“Then you agree with me that it has to be Judith, right?”
“Maybe, but let me tell you about Leah first. One second while I turn to the page with my notes about her.”
I check the time as she flips through her notebook, and hope that Val and Ollie take a few minutes to arrive so that we can finish our conversation.
“Leah Evans,” Monika starts a moment later. “I found her teaching license on an online database, so she is a teacher in Jersey, like you said. She doesn’t have LinkedIn, but I’ve added her on Instagram with my fake account, so as soon as she approves me, I’ll do my deep dive and send you her picture to confirm.”
“You have a fake Instagram account?”
“Of course I do,” she says. “Multiple, in fact, to suit different investigations. I added Leah with my generic mom of young kids account and just changed my location to Jersey. Judith’s was private too, so I added her with my thirty-year-old male personal trainer account, which seems to do well with her demographic.”
I laugh. “Monika, that is quite possibly the most insane thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Please tell me you are joking.”
“I’m not,” she says defensively. “You said you wanted me to solve this thing, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Unless you’ve changed your mind?”
“No,” I say quickly. “I am grateful for your help. I’m just a bit thrown. I had no idea you were this into it.”
“I am. That’s also how I found out that Judith worked at a Dillard’s about twenty miles from Ravenwood, but she didn’t retire. She was fired for shoplifting.”
“What?” I cover my mouth to stop any more outbursts so that Cameron doesn’t come back to check on me.
“Yeah, she was charged with a misdemeanor last year. I haven’t found her mug shot yet, but I found the arrest record with her name on it.”
“Did you find out anything else about her?” While shocking, a non-violent criminal record is not the smoking gun I was hoping for.
“No, but the good news about her prior arrest is that if the police find any prints that were left behind, they will already have Judith’s fingerprints in their database. The fact that she hasn’t shown up for questioning doesn’t matter. If they can match what they already have to the crime scene, all they need to do is issue a warrant for her arrest. I think that is your best chance out of this, Drew, if your gut is telling you that it’s her. Have you or Cameron heard anything about a murder weapon?”
My heart pitches for the third time in the last few minutes at her question. “Yes, actually.”
“Great. What is it?”
“Well, I don’t technically know what it is. They asked me to give a print back when I was at the station, so Cameron and Jalen took that to mean that they had a weapon with at least a partial print.”
“I hope you didn’t offer to do one voluntarily.”
“No. I tried to, but Jalen stopped me.”
She lets out a relieved breath. “Thank goodness. Don’t ever volunteer anything, Drew. You know better than that.”
I close my eyes in shame. “I guess not.”
“Don’t panic. Just because they asked you for a print doesn’t mean that they have one to compare it to. They might be trying to get all their ducks in a row.”
“Maybe, but isn’t it more likely that they already ran Judith’s print against what they have, and that’s why they called me back to ask for mine?”
“It depends on whether they asked the other women for prints too.”
“Well, Valentina is on her way over here right now to hang out, so I can ask her. Unless you want me to put you on the phone with her so that you can tell her how much you admire her work.”
“Ha-ha, no thank you,” Monika says. “Still be careful around her, though, because if Judith has been cleared, then that means Val is still a suspect.”
Trusting my own judgment is one thing, but if Monika doesn’t suspect her, either, then I consider that a near certainty that I have nothing to fear with Val. “Keep digging and call me if you come up with anything, but all this talk about fingerprints reminded me of something that Jalen said earlier. He said that the murderer could have been wearing gloves.”
“Of course, they could have. But that would mean that this was a well-planned-out hit, and an enemy that determined wouldn’t pop up out of thin air. There would be some connection out there to link them together, so I promise that if there’s something to find, I’ll uncover it. I’ll focus all my attention on Delaney’s past from here on out.”
“Thank you, Monika, I really appreciate you.”
“Of course. Oh, and one last thing. I looked into Cameron even though you asked me not to.”
