“That’s perfectly understandable,” said Jamison kindly. “We’re just here to ask you some questions.”
“I’ll tell you whatever I can if it will help you catch whoever did this,” the woman said earnestly. She blew her nose with authority into the tissue.
“When did she move in here?” asked Decker.
“About a month ago.”
“Do you know where she lived before that?”
“I think at the Dawson Towers complex. It’s about a mile from here. Nicer part of town. Pretty luxurious.”
“Dawson?” said Decker. “Like in Caroline Dawson?”
“Yes. She has a condo there, I believe. And her father, Hugh, owns the Towers, along with about three-quarters of the businesses in London. This building here is one of the few he doesn’t own. Probably wouldn’t make enough money for him,” she added dismissively.
“So he’s the local business tycoon?” said Jamison.
“But a man named Stuart McClellan is even richer.”
“How so?” asked Decker.
Kelly answered. “He owns pretty much all of the oil and gas fracking operations in this area.”
“So do the two men get along?” asked Jamison.
It was Kelly again who answered. “They do business together. But I wouldn’t call them best friends.”
Simms said huffily. “They’re men, and rich men to boot, which means they’re in a lifelong pissing contest—pardon my French—to see who’s the bigger dog in the fight.” She shook her head. “Boys never really grow up, don’t care how much cash they have.”
“Did you know Ms. Cramer very well?” asked Jamison.
Simms said, “I guess as well as anyone in the building. She worked as a teacher out at the Brothers’ school.”
“So we heard. What can you tell us about her?”
“She was quiet. Kept to herself. I mean she was an attractive young woman, but she never had anyone over to her place, least that I know of.”
“Why’d she move here from Dawson Towers? Is it cheaper here?”
“Oh, yes, much cheaper. The Towers is far nicer, like I said. But our rooms are clean and we include trash service and cable TV.”
“Did you ever see her go out at night?”
“No. I get up very early and go to bed the same. If it was after nine o’clock I wouldn’t see her leaving.”
Jamison said, “Did she ever talk about her personal history? How she came to be here?”
Simms sat back and thought about this for a few moments. “Come to think, not really. For some reason I had the feeling that she was from the West Coast. But that’s just a guess.”
Decker looked out the window, where the rain was continuing to pour down. “Did she say why she had come to London in the first place? Did she have a job lined up?”
“Not that she ever said, no. But she did work at the Brothers’ as the teacher, like I said. So maybe that’s what brought her up here.”
Jamison added, “Or was she coming here to be with someone? Maybe followed a boyfriend?”
“Not that I know of.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” asked Kelly.
Simms looked pensive once more. “I believe it was a week ago today.”
Decker glanced at Kelly. “That tightens the coroner’s outside TOD from ten days to five, since her body was found two days ago.”
“But weren’t you concerned that you hadn’t seen her for a week?” asked Jamison.
“No, because she said she was going on a little vacation.”
“Vacation where?” asked Jamison, shooting a glance at Kelly, who looked equally surprised by this revelation.
“She didn’t tell me.”
“She didn’t say if she was meeting someone or traveling with them?” interjected Kelly.
“No, again, we didn’t really discuss it.”
“Did she have any friends who lived here?” asked Jamison.
“Not that she mentioned to me.”
“Not to sound like a cliché, Ida,” said Kelly, “but have you seen any strangers lurking around? Or did Irene mention she was having a problem with anyone?”
“No, nothing like that,” replied Simms, looking alarmed. “This is a good town. Safe for the most part. Oh, I know some of those bozos lose their tempers and get in fights and somebody ends up dead, but, well, people don’t go around murdering each other on purpose.”
“Until now,” said Decker. “I think it’s time we went over her room.”
* * *
The apartment was neat, perhaps too much so, thought Decker. The furnishings looked like they had come with the apartment, a fact that Simms had confirmed for them. The tiny kitchen was utilitarian and appeared as though it had never been used. The bedroom held a bed and not much else. There were no books, photos, or mementos. No desktop or laptop computer. And no power cords showing she had such devices.
Decker eyed Kelly. “Simms said that she never saw Cramer go out at night, presumably because she went to bed too early.”
“She would have hit the streets long after Simms was in bed.”
“Simms also said that she wasn’t aware of Cramer’s having any friends in the building. But she could be wrong about that, too,” remarked Jamison.
Kelly said, “But would she bring her clients back here or sleep with someone in her own building? The jig would be up.”
Decker shook his head. “But what if she just had someone over for consensual sex?”
Kelly looked intrigued. “Maybe she had a boyfriend that Simms didn’t know about.”
“She ever mention anyone like that to you?” asked Jamison.
He shook his head. “But it’s not like she would have.”
Decker said, “Has this place been dusted for prints?”
“No, because it wasn’t the crime scene.”
“It needs to be done,” said Decker sharply.
“We’ve got one tech, and he rides the circuit for a few other police forces around the area. I’ll get him to make this a priority for us.”
Decker said, “What about her car? I didn’t see a Honda parked on the street.”
“We’ve got a BOLO out on it, but nothing yet.”
“If she was working through a website she probably had a laptop. And she had to have a phone,” said Jamison.
“I’m sure she did but we haven’t found either one,” replied Kelly.
“Where would she typically meet up with the men? You mentioned you met her at a flophouse?”
“Yeah. We can go there next.”
Decker said, “And we’ll need to talk to the Brothers, obviously.”
“I don’t believe they could have had anything to do with this. They’re a pacifist group.”
“Pacifists or not, it only takes one bad apple in the bunch. And there’s almost always one bad apple in every bunch.”
“I TAKE IT THIS is the really, really seedy side of town,” said Jamison as they pulled up in front of a dilapidated, wooden-clad three-story building that looked around a century old. It was about a quarter of a mile from Cramer’s apartment, but in an even less desirable part of London.