Page 19 of Little Dark Deeds
CHAPTER 9
The first thing I noticedupon entering Tiffany’s house was her luggage leaning against the wall next to the door, purse sitting on top, as if she was still there, ready to jet off to my wedding.Beside those items was a wrapped gift.The paper was different than the one I’d seen in my dream, a pastel pink with white stripes, but the shape of the gift was the same.
In the kitchen, I found what appeared to be a few tiny drops of blood on the rug in front of the sink.Odd, given it was on the opposite end of the house from the master bedroom.I continued through the house, and I found Silas hunched over a coffee table in the living room, dusting for prints.His head was bobbing up and down to what I assumed was music playing through his earbuds.Given the brisk pace of his head movements, and the fact he was a fan of ’80s metal bands, I had a decent idea of the music he was playing.
When he failed to see me, I leaned forward, tapping him on the shoulder.The gesture caught him off guard, and he leapt back.
“Whoa, Gigi,” he said.“How long you been standing there?”
“Not long.I just got here.”
He removed the earbuds and shoved them into one of the pockets of his black shorts.“What a difference a day makes, eh?Yesterday I was officiating your wedding, and today ...”He paused, then added, “I’m sorry.That was insensitive, wasn’t it?I shouldn’t have said what I just—”
I swished a hand through the air.“It’s fine.I appreciate it, but you’re right.It’s hard to believe all that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.My main focus is to find who did this to her.How’s everything going on your end?”
“Slow, but that’s on me.Knowing what she meant to you, I’m taking my time.I don’t want to miss anything.I’m sure I’m being a bittoometiculous, but hey, if it helps us catch this dude, it will all be worth it.I could use a break, though.You wanna sit for a minute and talk?”
“Sure.”
We took a seat on the sofa, the same sofa I’d helped Tiffany pick out when she’d bought and renovated the home several years earlier.We’d been goofing off in the furniture store that day, bouncing up and down as we went from sofa to sofa, looking for one that was firm, but nottoofirm.
That same day, she met Furniture Salesman Chad, who, after selling her the sofa set, asked if he could give her a call sometime.They dated for about nine months, and when they broke up, via text message no less, she didn’t give me a lot of details about what happened.All she said was they had an argument—one they couldn’t seem to recover from.
Thinking back on it now, it was becoming clear that Tiffany had kept me out of the loop a lot more than I’d realized.At times, she was an open book.Other times, she was elusive, and when it came to friends, I didn’t like to pry.The way I saw it, if someone I cared about wanted to share information about their life with me, I gave them the time and space to do it.
When I was conducting an investigation, on the other hand, I relished the art of prying—poking and prodding a person until all the juicy details came spilling out.I saw it as a gift—an art form if you will—and I was dang good at it when it suited me.
“Hey, if you don’t feel up to talking, I don’t mind just sitting here with you,” Silas said.
“Oh, no.We can talk ...sorry.”
“Where’d you go just now?”
“I was thinking about this sofa.I was with her the day she bought it.”Glancing around the room, I added, “We were together when she picked out everything in this room.Except for the wall art.The cat dressed in a ballerina costume over there wasnotmy idea.”
He turned toward the framed print and fisted a hand over his mouth, laughing.“I think the cat art is the most dope thing in this place.”
I wasn’t surprised.
“How long have you been here?”I asked.
“Four or five hours.I would have liked to have been here before Tiffany’s body was removed, but Kiera did a great job of photographing the scene and gathering the initial evidence in my absence.”
With his workload picking up in recent years, Silas had been given permission to hire an assistant.And that was Kiera, a charismatic, energetic young woman in her late twenties.
“So, you’ve seen Kiera’s photos?”I asked.
“Yep.She forwarded them to me right before I boarded the flight.”
“What are your initial thoughts and takeaways?”
He crossed one leg over the other, giving the question some thought.“Here’s what I know so far.Tiffany was stabbed several times, and the wounds she sustained weren’t isolated to one area.”
“Meaning?”
“They were haphazard, like wherever the arm flailed and landed was it.Some stabbings are a lot more methodical, like a slit throat or a knife through the heart.One and done.Not this one.”
