Derailed by Mary Keliikoa

Author:Mary Keliikoa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Epicenter Press Inc.
Published: 2020-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

The woman had silver shoulder-length hair with a youthful bounce. Her yellow oxford shirt, brown tweed blazer, and riding pants the color of buckskin tucked into black English riding boots made me think she’d come off the cover of a Ralph Lauren catalogue. Her soft leather purse with gold buckles hung from her shoulder and she pressed it against the front of her body, revealing French manicured hands. While not rail thin, she looked fit enough to outrun me in a second.

“Quite the view from the penthouses,” I said. “You live in one?”

She nodded, smiling with no eye contact.

Not one for small talk. “It’s a beautiful place. Do you know your neighbors?”

“Not really.” She glanced at her watch.

The body language said leave me alone. Luckily, I wasn’t easily dissuaded. Process serving had taught me persistence if nothing else. “Brooke Hanson?”

The smile froze, but her eyes dimmed. “Can’t say that I did.”

“She lived down the hall.”

“I’d seen her, but I didn’t know her.”

I could buy that since my own neighborhood had residents I only recognized by the car they drove. “Did you hear what happened to her?”

Her smile melted. “Truly unfortunate.”

Truly. “Have you lived here long?”

“I moved in with my daughter less than a year ago.”

Brooke would’ve already been living here, if the timeline provided by the landlord was correct. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Brooke had many visitors, would you?”

She pursed her lips. “My time is not spent in the elevator lobby.”

Even Brooke’s neighbors didn’t have details about her. That girl had been good at keeping her life private. The elevator opened. The woman threw me a quick glance that read I’m done with you and darted out, making a beeline for the revolving door. I gathered my coat around me and did the same.

To shave off time, I took a shortcut to the parking lot. My brain ticked through my interaction with Hannah and whether Brooke had caught up with her sister near those tracks as I passed a self-serve lot and recently demolished building across the street. And who had stopped Brooke outside the bar? More importantly, did they follow her when she broke free?

On the corner of Third and Columbia I waited for the crosswalk to change and examined the fenced-off rubble. Derek had left Brooke on the street and gone back inside. If someone had been waiting outside the door, he would have seen them. Knowing that Dave Anderson was the pinky-twisting man who’d been with Brooke at the Limbo, I needed to go back and find out what more Derek had to say on both of those subjects.

When the WALK flashed, I stepped into the street.

The accelerated roar of an engine hit my ears first. The road rumbled. Headlamps raced toward me. I leapt back when the car swerved toward the curb. A wall of wind smacked my face. The heel of my shoe caught. Arms stretched behind me, I crashed and skidded on the concrete before rolling out of danger. My purse catapulted into the air and dropped next to me.

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