Don't Touch Me! - 3

 

Brent had totally forgotten about the young man he'd seen when he'd gone to pick Ashlie up at the pharmacy a couple of weeks ago. He had more important things to worry about, like finding out who was stealing from one of his clients. Or doing surveillance on a man who was filing an insurance claim and said he was unable to work due to gross negligence on the part of the owner of his apartment building. Or a myriad of other jobs which kept him busy for what sometimes seemed like twenty-four seven—if it was a good month. In between cases, he ran background checks on potential employees for some of his regular clients.

So when Sophia, his receptionist-secretary-bookkeeper, let him know, "There's a young man here to see you, Mr. Harding. He says your sister sent him," Brent wondered who it was. And why Ashlie would have told someone to come see him.

"Send him in, please," Brent told her, standing to greet whoever it was. When the man entered his office, Brent frowned in puzzlement. He knew he'd seen him before, but not where. Then it came to him, so he refrained from offering to shake the man's hand, only saying, "I'm Brent Harding. Why don't you have a seat?"

"Cody Paige," Cody said, giving Brent wide berth to get to the chair by the desk. "You're sister said maybe you could help me."

"With what?" Brent sat again, remembering to minimize the background search he was working on, on the computer.

"I think I'm in trouble."

"How so?"

Cody stared down at the floor. "My mother was…was killed two days ago, and I'm sure the police think I did it."

"Oh? Why?"

"They…" He looked up again. "Have you heard about whoever is killing elderly people?"

"Yes. He's struck three times so far, which technically makes him a serial killer." Brent paused, going to a news site he trusted. After a brief search, he brought up the stories about the killings. "Okay, four times." He looked at Cody. "Why do they think you're the killer?"

"That's the thing. The detective who interrogated me"—he shuddered—"he didn't say it, but he implied my mother's murder was a copycat killing."

"By you."

Cody nodded. "She didn't fit the…parameters?"

"May I ask you something before we continue?"

"Yes."

"From what my sister Ashlie said, you're paranoid about being touched." Brent smiled at the look of surprise on Cody's face. "I saw you at the pharmacy a while back. Anyway, how did you avoid it if the detective took you in to interrogate you?"

"He… I told him about my phobia." Cody grimaced. "I don't think he believed me, but he was willing to talk to me at the house. 'For your own comfort' is what he said."