Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman

Author:Jonathan Kellerman [Kellerman, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Mel Boudreaux was reading his phone in the entry hall. Sports scores. He clicked off.

Milo said, “You mind waiting in the kitchen, amigo?”

Boudreaux said, “Don’t mind at all, ready for a snack.”

He followed Ellie in but emerged a few moments later in the lead. Carrying coffee, cups, and accoutrements on a tray.

Long legs covered a lot of ground. She hurried to keep up. “You really don’t have to, Mel.”

“Need the exercise.” Boudreaux placed the tray on the living room coffee table, saluted, and returned to the kitchen.

Ellie said, “I’ll pour. Cream, sugar?”

Milo said, “Two blacks.” He sipped. “Good stuff.”

“Fazenda Santa Inês from Brazil.” She flinched. “Brannon used to like it.”

“Used to?”

“He got fanatical about training and gave up caffeine.”

“Fun guy.”

“He was,” she said. “At the beginning.” Her face began to crumple.

Milo reached for one of the clean hankies he keeps in his jacket pocket. But, again, she composed herself and put down her cup.

“That deputy chief—Martz—called me and asked if I was happy with your progress. Like she was checking up on you. I hope I didn’t put you in a weird position.”

“Nah, business as usual.”

“I told her I was happy. But if you do have something new, I wouldn’t mind hearing about it. Maybe a little more data than the last time?”

Milo placed his own cup near hers. “We’ve uncovered some minor question marks but nothing close to evidence. If you’re up to it, I have more questions for you.”

“Sure. What?”

“The necklace you showed us. Your father told you your mom left it behind?”

“No, what he told me was he bought it for her, I assumed she left it. How else would Dad have it?”

“Did she leave anything else behind?”

Her eyes slid to the right. “The dress. The one she wore with the necklace in that forest photo. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t think it was important. Also, I wear the necklace once in a while but never the dress. It’s in a zip bag in a storage locker back home. Could it be relevant?”

Milo said, “In terms of the murder, highly unlikely. If at some point we get past that and want to learn more about your mom’s background, a label in the dress could theoretically help.”

“It does have a label and I was thinking the same thing so I tried to do some research on my own. The manufacturer was Jenny Leighton, Fort Lee, New Jersey. They were in business until twenty-four years ago. Even with my garment-biz connections, I couldn’t find out if they sold locally or jobbed nationwide. That’s the way it is with the rag trade. Here, today, gone…” She smiled. “If you want, I can fly up and bring the dress back.”

“Not necessary.”

“You think it’ll be another dead end.”

“I wouldn’t call it high priority.”

“Fair enough. So what are those minor question marks you mentioned?”

“We learned something curious about the necklace.”

He withdrew a folded sheet of paper from his jacket.

The photo from The Azalea.

Reluctant to get into details

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