Death on the Coast, M Comley [book club books TXT] 📗

that while he was there on official business, he didn’t have a search warrant and assured her that she wasn’t a person of interest. “I’m here to just look around, particularly at Angie’s room. It’s often small, overlooked clues which can open a case.”

“Go ahead. Do what you want,” Christine said, backing up to let him pass. “At the top of the stairs, first door on the right. I haven’t been in there yet. Still not ready. It’s just been too much for me to take, you know?”

“We understand,” he murmured in what Lucy thought was the most compassionate voice she’d ever heard from him.

Her heart flipped with tenderness, and she cleared her throat to recover before starting up the stairs toward Angie’s bedroom behind him. Christine watched them, but didn’t say another word.

Lucy was shocked when she saw the state of Angie’s bedroom. She couldn’t believe her friend had slept in such filth and disarray. The sheets were soiled and balled into wads. The dresser mirror was cloudy with dust and the windows so obscured they didn’t need curtains. There were piles of dirty dishes and takeout boxes in the corners, and the closet was almost empty of clean clothes, as most of them appeared to be unwashed in a pile on the floor.

Brendon sucked in a breath. He was searching for clues, she supposed, but had no idea what. She, on the other hand, was looking for something specific. She spotted it beneath a stack of crumpled nighties—Angie’s jewelry box.

Using a pen from her bag to push aside the clothes, she raised the dusty lid of the box. “Brendon, please come here and witness that I’m not taking anything. I’m just searching for something Kathy mentioned.”

He came closer. “What’s this all about?”

“I’ll let you know if it’s here.” With the pen, she gently moved aside the tangle of pieces, removed the top insert, digging in the bottom half as well. “No, it’s not here. Never mind. I’m closing it now.” She did just that. And with the pen, she poked some of the nighties back over the jewelry box.

Brendon pointed to the box. “You mind telling me what you’re doing?”

“It’s nothing, really. Just something Kathy said that made me curious. Angie thought she’d stolen a bracelet, and it broke up their friendship. I just wondered whether Angie ever found it.”

“She did, I borrowed it,” came a voice from the doorway.

Lucy swung around. Christine stood there, watching them.

“Mom told me she thought Kathy had taken it, but I was the one who borrowed it from her box and put it back without saying anything. I knew she wouldn’t let me have it if I asked. She was…sentimental…about it. So, I just borrowed it for the day.”

Lucy’s frown was telling. “You know that broke up her friendship with Kathy, right?”

Christine shrugged. “Couldn’t have been much of a friendship if a little bracelet split them up.”

If it was such a small thing, why did you hide the fact?

One thing was apparent. Angie’s household was hardly conventional.

“You see the mess she made in here? Does that give you any insight into the woman she had become?” Christine’s tone was mean-spirited. “I could hardly stand to live with her. She just laid on the couch and watched reality TV. If there were dishes to be washed or garbage to throw out, it was up to me to do it.” The bitterness was apparent.

Lucy didn’t dare to risk a look in Brendon’s direction. The girl’s mother had been murdered, and there hadn’t even been a funeral service yet. Lucy couldn’t believe the hostility exuding from this young woman.

Brendon didn’t say a word and continued to survey the room. Not long after, he announced, “Right, I think we’re done here.” He motioned for Lucy to leave the room. The three of them went back downstairs and Brendon and Lucy said goodbye to Christine and left.

Lucy got into her car to leave, but Brendon came up to her window and tapped, making a motion to lower it.

“Yes? What’s up?” she snapped, annoyed that he’d made the decision for them both to leave without consulting her.

“I’ve never been in there before. Is that normal? That mess?”

“That was the first time I’d been in Angie’s bedroom. It didn’t seem right to me. I don’t understand why the rest of the house would be relatively neat and only her bedroom would be a mess. Doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

Brendon nodded. “That was my take on it, too. Just wondered if you knew more.”

“Nope, can’t say I do.”

“Okay, well, drive safely.”

Lucy raised her window again, and Brendon tapped the roof of her car to signal it was safe to pull away. She cringed inside because although she had told Brendon everything he’d asked of her, she was aware that she’d left a couple of things out, preferring to keep them to herself.

She knew what a woman’s closet resembled when she was running out of things to wear. That wasn’t what she saw. Women, particularly someone who worked in a salon or place where good clothes could get stained, had a certain segment of their wardrobe designated for working clothes. What she saw was a mixed pile of clothes on Angie’s floor. The piles were by size and quality, not by color or use as most women would do. Her daughter had told them her mother’s room was how Angie had left it and yet…

The bracelet was missing from the jewelry box.

She had continued to investigate every part of the room and gasped when she looked down into the vanity trash and spotted something Brendon had failed to notice…an empty condom package.

7

Lucy sat in Sal’s, her hooped embroidery in her lap. Since she was at the point in the pattern where the background was being filled in, there was no need to chart the color variations, so she could relax and watch the activity in the bakery. Sal herself was removing the mid-afternoon trays of cookies from the