Page 26 of Already Lost

Laura groaned internally. That meant theyweren’t going to get much help from her about anything that would shine a lighton Tessa’s relationships, her recent movements, or any mention she might havemade that could lead them to the killer.

“In that case, I’ll just ask this,” Natesaid. “Do you know of any information that might help us figure out whathappened to her last night? However small it may seem?”

Tallie shook her head slowly. “I’ve beensitting here racking my brain. But I don’t know where to start. I don’t evenknow if she was seeing anyone.”

This was a waste of time. Laura got upquietly, letting Nate keep the focus of the conversation, and glanced around.There was a shelf full of photographs at one end of the room. She made her wayover to it.

“I’m going to give you my card,” Natesaid, taking one out of his pocket. “If you do happen to think of anything,please don’t hesitate to call. Any small lead could make a difference at thisstage.”

Laura reached out and touched one of thephotographs. A picture of Tessa. Maybe one of the few things that remainedaround here since she’d moved out. It was only a slim hope in the first place,and Laura wasn’t even really disappointed when nothing happened. A visioncoming from that would have been a lucky shot even when her psychic abilitieswere firing on all cylinders.

“Thank you,” Tallie said. “I just feel soawful. My brothers don’t even know yet. It’s too early in the morning to callthem – and they’re going to have to find out over the phone, too.”

“If you need anything at all, you justtalk to these detectives,” Nate said, nodding to the local officers who hadbeen left as liaisons by the captain. “They’ll give you all the support youneed.”

That was Laura’s cue, as well as Nate’sown. He got up and she began moving towards the door already, pre-empting hisexit.

He gave Mrs. Sunter one last nod and thenturned, with a glance of professional recognition towards the detectiveremaining in the room, to go.

Laura waited until the front door wasclosed behind them to speak again, not wanting to be heard by the people insidethe house. She glanced back, half-expecting to see the woman’s husband framedin the upstairs window, but he wasn’t there. She would have been a littleinterested to find out what the nature of the disagreement was between him andTessa, but it was something they could circle back to. She wasn’t getting theimpression they would gain anything from the victims now – and without a linkto the other two women, a motive for Tessa’s murder meant next to nothing.

“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere withlooking at the victims,” Laura said as she got into the car. She turned to Natein the driver’s seat decisively. “Let’s come at this from another angle.”

“What angle?” Nate asked.

“The song. He wants us to hear it,” Laurasaid. “Every time, he makes sure someone hears it before he leaves. So, let’sdive into this song and figure out what he’s trying to tell us.”

Nate stared the engine with a nod, takingthem back to the precinct.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Laura swiveled her chair around towardsNate, showing him the results on her phone screen. “I think I’ve got it,” shesaid.

“That’s not fair,” Nate complained. “Youhad way more time than me. This computer’s still booting up.”

“Don’t blame the tools, bad workman,”Laura joked, only half-paying attention. “Listen to this. The original singerwas Nena Flora, right? It turns out she wasn’t even that big of a deal back inthe 1930s. She really only had this one hit song. Her Wikipedia page is barebones – it just has information about this song and not much else. This isn’t asong that would be a hugely well-known one even among people who like this kindof music.”

“I thought it sounded kind of familiarbefore,” Nate said. “But then, I don’t know. Maybe it just has that genericsound that was popular back then.”

“That’s what I think,” Laura agreed. “Itwas generic. People didn’t click with it, for some reason. And the recorddidn’t sell well, so they didn’t make a whole lot of copies.”

“Really? How many?” Nate asked, turningaway from his computer entirely to listen.

“About a thousand.” Laura shook her head.“This is a very small amount of records to be out there. I don’t know if it’s acoincidence that we’ve seen three of them at crime scenes and one in thatantique store already. Maybe we should call him back and ask him if anyone’sbought multiple copies of the record.”

Nate nodded. “I’ll do that in a moment,”he said. “Was the singer based around here, or something?”

Laura shook her head. “The record companythat released it was based nearby. So, maybe that’s why we’re able to find moreof them in this area. It would make sense. It’s possible that it was more of asmall, local phenomenon, and no one else ever really heard the record.”

“That would be a lot more help if wedidn’t already guess the killer was from here,” Nate said, covering his facewith a short bark of a frustrated laugh. “How easy is it to buy?”

“I’ll find out,” Laura said. “You makethat call.”

While Nate talked beside her, she tunedhim out and focused on her screen. She hit all of the online sales and auctionsites she could think of, trying to see how easy it was to find the record tobuy. She had a couple of hits – several ended auctions that were stillarchived, all of them from years ago, and a single current listing. It wasrare, but not too valuable, priced around thirty dollars each time. Not a lot,given the rate of inflation since the record was first released.

There was no way to know who had purchasedthe copies available at auction without getting a subpoena for the records fromthe auction site, and that would take a long time. But maybe there was anotherway they could trace the kind of people who bought this record, perhaps even tonarrow it down to just one.

“Alright, thanks,” Nate said, hanging upthe phone. He looked back at Laura. “No luck. He says that copy we saw wasdonated from a house clearance after an elderly local resident passed away.He’s had it for years and it never sold. He’s never seen another copy.”

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