Chapter 7

K ate walked into the office the next morning to find Rodney at his desk, glaring at his computer. "What's got you upset so early in the day?"

He frowned at her. "I did some research on Amie, the grieving wife," he said, with an eye roll. "I figured I had better try to redeem myself."

"Hey, it's an age-old issue," she murmured. "Nobody'll blame you."

"I blame myself for not seeing what was right in front of me."

"I'm not sure you would necessarily see anything either," she pointed out. "A beautiful woman caught up in grief is what we should see, until we find out differently."

"Sure, but just like the officer in charge at the crime scene, I allowed her to distract me." He frowned. "That is something I struggle with, and what I'm chastising myself for."

"Okay, so what did you come up with?"

"She was married twice before our victim," he shared.

"She's pretty young for that," Kate murmured.

"She is."

"Why do I feel you haven't told me the punchline yet?"

He snorted. "Yeah, that's because it's you. I swear to God, you and Simon are more alike than you and Smidge. Come to think of it, you are getting more psychic than Simon is."

She glared at him. "Jesus, Rodney. Don't start pissing me off this early in the morning," she muttered.

He chuckled. "Both of Amie's former husbands died," he stated abruptly.

She froze in the act of pouring coffee, then turned slowly to face him. "Died in what way?"

He shook his head. "One was suicide, and the other was shot during a B&E."

"Was anybody ever caught for that one?"

He shook his head. "No, it's still unsolved."

She poured her coffee, then walked back over and sat down beside him. "So, what do you think of our Amie now?"

"Now I think we have to consider that she might very well be a black widow," he declared, staring at the computer screen in disgust. "Something that never even occurred to me when I was there."

"I don't think that possibility occurred to any of us."

"Oh, it occurred to you," he pointed out, turning to Kate. "It was obvious to you, and it's why Amie got so pissed off. You saw right through her."

"Maybe I saw right through the act she was putting on in the moment. Plus, she wasn't answering questions, which also pissed me off," Kate admitted, with a shrug, "but the idea that Amie already had multiple dead husbands was not on my radar. I wonder if the boyfriend knows. If he doesn't, I think we should probably tell him."

"Why?" Rodney asked.

"So he doesn't end up becoming dead husband number four," she explained, with a huff. "It's one thing when somebody kills one or two husbands. Generally they space them out so that it's not quite so easy to get caught. Amie also could have changed provinces and could have done all kinds of things to mitigate her chances of getting caught. So why would she kill her three husbands so fast?"

"Probably because she already had a boyfriend each time," Rodney guessed. "I mean, the latest boyfriend, Nate, was literally there waiting in the wings."

"I know, and that just pisses me off too," she replied. "Doesn't anybody respect the sanctity of marriage anymore? Does nobody keep their promises?"

He smiled as he looked at her. "That's your dinosaur side coming out."

She glared at him. "The world would be a better place if we had more dinosaurs then," she snapped. "And this changes the tenor of our talk with that woman," she murmured. "Hopefully she'll show up this morning."

He nodded. "Yeah, I hope she does too. I came in a little early to get some research done before we talked to her. Sure glad I did."

"Yeah, good call, but honestly, I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to even be in there."

He narrowed his gaze and stared at her for a minute. "Believe me that I'm over it."

"You might be, but it'll be a distraction if Amie thinks she can coerce you into her point of view in all this. We can't afford that little act of hers at this point, not when she clearly led us astray."

He contemplated Kate for a long moment. "I would like to be there."

She frowned and then shrugged. "Fine," she conceded, but then came back with a warning. "However, if I don't like what's happening, I'm kicking you out."

"Christ," he replied, "you know a lot can be said about the methodology behind your delivery."

"Most of it isn't that great," she admitted, "and I've heard that before. Yet it does tend to make for less in the way of issues. If I need somebody in there… I'll bring in Lilliana."

Lilliana had just walked in behind her. "Ooh, what do you need me for?" she asked in an excited tone.

Kate quickly explained, adding the new information that Rodney had just dug up. Lilliana looked from Rodney to Kate and then rubbed her hands together in glee. "I'm really looking forward to seeing this gal in action. We haven't had a black widow before."

"We don't yet know for certain that she's 100 percent duplicitous in this case," Kate pointed out, frowning, "but she's not very cooperative, and I really don't like how she went after Rodney the way she did."

"Hey, she wasn't that bad," Rodney protested.

"No, you're right, but you're equally to blame." She got up and walked over and got another cup of coffee, leaving him sputtering in place.

Lilliana laughed. "I tend to believe Kate on this. If she says that's what happened, that's probably what happened." Lilliana patted Rodney on the shoulder. "Occasionally we all get completely blindsided by the people who walk in through those doors, and we don't want to believe anything bad about them."

"Yeah, don't remind me. But Kate's right in the sense that, in the moment, I didn't want to hear or even consider the possibility of anything being wrong with this woman. Thankfully I wasn't there all that long, so it's not as if she had me under her claws too long, right?"

Kate snorted. "She had you long enough. I went back there yesterday to talk to her all on my own, just so you weren't there."

"I know"—he glared at her—"because you didn't trust me."

"More that I didn't trust her nature around you," she clarified in a different tone. "Obviously she has that effect on men and knows it, but it won't work on me, and it won't work on Lilliana, so that alone makes it that much better for her and I to do the interview."

"Do you really want me to come?" Lilliana asked her.

Kate had no reason to say yes, but her instincts were telling her that she might need Lilliana. "I'll say yes, but I don't really know why."

Lilliana raised one eyebrow. "Unless you think that she'll be difficult to deal with."

"No, I think she'll just cry foul, and I won't have someone to back me up, so your coming would be good," Kate murmured.

"Oh, in that case, I'm definitely coming," Lilliana stated, with a big smile. "Bring on the bitches."

Kate laughed. "Amie will be… as sweet as pie when she sees you and then turn into an absolute cat when she sees me."

"Good, the cat will at least be more honest, and maybe we can get answers. Now, let's go over what it is that we need to know."

Kate explained about the latest husband's supposed suicide and how no GSR was found on his hands.

"So, it wasn't a suicide then. Not if he was shot and didn't hold the gun. That's definitely not a suicide," Lilliana said.

Kate nodded. "I told Amie yesterday that there was no way he killed himself. I also told the boyfriend," she added, with half a smile. "He looked a little shell-shocked."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean the newest boyfriend is at all prepared to see Amie for who she really is."

"I'm not sure that she necessarily killed her husband either, any of them," Kate pointed out. "We don't have enough information to make any solid judgment at this point."

"Good enough," Lilliana replied. "Let me know when she's here, and I'll come in with you." And, with that, Lilliana returned to her desk.

About twenty minutes later, with everybody cleaning up paperwork and researching as much as they could before the interview, Kate got a call saying that Amie Mulhouse had arrived. Kate looked over at Lilliana and smiled. "Showtime."

Lilliana bounced up, a big smile on her face. She was very fashionable and all dolled up all the time, with lipstick, eyeshadow, the works. She had on more makeup today than Kate would most likely ever need. Lilliana wore it well, and that was the difference between the two of them. Even on a good day, Kate didn't look put together because it just didn't matter to her. She was clean, and she was dressed, and she looked professional, and that's all that mattered in her world. Maybe it was a type of armor for her.

As they walked into the interview room, Amie looked up, and her gaze immediately narrowed as she assessed Lilliana's presence. Kate just laughed, then sat down across from her and greeted Amie in a sweet voice. "Lilliana is here to help me with the questioning. "

"Of course, as if you'll need help to further antagonize me," Ami stated. "Considering I had absolutely nothing to do with any of this, obviously you'll need somebody here to point out your mistakes." She gave a conciliatory wink to Lilliana.

"Yeah, sure," Kate quipped, completely ignoring her. "Now, let's go over the details."

"What details?" Amie asked, as if Kate were out of her mind. "My husband committed suicide. That's it."

"Sure, says you."

"What do you mean by that?'"

"We've already told you it was a murder," Kate stated bluntly and then stared her down. "So you can keep putting the words out there that don't apply, but it doesn't change the fact that this was a murder through and through. Now we'll need to know a whole lot more about you and your husband."

"I don't have to give you any details," she declared, glaring at Kate. "You're just harassing me, and I haven't done anything wrong. As it is, I'm still trying to deal with my loss."

"I'm sure dealing with your loss is a whole lot easier with your boyfriend around," Kate noted, with a mock smile. "Plus, you don't have your attorney with you, no matter what you said yesterday. So don't give me that nonsense about being sorry that your husband's gone because I don't see sorrow anywhere in this equation. And that just gives me all the more reason to check out why you're so damn happy about his death."

"I'm not happy." Amie gasped in horror. "How can you be so heartless and cruel?" With that, she turned to look at Lilliana. "Can't you do the questioning? "

Lilliana replied, "It's Kate's case. I'm just here to ensure things flow smoothly."

"Obviously it won't flow smoothly," Amie snapped. "This woman is a menace, and she's making all kinds of accusations with absolutely nothing to back them up."

"Yeah, and what accusations have I made so far?" Kate asked.

"I mean, you're making it sound as if I had something to do with my husband's death."

"Somebody did," Kate pointed out, "and I certainly haven't in any way implied it was you . So it's interesting you started there. All I asked for was some details, and you go straight there. So, since you brought it up, let's go back over your alibi."

"I told you that I was in bed, asleep."

"When did you last see your husband?"

"I told you, when we went to bed."

"And that was what time approximately?"

"Approximately eleven," she said, nodding. "We did have a disagreement before we went to bed," she added, raising a hand to Kate as if she were about to jump on. "Of course that's something else I have to live with now too."

Kate completely ignored the fake tears flowing from Amie across the table. "Whatever. Now let's discuss the fact that your husband was fully dressed."

"Of course he was fully dressed," she spat. "He was already up."

"Not everybody gets up at that hour of the morning and dresses fully for the day, not when it's three or four o'clock in the morning."

"Sometimes he gets up to go to work," she explained, with a shrug. "I mean, he wasn't exactly the kind of guy who stays in bed, if you know what I mean."

"Interesting," Kate murmured and didn't say anything more.

"What do you mean, interesting ?" Amie asked.

"Obviously there was nothing keeping him in bed," Kate replied smoothly.

Amie gasped. "Did you just say that?"

"I'm allowed to say anything I want to say when it comes to trying to get answers," Kate shared, "and, so far, you've told me that your husband got up at four o'clock in the morning because he's not the kind to stay in bed. So, based on your response, I'm left to conclude that obviously nothing was in bed to keep him there. Now, do you have anything else to add to that?"

"No, I don't, but he was in the habit of getting up early anyway," she declared, glaring at Kate. "And not because we didn't have a good sex life."

"Okay, that's a good topic to segue into, thank you. So, what was your sex life like?" she asked, with a grin.

Amie sat back and stared at her. "I don't have to answer that question."

"No, you don't have to answer that question, but, by not answering, you're basically telling me that your sex life sucked.… Did you two even sleep in the same bedroom?"

"Of course we did," Amie cried out. "We didn't have any marital problems."

Kate chuckled. "I wonder if your boyfriend, Nate, would appreciate that comment."

Amie flushed. "He has written more into our relationship than is there," she stated stiffly.

"Oh, I see, so you haven't been sleeping with Nate?"

Amie stared at her. "My husband and I had an open arrangement."

"Ah, an open arrangement.… Okay, and can I assume your boyfriend will confirm that?"

She nodded. "I'm sure he will." She lifted her chin and glared. "You don't have to be quite so judgmental."

"I'm not judgmental at all. I couldn't care less what you do in your free time," Kate said, with the wave of her hand, "unless it ends up with somebody murdered."

Amie swallowed several times and then tried to mask the fear that still remained in her facial expression. "I had nothing to do with his death."

Kate nodded. "So, the last time you saw him was eleven o'clock the prior evening, and then the next time you saw him was?"

"When I walked into his office and found him dead," she muttered, shuddering. "Blood was everywhere."

Now it seemed as if real tears came from her eyes. "Being shot tends to do that," Kate noted.

Amie glared at her. "I really don't like you."

"I understand that," Kate replied, "and I'm not really bothered, by the way." She looked over at Lilliana. "Do you have any questions to ask her?"

Lilliana nodded. "Mrs. Mulhouse, obviously this is tough for you. Nobody ever expects somebody to be murdered and then to deal with the scene you were exposed to, but I do have to ask some questions."

"Sure."

"So, if you guys were sleeping together, did he not wake you when he got up? In my case, as soon as somebody gets out of bed, I'm immediately awake."

Amie shook her head. "No, I'm a heavy sleeper, and I don't usually wake up at that hour. He gets up at odd hours. Sometimes he doesn't sleep very well, and he just gets up and gets to work."

"And there were no marital problems that you knew of?"

She sighed. "Obviously things weren't great. Otherwise I wouldn't have been looking elsewhere."

"Yet you mentioned that your marriage was open, so then it wouldn't matter if you were looking elsewhere or not."

Amie just glared at Kate, but Amie wouldn't elaborate.

"So, when did the boyfriend come in on the scene?" Lilliana asked.

"My boyfriend, as you call him, his name is Nate, and he has absolutely nothing to do with this."

Kate interrupted, "Good, I'm glad to hear that, but I'll need to hear that from him in the meantime."

Amie glared at Kate. "I've known him for years."

"And when did he become someone you did more than just know ?" Kate asked, glaring back at Amie.

"Do you really need to air out all the dirty laundry, or are you just taking some sick pleasure in all this?"

Kate shrugged. "I don't think any pleasure can be had when I'm standing over your husband's dead body," she stated. "I've already been to the morgue and heard no gunshot residue was found on his hands, and I looked at the damage the bullet did to his body in great detail. Believe me that I get no pleasure in any of that." She took a moment and added, "My job is to ensure that the asshole who did this pays for it, and that's what I'm doing."

Amie swallowed hard and nodded. "I want that too."

Something in her tone almost made Kate believe her. She studied her for a long moment. "Did your husband own a gun? "

"Not that I know of," she said, as her eyes squinted and her forehead creased.

"Do you own a gun?"

"No, I don't own a gun," she replied.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Do you have a gun?"

Amie looked at her in horror. "So that would mean that now you think I have an illegal gun?"

"I'm just asking a question," Kate said, trying to hang on to her patience, but absolutely nothing coming out of this woman's mouth made Kate feel any better. "Amie, this is difficult for you, but you have to bear with me and get through these questions if you want to get rid of me. So do you have a gun?"

Amie shook her head. "I do not."

"How were you doing financially?"

"Fine. He handled all the finances."

"Was there life insurance?"

Amie choked at that and said, "I don't know."

Kate snorted.

"I really don't," Amie repeated, gritting her teeth now. "As far as I know, there wasn't any insurance policy."

"Interesting," Kate murmured. "I'll check into it."

"You can just do that? You can just turn around and check into it that?"

"Absolutely I can. Insurance is a common motive for killing spouses," she pointed out, with a knowing smile in Amie's direction.

Amie glared at her. "You must really love your job. All you do is torment people."

"Apparently," Kate agreed cheerfully, "but do you know what else I take pleasure in? I solve cases, and I put people behind bars. Especially those who kill people for profit or for any other reason," she shared, with a shrug. "Everybody is entitled to a full measure of life, and no one deserves for it to be cut short by somebody full of greed."

Amie snapped her mouth shut, then muttered, "That's not me."

"Good, then it won't matter what we find."

"It doesn't matter if you find anything. Nothing will come back to me."

"Interesting wording. That brings us back to the fact that you took a notebook from his body while he was dead, his blood all over his home office floor."

She stared at Kate. "I gave you that notebook, and it has nothing to do with anything."

"And yet it was important enough that you felt you had to take it from your husband's still warm and bleeding body."

Lilliana glanced over at Kate, reminding her that she hadn't shared that little bit of detail. Kate nodded and Lilliana winced. "Do you have an explanation for that?" Lilliana asked. "That sounds cold, even to me."

"I needed that book because it has some incriminating evidence."

"About your partners, about your open lifestyle, about what?" Lilliana asked.

"Exactly," Amie said, followed by a sigh. "I know you wouldn't believe me, so I took the notebook."

Kate added, "And yet it was his ."

"Yes, but it's also got some of my partners identified in there," she muttered.

Kate continued. "Okay, so that's interesting. You took the notebook, and you lied about taking the notebook, and then you took pages out of the notebook. "

"I did not," Amie snapped.

Kate quickly brought up the security video on her laptop and turned it so that Amie could watch herself on the recording. She gasped as she stared. "He has a video camera in his office?"

Kate studied Amie. "Oh, that's interesting. It seems as if that is more of a shock than anything to you."

"Do you want video cameras in your house?" Amie asked, staring at her. Then she turned, her face twisted, as if feeling sick inside, while she watched the evidence of her tearing pages out of the book. "Fine, I ripped out pages from the book. What do I care?"

"I don't know that you care at all," Kate pointed out. "So far, you've lied every step of the way. So, at this point in time… I don't believe anything coming out of your mouth."

Amie glared at her. "You can't convict me because I lied," she declared, with a sneer.

"That depends on if you lied and if your husband died as a consequence of it."

Amie stared at her in shock. "I had nothing to do with my husband's death."

"And yet you wanted him dead."

"No, I didn't," she snapped. "I didn't want anything to do with that. I loved him." Then she stopped and raised a hand in protest. "In my own way I loved him… and I admit I probably was a shitty wife, but that's not the issue here."

"You're wrong there. It's definitely an issue," Kate declared. "So now that we've discussed that, let's go to the next topic."

Amie groaned. "What more could you possibly ask me about? "

Kate opened up her file and smiled as she began, "Besides the fact that we want those missing pages back… how about dead husbands number one and two?"

*

Even after working with Kate for months—and maybe because of the other events that had happened, particularly his own personal experiences that had so unnerved Simon—he found that he was a lot more compassionate, a lot more caring, and in many ways a lot more worried about other people. On that note, he headed first to the Paragon building that was for sale, wondering if the homeless guy was still there, hoping to coerce him out for a meal and to ensure he was really doing okay.

As he got there, the realtor was inside with another client. She looked at him in delight, while he shrugged and shared, "A homeless guy was here yesterday. I just wanted to see if he's okay."

She rolled her eyes, as if she didn't believe him.

He slipped inside, past the other potential buyer, who he smiled at and tilted his head. "Walk carefully in here. It's a bit of a death trap." Then he kept on going, knowing that the realtor would be pissed off to no end at his comment. Yet it was true. The Paragon was a bit of a death trap, and he wasn't too worried about the realtor's reaction, since she was bound to give him shit about something anyway.

As he walked over to where the homeless guy had been sleeping, Simon was relieved to find no sign of him. Even his bedroll and all his personal belongings appeared to be gone. With a smile Simon nodded, then looked around at the place and whispered, "Good choice."

He exited the building, ignoring the realtor and her client, then headed to his favorite coffee shop to pick up a cup of coffee, one of several for the day. As he did so, he saw the homeless guy, sitting off to the side. Simon walked over and asked him, "Hey, you vacated the building, did you?"

Bleary-eyed, he looked up at him and nodded.

"Have you eaten?" Simon asked.

"No, man, I haven't eaten in a while. If you're feeling generous, I could really use a coffee."

Simon handed over his own coffee. "How about food?"

He looked up at him hopefully. "Are you serious?"

"I'm serious. Obviously I don't know for how long I'll be serious, but, right now in this moment, if you want a meal, I'm happy to supply you with one."

"Yes, please."

Simon headed back into the café, grabbed another coffee for himself, and came back out with a couple breakfast sandwiches for the homeless guy. He handed them over and gave him a cheerful smile. "Have a good day." And, with that, he turned and headed off.

The homeless guy called out, "Thank you."

Simon lifted a hand but didn't slow down, until he heard the homeless guy's next words.

"They approve of you, you know?"

Simon stopped, turned to him, and asked, "Who approves of me?"

"The ghosts. They told me that you could buy the place."

"Ah? Is that right?" he replied, studying him. "You talk to them often?"

"Don't have much choice when they keep me awake at night," he muttered. "I've asked them to not be quite so noisy, and they've asked me to not be quite so irritating," he shared, with a laugh. "Neither one of us really got what we wanted."

Simon didn't know what to say to that, so he just nodded. "That doesn't mean I'll buy the place."

"You should, man. You should. It's a good place, and it's got a good vibe."

Simon agreed with that, yet, if it was full of ghosts, that would add an element of complexity that he wasn't sure he really wanted to encounter while rehabbing that building.

"They just want somebody who would care about the place, about them," the homeless man explained, as Simon continued to walk away.

"I'm sure somebody will buy it, and somebody will care."

"It needs to be you," he called out.

In exasperation, Simon turned again. "Why?"

"Because they said it needs to be you."

"Then the owners need to drop the price," Simon stated, with a smile, "because that building needs a lot of work. It's not very safe the way it is."

The homeless guy nodded. "Yeah, that's true. It's one of the reasons I sleep there."

Simon frowned at him. "Why? You got a death wish or something?"

"No, not at all, but I also know that nobody else will go in there. Between the ghosts and the fact that the building itself is such a disaster," the homeless guy explained, "nobody else will go in there and hassle me."

"Good point," Simon noted, with a smile, "and not bad logic."

"I figured the stairwell is one of the safest places because, if the building comes down, that is one of those locations where I would have a little bit of coverage."

"I wouldn't count on that," Simon noted, as he thought about it. "Why don't you just find another abandoned building that won't come down around your ears?"

"Yeah, that might be an idea to consider too," he replied, "but the Paragon still needs to be your building. The ghosts said so."

"Then they'll need to find a way to facilitate that." With a laugh, Simon lifted a hand, leaving once more.

"What's your name?" the homeless guy asked.

Simon gave him a smile. "Simon."

"I'll tell them to ensure Simon buys it then," he stated, with a nod. "It really should be yours."

"What's your name?" Simon asked, eyeing him closely.

"Shawn," he murmured, "at least that's my street name."

"It's still the name that you go by," Simon declared, "unless you're changing it."

" Nah , no point in changing it," he murmured. "Nobody remembers my real name."

"What was your birth name?" Simon asked.

"Jack Ludwig."

Simon smiled at him, then reached out to shake his hand. "I'll remember both names, Shawn. Have a good day." And with that, Simon was off to start his workday.