Keegan stood shoulder to shoulder with Gary as they stared at Misery Real Estate’s main office. The architect took mimicking Southern Gothic to an entirely new level. The fence was black wrought iron and the points curled and weaved into harsh fleur-de-lis. The lawn was immaculate and the pathway leading up towards the door was awash with the deeper, darker hues of flowers. The most eye catching were the blood red roses.
“Does it feel like we’re about to step into a horror movie if we open the gate?” Gary asked in a mock-terrified whisper. “Should I leave my last will and testament beneath the windshield wipers of your car just in case?”
Keegan playfully shoved his shoulder, “Ignore the scary roses and the morbid looking office. We’ve got work to do.”
“But I don’t want to,” Gary protested even though he was already opening the gate and motioning Keegan through. “I still have so much life to live.”
All joking was set aside as they tromped up the stairs and let themselves into the building. A man busy chattering on the phone and typing furiously at his computer held up a finger signaling for them to wait just a moment. Keegan shared a look with Gary as if to ask “Is this guy serious?” She pulled her badge from her belt and set it directly on his keyboard. That got his attention.
He looked at the badge and then to her before he spoke into his headset, “Mrs. Davis? I’m going to have to get back to you in a little bit. Yes, I’m sorry about this. It’ll only be a few minutes and I’ll call you right back. Uh huh, I promise, good-bye dear.”
He picked up her badge with two fingers and his face morphed into disgust. Keegan frowned at his lack of manners, “How can I help you detective?”
“We were hoping to speak with the people who worked closest with Alice Barr.” Keegan snatched her badge back clicked it back into place on her lanyard.
“What does Alice’s death have to do with the SIU? Did one of those monsters kill her?”
“Excuse me.” Gary ducked his head to look at the name tag sitting on the breast pocket of the black shirt. “Mr. Bryant, it appears Alice kept her private life, private. So unless you have anything to offer us in light of her death there really isn’t a need to explain what the SIU is doing investigating her death. So do you have any information regarding the deceased or is there someone else we can speak with?”
The receptionist’s mouth dropped open in outrage before he picked up his phone and stabbed a number in. “Michelle? There are some,” he paused before sarcastically continuing, “detectives here asking about Alice. All right I’ll send them back.”
He looked back at Gary. “The office marked Clarke is where you can head to. Straight down that hallway.”
“Thank you so much for you cooperation Mr. Bryant.” Gary let his eyes flash a deep red and grinned to himself at the squeak he got in turn as they headed down the hallway.
Keegan swatted him upside the head. “Just because he’s a bigoted jerk doesn’t mean you can pull that crap.”
“The little shit deserved it” Gary shot back. “People like that are apparently the reason why Alice Barr hid who she was married to and what her life was like. I bet Michelle Clarke doesn’t even know who she had working for her.”
A polite cough broke into their arguing. They looked up to see a woman dressed in a polite black pant suit gesturing for them to make themselves comfortable in her office. As soon as she shut the door she began speaking to them. “I was the only one at the office who knew about Alice being part of the supernatural community and that she was married to a human. It wasn’t something she advertised because of people like Craig out there. What is it that I can help you with?”
“Did Alice have any problems that you know of with anyone here? That maybe knew her marriage situation and they might not be too happy with it?” Both Keegan and Gary had their notebooks out and pens poised and ready to go.
“Alice was well respected in the office. Even Craig was kind to her despite his misgivings about the supernatural kind. Alice, she just had a way with people. She was empathetic and understood how to find a home to meet a family’s needs, not matter how demanding they were. In the five years she has worked with Misery Real Estate I have yet to receive any kind of complaint or heard anyone speaking ill of her.”
Gary placed the end of his pen to his lips in thought. “I know this is going to sound a bit bad but did she handle a lot of Supernatural clients or did she have a mix?”
“We don’t really ask if you’re a Supernatural or not detective. Sometimes other offices would pass on the difficult clients to her and she would manage just fine with them. But we do work a lot off of customer recommendations and with some of our clients you could tell that they were more than human. Alice made them more comfortable and in the end that’s all that really mattered.”
“Did Alice talk to you about her home life?” Keegan pulled them out of the world of real estate seeing that line of questioning going nowhere fast. “Did she mention anyone giving her or Cody trouble of any sort?”
Michelle began tapping her fingers against the top of her desk, almost as if the motion helped her think. Just as fast as the tapping started, it stopped. “She came in a bit upset a few days ago. I asked her what happened or if she needed to talk but she just shook it off and said she didn’t have the time to sit around and gab. She had houses to show.”
“Do you remember when that was?” Keegan asked.
“It was last Monday.” Michelle flipped through her day planner. “So the fifth. The Friday before she looked a bit stressed also but Monday, it looked like the stress had gotten worse.”
“Thank you.” Keegan reached across the desk to shake the broker’s hand. “I appreciate you’re cooperation. If you think of anything else don’t hesitate to give us a call.”
She took the proffered card and gave them a sad smile. “Alice was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. She didn’t deserve to die like the papers were saying. None of her family did.”
“No ma’am she didn’t deserve that.” Gary repeated Keegan’s gesture and shook her hand. “That’s why we’re here, to give her some justice.”
They didn’t speak to each other until they were both buckled into Keegan’s car and driving away from the building. Gary let out a heavy sigh. “It’s great to know that she worked in an office where half her coworkers were bigoted a*sholes and the other half seemed okay with her living her life however she pleased. But where does that get us?”
“Not the entire world is as nice as we are Gary.” Keegan reached across the car and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezing before settling back on the steering wheel. “Even if we didn’t get much here we’ve got Doc Biggerson’s autopsy to head to. You want to go with or would you rather stay behind and get some more leg work done?”
“Give me legwork for two hundred Alex,” Garry grinned at Keegan. “I don’t do too well with corpses. The smell, you think it’s bad for humans but for me? Gag me with a spoon.”
“You and Melinda can’t go anywhere near Dr. Biggerson without grimacing.” Keegan shook her head. “One of these days you’re going to have to suck it up.”
Gary smirked, “But not today.”