Chapter 49
Armed with the scrapbooks that had pages torn out of them, Annie headed over to Rosa’s apartment. She had called ahead and Rosa had said to please come.
Annie pulled into the parking lot. The same group of men were standing around a motorcycle. When they looked over at her, she remembered what Rosa had said about them being “middle-aged losers that hang out in the parking lot because they don’t have anything better to do.” She smiled at them and kind of waved. Most of them nodded their heads and smiled back. Annie almost laughed when she thought of how frightened she was the first time she had seen them standing there.
“Hey, Annie,” Rosa said when she opened her door. “Please come in.”
After they sat down and were situated at the kitchen table, Annie opened the scrapbooks. “We think this is where the pages were torn out.”
“It certainly looks that way,” Rosa agreed.
“Can you tell me anything about this day? It appears to be outside, some kind of gathering?”
“Humph,” Rosa said, looking over the pictures. “I think this is the Pie Palace’s annual employee picnic.”
“Interesting. I didn’t know they had one, but it seems like a nice thing to do.”
“They say Pamela is great to work for.”
Annie sifted through her thoughts. Great to work for, but has a temper. “Is it only employees that go to this picnic?”
“And their families,” Rosa replied. “It’s a big thing.”
“It seems so simple.”
“What does?”
“Our killer left scrapbook pages on the sisters. Both about the same day, the same event. He or she must have been there, don’t you think? Any ideas?”
Rosa shook her head. “No, but I wish I did.” But she seemed shaken.
“Are you sure?” Annie questioned.
Rosa bit her lip. “I’m sure it’s nothing. . . .”
“If I had a dime for every time I’ve said that . . .” Annie smiled.
“It’s just that Jorge creeps me out. I know he’s Irina’s nephew. But I don’t know. The way he’s always hanging around. There’s something about him.”
“Would he have been there that day?” Annie said.
Rosa nodded. “Maybe. He works at the Pie Palace. And he likes to take pictures. Maybe he even took the pictures on those pages.”
A shiver traveled the length of Annie’s spine. Was Jorge capable of murder? If he was, what was it about the sisters or their scrapbooks, that had set him off? She shook off her thoughts. “Irina said he was harmless.”
“Who knows? He just creeps me out. I know that Marina did not like him. We talked about it. He asked her out once.”
“He asked her out?” Annie’s heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
“He sure did. He really liked her. She told him no. He tried for a while, but not very long. A few weeks maybe. Then Pamela stepped in and told him employees weren’t allowed to date each other.”
Pamela! Annie had thought all along that she knew more than she was telling. It was time for another visit.
“Thanks, Rosa. You’ve been very helpful,” Annie said, glancing at her watch. It was getting late; the boys would be home soon. She needed to get home.
After saying good-bye, Annie almost ran into Bryant on the stairs. He was heading up as she was going down.
“Annie, what are you doing here?”
“Working on a story,” she told him, clutching the scrapbooks to her chest.
“What have you got there?” he said, a crooked smirk forming.
“Scrapbooks, Adam,” she said with an edge.
“What’s going on?”
“I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?”
“Business.”
“Police business?”
“Of course. Now let me see those scrapbooks.”
Annie shrugged and handed him the books.
He stood on the stairs and flipped through the books. “What am I missing here?”
Annie’s stomach flip-flopped. She’d never withheld information from the police before. She wasn’t that kind of reporter; she was always cooperative. And they reciprocated. But this was Adam Bryant. Sarcastic. Usually not helpful. The man she had almost had an affair with. And he was dating twenty five-year-old Karen Fields.
“Annie?” Bryant said. “Earth to Annie.”
“There’s missing pages in those books,” she blurted out. “We think the pages you and Bixby have came from these books.”
“You just found that out?”
She nodded.
“And you were coming to find me, right? To tell me everything, right? Because you wouldn’t keep this to yourself,” he said in a patronizing tone.
“No,” she said and took a deep breath. “I was on my way home. My boys will be home soon. I was still thinking things over.”
“What things? What have you found out?”
“The pictures on those pages you have were taken at the Pie Palace’s employee picnic.”
“And?”
“Seems like your killer might have been there.”
“You think it’s that simple?” He handed the books back to her.
“Here’s what I think. There’s nothing like a disturbed man who has been recently spurned,” Annie said.
Their eyes met, and then Bryant guffawed. “Women,” he said and continued walking up the steps, leaving Annie and her scrapbooks behind.