Page 42 of K-9 in Pursuit

“I don’t know.” She hadn’t even thought about Sharee’s key before now. “Isn’t it with the rest of the belongings she had with her when she was killed? They should all be at the sheriff’s department.”

“I’ll have to check with the people assigned to her case,” the deputy said. He turned to Brian. “You need to wait out here while Ms. Anderson and I check out the apartment. The fewer people who walk through here the better.”

“All right.” He stepped back while Chloe unlocked the door and pushed it open.

“Don’t touch anything,” the deputy said. “I want you to tell me if you notice anything that doesn’t belong to you in here. Or anything that should be here but isn’t.”

She stepped carefully over the shards of a broken lamp, past a sofa cushion spilling stuffing. The violence of the scene chilled her. “Whoever did this must have been here for a long time,” she said.

“They didn’t merely toss the place, they destroyed it,” the deputy said.

She fought a wave of nausea. “Where were you this afternoon?” the deputy asked.

“I was at work. I own the Moon Glow Spa and Salon. I had a client scheduled for treatments all afternoon.” She stopped, struck breathless by a sudden realization.

“What’s wrong?” the deputy asked.

“The client. She said her name was Bunny Allerton. She came in yesterday and made a big deal about having me do all these treatments—a facial, manicure and pedicure. I had to personally wait on her. And then she didn’t show up today for those appointments. I tried calling but she either didn’t answer, or I got a busy signal. Do you think she was trying to make sure I wouldn’t be at my apartment?”

“Can you describe this woman?”

“She had long blonde hair—but it might have been a wig. My coworker, a hairdresser, said she thought it was a wig. She was heavily made up—thick makeup, false eyelashes.”

“What was she wearing when you saw her?”

“A gold jumpsuit and a long fur coat.” Chloe frowned. “Really, the whole getup was more like a costume than something an ordinary person would wear.”

“Would you recognize her again if you saw her?”

“If she was dressed the same, maybe. But her outfit and makeup and hair were so outrageous I really focused on them, instead of the real person.”

“Do you have an address for this person?”

“No. Only the phone number. I don’t even know if her real name is Bunny Allerton.”

“I’ll take down her information and we’ll try to contact her. In the meantime, let’s keep looking and see if you spot anything out of place.”

She avoided Sharee’s room until the last. She stopped in the doorway, the deputy right behind her. “This was my sister’s room,” she said. “The sheriff’s investigators already took a lot of things—her computer and diary and stuff.”

“Is there anything missing now that the investigators hadn’t removed?” he asked.

Chloe stared at the piles of clothing and bedding filling the floor, the fabric viciously slashed over and over. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t know.” Her shoulders shook and she began to sob. She hadn’t seen her sister’s body when they found her, only Sharee’s pale, still face as she lay on a table in the morgue, and the one arm with the tattoo at the wrist. But that mattress—cut to pieces. Someone had done that level of violence to her sister. The reality of that hit her hard.

The deputy took her arm and led her out of the apartment, to the hallway where Brian waited. He wrapped his arms around her. “Let’s go outside,” Brian said. “You don’t need to be here anymore.”

They walked past neighbors who had gathered in the parking lot. She could feel their curious stares, hear the murmur of conversation. That’s the woman whose sister was murdered. What’s going on now?

Brian led her to his truck. He found a blanket and wrapped her in it, and someone brought her a cup of coffee so hot the first sip scalded her tongue. The pain provided a welcome distraction. They sat together in the front of the truck, Chloe wrapped in the blanket, Daisy wedged between the two of them, half draped over her. Men and women from the sheriff’s department arrived and moved in and out of the apartment, but no one tried to speak with her.

Finally, a familiar figure broke away from a group of officers and came to her. Detective Renfro had even deeper bags beneath his eyes. He stared at Brian. “Where were you between noon and six p.m. today?” he asked.

“I was at work at SkyCrest,” Brian said. “Most of that time I was responding to the avalanche at Ransom Ridge. Plenty of people saw me.”

“All right.” Renfro looked to Chloe. “You’ll need to spend a couple of nights somewhere else,” he said. “It’s going to take us a while to finish our investigation, then you’ll need to have the place cleaned. And you’ll want to have the locks changed.”

“Were you able to get hold of Bunny Allerton?” she asked.

“We left a message for Ms. Allerton to call us,” Renfro said.