Riley nodded encouragingly.“Can you tell us anything about Brittany?What kind of tenant was she?Did you notice any changes in her behavior recently?”
Pike let out a short, humorless laugh.“Brittany Hall was trouble with a capital T.Not the kind you’d expect, mind you.She paid her rent on time, kept her place clean.Didn’t throw parties or make noise.But she had a way of getting into it with just about everyone in the building.”
“Getting into it?”Riley asked.
“Arguments, confrontations.She’d fly off the handle over the smallest things.Someone using the washing machine when she wanted it, someone’s music being too loud—though usually it wasn’t.”
“Can you describe one of these incidents?”Riley asked, noting how this matched with what they knew about Rachel Bennett’s bipolar disorder.Another connection—both women struggling with mental health issues that affected their interactions with others.
Pike’s expression darkened.“There was this thing in the laundry room about six months back.Brittany came down to do her wash, but all the machines were full.Mrs.Hernandez from 2B was there, folding her things.Brittany just...exploded.Started screaming, threw Mrs.Hernandez’s clean clothes on the floor, kicked over her laundry basket.I had to physically intervene.”He rubbed his arm unconsciously.“Got a nasty bruise for my troubles.Almost evicted her then and there, but she begged for another chance.”
Riley exchanged a glance with Ann Marie.“And did her behavior improve after that?”
“Not really.She’d be okay for a week or two, then something else would set her off.”Pike reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a small paper object—a perfectly folded crane.“That’s why this was so strange.”
Riley leaned forward.“What was strange, Mr.Pike?”
“A few days ago, Brittany comes down to my office.Smiling—never seen her smile before.Polite as you please.She gives me this little bird, says it’s a peace offering.”Pike turned the crane gently in his weathered hands.“Said she wanted to apologize for being such a difficult tenant.Told me she’d ‘turned a corner’ and things would be different from now on.”
“And were they?”Ann Marie asked.
Pike nodded slowly.“Like night and day.Suddenly, she’s greeting people in the hallway, helping old Mrs.Levinson with her groceries.Even baked cookies for the tenant meeting last month.It was like she became a completely different person.”
Riley’s mind was racing, connecting dots.“And all those origami figures in her apartment?When did those start appearing?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” Pike admitted.“First I saw of them was when I found her...”He cleared his throat.“When I found her that morning.Never been in her apartment before that, except for the annual inspection.And last year she didn’t have any of those paper things, I’m sure of it.”
Brookman, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, straightened.“What I don’t understand, Mr.Pike, is how the hell your building doesn’t have a single security camera.Not in the lobby, not in the hallways, not even outside the main entrance.This isn’t 1975.”
Pike’s expression hardened.“You think I haven’t asked the owners for upgrades?Every budget meeting for the past three years, I’ve requested cameras, better locks, and a proper intercom system.Know what they tell me?‘Not in the budget, Lester.’They’d rather spend money on repainting the lobby every two years than on actual security.”
“Well, maybe now that someone’s been murdered in their building, they’ll reconsider,” Brookman said dryly.
“Maybe,” Pike conceded, though he didn’t sound convinced.“Too late for Brittany, though.”
The radio on Brookman’s hip crackled to life.“Detective Brookman, this is Officer Mendez at apartment 5E.We have a situation here you need to address.”
Brookman grabbed the radio.“What kind of situation?”
“A woman is here.She’s pretty insistent about getting into the apartment.”
Brookman looked at Riley and Ann Marie.“We’d better head back up.”
They thanked Pike for his time and made their way back to the elevator.As they rode up, Riley considered what they’d learned.Two women with mental health issues that affected their relationships with others.Both becoming enthusiastic about origami, both suddenly finding stability and peace.Both murdered in the same distinctive way.
They found Officer Mendez engaged in what appeared to be a standoff with a petite, dark-haired woman in her early thirties.
“Ma’am, as I’ve explained, this is an active crime scene,” Mendez was saying with the stressed patience of someone who had been repeating himself for some time.
“And as I’ve explained,” the woman replied angrily, “I’ve just flown down here from Buffalo.”She looked around at the newcomers and snapped at them, “I want to know what happened to my sister.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Has something happened to my sister?”The woman standing at Brittany Hall’s apartment door demanded.“This officer just told me this is a crime scene.”
Riley’s breath caught.The woman who’d lived here had been murdered two days ago, and Brookman had only mentioned contacting an estranged mother.Yet this person stared at them with eyes that mirrored the dead woman’s she’d seen in photographs—dark, intense—and there were other similarities in their features.
“I’m Detective Brookman with DC Metro,” he stepped forward.“I’ve already reached out to Ms.Hall’s mother.She said there were no other family members …”
