“No.” She chuckles. “You’re not ancient either.” She moves closer and stops. I’m not sure what she wants, so when she waves me off, I get it. I’m supposed to move out of the kitchen doorway so she can leave. I move to the side and let her pass. She’s so close we almost touch. I can’t help noticing how good she smells. It’s sweet, pretty. Like her.
Okay. I don’t know if she’s sweet. Pretty, definitely. But from the two times I’ve interacted with her, sweet isn’t a word I’d use to describe her. Leery is one. Tentative and shy, definitely.
“So, you didn’t socialize with Kara. But you saw her now and then?” I ask.
“When she was here before, I’d see her down in the laundry room, in the lobby, that sort of thing. But we never said more than one or two words to each other.”
“Did she have other friends from the complex?”
“Not that I know of. She had visitors, but I didn’t make it a point to check out everyone who passed through her doorway.”
“So, how do you know about the redhead?”
“I told you this already,” she says, sounding irritated.
“One more time, please.”
“Fine.” She huffs. “I was coming up from the laundry room. The redhead was knocking on Kara’s door.”
“And what time was this?”
“Around ten.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I set my timer on my phone to remind me to get my clothes out of the dryer. If you don’t do that around here, people either dump your stuff on the floor or take it.” She pauses. “Or both.”
Picking up my phone, I search my photos for the mug shot of Tayler. Holding it out to her, I ask, “Is this the redhead?”
She nods. “I think so. I saw her from the back mostly but also in profile.”
I turn my phone and bring up Tayler’s photo in profile. “This her?”
“Yeah.” She nods, looking solemn.
“Did you see anyone else approach Kara’s door that night?”
“No.”
“Did you hear anything? Any loud noises that night, between ten and midnight?”
“I put my headphones on as soon as I got back so I wouldn’t hear anything.”
That was a strange way to answer that question, but I won’t read too much into it just yet. Though I am curious if she really meant wouldn’t or rather couldn’t hear anything?
“Can you think of anything else that can help us with our inquiry?” Daisy shakes her head, then does something surprising. She smiles. And it nearly takes my breath away. The woman’s face lights up like a beacon. “You should smile more often,” I say without thinking.
Wrong thing to say, because it goes away as quickly as it came.
Slipping off her stool again, she walks to her front door.
I guess it’s time for me to go.
“I may have more questions for you,” I warn her.
“Okay,” she responds softly.
Reaching into my breast pocket, I retrieve my card. “My cell number is on the back. If you think of something or you’re concerned about anything, give me a call.”
“Concerned? About what?”
“Well, your neighbor was murdered….”
“Oh.” Her lashes flutter. “Right.” When she looks up at me, I can tell what I said has struck a nerve. With a quiver in her voice, she asks, “Should I be worried? Am I in danger?”
“My professional opinion is no, you’re not in danger, but we don’t know everything yet.” Pointing at my card, I say, “If you’re concerned about anything, call me.”
“All right. I will.”
“Good.”
Grabbing the doorknob, I pull her door open and step into the hallway. Turning back, I watch her door shut and listen for her to lock it. When the familiar click sounds, I move back over to Kara’s apartment. Police tape is crisscrossed over her doorway, and someone has placed a bouquet of flowers at the threshold. Bending at the waist, I look for a card or something indicating who set them here. When I don’t spot anything, I turn back and look at Daisy’s door.
Her muffled voice sounds from behind the thin wood. “No, I don’t know who left the flowers.”
I want to laugh at her response. She must have read the look on my face. “Thanks.”
Once I’m outside of the complex, I pull my phone out of my pocket and press the button to stop the recording. Since she wouldn’t let me take notes, I chose to record our conversation. Because I didn’t notify her of that, it’d be inadmissible, but at least I’ll be able to make my notes with more accuracy.
With that, I’m off to find something to eat. I’m starving. Then I need a good night’s sleep.
Chapter Four
Gage
Sleep eludes me. Too many things are whirling around in my head, which sucks because that means I’ll have gone a couple of day without decent sleep. It can’t be helped. All I can think about is Kara Becker’s murder. Looking at the clock on my nightstand, I see I’ve got time to get a workout in, shower, and get to the station before they take Tayler over to the courthouse for her arraignment. I’m not due to work until three o’clock this afternoon, but I feel the need to get there early. Perhaps Tayler will be able to answer a few questions that are nagging at me. I’ll have to be careful about it, because I don’t want to piss off Detective Trumbull, but I think Tayler will tell me things she wouldn’t say to Dan. At least I hope so.
After a five-mile run, I shower, then grab a large coffee and breakfast sandwich from a drive-through. I’m good to go. The jog was good for a couple of reasons: it woke me up and also cleared my head some. The harder my feet beat down on the ground in a steady rhythm, the more I realized Quinn and the other Beedle women were right—Tayler isn’t capable of killing someone. Threatening Kara? Yes, definitely. Now the question is how do I prove it? One way would be finding out
