I opened my eyes and blinked, gathering myself.
“Right. Stand back, Sherlock, you’re giving me chills.” I waved him away and he obediently took several steps backward. “So, where would you suggest I look, ‘cause standing here, I’m seeing nothing.”
“Get your phone. You’ve got a flashlight app, right?” I nodded. “Then get down on your hands and knees. Look along the baseboards and under the lip of the cupboards. Because of the bleach, I wouldn’t expect to get anything viable off the floor, but blood has a tendency to splash around.”
I’d left my bag in his office so I hustled back to retrieve my phone and then spent the next ten minutes crawling around on his kitchen floor. So far, nothing. I sat back on my heels, letting the blood rush from my head and my eyes idly drifted over to Thor’s food and water bowls. Something was off with them. I cocked my head.
“What is it?” Ben asked, following my line of sight. “Ah! Good eye!” He grinned, rushing to the bowls. “They’ve been moved. Water goes on the left, food on the right. And look, kibble on the floor. Thor loves his food, he’d never leave kibble on the floor.”
I chewed my lip and joined him. “So someone moved them—in a hurry, causing some of the kibble to spill. And look, this one’s soggy. The water spilled too.”
“Pick them up, look underneath,” Ben urged. Carefully I picked up the water bowl and moved it to one side. Nothing but a couple more soggy kibble nuggets. But when I picked up the food bowl, I gasped. One small, tiny, drop of blood. Dried and brown. Easily missed, easy to mistake for kibble at first glance.
“Yoooo Hoooo!” A woman’s shrill voice called from the rear sliding door, followed by the sound of the glass being tapped. Letting out a yelp, I dropped the food bowl, hurriedly covering the drop of blood.
“What does she want?” I hissed, trying not to move my mouth as I met the eyes of Ben’s neighbor, Ethel Hill. Damn it, I thought I’d managed to sneak under the radar and avoid her detection. Should have known better.
“Don’t be so hard on her.” Ben rested a hand on my shoulder and I swiped his icy cold grip away. “She’s a widow. She gets lonely.”
Sighing, I clambered to my feet and crossed to the door, ripping off the latex gloves and stuffing them into my back pocket. I flicked the lock and slid it open but blocked entry with my body. “Mrs. Hill,” I greeted her. “What can I do for you?”
“Good morning, Audrey, how wonderful and relaxed you look.” She eyed me up and down, clearly finding my jeans and T-shirt lacking. “I wanted a word with Ben, please.”
“He’s not here.” I crossed my arms to let her know I meant business when it looked like she was considering forcing her way inside. We couldn’t afford to let her contaminate the crime scene.
“Where is he?” she demanded, eyes darting past me as if expecting to catch me out in a lie and find Ben sitting at the table.
I shrugged, not sure how to answer that one. The truth was, I didn’t know where he was. Not his physical body, anyway.
“What are you doing in his house if he’s not here?” She huffed. “That’s trespassing!” Oh. My. God. Mrs. Hill cemented my opinion that she was one crazy lady. She’d seen me coming around visiting Ben ever since he’d moved in. Trespassing, my ass.
“Jesus Christ.” Ben groaned, shaking his head. “Talk her down, will you?” he pleaded. “Tell her you’re here to feed the cat. That’ll explain what you were doing when she arrived.”
“Good idea,” I replied, only to have Mrs. Hill narrow her eyes at me.
“What’s that?” She twisted the pearls around her neck.
“I said, I’m here to feed Thor. Ben asked me to drop in and make sure Thor had enough food and water. He’s on a case, may be gone a while.”
“Oh.” Her hands fluttered and she clasped them together. “Well. That’s good then. But he really should tell me when strange people are visiting his house. I thought you were an intruder.”
“I’m hardly a strange person or an intruder, Mrs. Hill. You’ve seen me coming and going dozens of times. You know my car,” I pointed out.
“You really should park on the street.” She smoothed her palms down the front of her pink floral dress. “Ben is going to have a devil of a time getting those oil stains out. It’s quite inconsiderate of you. Bringing down the tone of the entire neighborhood, that car of yours.”
It was a herculean effort not to roll my eyes. I bit my tongue. In the distance, I heard a dog barking and pounced on the interruption with glee.
“Is that Percy?” I asked.
“Percival. His name is Percival.” She sniffed, glancing toward her yard.
“Sure.” I called him Percy to get under her skin, a little payback for her backhanded insults and thinly veiled criticisms. She thought the sun shone out of Ben’s behind and that I simply didn’t measure up. Not in the friend department or anything else.
“You should check on him, Mrs. H,” I prodded, stepping outside and sliding the glass door closed behind me. “You know a barking dog like that could be considered a nuisance.”
She gasped, hand at her throat. “My Percival a nuisance? Oh, I don’t think so, although, you could be onto something. He has been getting out lately.”
I placed my arm around her shoulder and guided her across the lawn and back to the gate adjoining the two backyards. She stood in the opening, her hand resting on the old wooden slats. I eyed it, betting this was Percy’s escape route. It looked old and rickety, as if a strong breeze would knock it off its hinges. It had a strange burn mark on one of the planks, and as I leaned forward to get a closer look Mrs. Hill’s hand covered it.
“I do hope Ben is okay,” she said. “There was a bit of a fuss at his house last night. I nearly called the police.”
I froze. “Oh?” I squeaked. I cast a glance back at the house. Ben had stayed inside while I’d walked Mrs. Hill back home.
“Mmmm.” She nodded. “Some sort of altercation. I heard raised voices, and you know Ben. He’s not one to shout, so of course, when I heard such a ruckus I got up and peeked out the window.”
“What time was this?”
“Oh, quite late. Nearly ten thirty I think.”
“Did you see anything?”
“By the time I got my dressing gown on, the shouting had stopped. When I looked I could see Ben moving about in the kitchen.”
“Did you see anyone else?”
Mrs. Hill looked at me. “No, I didn’t. I watched for a little bit to see if I could see who Ben had been shouting at, but then I gave up and went back to bed. I thought maybe he’d been mad at Thor for something and was shouting at the cat.”
If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that Ben would never yell at his cat. He and Thor were tight. No, if Ben had been yelling at anyone, it was his killer.
5
“Someone was here! Last night!” I burst back inside, frowning when I caught Ben on his hands and knees. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to move Thor’s bowl,” he grumbled, his tongue poking out in utter concentration as he ever so gently placed his fingers against the side of the bowl and pushed, only to have his hands disappear up to the knuckles.