Day Ten
It was not the mailman at the door.
“Mr Aubrey?” asked a woman, black jacket looking prohibitively hot in this weather. She had a city police badge open, her eyes tracking him carefully. He swallowed slowly.
“Yes?”
“I’m Detective Warner. Do you mind if I come in?”
Raj glanced behind him. The living room was a mess, and he was wearing his indoor shorts and a day-old t-shirt, but he figured it would be a bad idea to say no.
“Sure, yes, come in,” he said, leading her in. She closed the door behind her, checking the apartment casually enough that it was threatening, unless you happened to be paying attention.
“I’m here about Sam and Laura Beckwith,” said Warner, standing next to the computer desk with her hands folded before her. “I think you know them?”
“Yeah, yeah, definitely,” Raj said, smiling and motioning for Warner to sit on his work chair while he perched on the edge of the sofa. She declined.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but they were found dead yesterday.”
Raj had been worrying what he’d do when this moment came, but he found it all too easy to tap into the horror of the moment on Sunday, the sight of the hands on the floor. He let his face fall, and his knees buckled on their own.
“Oh my god,” he gasped. “How? Was it an acc—”
“Murder,” Warner said, eyes betraying nothing. “At their lake house.”
“I…”
“We’re interviewing all their friends to see if anyone has any information that might help with the investigation.”
“Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. You probably want to talk to my girlfriend Beth. She knew them better than—”
“Actually, Mr Aubrey, we’re more interested in you right now.”
Raj’s mouth hung open for a second.
“W… why?”
“We found an access card in Mr Beckwith’s pocket,” she said. “Registered to your former employer, and they helped identify it as yours.”
Raj nodded, feeling the nightmare he’d been dreading swarm over him. He wanted to get up, to pace or sit or do something else, but he knew it would look nervous, guilty… guilty.
“Yeah,” he said, mouth dry. “I lost it at the party the weekend before. They were going to return it to me.”
“So you didn’t go get it?”
“They never called back,” he said.
“When did you speak to them last?”
“I… I think it was Friday that Beth found out about the card. We called all day Saturday and Sun… Sunday…” It was a bad lie. If they checked the phone logs, they’d see the calls stopped early on Sunday.
Warner nodded, finished scribbling in her notepad. She clicked the pen closed, half-closed the notepad, and watched Raj for a moment.
“Are you all right, Mr Aubrey?” she asked.
Raj wiped his forehead. He was sweating, felt ill.
“I’m just… I’ve never known anyone involved in a murder before. It’s… it’s not what I expected.”
“Never is,” Warner nodded, heading back to the door. She let herself out and he locked every lock he had, hid in the bedroom.
Two hours later, he realized she’d never asked him where he’d been on Sunday.