have prevented Janet’s death?

“Let’s finish up.” She moved out of Janet’s bedroom and returned to the kitchen. Forensics was taking samples in the office. Bree scanned the kitchen surfaces. Her gaze landed on a knife block. She walked closer. Matching set. Empty slot. She called out, “Here’s a possibility.”

“What did you find?” Matt asked from the doorway.

Bree gestured to the knives. “There’s an empty slot in the knife block.”

She called Alice on video chat. She answered immediately, her voice shaky, her face stricken. “Yes?”

“I’m looking at a knife block in your kitchen.” Bree switched the camera to front view and positioned it to show the knife block.

“Let me go outside.” Alice lowered her voice. “Give me a sec.” Over the line, a door creaked open and shut. “ Ok . I didn’t want Janet’s dad to overhear. He bought her that set when she moved into the house. Sometimes they cooked together.”

“Are all the slots normally full?” Bree asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me what’s missing?” Bree slid the remaining knives out, then back in one by one.

“There should be a five-inch chef’s knife in that spot,” Alice said.

Bree checked the dishwasher and drainboard. No knives.

Alice said, “Janet would never put her good knife in the dishwasher.”

“When was the last time you saw it?” Bree asked.

“I used it the day before I left for my trip.” Alice sobbed. “I even sharpened it.”

“Did you return the knife to the block?”

“Positive.”

Bree thanked her and ended the video call. She turned to Matt. “The weapon was on hand.”

“Just like Kelly’s murder.”