Her mouth went desert dry and her heart thudded painfully in her chest. She stared at the horrific invasion of her privacy.
Never in her entire life had she felt so violated.
“Stay back—let me check it out.” Nate hastily piled the items he’d carried in just outside her apartment door, then gently nudged her and Lucy aside and pulled his weapon. Watching as he and Murphy crossed the threshold had her sending up another silent, desperate prayer.
Please, Lord, keep us all safe!
“Aunt Willow, you’re messy like Mommy and Daddy,” Lucy said, breaking into her thoughts.
The reminder of how much worse things could be helped calm her racing heart. She forced a smile, relieved that Lucy hadn’t picked up on the sinister nature of their situation. “Yes, it sure looks that way.”
“I’m hungry,” Lucy complained.
Food wasn’t even close to the top of her list, but she knew Lucy needed to eat dinner, especially since she highly doubted the little girl had eaten anything substantial for lunch. The burn of resentment hit hard, but she pushed it away. Alex and Debra were gone. Dead. Despite their neglect of Lucy, they certainly didn’t deserve to be murdered.
Was it possible the same person who’d killed them had done this to her apartment? If so, why? Had they been searching for something? The same thing they hadn’t found at Alex and Debra’s?
She suppressed a shiver.
Glancing again at the mess, she swallowed hard. It was very tempting to ask Nate to drive her and Lucy to the nearest hotel. Especially considering the handle on her apartment door was broken.
“There’s no one inside,” Nate informed her. “I’ll call for a team to respond, although it seems unlikely we’ll be able to lift any fingerprints. Whoever did this was likely smart enough to wear gloves.”
The idea of more strangers invading her small apartment was unsettling. “Okay.”
Nate’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve already been through a lot. Whoever did this made a huge mess, but thankfully there isn’t a lot of actual damage.” He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. “It seems the person responsible spent a lot of time going through your closet and dresser drawers as if searching for something.”
The chill returned. “You think this is related to what happened to Alex and Debra?”
“Maybe, but I’m not convinced. You said yourself, your brother and sister-in-law weren’t expecting you to visit. Then again, the timing is a strange coincidence.” He frowned, thinking it through, then glanced at his watch. “The patrol officers should be here soon. Oh, and I’m sorry, but I need Lucy’s bloodstained clothes for evidence.”
She nodded, suppressing a shiver. Borrowing gloves from Nate, she carefully took the little girl’s yellow outfit off, gingerly handing it to Nate, who placed it in an evidence bag. Stripping the gloves off, she dressed Lucy in a new pink outfit she’d purchased from the store. Sitting back against the wall, she wished she’d bought more snacks for Lucy. At this rate, the poor child would never get her dinner. She felt bad, as if she were no better at caring for Lucy than Alex and Debra had been.
The two officers arrived five minutes later. They disappeared inside her apartment with Nate and Murphy. Frustrated and exhausted, Willow sat on the floor in the hallway just outside her apartment next to Lucy. She pulled the baby doll she’d purchased at the store out of one of the bags and gave it to her niece. Together, they played with the doll, Willow doing whatever she could think of to keep the little girl occupied.
But she couldn’t forget how her apartment had been thoroughly searched. Or the way her brother and his wife had been brutally murdered.
The fingerprint crew showed up a few minutes later, and it took them over an hour to check the various surfaces for prints.
“Willow?” Nate came out and hunkered down beside her. “We’ll need your prints so we can exclude them from anything we may have found. The place was really very clean. There weren’t many prints at all.”
“Okay.” She shifted Lucy off her lap. As she was about to stand, Nate held out his hand to her. After a moment’s hesitation, she put her hand in his and allowed him to draw her upright. His warm palm was strangely reassuring. She wanted to cling to his strength but forced herself to let go.
“Thanks.” She inwardly grimaced at her breathless tone. She really needed to get a hold of herself. This weird attraction she felt toward the K-9 cop was not healthy. She didn’t have time for such nonsense.
Lucy was the only thing that mattered right now. Not her dearth of a love life. The little girl deserved a stable, loving home and Willow planned to do whatever it took to provide that for her.
Once she’d been fingerprinted, the crime scene techs took off, leaving a mess of black fingerprint powder covering numerous surfaces behind.
Crazy to have spent the hour after Sunday services cleaning prior to heading over to confront her brother about Lucy. She’d need to clean, again.
“Here, let’s get your stuff inside.” Nate bent down to gather her bags. “We’ll leave the car seat here for now. I’ll need you to tell me if anything has been stolen.”
Feeling nervous, she followed him into the apartment. The two officers who’d initially responded were standing off in the corner of her living room, speaking in low tones. Murphy brushed against her legs and she was oddly reassured when the animal stayed close.
She wiped the kitchen counter, then began unpacking the groceries. Nate went over to speak with the two officers. The task of putting her apartment back together seemed overwhelming, but what choice did she have? She was emotionally and physically exhausted. The last thing she wanted to do was pack up and move to a hotel. But staying here with a broken door handle wasn’t a very good idea, either.
The two officers headed out of the apartment. She must have looked upset, because Nate crossed over to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“They’re not leaving, I just want them to check the video cameras for any footage of the person who did this.”
“Oh.” She tried to offer a smile. “That would be good, right? Then we’d know who murdered Alex and Debra.”
“Only if these two crimes are linked,” Nate cautioned. “Listen, I want to look around again and then will likely have some questions for you.”
“Okay, but I need to feed Lucy something for dinner. She needs something more substantial than animal crackers in her belly.”
“Understood.” He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, then moved away. She instantly missed the warmth of his touch.
She reminded herself that the men in her life didn’t stick around. She’d dated a few, only to have them quickly disappear. Either because she wasn’t very exciting or because she worked too many hours, or both.
Once the pizza was in the oven, she quickly wiped down the small kitchen table so Lucy would have a place to sit, then replaced her sofa cushions. She couldn’t comprehend why anyone would be looking for something of Alex’s in her apartment. Especially since she and Alex hadn’t been close in a very long time.
Since before the death of their grandmother, three years ago, right after Lucy was born. They’d each received a modest inheritance; she’d invested hers in this apartment. When Alex and Debra had moved into their two-story, she’d praised him for putting his money to good use, only to have him laugh at her, carelessly announcing they were just renting the cheap place and living off the money and enjoying life. Despite having Lucy, Debra made it clear she wasn’t interested in settling down.
Watching as Lucy played with her new baby doll, Willow tried to find the forgiveness in her heart that she knew God expected of her. Alex and Debra had gone down a bad path and unfortunately had paid the ultimate price.
Deep down, she knew they hadn’t intentionally neglected Lucy. Despite Alex’s being two years her senior, he was immature and irresponsible.
“Willow?”
Nate’s deep voice startled her. “Yes?”
“Do you have a minute?”
“Sure.” She peeked at the pizza through the glass oven door before hurrying to her master bedroom. “What is it?”
He gestured to a small slip of paper lying on the floor tucked beneath the open closet door. “That appears to be a cash receipt for gas. Is it yours?”
“Gas?” She dropped to her knees to see the receipt more clearly. “No.” She glanced up at him. “I don’t own a car. Why would I buy gas?”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He pulled an evidence bag from the pocket of his uniform and used the plastic bag to cover his fingers as he carefully picked the receipt off the floor. The gas had been paid for with cash, and the identifying number across the top was smudged, but he thought Eden might be able to find the station. Maybe they’d discover there were cameras nearby.
Then he had another idea. After he had the slip of paper tucked inside the evidence bag, he called Murphy over and opened the bag for the K-9. “Seek, Murphy.”
The yellow Lab buried his nose in the evidence bag, sniffing for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time.
“Seek,” Nate repeated in a commanding tone.
Murphy put his snout to the floor and sniffed, breaking into a lope as he tracked the scent across the hardwood floor of her bedroom, through the doorway into the open-concept kitchen and living area. Then the dog headed for the door.
“Wait. Are you leaving us here alone?” She couldn’t hide the underlying panic in her tone.
“No. Heel, Murphy.” He paused and used his radio to call the two officers. “I need one or both of you to return to the apartment.”
“Ten-four. We’re on our way. The video isn’t helpful anyway.”
Once again, she tried to tell herself that the two cops were just as capable of protecting her and Lucy as Nate and Murphy.
But when they arrived and Nate took off with Murphy, she couldn’t help feeling starkly alone.
Pumped with adrenaline at finally having a solid clue, Nate followed Murphy as the dog tracked the scent of the intruder down the hall toward the elevator. His partner made several twists and turns, but then pressed his nose against the narrow crack between the floor and the closed elevator doors.
Murphy stayed there for a long moment, then made a circle in front of the elevator, returning to the closed doors for the second time. He sat, then gazed up at Nate with what he perceived as an imploring gaze.
“It’s okay, boy. We’re going to get him.” Nate quickly clipped Murphy’s leash to his collar, then pushed the button to summon the elevators. The one on the right opened first, and he held the door open. “Seek, Murphy.”
The dog put his nose to the ground and took his time, but never alerted. Nate squelched a flash of concern. He decided since there were only two elevators, he’d head down to the lobby to see if Murphy could pick up the scent there.
Once they were in the lobby, it took another several minutes of sniffing and searching for Murphy to pick up the scent, near the second elevator. “Good boy,” he praised, giving Murphy a good rub. “Seek!”
His partner gamely went back to work, sniffing and alerting again near the doorway heading outside. Nate knew that once they were out in the elements the scent may be more difficult to track. About a year and a half ago, the NYC K-9 Command Unit in Queens had been gifted a Labrador retriever named Stella from the Czech Republic. Stella had delivered eight puppies shortly upon her arrival to the US. Stella currently worked as a bomb-sniffing dog, and several of her puppies had turned into equally talented K-9 cops. Murphy was one of Stella’s pups, earning a reputation for being one of the best trackers their Brooklyn unit had working for them. Still, there were a lot of people walking around, moving up and down the sidewalks, back and forth from subways and other buildings. Murphy was good, but it wouldn’t be easy to pick out one specific scent against all others.
“Heel.” He waited for Murphy to sit at his side before offering the evidence bag again. This time, he pulled out the orange ball he carried with him. Like most of their K-9s, Murphy was trained with a reward system that involved playing. Murphy’s tail wagged with excitement when he saw the ball, and he quickly sniffed at the evidence bag, eager to get to work.
“Seek, Murphy.” Nate slipped the ball back into his pocket.
Murphy put his nose to the ground, going back and forth as he searched for the scent. Nate stayed close, keeping the leash short so that they wouldn’t trip any of the pedestrians passing by.
Murphy picked up the scent a few minutes later, alerting near the corner of the apartment building. Nate could imagine the guy pausing there for a moment, sweeping his gaze over the area to see if anyone noticed him.
“Good boy,” he praised again. “Seek.”
Murphy put his nose back to the sidewalk and took off in an eastern direction, which made sense as Bay Ridge overlooked the upper and lower bays of the Atlantic Ocean and connected to Staten Island via the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the west.
Murphy took a winding path as he tracked the perp’s scent. His K-9 paused at the intersection, then alerted again, staring north.
When the light changed, they crossed the street and Murphy picked up the scent once again. As they approached the entrance to the subway, Nate’s hopes deflated. If the perp had taken one of the trains, they’d never find him. Sure, there were cameras, but he didn’t have a clue who they were looking for or even a time frame of the vandalism.
Thankfully, Murphy alerted at the next intersection, too. Trying to quell the sense of excitement, Nate glanced around, taking note of their surroundings. There was a single long building housing a few shops and small restaurants with apartments located up above.
Was Murphy still on point? He trusted his K-9, but the streets were busy, and he knew the endless multitude of scents, from people, food and the ocean, could be confusing.
His stomach rumbled with hunger as he caught a whiff of hamburger grease, followed closely by the scent of hot dogs. He and Murphy crossed the street, and soon his partner once again alerted, indicating he’d picked up the scent.
“Good boy!” Nate knew he’d have to throw the ball for a long time once they were finished. The K-9 deserved a nice reward.
His partner alerted again, and then kept going, making Nate break into a jog to keep up. For whatever reason, it seemed the scent Murphy was following was stronger here. They turned right at the next corner, then Murphy abruptly came to a halt right outside the door to a small restaurant. The animal stared straight ahead as if he could see through the glass door to the inside where his potential quarry may be hiding in wait.
Nate took a step back to get a better look at the building. The sign above the door was done in bright red against a white background.
The Burgerteria.
In smaller letters beneath were the words Gourmet Burgers Served Daily.
Unfortunately, the place was closed for the day. Peering at the sign, it appeared the burger place closed early on Sundays, at 5:00 p.m. rather than the usual 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Murphy continued sitting and staring at the door, his nostrils quivering. Nate stepped up beside him and cupped his hands around his face so he could see inside without the glare from the light.
The place was empty and amazingly clean. There were several small square tables surrounded by four chairs as well as a long counter against the farthest wall.
He tried to imagine why the perp had come here so soon after ransacking Willow’s apartment. Simply because he was hungry?
No, more likely because he was meeting someone. Maybe the perp had been paid to do the job by someone else. Nate couldn’t imagine why the same person who’d searched Willow’s apartment would want her brother and sister-in-law dead. Murder was a far cry from simple burglary.
Other than the timing, there was nothing else to indicate the two crimes were related. Especially considering the Emery murders had followed the same MO as the twenty-year-old McGregor murders, which he knew had hung like a black cloud over Bradley and Penny McGregor.
His gut told him these two events couldn’t possibly be connected. As he was about to turn away, he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.
Someone was still inside!