An Offer You Can't Refuse by Sal Bianchi (best beach reads .txt) 📕

I suddenly realized something. I rewound the clip to an earlier point, right before he got moved to open the door. “Look! He has a key!”

“So he does,” Stein muttered as he leaned forward to examine the video more closely.

“Agent Stein, what was the time on the email?” I asked, though I had a good suspicion I already knew what the answer would be.

“Six-thirty,” Stein replied. “Why--”

He pursed his lips as he realized why I’d asked. The time stamp on the video showed that it was just after six-thirty in the morning the moment the killer went into the bakery.

21

Nick

Our first stop was the home of the man who had discovered Josie’s body, Chris Davis. According to the police report, Chris was scheduled to come in fifteen minutes after Josie, which meant that the killer had only had a fifteen-minute window of opportunity to kill her and make his escape unseen. Though we’d already confirmed that Chris was too short and thin to be the killer, it was possible he’d seen something important since he’d arrived just moments after the murder took place.

Davis lived in a modest apartment in the city. According to the information that Stein had given us, he’d quit working at the bakery soon after Josie was killed. Some might have seen that as an admission of guilt, but I didn’t. Few people could ever really understand the absolute terror that came with seeing a dead body for the first time, especially one that had been killed as brutally as Josie had been. I could understand why he’d want to put it behind him as quickly as possible.

“Apartment three-one-three, right?” Jase confirmed as we made it up to the third floor of the building where Davis lived.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod.

“Okay.” Jase moved forward and knocked on the door.

I heard movement on the other side of the door for a moment before it creaked open just a crack. A short man with thick, curly hair and dark skin peered out at us.

“Hello,” Jase smiled pleasantly. “I’m Agent Park with the--”

“Go away!” the man yelled before slamming the door angrily in our faces.

“What the hell?” I muttered in confusion. Getting screamed at wasn’t that unusual, but usually not this quickly. I sighed and stepped up to the door before pounding on it twice.

“We just want to talk to you about what happened with Josie Keller!” I called through the door.

Silence met my outburst, and I slumped my shoulders in disappointment. Just as I was about to ask Jase what we should do now, the door burst back open.

“Why?” the man demanded, his face red and his lips twisted into a vicious snarl. “So you can tell me that ‘you’re doing everything you can’ and that ‘these things take time’? I’ve heard it a hundred times already, and you useless pigs never do anything to find Josie’s killer.”

“Wait,” I called as he began to pull the door closed again. “We’re not cops. And we might have a lead about who killed Josie.”

The man froze completely at my words. He was staring down at the ground and breathing heavily. He looked like he was considering something carefully.

“All right.” He finally nodded and looked up at us. “Come on in.”

He stepped back into the apartment, and Jase and I followed close behind him.

“Close the door behind you,” he called curtly as Jase stepped through the door.

I watched as Davis trudged over to a worn green couch in the center of the room. I noticed as I stepped inside that everything in here looked worn and well-used. It was a harsh contrast to the opulent and luxurious homes we’d been in the past few days.

“Thank you for speaking with us,” I remarked as I took a seat on one of the armchairs opposite him.

“Yeah,” he grumbled as he eyed Jase warily. “So you said you’re not cops? What are you, then?”

“Oh. Well, Agent Park works for the SDCT,” I replied. “I’m a private investigator.”

“A fed?” the man chuckled. “That’s even worse than a cop. Whatever though, you guys said you knew something about the guy who killed Josie?”

“We might.” I nodded. Usually, I would let Jase handle interviews, since he was the one with the badge. However, this man seemed to be extremely wary of law enforcement, so he’d probably be more responsive to me. “You are Chris Davis, right? You’re the one who found her that morning?”

“Yeah.” Davis nodded uncomfortably.

“Can you tell us what happened that morning?” I prompted. “With as much detail as you can remember. Even if it doesn’t seem important, there might be something that was overlooked.”

“Okay,” he sighed. “Uh… I went into work like usual. It was six-forty-five. Josie always got there at six-thirty so she could turn the ovens on and get everything started, and then I’d come in fifteen minutes before the shop opened to help her get everything set out. I walked inside, and at first, I thought she wasn’t there because I didn’t see her anywhere. Usually, she’s out front by then, getting all the displays ready. Anyway, I started walking toward the back, and I could feel that the ovens were on since the kitchen was hot. I thought maybe she was in the bathroom or something. Then I went back to grab some trays from the storeroom, and she was just there.”

“Was she already dead when you found her?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Davis croaked as he put his head in his hands. “It must have just happened, though, because she only came in fifteen minutes before me. If I’d just been there a little earlier… I mean, it was just fifteen minutes! Her neck was bleeding so much. She was still warm, man! I called nine-one-one, but she was gone. She wasn’t breathing anymore.”

There were tears streaming down his face, and I felt a pang of sympathy for him. It was clear that her death really affected him.

“Were you and Josie friends?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Davis sniffed. “She’s the one