Don't Touch Me! - 23

 

"Did you catch the news tonight?" Walt asked the second Brent answered his phone Friday night.

Brent snorted. "I haven't had time to breathe, to say the least of doing that. Why?"

"We found Mr. Findley's girlfriend. Or rather, a man out jogging late last night did."

"Let me guess… She was on the same path and he recognized her."

"Nope. And it wasn't a path. He was running along Main, turned into the park and saw a well-dressed woman sprawled behind some bushes next to one of the benches. His first thought was she'd gotten drunk and passed out or had been attacked. He went to help her and called 911 as soon as he got a closer look."

"Someone had attacked her?"

"I think it was supposed to look like she was. She was strangled—manually. But there's no indication she fought back, and she didn't die there."

"So Findley—or presumably him—killed her somewhere else then dumped her body in the park."

"Yes."

"Hmm. Makes you wonder if she figured out he killed his wife—and the others—and didn't take kindly to the idea. So he got rid of her before she called you guys."

"Yep. Now we have one more reason to find him, not that we needed it."

"If he'd been smart and just left his wife…"

"He was greedy and broke. He wanted her money."

"And thought he was cleverer than the cops," Brent replied in disgust. "Some people never learn, and in this case, five innocent women died as a result."

"Unfortunately. Just so you know, Mr. Paige is officially off the hook for his mother's murder."

"Good. It's about time," Brent said dryly.

"Sorry, but there were a couple of discrepancies I couldn't ignore."

"Yeah, I get that. Cody figures maybe the killer realized he was in the house and panicked."

"I agree…now. Okay, I'll let you go. Do you want me to call Mr. Paige to let him know?"

"No thanks. I'll do it."

As soon as he hung up, Brent called Cody, despite the fact it was now almost eleven in the evening. He was disappointed, but not terribly surprised, when Cody didn't answer. Probably sound asleep, with his phone turned off—which I should be, too. He took his own advice and not too much later was dead to the world.