Page 14 of The Girl and the Lies

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Did you get a chance to talk with Jesse Kristoff?” he asks.

“I did. He didn’t have much to tell me about the attack, but he gave me some interesting insights into Tracy Ellis and how people see her. It sounds like this is far from the first time that people associated with her have gotten threats,” I say.

“That’s probably very true.”

We get off the phone, and a few seconds later, a message comes through with the code for the lockbox on the apartment door. I find the address in the file I got from the detective, input it into my GPS, and head there.

Crime scene tape and a notice to keep out of the apartment are still in place on the temporary door fitted to Gideon Bell’s apartment. I’m putting the code into the lockbox to get the key when the door across the breezeway opens. I turn to see a young woman carrying a trash bag step out. She eyes the door, concern and sadness etched on her face.

“Are you investigating the guy who died in there?” she asks.

“I am,” I tell her. “Agent Emma Griffin. I’m with the FBI.”

“FBI. Wow. I thought it was just the detective,” she says.

“There are some additional circumstances that made the local department want to seek out the assistance of the Bureau,” I tell her. “What’s your name?”

“Casey Burgess,” she says.

“Did you know your neighbor?” I ask.

“Gideon? Yeah, I knew him. He was a good guy. I can’t believe something like this happened to him.”

“Did you hear or see anything last night?” I ask.

“I thought I heard something outside pretty late, but I didn’t know what it was. I thought maybe somebody had locked their keys in their apartment and were trying to get in or something. It wasn’t like there was a lot of loud noise or anything that really made me think that something was seriously wrong. I should have paid better attention or looked through the peephole or something, but I didn’t. I was up studying and didn’t want to stop. But then I heard the gunshot.

“I thought it was coming from Gideon and Jesse’s apartment, but I didn’t want to open the front door to my place because I didn’t know what was going on. So I looked through the peephole and saw someone running out. I didn’t get a very good look at them. They were wearing a mask, but it looked like they had long blond hair. I noticed it because it was sticking out from the bottom of the ski mask, and I thought that was really strange.

“I called the police, but they told me that someone had already called and officers were being dispatched. When they got here, they came and asked me for a statement. They wouldn’t tell me what was going on or what had happened, but I saw the paramedics bring Jesse out. Later I watched them bring the gurney out with a body on it, and I knew that Gideon must be dead. Why did Jesse shoot him? I thought they were so close,” she says.

“Gideon wasn’t shot,” I tell her. “At the moment, Jesse isn’t a suspect. Since this is an active investigation, I can’t divulge details, but we are trying to find out exactly what happened.”

“Jesse didn’t kill Gideon? I don’t know if that’s a relief or if it should make me scared because that means someone else killed him,” she says.

“Right now, we have no reason to believe that anyone else in the building is at risk,” I tell her.

She lets out a sigh. “That’s good. I moved into this place because I thought it was going to be a good place to live and I didn’t have to be afraid living alone. I can’t believe something like this happened right across the hall.”

“Thanks for your time,” I tell her.

She nods and heads down the stairs with her trash. Rather than going inside, I go to the next neighbor’s apartment and knock. I don’t get an answer, so I move on to the one next door to Gideon’s. An older woman answers. She isn’t able to give me any new information. According to her, Gideon was a nice young man who always helped her with her groceries or packages when he saw her coming up the stairs, and Jesse was always sweet and friendly, but she didn’t spend a lot of time with either of them. She was asleep during the attack and only woke up to the sound of the gunshot but stayed inside her apartment until the police came to get a statement from her. She didn’t see anything else.

I go back to the door and put the code into the lockbox to get the key. Ducking down under the tape, I enter the apartment. There’s nothing suggesting that any kind of struggle happened in the living room or dining areas, which further confirms to me that Gideon was asleep when he was attacked. Whoever did it was able to get inside the apartment without waking him up, killed him in his bed, and then turned the lights on so that they could see while they were writing on the wall, not knowing the light would catch Jesse’s attention when he got home.

Without a warrant, I can’t do any digging through the apartment looking for copies of the threats that Gideon received, so I look at all the papers and mail I can find just sitting out. I don’t see anything threatening and wonder if Jesse was right that Gideon just threw the threatening letters away because he didn’t take them seriously. Moving further into the apartment, I notice an evidence marker on the wall and see the bullet hole from where Jesse shot at the attacker.

I follow the hallway to the back part of the apartment and find Gideon’s room. There’s lingering evidence of the crime scene investigation unit processing the scene, and the bedding has been removed from the bed. I look at the message written across the wall and notice the handwriting. It’s stark block print, written very deliberately as if in an effort to prevent anyone from recognizing any characteristics of their handwriting. It would take longer to write something like that, which might be why Jesse was able to interrupt the process. I see a laptop sitting on the dresser and make a note to get a warrant for access to the contents of the computer and his email.

Touring the apartment didn’t really give me any new information, so I lock the door and leave. I want to talk to Tracy Ellis about the situation, but I know she wouldn’t be in the office on a Sunday, so I postpone speaking with her until tomorrow morning. Instead, I head for Eric and Bellamy’s house.

By the time I get there, I’ve put in requests for the computer and Gideon’s email as well as his phone records. There may be further communications that might be valuable to the investigation. As much as the threats to the people throughout the company are hanging over the heads of everyone investigating the case, there hasn’t been anything that confirms that’s actually what’s happening. It’s important to keep all possibilities open this early in an investigation, which means considering the chance that this was personal.

Bellamy is home when I get to the house, and she lets me in with a tight hug.

“I know I just saw you for your birthday party, but I still feel like I never get to see you anymore,” she says.

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