Killer Realty (Chapter 2)

Chapter 4

Chapter Four


At a quarter after nine Detective Holland called the new cell number he had acquired via a business card for a Ms. L.A. Ramsey. No answer. Again at nine thirty, voice mail.


At ten o’clock he actually did leave a voicemail.


“Ms. Ramsey I understand that this may be your first involvement with the justice system but we need you to keep appointments. I don’t sit around my desk all day waiting on people. Call my cell when you head down to the station. I need to be there.”


He hung the phone up without a goodbye. He went to his computer to check info on several other things he was working on. He was still communicating with his Captain back home. He checked a few emails, went for a cup of bitter stale coffee. You would think at eleven in the morning it would have been a fresh pot. But no one seemed to enjoy good coffee around this place. He poured the black liquid into his cup and went back to his desk for his files. He carried a laptop bag filled with his notes and business cards, legal documents he may need, and of course his laptop.


He told the front desk he was going to check out some leads and went to his SUV. He really just wanted to be out of the building. It was too small, too cozy and too comfortable for him. He had begun his career in a cement building on a city street. That was home, concrete and sirens. This place was slower paced and the people were friendly. He hated it. He wanted to smell crowds of people living close together not fresh air and sunshine.


He drove back out to the crime scene. It had been protected and sealed late last night. No news from the medical examiner yet. No news from the crime scene analysts yet. Nothing in the way of any leads yet. He guessed the body had only been about twenty four hours old. This wasn’t the first body he had seen and he was certain it wouldn’t be the last. He walked the property, starting with the perimeter and moving inward. He liked to check a scene from all angles and get a feel for a place. He would have done this yesterday but there would have been questions from his colleagues about his methods. He had been taught to do things this way. His mentor had told him it kept one from missing small details that other people might just see at the scene, but the scene around the scene could be important too.


At the front corner of the property about 75 yards from the house, clinging to a wax myrtle bush was a single strand of long blonde hair. He would never have found that if he hadn’t done this his way. It could have belonged to anyone, blown in off the street, fallen from one of the many professional at the scene. Just drifted in on the wind, but he didn’t think so. Pulling a glove on from his back pocket he slipped it into a Ziploc bag. He continued his perimeter walk.


He found nothing more of interest as he closed in on the house. There had been blood splatter on the walls. The house showed no signs of forced entry. The person that killed John Doe had been in the room with him for a reason. No reason to think it was a stranger, there was no broken furniture. No struggled other than the immediate area where he dropped dead.


He was checking windows when his cell phone rang.


“Lexianne.” He said aloud to himself.


“Hello Ms. Ramsey, kind of you to return a call. Why weren’t you at the station at nine?”


“Well, hello to you too Mr. Holland. I told you I’d be there at noon.”She wondered what his problem was. This man was too uptight.


“It’s Detective Holland. And you told me nine. So when will you be there?” He was annoyed but needed to get this done and over with already. He hated to have cases out. He never had one left unsolved. He could not stand procrastination and wished like hell the rest of the world felt the same way.


“Oh, I’m sorry, Detective Holland, I am on the way now. I will be there at noon. See you then.” She clicked off the phone and smiled to herself. This man may be a detective but he sure had a short fuse. She thought it was going to be fun to mess with him a little, think positive, silver lining thoughts.


Lexianne arrived at the station just as Detective Holland walked in. She could see his broad shoulders and cocky gait entering the glass doors. She waited in her car with the A/C on high for another five minutes, until exactly noon.


She strolled into the building like she belonged there. She knew that detective Holland was in, she had just seen him. At the reception desk however she was told that he was out at the moment on business and she needed to sit in the waiting area. Oh really, childish much? She thought. He was doing the same thing she had just done. Okay, she would wait. She didn’t have any showings this afternoon and she only had this today so it was the perfect time to clean out her calendar, work on sales call backs and send a few emails. She saw him coming down the hall within a few minutes. He wasn’t very good at this game. She wasn’t even bored from waiting yet. She smiled up at him as he greeted her. He wasn’t bad looking; she just thought it was the attitude that made him repulsive to her.


She could date whomever she pleased in this town, pretty much this county. But right now she was only interested in her career. Get it rolling, make her Daddy proud, and then she would reenter dating land. After an eight year relationship she wanted no part of a man, well maybe a couple of parts were missed.


“Hi there Detective,” she held her hand out to him. He shook her hand and gestured to the gate. Following him to his office she waved at a couple of people she knew working there. Inside his office he closed the door. He waved to the straight backed wooden chair that sat across from his desk. “Have a seat Ms. Ramsey.”


“Never heard of feng shui huh?” She mumbled looking around the room at bare, cream colored walls, oddly placed furniture, and a full to bursting bookshelf. A file cabinet behind his desk and a simple office chair at a simple desk. All very boring and exactly what she expected from him.


“What’s that? I didn’t hear you.” He said turning to look at her.


“Oh nothing, all about comfort I see.” She sat, keeping her Louis on her lap. He just shook his head and offered no response.


“Okay, here’s how this thing works. I need to record you statement. I’m going to ask you questions and you just give me your honest answers, as best as you can remember. Okay?”


“Got it.” The question and answer session took less than thirty minutes. As she was walking out to her car she thought again of the dead man lying on the floor, how awful it was and how the story had been retold in less time than it took the get food ready. The end of his life just wrapped up like ordering a pizza. It was truly sad, and even more peculiar to Lexianne was the numbness she felt toward it all. She worried she may not e having the appropriate response to a man dying. Trying not to worry, she cranked the air conditioning on high, the radio higher and drove toward Callahan. An email from a friend told her there were two houses getting ready to sell. This was the perfect time to stop by and speak to the owners before they decided to do it themselves. “By owner,” what ugly little words.


Her friend had been right. With Lexianne’s award winning sales personality and determination, both owners had been happy to list with her. One, Mrs. Carey Oliver, claimed that the recent case might get Lexianne’s name out there more and it may help her sales. She herself had thought about that and came to the opposite conclusion. She was worried it would hurt the chances of listing and selling .


She knew one thing without a doubt. She never wanted to see another dead body.


Following up with her friends on the rain-check and stopping by the office had been enough to finish her off for the rest of the day. Bitchy coworkers, crazy policemen and her odd parents; all sending her into a “Why am I here?” marathon in her mind. She took the back roads to her house and stopped for a few minutes to watch a calf playing in a field. That helped relax her a little. By the time she made it to her small cottage she felt like she could handle everything that had happened. That was until she walked into the tiny foyer and found the beautiful yellow vase that had been on her half moon table this morning was now shattered in the floor, along with the purple flowers and water that were housed in it. She slowly stepped over the glass and crept into her living room. She didn’t hear any noises. There were no unusual smells emanating from the rooms beyond. In the large ornate mirror on the living room wall she could she around the room. NO one was lurking with a hammer, thankfully. She took a breath and decided that she was being an idiot for going into the house by herself since she knew murder could happen. She slowly backed out of the house closing the door calmly and quietly. She got back in her care locking the doors and called the first person she thought of.


Lexianne held the phone to her ears with her shoulder and watched the house closely for signs of someone leaving. She had cranked the car in case she may need to run someone over. She didn’t really have valuable items in the house but it was still her house and she didn’t want someone’s’ grubby paws on her stuff. How violating! As the phone rang she began to count, three, four rings, “Come on, Pick up, pick up pick up. She also watched around her car. The small light from the street helped her see that no one was coming from behind.


“Hello?” A male voice said.


“Hey Mikey, I need your help. Can you come down and check out my place? I think, well kinda know someone broke into my house. I don’t want to call Dad because well he’ll freak out and I’ve seen enough of the police for a very long time.”


“Oh my God Lex, what time is it?”


“I don’t know,” she glanced at her phone, “It’s eight thirty, why?”


“I’ve got to be at work in an hour Lex. I would come down but I won’t have time. Call the police and have them check out the house. I will come by tomorrow morning when I get off and I will set up a security system on the house. I wish you had let me do this before. Call the cops! Promise me you won’t go back in there?”


“Yeah fine, I promise.”


“Leeeexxx?”


“I said I promise. K love you be safe at work.”


“Ha, you be safe, love you too kid.”


Michael was the one and only other kid in her family, two years older than her and son of her mother’s sister. He was her first cousin and first best friend. He now worked for a major security and home monitoring company. He wanted to put a system in her house when she first bought it but no, she had insisted that no one would ever break in there. She didn’t have anything expensive enough to steal. But she had never thought that they may just break in to trash her cute little house.


She crossed her arms over the steering wheel and rested her head on her arms. She had to think. She certainly didn’t want the neighbors to see police in her driveway or in her yard. She didn’t want her burglar to see that she had been frightened enough to call the police. She didn’t want to call her Daddy and bother him with this until she knew more. She wasn’t exactly “friends” with any of the police. She dialed a cell number, groaning and complaining in her mind the whole time.


“Holland.” The deep voice answered. She explained to him that she had come home to a burgled house and yet she didn’t want the police to come over with lights and have the neighbors talking.


He of course thought she was ridiculous, because life is more important than what a few gossips think. But since he seemed so worried about it he agreed to come over and check out the house himself just to make sure it was safe for her to go inside, again.


He drove over to her side of the town thinking the whole time that this was a bad idea. He was certain it had something to do with the murder and he needed to convince her to file a police report. She sat in her car wishing she wasn’t her father’s only son. She needed a big brother like Vin Diesel or someone. Someone she could call when things needed doing that she was a little chicken to do herself. Like fight off a hammer wielding murderer; that small kind of stuff.


Holland saw her silhouette in the car as he approached. She certainly was beautiful. But that didn’t matter. He was here for less than a year and had a job to do. He was not getting involved with anyone in this podunk county.


He parked on the street and walked over to her car, tapped on the window and she smiled up at him. A grateful smile formed on her lips. He returned the smile but motioned for her to roll down her window.


“Is there supposed to be anyone inside? A boyfriend? An ex with keys? Any friends have keys to your place?” He didn’t even say hello but she couldn’t be too terribly upset because he was doing her a favor by coming out and skipping police procedure. She really did owe it to him to be nicer and stop calling him a dick.


“No one has keys to my house. I don’t know how they got in but they trashed the foyer so there’s glass everywhere.”


“No one?” He repeated like she would have forgotten if she had given anyone keys.


“No, no one.” Rolling her eyes a little frustrated. “I have an extra set hidden at my parents’ house but they don’t even know where, in case of an emergency or something.”


“I see. Okay stay in the car and I will check things out.” He turned to walk away.


“Be careful,” she said out the window, thinking it was at least polite to hope for his safety, even if he did still rub her the wrong way. He did come all the way out to help her at least.


Holland disappeared into her house via the front door. She had left it unlocked on her exit. He was in there for a long time, at least fifteen minutes. She chewed her fingernails, called her best friend and left a voice mail, sent a text, watched the front and the left side of the house which was all she could see and bounced her foot so hard she ended up with a cramp in her toes.


He came walking out just as she was about to get out of her car and go inside to… well, she wasn’t sure to do what but she couldn’t sit there and wait any longer. He was grinning when he walked toward her.


“I thought I told you to stay put?” He grinned even broader.


She slammed the door harder than intended and replied to him. “Yeah, well I was worried about you. You took forever. Was there anything crazy in there?”


He nodded his head and looked down at the paved driveway they were standing on. He looked like he was smiling but she wasn’t certain with his head down and only the moon and few streetlights causing shadows.


“Well?” she asked. Patience was not a virtue she possessed.


“Well nothing. I found some interesting things in there.” He smiled at her.


She did not like where he was going with this. Crossing her arms over her chest, raising her eyebrows and staring should have worked. It did with most people, but not with Detective Richard Holland; The Dick.


“Well….” She tapped her foot some more, leaning against the car. “Was there any sign of who did it?”


He stared at her for a brief moment before replying with a simple yes.


“So are we going to arrest him? Who is it? How did he get in? What were you doing in there so long?” He grinned as the questions flew from her mouth.


“Slow down Ms. Ramsey. No. I don’t know. He flew through the window.” He waited for this to process before bringing his hands out from behind his body.


“I believe it would make me a laughing stock to arrest this softball.” He handed her the ball. “It belongs to the kids on the block behind you. I looked over your privacy fence and saw the bat and two gloves lying on the ground along with about a million toys. This ball was probably hit by dumb luck and they thought it was lost. It came through the window in the living room and rolled against the table in your foyer and knocked it hard enough to cause the vase to fall, looking through your underwear drawer.” He smiled at his own joke.


She squinted her eyes at him in as dirty a look as she could muster. Then he offered a quick apology. “I am only kidding.” He told her. “I’m glad you called though. With what you walked in on before you really can’t be too careful.”





Lexianne blushed at the fact that she may have overreacted. She was not known to be delicate or need anyone.


“Well now I feel like I was overreacting. I promise I’m not usually afraid of much and I was just thinking about the murder when I went in and saw the busted vase I was a little freaked out.”


She shook her head at her own paranoia. He noticed she looked deflated and maybe a little angry with herself.


“Thank you for coming. I do appreciate it. I didn’t know who else to call. I didn’t wanna worry anyone. I really should have checked it out myself.” She glanced back at her house, in a daze of thought.


“No, actually you shouldn’t have. I don’t want you thinking you should have gone in there and gotten yourself in a bad situation. You absolutely did the right thing. I am glad it was just a ball.”


“Yeah I guess so,” She shrugged. “So you wanna a glass of tea? I gotta get in there and clean up all that mess.” She reached back into her car and grabbed her briefcase and purse. Clicking the key fob, she turned toward her home and looked at the Detective.


“You sure you don’t mind the neighbors talking when they see a strange man leaving your house?” He laughed.


“Shut up.” She glared at him with a slight smile threatening, but walked toward her front door knowing he would follow her inside. They’d have a glass of tea while she cleaned up. She would see if she could get any answer from him regarding the murder and then she would walk him to the door. That was the plan. No need to make friends with this guy, but it was nice that he had come to help her so she could at least show a little southern hospitality.