Robert Walker - Unnatural Instinct

When Jessica looked up, she saw that all the others in the ops room were staring at her. “It's a case recently called in, a daughter worried about her mother. She coincidentally works for RE/MAX; left work and never got home. I'm going to interview her coworkers.”

The realtor's name was Nancy Willis, and she had gone missing, and no one knew why. The partner's name was Carmella Drew, a leggy, well-dressed, and businesslike person with fine features and an unfortunate nose. Jessica asked her a series of questions, but Carmella made it clear that she knew nothing; in fact, she appeared to be so clueless that Jessica began to wonder if her business partner's disappearance had nothing whatever to do with Purdy and the DeCampe case, and all to do with a case of murder unraveling before her, one that involved getting rid of the bothersome business associate.

“ So you have no idea whether she went out on a call or not?”

“ No.”

“ No record of an appointment?”

“ None, no.”

“ I see. Did she keep a calendar? An appointment book?”

“ She kept her appointment book with her at all times.”

“ A desk calendar?”

“ Yeah, her office. This way.”

Jessica scanned the calendar for a week before DeCampe's abduction. A look at her watch told her it was nearing nine P.M. She'd had to drag Carmella back to the closed office to have a look at Nancy's desk. “Any new clients recently who looked like this man?” Jessica asked, holding out the newly drawn composite of Isaiah Purdy.

“ She didn't always check with me when she rented out a place. We each generate our own business, you see, and at the end of the month, we give out perks and benefits and bonuses if things are going well. Lately, we've had few things to cheer about.”

“ So she didn't always bring clients into the office?”

“ That, and I wasn't always here. I've only just returned from some time off.”

Jessica saw several names of prospective customers and appointments on the calendar. She read them off to the partner. “Any of these clients rent property out of the way, in a remote setting?”

“ Lately, that's all anyone wants: remote, preferably with a moat.”

Jessica read the names aloud. “Gideon Brown, Mark and Marilou Piper, Damon Shaw.” They were all jotted down on days just before the abduction.

“ Any of them ring a bell?”

“ She closed deals with all of them. Let me see.”

“ No, let me see your sales records.”

“ That might speed things up,” she replied.

“ I hope they're up to date and in order.”

“ Around here? Don't bet on it.”

Jessica exchanged an exasperated look with Richard, who had stood back and allowed Jessica to deal with the frustrating woman.

“ Here's the file room,” said the partner.

They looked into a closet in which boxes were piled high, most wedged between two upright filing cabinets. “Always going to get around to the filing next week,” she muttered, “but next week never comes. Well… knock yourselves out.”

“ Whoa up… wait a minute. Are you in the least interested in locating your partner?”

She took in a deep breath. “The woman lives alone with her cat, and she's seeing someone, and by this time tomorrow, she'll come waltzing in here, a big smile on her face, and Nancy will wonder what all the fuss has been about. Her daughter is a little, you know, overprotective. You know how that is.”

“ Has anyone called her boyfriend?”

“ Her daughter said Dave doesn't know where she is either, but Nancy's, you know, a free spirit.”

“ Was she upset with any of the people on that list I read you?”

“ Come to think of it, she was complaining about one of them.”

“ What kind of complaint was it? And which one?”

“ Usual second-guessing. She did a lot of that. Not sure the person renting would be a good tenant, 'fraid he might destroy the place in one fashion or another. She'd go on about such things forever, so I always quit listening after a while.”

“ Which tenant was she complaining about the loudest?” Sharpe's voice was the epitome of unmasked dislike, but it went right over this woman's head.

“ Gee… I don't know. I remember it was one of the single men, Shaw or Brown, but which one, I couldn't tell you.”

“ Can you tell us which properties the two men took?”

She scrunched her petite face into a wadded little ball and said, “Sorry.”

Richard had to fight the urge to strangle the woman.

“ Look, where are the most recent contracts, ahhh… placed in here?” Jessica asked.

“ Look in the in-bin, there in the comer.” She pointed but remained in the doorjamb.

“ Gotcha, and thanks.”

“ Don't mention it.”

“ Don't worry “

Jessica and Richard tore into the stack of papers found below another stack covering the in-basket. “You want to order in some coffee?” asked Richard. “This could take some time.”

“ No, let's work through. Here, you take this stack, and I'll take the other half.”

“ Contracts are mixed with junk mail,” Richard complained.

“ Watch for anything with Brown or Shaw on it.”

They fell silent, searching.

After a moment, finding nothing, Richard said, “You realize this could all be a blind alley, don't you?”

“ Yeah… I know that, but I also keep thinking about Kim Desinor and the clock continues to run out for De-Campe.”

Richard bit his lower lip and nodded and continued to pore over papers.

Jessica then said, “On meeting Miss Manners in there, I thought maybe she did away with her partner or bored her to death, but now I admit, she's too stupid to murder someone and properly hide the body, and she likely knows this better than anyone, so…”

“ Are you kidding, Jessica? Two or three bodies could be below all this paper.”

“ Yeah, reminds me of my days in the dorm when everyone was sweating final research papers. The room was jammed with paper and books. Didn't see my roommate for three days. She was there… I could hear her… we called out to one another from time to time, but no… couldn't see her for all the paper.”

“ Maybe we should just call out Nancy Willis's name. See if we get a faint voice from the other side,” joked Richard. Jessica laughed aloud. It felt good; she hadn't had much to smile about lately. “Mr. Gideon Brown! I got handwriting on a phone form here,” said an excited Richard. “It's requesting a rural or remote rental, something resembling a farm, he says, something with a bam. Wants a place he won't be bothered in his old age, where he can raise chickens and tend a few animals like when he was a boy in Illinois-says here.”

They took the note to Willis's partner, read it to her, and asked if she recalled anything unusual about this man Brown. Carmella said, “I did think him a bit odd, as I recall. Didn't care for the client in the least, and Nancy kept wondering what he could possibly want the old Killough place for. She told me she didn't like the feel of it-the deal that is, but again, I was only half listening. I had heard it all before, you see.”

Jessica turned to Richard and indicated the correspondence. 'Tell me there's a response clipped to it, an address?”

“ No… says he will be in on the eighteenth and that he would be pleased if she had some suggestions for him.”

Jessica again tried jogging the memory of Miss Manners, but she had nothing further she could add, until Jessica's stare bore a hole into her head.

“ All right. Let me see it,” said the partner, who had prepared two cups of steaming coffee for the FBI agents.

After handing the two law enforcement people their coffees, the woman studied the letter for some time. “Oh, yes, I do remember something else of Mr. Brown now. He called in once while Nancy was at lunch. Gruff, callous voice, raw, actually. He was in heat to speak to her, finalize things, and I couldn't help him, and he became angry with me.”