Page 65 of I'm Watching You

Vega and Ayden had discussed Ruby on the way over. She had been hiding cocaine for her boyfriend when the cops busted her. She’d done six months in exchange for testimony against him. He was now doing ten years at Greensville Prison. But they had realized this morning that the boyfriend, as it turned out, worked for Ronnie T.

Ruby pushed open the screen door. ‘I got a couple of minutes before I got to go. Come on in.’

Vega promised himself he owed his mother a bigthank-you. If not for her, Ruby Dillon would have shut the door on them now.

Ayden didn’t look rushed. He glanced at the surrounding yards before stepping over the threshold into the house. ‘We’ll do our best to hurry things along.’

Vega’s gaze scanned the living room, which reminded him so much of his parents’. The furniture was old and worn, but the room was neat and organized. Off the living room at the kitchen table sat a teenage girl. She wore shoulder-length braids and anUsherT-shirt. No doubt that was Brianna, the one who had been playing the loud music.

Ruby didn’t move from the small foyer nor did she offer them a seat.

‘Tell me about yesterday,’ Vega said. ‘How did you find the body?’

Ruby sighed her impatience. ‘I told that Detective Kier yesterday that I got the shelter women off to work and the kids off to school. It was a regular day and nothing out of the ordinary. I loaded up the trash like I do each morning I work at the shelter and took it out to the trash cans. That’s when I found him.’

‘You didn’t see anyone else in the backyard?’ Ayden said.

‘Nope. And I didn’t hear or smell nothing either.’

‘What about during the night?’ Vega said.

‘Quiet. But I did hear a dog barking around five. It woke me up. I got up and looked out the front window but didn’t see anything.’

‘How many nights a week do you stay at the shelter?’ Ayden asked.

‘Three or four, depending on the schedule. My son stays with Brianna when I’m gone overnight. I generally show up around five and leave by ten. Yesterday was the exception. I stayed late to help Lindsay.’

‘You were there when the flowers were delivered?’

‘I was.’

‘Did you see who dropped off the flowers?’

‘I didn’t. Lindsay’s office is closer to the front door than mine, so it would be simple for anyone to come in the front door and drop the box on her desk. I thought I heard somebody but figured it was a cop. After I answered all those calls, I went into Lindsay’s office, thinking she’d returned. That’s when I saw the box.’

‘Did you open it?’ Vega said.

‘Well, yeah, I peeked inside. Lindsay never, ever gets flowers and I wanted to see what she’d gotten.’ She shuddered. ‘I had no idea what was under those blossoms.’

‘Did you look at the note?’ Ayden asked.

‘No. The note was private.’

‘Did the shelter have any trouble recently? Other than yesterday?’ Vega said.

‘One of our residents, Aisha Greenland, kept getting calls from her husband, Marcus, on her cell phone. He left her all kinds of nasty messages. Finally, Lindsay had Aisha change the number. And a couple of weeks ago, we had to toss a gal out for drug possession. She was pissed.’

‘She got a name?’

‘Sally somebody. It’s in Lindsay’s records.’

‘I didn’t see surveillance cameras at the shelter,’ Ayden said.

‘We can’t afford them right now.’

Vega made a note. ‘Is there anything else you can tell us?’

Ruby’s first response was to shake her head no, but then she stopped. ‘Well, I’ll tell you, last week something did happen, here, at my house. It wasn’t much and I didn’t bother to tell Lindsay.’

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