Page 59 of Avenging Kelly

“See if she has anything that looks like communications with this mysterious brother,” London quickly answered. That was a great place to start.

Watching Lawry Schatz’s fingers fly over the keys made me dizzy. My mom was a teacher, and she typed up a lot of stuff when I was growing up, mostly on an old manual typewriter, but I’d never seen anyone type so fast in my life.

“Okay… Let’s see…” Casper scrolled through what looked like an email account, so I stepped closer.

I saw the name “Liza Essex.”

“That one. She worked at Leavenworth with The Gambler,” I stated. Casper opened it.

From: Ritchfield, Frances J., MD

To: Essex, Liza, NP

Date: 01 March 2023 14:20:08

Re: Plans for the weekend

Liza–About the upcoming weekend, I thought we could get together to play poker on Saturday at 8AM instead of 10AM like usual. What do you think? Fran

“That’s pretty anticlimactic,” London stated.

“Hang on. It’s got an encrypted attachment,” Casper stated as his tongue darted out to lick his lips while his fingers flew again.

“Better idea—I’m gonna clone her laptop so I have time to go through it at the office where I have software to decrypt any files I find. Hang on.”

Casper whipped out a little device and pushed it into an empty port on the laptop and then typed in a few commands and a screen popped up with a little clock that showed ninety seconds.

“Will you be able to see everything on her computer?” I asked.

Casper turned toward me. “I can keep my mouth shut. Do you want me to avoid anything that might pertain to you?”

“No. I want you to let me see it,” I answered. Casper nodded and went back to his task.

I glanced at London. “Let’s split up and take a look around. Who knows what we’ll find?”

“Sure. We’re already breaking about ten laws. Why not?”

I chuckled and went back into the hall and to my right while London went the other way. I damn well hoped that jammer was doing its job.

When I’d spent the night at the apartment, I’d only explored as far as the bathroom, the computer cave, the kitchen, and the living room. I honestly had been afraid of what I would find in the other rooms that night. This time, I’d scour every fucking inch to see if that woman had anything incriminating I could hang her with that would send her away for an eternity.

I went to the room next to the computer cave and opened the door, seeing a spare bedroom. It was decorated with more of a feminine slant… light pink bedspread and curtains, white bedroom furniture, and a doll with blonde hair dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a red t-shirt with the picture of a dog on it. The doll’s hair was covered with clear cellophane, and her little plastic sneakers were also wrapped to stay on.

There were white shelves filled with children’s books over a white desk. There were certificates of achievement for a girl named LaDonna Ritchfield on the shelves, along with empty picture frames. It was spooky as fuck.

“Casper, make a note of this name, LaDonna Ritchfield,” I called out toward the computer cave.

“Copy.”

I looked in the closet to see it was empty, though there were pink and white tufted hangers on the rod, but they didn’t appear to have been used because they were fastened together with a white ribbon. That was strange.

I looked under the bed to see not even a dust bunny, so I stood and opened the desk to see it was neat as a pin. Three notebooks that were still wrapped in plastic, a box of number two Ticonderoga pencils, and a brand-new carton of crayons, still sealed.

If I was a little girl… and I had been called that when I was in basic training… I’d have used the notebooks, sharpened the pencils, colored with the crayons, and taken the goddamn cellophane off the doll’s hair and sneakers. The room had never been used. Why did Ritchfield have it?

I walked out of the bedroom and down the hall, turning the knob on the door to find it locked. If Rafael had been there with us, I was sure he’d have picked the lock and left the door as though it hadn’t been touched. I, however, lacked the chef’s finesse.

I lifted my booted foot and kicked that mother fucker in. The sound of the wooden door splintering as it flew open and bashed the wall was like music to my ears.

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