“Walk me through what happened here.” Balogun walked off, forcing me to follow—forcing me closer to the body.
“It’s like I told the first officer who took my statement.” I looked around for her but didn’t see her. “I heard the doorbell, went to answer it, and found Mr. Layton on the doorstep. He didn’t even get a chance to say anything. He just fell down dead with that knife in his back.”
She hummed, her eagle eyes sweeping the doorframe. “And you didn’t see or hear anyone else?”
“No.”
“Why did you get rid of your security cameras?”
“I—” The question penetrated. “Wait, what?”
“Why,” she asked slowly, “do you not have security cameras?” Stepping over the body, she crooked her finger for me to follow. “I noticed that the last time we were here when the mob you whipped up knocked me on my ass.”
I sensed she was expecting me to throw an apology into that awkward pause, but I didn’t. Scurrying around Kaplan, I went to see what she was pointing at.
“There, there, and there.” Balogun’s finger jabbed the air. “You have mounts for security cameras, but no cameras.”
“We—”
“It’s the same for your gate,” she sliced in. “You have the booth for a guard, but instead of hiring one, you replaced the automatic opener.”
“Replaced?”
“The sensor and gate opener are clearly new while that rusted-over gate is not.” She gave me a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You requested that my partner and I cease with the lazy investigating and pay attention to the details, and I assure you, Mrs. Kim, from this point on, I will not miss a trick.
“So again, I repeat, why are you missing the two things that could’ve prevented Mr. Layton’s death, your mother’s and possibly Mrs. Prado’s as well? Why did you get rid of the guards and cameras?”
I blinked at the empty mount looming over my doorstep. I didn’t notice them before she said something, and now they were all I could see. “I... don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t,” I blurted. “I mean, the guard we... we probably let go of them because we couldn’t justify the expense to the estate lawyer.”
“Probably? You don’t know for sure?”
Of course I don’t know for fucking sure! I wasn’t here when any of these decisions were made!
“My mother handled everything to do with the running of the estate, and then when she got ill, my husbands took over. I’ve never been involved with the day-to-day stuff.”
“Even so.” The tense lines around her mouth hadn’t relaxed. “You would’ve noticed when the cameras disappeared. You didn’t have a thing to say about that? You didn’t ask why?”
“This is a safe town, Detective. We’ve never had a problem here until recently. My husbands were most likely tired of paying to film the leaves fall. None of us could’ve predicted all of these horrible things would happen.”
“Hm.”
That was it. Just a hum, and still that response filled me with dread.
“That will be all for now, Mrs. Kim. Please give us some space to do our work.”
I didn’t argue with her. Moving off toward the back entrance, I stared at those mounts until I couldn’t anymore—her words banging around in my head.
Why did you get rid of the two things that could’ve prevented these murders?
THAT NIGHT, I BURSTinto Alex’s room, startling him so bad he spilled his beer.
“Goodness, woman,” he cried, diving down to rescue the can. “You scared the mess out of me. You can’t go around bursting into rooms when there’s another freaking killer on the loose.”
I stared him down, making him back up a step.
