Body Copy - Michael Craven [66]
“So what’s up there?”
“Storage for the other tenants. Do you want to see inside?”
There was nothing to what was formerly Kelly’s apartment. Just one room, kitchen attached, hardwood floors, 207
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a bathroom, a shower and boxes and other things that belonged to the current tenants.
Vicky scanned the room and said, “This place is a mess.
It needs to be cleaned up. It’s a mess.”
It actually doesn’t look too bad, Tremaine thought, as storage rooms go. It certainly didn’t have that utterly depressing feel like some can have. An old, beat-up bike here, a random tennis racquet there, broken strings, of course . . .
Nope, it looked pretty organized, comprised of things that would be used again someday.
Not to Vicky Fong, though.
Tremaine said, “Do you have any theories as to why Kelly was killed?”
“You know, Mr. Tremaine, many times you only know the side of a person that they let you see. I did know Kelly did drugs, so that would be my only guess. But really, to me, Kelly was a sweet girl. Very beautiful. Dangerously beautiful. But she got into drugs, it was obvious. Started losing weight. I started seeing her less and less. I’d catch her in little lies. She had this old boyfriend from when she first moved out here, Evan, who kept an eye out for her, felt sorry for her. He came to me a couple times when he couldn’t find her. Evan confirmed what I already thought.
That Kelly was on drugs. And drugs, when you’re addicted like that, lead to bad things.”
Vicky scurried around the room, inspecting the boxes and other stored stuff, making sure she recognized everything. Making sure everything belonged to people who were paying rent.
“You mean like, prostitution, dealing, those kinds of bad things?” Tremaine asked.
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“I don’t know. I’m not the P.I.,” she said.
Tremaine laughed. Clever was Miss Fong. He said, “But in general, that would be your guess—the drugs led to her getting killed? Maybe she got wrapped up in a world, maybe she owed somebody some money or something, maybe she stole something from the wrong person—then paid the ultimate price?”
“Yeah, that’s about right. Who knows? I don’t know about the drug world and all that. I know what I see on TV. And I know Kelly was missing her rent sometimes and looking bad. Thin. But still beautiful. Drugs make you make the wrong decisions. Who knows?”
Tremaine scanned the old apartment, the picture of the dead girl coming in and out of his vision. He walked over and stood at the spot where Kelly Burch died. Where she lay in the picture.
Tremaine said, “What about the old boyfriend, Evan?”
“Evan Mulligan. Really nice guy, kind of a jock type.
They dated for years when she first got out here. When she was innocent. But Kelly was too much for Evan, too fast. I think he loved her, but eventually gave up. She was too fast for him. You should talk to him. He’s a good guy. Maybe a little dense, kind of a jock type, like I said, but a good guy.
But he wasn’t Kelly’s speed. He kept an eye out for her. He was devastated when Kelly was shot.”
“Was he ever a suspect?”
“Oh, no. Heavens, no. He’s just a regular guy. He was out of her day-to-day life. But he was the only one who knew Kelly’s family—her sister. He tried to help the police, but they gave up on the case very quickly.”
Tremaine nodded.
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Vicky said, “Right before she and Evan broke up, he told me he thought something weird was going on. That she was acting strange. You know, disappearing for days and things like that. It hurt him to lose her. To see her become someone else. To go from this beautiful, innocent girl to this beautiful, tragic one. But boy, was she sexy. One of those people who was just born good-looking. Kinda like you, Mr. Tremaine.”
Little Vicky Fong gave Tremaine a friendly wink.
Walking back to her apartment from the garage apartment, Vicky said something and Tremaine wondered why she hadn’t said it before. “I have a box of some leftover personal items. Of Kelly’s. Would you like to see it?”
It never ceased to amaze Tremaine