Cheryl Bradshaw - Black Diamond Death

Audrey and I arranged to connect up at Charlotte’s place and Maddie was meeting me there afterwards so we could go talk to the chief. On the way over I placed a quick call to Nick. He didn’t answer, and I wasn’t surprised. I left him a message in which I did my best to downplay the events that occurred the last time we were together. I also gave him a brief idea of what happened at Parker’s but omitted the part where he cinched me in a choke hold against the wall. Since Maddie confirmed foul play, I didn’t want Park City’s finest in the way of me proving Parker did it, and for now, that included Nick––even if he wasn’t talking to me at the moment.

I found the door to Charlotte’s condo unlocked and all the lights on when I arrived but didn’t see anyone in the front room.

“Hello?” I said.

A voice echoed from down the hall.

“In here.”

I followed the sound to the bedroom where Audrey sat in the middle of Charlotte’s bed and flipped through worn pages of an old photo album. She traced her finger across a photograph of a young Charlotte who beamed with joy atop a purple road runner bicycle with a yellow banana seat.

“Reminiscing over all the good times,” she said.

“Well, you were right about what happened to Charlotte.”

She closed the album and tucked it into an oversized handbag on the floor and gave me her full attention.

“What do you mean?”

For the first time since we met, Audrey listened in silence while I relayed the information Maddie gave me. I passed on most of the details but left out the part where Charlotte may have been alert until the end. Audrey had suffered enough.

“I’m not surprised,” she said, when I finished. “You know that feeling you get sometimes in your gut. I’ve had that all along. Maybe now everyone won’t look at me like I’m a deranged lunatic.”

She shook her head back and forth.

“It’s hard to think of what those last moments were like for her. I wonder how much pain she endured and if she suffered; I could kill him, I really could.”

“I haven’t proved it was Parker yet.”

“Isn’t it obvious? He did it,” she said.

“There’s something else,” I said. “Earlier today I confronted Parker, and he got a little aggressive.”

She cupped her hand over her mouth.

“Are you alright?” she said.

“I’m a lot better than he is.”

Audrey raised an eyebrow and shot me a devious wink.

“What did you do?”

“Let’s just say he won’t get much use out of one of his hands for a while,” I said.

We both laughed.

“Serves him right.”

“He had a woman at his place in town last night,” I said. “Things got heated when she wouldn’t consent to sex, and I’m glad I showed up when I did.”

“What happened?”

I explained what transpired between Parker and Daniela. Audrey hung on to my every word like a child clings to the bar on a roller coaster.

“Turns out they dated for about a year.”

She threw both hands up in the air.

“Unbelievable!” she said. “I don’t think anything you say at this point will surprise me.”

“Don’t count on it. The woman said Parker hit her, and on more than one occasion.”

Audrey shook her head back and forth.

“That stupid ass.”

“I think she was one woman in a whole string of them. Earlier in the day, I found him out with a blond woman. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her yet so I’m not certain, but they looked like much more than friends.”

She crunched her hands together the way a person relieves tension on a stress ball.

“I want to wrap my hands around his scrawny little neck and squeeze,” she said.

“I need you to steer clear of him, Audrey. I mean it.”

“You can’t expect me to sit back after all this. He needs to pay for what he’s done.”

“And he will, but I want to make sure it’s done the right way. Besides, we don’t know what he’s capable of.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’m not my sister, I can handle myself.”

“I don’t doubt that, but let me see this through,” I said.

“I suppose that means you’ll work with the police now, huh?”

I nodded.

“A lot of good that’s going to do,” she said.

It was clear no amount of persuasion would change the idea she formed in her mind about the PCPD so I didn’t attempt it.

“Let me worry about that, okay?” I said.

She considered it for a moment.

“Well, I got this far with your help so I suppose I owe you that much.”

“Now that I know Parker is capable of violent behavior, did you ever notice any bruises on Charlotte?”

“She never said he hit her. He had a nasty temper sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he abused her. Now that I think about it, Charlotte dressed conservatively though. I suppose it’s possible if she was being abused that she hid it from everyone.”

“What about the other women, did she ever talk about them?” I said.

She shook her head.

“The ME found no sign of abuse on her body. No bruises, scars, or anything to suggest he abused her. The only injuries she had were the ones she sustained in the accident.”

Audrey glanced at the clock on Charlotte’s wall and then reached for her handbag.

“I’m sorry, I need to run. Vicki left some items at the office for me––Charlotte’s effects and other things from her desk she thought I might want, but stay as long as you need to and do whatever you need to do.”

“And if you get the urge to confront Parker, call me first, okay?” I said.

“I can’t guarantee to stay away from Parker forever, but for now you have my word.”

She reached into her bag and took out a pack of cigarettes.

“Just nail that son of a bitch before I change my mind.”

CHAPTER 23

Charlotte’s condo presented itself as clean, but not meticulously so. In the kitchen a glass rested on the counter that was half filled with water. I found another in the living room. Her walls were painted dark red and replicas of Picasso paintings adorned them. A pair of heeled shoes lounged on the floor in front of the sofa. One had tipped over and was on its side. Everywhere I looked I saw signs of life that someone once inhabited the space. Her apartment was like a piece of history frozen in time. A part of me felt like a trespasser and that at any moment Charlotte would turn the key and step inside and wonder who I was and what I was doing there.

In the bathroom a soap dish displayed the words SOAP in giant black letters across the front of the dish. It matched the wastebasket which had TRASH etched on it. It seemed absurd to me that a person would decorate in such a way. I wondered what I would find next––a tooth cleaner with the word TOOTHBRUSH written on it?

There were two bedrooms in Charlotte’s condo. One to the left and one to the right of the bathroom. In one room I observed a desk, I started there.

Charlotte’s home office had an ornate brown desk that sat majestically in the middle of the room. It reminded me of a piece of furniture Henry VIII might have used in his day. The top contained a single item, a laptop computer. It was closed.

In the corner of the room stood a tall bookcase with three shelves. The first and third shelf contained books, most of them real estate related. The middle shelf posed as a shrine to her achievements in the form of crystal-like objects. Each contained words like, Presidents Club 2009, Realtor of the Year 2010 , and the like.

I switched my focus to the laptop and therein found my first impediment––I didn’t know the password. I hoped a quick call to Audrey would give me the answer I needed.

“Try Charlie,” she said.