Nate nodded as he reached for the heavy wooden doors, holding them for her. They stepped back out into a cold day with a grey sky. “He was working here until about six months ago. Five years of employment, and then he suddenly up and quit.”
“Why?” Laura asked. It was the obvious question, really. The only one that counted.
“I asked that of the admin guy. He said this employee had a total mental breakdown—just lost it. One day he was fine, and then the next day he was ranting and raving about something that the others couldn’t understand, and shouted he was quitting. He threw his name badge on the floor and stormed out and that was the last they saw of him here.”
“But not in the town?” Laura asked. “I mean, he hasn’t disappeared, right?”
“No, he said he’s still living in town. He also made a comment I found pretty interesting.”
“Yeah?”
“He said he thought it was going to be hard for him to get another job, what with the way everyone knew about his outburst,” Nate said, then looked at her with a grin. “And the fact that he’s afraid of water.”
“Afraid of water?” Laura repeated. She looked up at the museum behind them, pausing with her hand on the door handle of the car. She looked at the figurehead, still guarded behind police tape. “That could lend itself to a theory about wanting to use the figureheads. Something to do with a protest against the water itself, or trying to get protection from the water, somehow.”
“But would he be brave enough to go up over the water to tie them in place?” Nate asked, as they both ducked into the car and settled back into their seats.
“Maybe, if he thought it was going to help in the long run,” Laura said. “And if he’s had a mental breakdown recently, then maybe being close to the water and feeling threatened by the victim could push him to snap and kill them out of fear.”
“Alana Garland wasn’t by the water,” Nate said, as she turned the engine on and started up the GPS.
“But she did know him, and she might have confronted him,” Laura countered. “Did you get his address?”
“I have it right here,” Nate replied, and started inputting it to the GPS.
***
Laura stood behind Nate as he knocked loudly in the narrow passage, with barely enough room for the two of them to wait. The carpet underfoot was threadbare, and the doors of the apartments were stained and even cracked and warped in some places. It was clear that this was a building that had seen hardly any maintenance since it was built years ago—and that the people who lived here either didn’t care or weren’t able to do anything about it.
There was a short wait. Nate turned to look at Laura over his shoulder, his mouth open as though he was about to say something—and then the door creaked open just far enough to catch on a chain, someone peering through the gap.
“Aaren Mullins?” Nate asked, naming the former museum employee they’d been told about.
“No,” a woman’s voice replied in a surly tone. “Not here.”
“He’s not here?” Nate repeated. “Then where is he?”
“At work,” the voice replied, and then she seemed to regret saying anything at all. “Who’s asking?”
“FBI,” Nate said, holding his badge up close to the small gap in the door she was peering from. Behind her, the apartment was in darkness. “We need to speak with him. Where does he work?”
“Construction,” she replied shortly. “Near the highway. He done something wrong?”
“We don’t know yet,” Nate replied. “We just want to talk with him.”
“Okay, well,” she said, and closed the door.
Nate looked at Laura. She shrugged. The woman had given them a place to look. There wasn’t much more they could ask than that.
“Let’s go to the highway and look for construction, I guess,” Nate said, scratching the back of his head.
“I don’t like this,” Laura replied as they moved down the hall, keeping her voice low.
“What?” Nate joked. “The shady as hell tip, the vague location, or the state of this place?”
“Yes,” Laura said drily. “I don’t know. There was something about her.”
“Hmm.” Nate pulled out his cell phone. “I’m going to call the Sheriff and ask him about construction. If there is any, he can point us in the right direction.”