Three days had passed since Parker’s death, and I’d spent the majority of it at home. I wanted to avoid any run-ins with Coop and the chief, who felt I had interfered in their investigation. I received no thank you for discovering the body, no words of appreciation, nothing for my efforts.
My cell phone rang. It was Audrey.
“I got your message,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s all over.”
“That’s the general consensus.”
“Parker did himself and everyone else a huge favor.”
I didn’t see any point in debating with her.
“So, what’s next for you?”
“I’m out of here,” she said.
“For how long?”
“Maybe for good. It’s time to move on with my life. This town reminds me too much of Charlotte. It’s hard to drive around and see a real estate sign with her beaming face on the front and convince myself she’s really gone. I know they’ll all come down eventually, but I feel like I can’t move on if I stay here.”
I’d felt the same way about my sister a few years earlier except Audrey was leaving for the same reason I’d decided to stay.
“Will you come back?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Any idea where you’ll go?”
“Do you want to know something interesting? A couple days ago I was looking through Charlotte’s mail, and I came across a letter from a woman in Haiti. She said she was looking forward to Charlotte and her sister arriving next month to assist with the reconstruction project they’d started there.”
“Wow.”
“Imagine my surprise when I realize Charlotte never planned to transfer to another real estate agency. She wanted to leave this place, and she was going to take me with her.”
“I’m sorry I never got the chance to meet your sister,” I said. “Sounds like she was an amazing person.”
“If she’d talked to me about this when she was alive, I can’t say whether I would have gone with her. But now, I feel I owe it to her to go.”
“If there is anything you need––”
“There is,” she said. “I want to put Charlotte’s place on the market. I’ve sent some movers over to pack it up for me, and in the meantime, I’ve listed it with Vicki.”
“What can I do?”
“I’m on my way to the airport, and I didn’t have time to drop the key off to her before I left. Since I gave you a copy, I hoped you could stop in and do it for me?”
I agreed to help Audrey and ended the call. The news of Parker’s death had come as a sense of peace for her. So why didn’t I feel a sense of resolve too?
Lord Berkeley’s ears perked up as Nick walked in with dog treats in one hand and daisies in the other. He opened the bag and placed a treat on Boo’s nose.
“For the lord,” he said.
Boo wiggled his nose, snatched it up, and looked at Nick for a second. Much to his dismay, Nick turned toward me and extended the flowers.
“For the lady,” he said.
“What’s the occasion?”
“Do I need one?” he said.
“I guess not.”
He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. “We’ve dropped the case. The ME’s report came back, and it’s conclusive. Parker committed suicide. The latent prints we lifted from the gun matched Parker’s, and no other prints were found on the weapon. There is one caveat though.”
“What?”
“Before the ME’s report came back, I checked out the gun, and it wasn’t registered to Parker or anyone else for that matter. And Parker’s father said he didn’t own a gun.”
“So where’d he get it?”
“Good question,” he said.
“What about the note?”
“We compared it to some handwritten papers we found in his desk, and they were an exact match.”
I put the daisies in a vase, walked over to the couch, and sat down. “I can’t believe it.”
“At least now you can put it behind you and move on.”
“I guess so.”
I wanted to feel a sense of relief, but something about it bothered me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to Parker’s death than what it seemed.