“Mr. DuBreck?” she called out, keeping her feet outside in the hallway as she leaned her head inside the apartment. There were no noises. Just ominous silence. She continued poking her head into the apartment. “I’m Angela Bertuccio from Hazelton. I just stopped by to see if you were okay.”
Silence. Not even a whisper of sound indicating movement.
She glanced at James over her shoulder and shrugged. “Let’s go in,” she whispered.
He nodded, his senses on high alert. “Mark?” he called out, his deep voice reverberating against the walls. “It’s James. You okay?” he called out. His voice seemed to bounce oddly around the room.
They stepped deeper into the apartment and looked around.
Angela swiveled her head around, taking note of their surroundings. “Okay, so on the positive side, everything looks clean. No one ransacked his apartment and we aren’t stepping into a bloody horror show.” That was supposed to be a joke, he suspected. She grimaced with a slight shrug. “Imightwatch too many murder mystery shows,” she added by way of an explanation.
James chuckled softly, then moved further into the space, frowning as he took in the tidy apartment. “It’s too clean in here. I don’t recall Mark being this level of clean freak.”
The apartment was one big area with the kitchen and living space open to each other. The ultra-modern kitchen was done in shiny white laminate. Not the cheap kind. These were high-end furnishings with modern handles and expensive appliances. Mark was either really into cooking or he’d just upgraded everything for resale value. The fridge was one of those industrial style pieces with double doors and heavy-duty ventilation at the top. The stove had six burners and a water dispenser coming out of the back wall.
James looked around, taking it all in. The shiny cabinets, the stainless steel pieces that were shiny and clean, the immaculate island with an under-mounted, double sink – withnothing in it. It was all too…clean! Who left their apartment this immaculate? There wasn’t even a coffee cup in the sink.
“There are no fingerprints on anything in here,” Angela announced. She was still clutching her yellow purse as she examined the kitchen. She glanced at James. “Not a single fingerprint anywhere.” She turned around. “There isn’t a dirty coffee cup or water glass. Not a single dish in the sink or a crumb to be found.”
James nodded. “I had lunch with him a couple of weeks ago but, before then, we’d sort of lost touch since our college days. Back then, Mark wasn’t a slob exactly, but he wasn’t obsessively clean.”
He moved deeper into the apartment. “Leather furniture makes sense for him, but the throw pillows?” He shook his head with a snort. “Mark wasn’t a throw pillow kind of guy.”
Angela peeked into the bedroom, the only other room in the apartment. “Does he have a girlfriend?” she called out, returning to the living area. “That might explain the pillows.”
James moved over to the shelves along one wall. “Yep,” he replied, nodding towards a picture frame. “A blonde woman with a cute smile.”
Angela walked over to look at the picture, and shook her head. “Nope, not just a girlfriend. That’s his fiancée.”
James blinked and frowned at her. “Why do you say that?”
Angela snorted and he almost laughed at the sound. It was so unlike the sophisticated image she projected. “Because of the huge, sparkly rock on her finger?” she pointed out sarcastically.
James looked at the picture again, and noticed the enormous diamond ring.
She continued explaining, “Women only take pictures like that when they’re newly engaged. And since there’s a Christmas tree in the background, he probably proposed on Christmas Eve.”
“Why would you guess Christmas Eve? Why not Christmas Day? Or even New Year’s Eve?”
Angela shrugged carelessly as she turned away from the picture. “It makes more sense to propose on Christmas Eve. They would have private time together, then share their big news with their family members on Christmas Day. Probably over a big meal when more family members were present.” James found her answer, as well as her reaction, fascinating. How could she know this? “Then they would have a week before New Years, most likely time off from work, when they could both revel in their new status as an engaged couple before ringing in the new year and going back to work to tell all of their co-workers.” She finished her explanation as she wandered about the apartment, taking in small details as she obviously considered the idea of a Christmas Eve marriage proposal.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked, more curious about her reaction than whatever had happened to his friend.
She frowned questioningly at him. “Proposing on Christmas Eve?” she clarified.
For a moment, he got lost in her eyes. They were so dark and deep and…filled with pain. When she lifted an eyebrow, he remembered her question. “No, you seemed sad about the idea of announcing one’s engagement to family members onChristmas day. Is that…bad? Announcing one’s engagement at dinner the next day?”
She shrugged again, trying to be dismissive about the idea. But he could see the truth in her face. Angela Bertuccio thought that a Christmas Eve proposal was sweet and romantic. But there was pain in her eyes too. Why?
When she turned back to him, she smiled faintly, trying to shrug off his question. “Not at all. If you have a good, loving family, then by all means. Announce away. It’s a great way to bring a family together with happy news.”
Translation; Angela Bertucciodid nothave a big, happy family.
James glanced at her, seeing the pain she was trying to hide. That was a very interesting revelation she’d inadvertently provided and he tucked that piece of information away. It was another piece of the puzzle that was Angela Bertuccio.
She sighed, and pushed her hair back in defeat. “Other than the unexpected level of cleanliness, I don’t see anything that would indicate an issue.”
“Except for the fact that no one has heard from him in several days and he sent me an odd message asking me to take care of a key? And I agree that this place is too clean, which is more evidence that the guy is in trouble.”