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Jake considered Pinky’s theory after leaving Blind Faith.
If Muttle’s accomplice killed him, how did he get Muttle into the mikvah without anyone seeing? The mikvah door is only unlocked during public hours.
Despite the Rebbe’s wishes it was time to look in the mikvah attic.
Dr. Eisenstein may have been directed by the Sopoynik Rebbe not to involve Rose, but Jake wasn’t. His directive was to solve these crimes, and he was determined not to let anything stand in his way.
He’d have to break his promise to the doctor, but there was no other way. He knew what would happen if the community found out about pictures being taken of women at the mikvah. If they stopped spiritually cleansing themselves after their monthly flow, they couldn’t even touch their husbands, let alone satisfy their urges.
What would Mort do?
He imagined this conversation with his mentor. He missed Mort now more than ever.
Jake knew Mort would say keeping secrets was never the answer.
He’d have to trust Rose.
Jake squashed Rose’s doorbell, and zipped up his black leather jacket while waiting for a response.
He assumed the doorbell was still broken, and began rapping on the little window in the door.
He was mid-knock when Rose flung the door open wide, nearly sending him stumbling into her.
He watched the big smile on her face dissipate as if she was expecting someone else.
Rose had an extra sexy aura about her today.
Her long, red hair was completely uncovered draping onto the shoulders of her tight, black dress which was a little shorter than it should be.
Her red lipstick glistened.
She let Jake in, looked around outside the door, then bolted it shut.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” Rose admitted. “Is there news about Muttle’s death?”
Jake noted again how he was alone with her behind closed doors.
He filled her in on the nude pictures leaving out the identity of the women, and asked her to keep it to herself.
Rose’s reaction displayed just the right amount of shock and horror, but something about it didn’t sit right with Jake.
“I’d like to look in the attic to see if I can find anything to shed more light on who besides Muttle is involved, and hopefully even lead us to his killer,” Jake explained.
After repeatedly insisting there couldn’t be anything up there, she eventually led Jake into her bedroom’s walk-in closet, and showed him the attic access panel.
“Is there any other way to get up there?” Jake inquired.
She assured him this was the only access, and went to fetch a stepladder.
Jake noted the bare wooden rod on one side of the closet. He assumed that was where Muttle’s clothes used to hang. The rod on the opposite side bowed under the weight of enough tops, skirts, and dresses to fill a small boutique. A long shelf above the clothing ran the full depth of the closet. Plastic cubes stacked atop the shelf were filled with wigs, hats, and handbags. An overflowing shoe rack rested on the floor under the clothes.
When Rose returned, Jake extended the stepladder’s legs, and noticed one pair of shoes he found particularly odd. Black dress shoes—men’s dress shoes.
Jake took a step up, and slid the access panel to one side. He was surprised not to be showered with dust.
Someone had been up here—recently.
He hoisted himself up, and crawled toward the area above the mikvah while balancing his knees on the joists.
He used his flashlight app to peer between every beam and crevice.
The light flashed briefly as he guided it along one joist. He thought it looked like jewelry.
He slowly backtracked to locate the source, but all he found were a few shiny nail heads.
A few feet ahead he hit pay dirt.
A tiny, black, plastic object was perched above a vent in the ceiling.
It was hidden so well that he nearly missed it.
Remembering Mort’s warning to preserve evidence, he pulled a neatly folded handkerchief from his back pocket to lift the object.
It looked like a miniature camera—the kind he’d seen in spy movies.
He carefully wrapped it in the handkerchief, stuffed it in his pants pocket, and backed out of the attic.
As Jake descended the stepladder Rose asked, “Find anything?”
Jake hesitated, wondering if he should tell her. “I thought I saw something, but it turned out to be some nails. But then I found this,” he said, carefully extracting the wrapped camera from his pants pocket. As he slowly unwrapped the object enough to reveal it was a camera he caught a fleeting flash of surprise in her expression.
He couldn’t decide if it was shock. or panic.
“I’ll get this to the police. They have experts that can examine it for evidence.”
Rose saw Jake out.
He waited by the Nova until she’d think he’d left.
He made sure no one was watching, then snuck back, and cupped his ear against the door.
Bingo!
She was on the phone talking excitedly to someone, but he couldn’t make out the details.