Chapter59
LANCASTER MET DECKER OUTSIDEof Sally Brimmer’s apartment building on the west side of town. It was a nondescript six-story structure wrapped in dull brick.
“How’s Katz?” Lancaster asked as she walked up to him.
“Still not conscious, but apparently out of danger.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yeah, and it’ll turn intogreatif she wakes up and tells us everything.”
They walked into the building and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. Lancaster had a key to Brimmer’s apartment.
“It’s already been gone over, and nothing was found. But I’m not sure how thoroughly it was done. After all, we thoughtyouwere the target.”
“I did too until I stopped thinking I was.”
They entered the apartment and looked around. Brimmer’s job had not paid all that much, they both knew, but her apartment was well laid out and nicely furnished, with pillows and curtains and sturdy furniture and lovely oriental rugs over the hardwood floors.
Decker looked at Lancaster. She said, “Her parents have money. I was over here once for a holiday party and met them. Very nice people. They helped her out financially, I came to understand.”
“Okay.”
“They were devastated, obviously. They came to get her remains. The family’s from the East Coast.”
“How’d Brimmer end up here?”
“She went to college up the road from Burlington. Had a couple of PR jobs out of school. Her brother’s a cop in Boston. I guess she got interested in that field from him. The department had an opening. She moved here and was doing some really good work. I doubt she would have stayed here long-term, though. She had a lot of potential. And she was still so young.”
“We all have a lot of potential, until we don’t,” noted Decker grimly.
“So what are we looking for?”
“Anything that seems to be relevant.”
“Great, thanks for the hint.”
They went methodically from room to room, ending up in Brimmer’s bedroom. Decker checked the attached bathroom while Lancaster went into the closet.
After a few minutes, Lancaster called out, “Hey, Decker?”
He walked into the large closet to see Lancaster holding something up.
“What?” he asked.
She held the item up higher. It was a short-haired wig.
Blonde.
Decker lifted his gaze to Lancaster’s. “You thinkSallyimpersonated Susan Richards?” he said.
“I think she might have. It wasn’t Gardiner. And if it wasn’t Katz, who else fits the description?”
“Sally was the right height and build,” conceded Decker.
Lancaster fingered the wig. “And this is nearly the cut and style of Susan Richards’s hairdo. And from a distance, with her back turned and an old woman looking out into the darkness? She could have been fooled.”
Decker took the wig in his hand and looked it over. The memory came back to him effortlessly. Sally at the park. She had on a trench coat, gloves, and a hat. Exactly what the person leaving Richards’s house was seen wearing.