Page 37 of Andy

“They weren’t in a hurry, either,” Wild said.

Jax nodded. “Yeah. You told us that they were in the building with you for thirty minutes. How many robberies take that long? If I had explosive putty, I would use it to stop someone from following me. But they weren’t raiding the vault, were they?”

Andy shook his head. “No. They weren’t pulling out a bunch of money. It was like they were just there to cause problems.”

“Exactly,” Bear said. “They were there to fuck shit up.”

“What do you think they would have eventually done?” Andy asked.

Bear shrugged. “I think they probably wanted to blow the place up.”

Andy shook his head as worry filled him. “But why? What was their reasoning? Who did they want to hurt?”

Jax hit him with a hard stare. “I think that’s what we need to know, but I’m not sure how we’ll figure it out.”

Andy ran his hand over his face. “I’ll see what I can find out from the detective.”

It was nearly the end of the day and they were getting ready to go when Wild turned to him, his elbows on the desk with his hands steepled under his chin. “You don’t think her roommate’s death has anything to do with any of this?”

Andy opened his mouth and then closed it. “I don’t know.”

Could the person who killed April and Chris have anything to do with the robbery that happened? That would be weird. Was Mel in danger? She’d had that weird feeling, and now he was tracking her location. Could someone be watching her?

Chapter 21

Mel hadn’t been allowed back into the apartment until Wednesday. Luckily, she’d already taken most of her clothes and some of her better jewelry over to Andy’s place, but she needed to clear the apartment of the rest of her belongings. The couch and other stuff in the living room, as well as the TV, belonged to Alice. She only had a few items in the kitchen and her things in the bedroom. She had a plan for getting in and getting out fast.

Andy would want to help, but the police had called her that morning, and she’d decided to take an extended lunch break and take care of the matter. She wasn’t getting everything, just the important stuff, and then she would come back either this weekend or next when the apartment management came in to clear out Chris and April’s stuff.

Detective Houck was there when she arrived at the apartment. He met her at her car, concern evident on his face.

“Are you sure you’re okay going in there without a friend?”

She nodded. “I don’t have to grab everything, just a few important things. It won’t take long. Thank you for giving me access.”

“Sure. I just want to warn you there is some blood on the walls. We’ve already gathered evidence, but the place is a mess.”

Mel nodded, wishing she had called Andy and told him what was going on. She knew he would tell her not to go, which is why she hadn’t called.

“I’m ready.”

Houck walked her up to the door and pushed it open. There were two police officers already inside, blocking her access to April’s room. As far as she knew, none of her stuff would be in April’s room. At one point in the past, she had a roommate who came into her room and took her stuff, but April wasn’t like that. They weren’t really friends, but she hadn’t had any issues with either of them.

Sadness filled her as she walked through the apartment. If she thought too much about it, she would break down. She kept the emotions at bay, forcing herself to think about the documents and other important things she needed to get.

Houck stayed in the doorway as she went through drawers to retrieve items she needed. She glanced over at one point, meeting his gaze.

“Thank you for staying here. It’s much sadder than I thought it would be.” A small sob came out, and she swiped at her eyes, trying to keep control of the emotions.

“It usually is.”

“How do you do this? I mean, you go into stuff like this all the time.”

“Well, it’s not a job I would recommend to most. But if I wasn’t here, who would do this? Who else is going to put together the jigsaw of clues and get the person committing crimes off the street?”

She nodded. “Yeah, there’s that. I liked April and Chris, but we weren’t good friends. We chatted on the surface, but they were a couple, and I felt like a third wheel, so I didn’t spend much time here.” She had all of her documents and was going through getting stuff from her bathroom.

“Can you think of anyone they talked about who might want to hurt them?”

---