Past Unveiling by Audrey Walker (little readers .TXT) 📕

“Oh, alright,” he said. “I will be going then?”

“Yes, thank you for your help, Andrews,” she said.

Andrews walked away, and Kyle’s voice echoed behind her.

“He is smitten with you,” he announced.

“He is not!” Robin protested. “The poor kid just needed someone to show him some damn kindness.”

She looked at Kyle, who gave her a dry smile. He looked better than before. At least he had shaved and taken a shower and was concentrating on work.

“So, how are you doing?” she asked.

“Same,” he said. “But there is a serial killer on the loose, and someone deliberately killed the Mayor’s daughter. We have too much work on our hands to slack off.”

“What about Danvers?” she asked.

“I am not giving up,” he said firmly. “I will find the evidence I need against him someday. But until then, I am going to work my ass off catching the murderers that I can catch, starting with this copycat and then the Executioner.”

“Good to have you back, Kyle,” Robin said.

He nodded, but Robin had a feeling that it will be quite some time before he will be normal again.

__

“Hello?” Robin shouted. “Hello, is anyone in here?”

“I’m coming!” an angry voice shouted. The door was pulled open, and a tiny, white-haired woman stood there.

“What?” she snapped.

“I am Detective Matthews, and this Detective Grange,” Robin said. “Can I ask you a few questions about your tenant on the top floor?”

“Why you ask me?” she asked.

“Because you are the landlady of this building, correct?” Robin said.

The woman glared at her and swung the door all the way open.

“Come!” she ordered.

They followed her in, and she pointed toward an uncomfortable-looking chair.

Robin sat down while Kyle continued to stand. The room stunk of mothballs and sour milk, and Robin tried not to let her expression show how she felt about the room. It was overcrowded, stuffy, and suffocating. Robin didn’t know how this woman continued living here.

“What you want to know?” she barked, speaking in her broken English.

“Mrs. Cartwright,” Kyle said. “You immigrated here, I believe?”

“It’s all legal!” she said angrily. “You, cops! Always looking for poor people like me. It’s all legal, you hear me!”

“That’s not why we are here,” Robin said. “He was just trying to get a bit of background information on you, that’s all. But no worries, can you tell us about your tenant?”

“The one who got killed?” she snapped. “In my building! A murder! It ruins a business! Who will want to come here now, tell me? Who will want to come to a place where someone die? Who will live here? I didn’t like him when I first saw him. Still, I thought I will give him room. He always paid rent on time, too. What a shame this is. Loss of good tenant.”

“Did you know about his taxi?” Robin asked.

“Eh, it was stolen,” she said. “We all knew it. He steal car and make money taking people one place to another. Shady people. He was mixed with the wrong sort. Took money and helped all these shady people.”

“Do you perhaps know about a girl he picked up recently?” Kyle asked.

The old woman shook her head, muttering to herself. “Shame! Shame!”

“Alright, then can you tell us about any recent visitors he had?” Kyle asked. “Like on the day he was murdered?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t spend all day looking out window. I am busy.”

“I know, but maybe you accidentally heard or saw something?” Robin asked pacifyingly. “It happens, you know.”

The old woman looked at her for a minute and then said, “I saw a man coming here. I remembered because he came here with guard and big car. He was tall, handsome, dark hair. He came late at night when everyone asleep. But I was up. When you are old, sleep never comes. I was looking at the moon when I saw the man. He go up to his room, I know because I look, and after a while he come down.”

“When was this?” Kyle asked.

“Two day before murder,” she said.

Kyle exchanged a look with Robin and then reached into his pocket. He withdrew his phone and started to scroll. Robin looked at him questioningly, wondering what he was up to.

“Was it this man?” he asked, showing her a picture on his phone.

“Yes!” the woman examined. “It was him. I am sure.”

Robin glanced at the picture and then froze. No. It couldn’t be, could it?

The picture in front of her was Danvers.

Chapter Sixteen

“So, Danvers visited the taxi driver exactly two days before the murder,” Burke said thoughtfully. “You suspect that he hired the driver to pick up the victim from her friend’s house? But why?”

“Because they were dating,” Robin said. “IT finally managed to hack into her phone. We have access to all her messages and calls. Those two were dating. Apparently, Danvers has been in town for the last few months, but he had been careful to keep it a secret. Evidently, another party was interested in the land he is using for his mall. He came in secret and covertly bought the property before the other party could find out. They met at some club and started dating, and Kaila was completely enamored with him. She thought he was the one. On the day of the murder, he asked her to meet him. They made the whole plan together. He said he would hire a taxi for her, and she was to come and meet him at some apartment.”

“Where he killed her,” Burke said. “But why? And how did you get her phone? I thought it was missing.”

“I found it,” She said with a proud smile. “I had been thinking over this case for a long time. It didn’t make much sense. It was clear that this wasn’t a serial killing but a deliberate strike against the Mayor’s daughter. Why would anyone do that? To either get to the mayor or because they had some personal beef with her. If she was killed as a message