Page 50 of The Master

The bedroom was the worst. Another knife had been used on the bed, cutting through the blankets and linens and into the mattress itself. Pillows and pillowcases had received the same treatment. Her clothes were everywhere, closet and dresser emptied. Some of them looked to have dodged the knife, but others were ripped apart. Everything that had been on her walls was down, broken and torn. Jewelry was scattered but didn’t appear to be damaged.

“I-I don’t think anything’s missing here.” The strength in her voice had been replaced by a shakiness that made me wince. “It’s…the mess is too bad for me to say for certain.”

“Honestly, Miss Webb, the first thing I thought when I walked through was that this wasn’t a robbery.” The detective’s face was placid, without even a hint of what he was thinking. “Unless a thief has reason to believe that you’re hiding something valuable inside a couch or pillow or mattress, they won’t take the time and energy needed to do all this damage. Do you have some cash set aside? An emergency fund or other valuables?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t keep much cash on hand, and never hidden.”

“I didn’t think that was the case, but I needed to ask. There’s also how they smashed the television instead of taking it. It might not have been worth a lot, but they could have pawned it for something at least. There is a possibility that whoever broke in thought you’d have money and expensive things because of your boyfriend and then lost their temper when they didn’t find anything.”

Great. Another way this could be my fault.

“But, taking into consideration the media buzz about the two of you this week, my gut tells me we’re looking for someone with a grudge against one or both of you. Have either of you received any threats, mysterious phone calls, that sort of thing?”

Ashlee looked up at me, and I nodded. The main reason I hadn’t wanted to go to the cops about the letter had been the danger of people finding out about how things really had been between Isti and me. Now, Ashlee knew, and I didn’t care what anyone else thought.

“I stopped by here with Owen on Tuesday afternoon to get some of my things, and I found a letter someone had pushed under my door.”

“You didn’t call the police about it?”

She looked at me again, and this time, she was the one who nodded for me to speak.

“I wanted to have a private investigator look into it because I think I know who wrote the letter.”

“Why didn’t you tell Miss Webb to turn over the letter and tell us who you thought it could be?”

I sighed. “Because I think it was my ex. I thought if I confirmed it was her, I could go to her and get her to stay away from Ashlee by threatening to get the cops involved. She’s got connections, and it’d be a whole big thing. And before you ask, it’s Isti Mollen.”

Detective Lotte paused for the briefest of moments before asking, “As in daughter of Isaac and Harriet Mollen? That Isti Mollen?”

I’d forgotten that Isti donated a decent amount of money to various first responder charities. Most of the cops, paramedics, and firefighters in the city knew who she was.

“I was with her for about a year, and things didn’t end well.” I hoped he’d be satisfied with that.

“Is there anything you want to tell me before I get her side of the story?”

I should’ve realized, especially with the things Calah and Roma were saying about me, any mention of my sex life would only raise more questions.

“I cheated on her. She ended our relationship and kicked me out of her house. It was more than a decade ago, and since then, I’ve tried to avoid her at any events we both attended. She’s sent letters to me every so often, but she’s never tried to come to my place or anything like that.”

“Why do you think, after ten years, she’d write your new girlfriend a threatening letter and then break into her apartment?”

“I don’t know if she had anything to do with this.” I gestured around me. “But the handwriting on the letter looked like hers. I have the ones she sent me in a safety deposit box in case I ever needed them.”

“We’ll want all of the letters so our experts can compare them.” He was quiet for a few seconds, busy writing on his notepad. “Is there anyone else either of you could think of who’d want to cause this amount of damage?”

“The three women making accusations about us,” Ashlee said. Her face was pale, but she’d stopped crying and had wiped her cheeks. “We’ve filed restraining orders against them, and it’s possible this was in retaliation for that. Or it could’ve been just because they don’t like me.”

“Ashlee?”

A man’s voice had all of us turning toward it. The cop at the door blocked our view, but I suspected it was either Gary or Perry from across the hall.

“Let him in, please,” Ashlee asked. “You’ll want to talk to him anyway. He and his friend live across the hall.”

The officer stepped aside, and two men came into the apartment, one blond, one brunet. They both looked shocked at the state of the place, but they didn’t stop until they were hugging Ashlee.

After they released her, she did introductions. “Detective Lotte, this is Gary Whittaker and Perry Post.”

“You live over there?” The detective pointed.

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