Chapter Nine
Kate was busy trying to figure out what the key went to. She also thought Linda may have used an assumed name to get the box, in order to keep it a secret from her husband. The secrets it held would have to wait to be revealed until Kate could figure out where the box was located.
She began calling the banks and using Linda’s legal name, asking if they had a safety deposit box for Linda Miles. Kate had suspected correctly, there was no box found under the name Linda Miles. When the name turned up nothing, Kate began asking about the key and the number on it. The banks told her if they could see the key they could tell if it was their key or not and the number would reveal who the box belonged to.
Kate looked at Sean and said, “It looks like we are going to be traveling from bank to bank.”
Sean replied, “How lucky are we.”
Kate took the key and the two detectives began their bank journey that very morning. It became evident the banks would know quickly whether or not the key was theirs or not.
It would be a slow process but they were eliminating banks from their list. They went from bank to bank until at one the mature attendant who seemed to have a lot of experience in safety deposit boxes said, “There is an independent safety storage company that uses keys like that and safety deposit boxes is all they do.”
Kate took the information given and went to “Boston’s Vaults” to see if they recognized the key. When the key was shown and the number looked up, the lady behind the protective glass screen said, “Yes, that is our key.”
Kate was excited they had found the location for the key but the news that followed made her frown a little. She was informed that they would need a warrant to obtain the contents of the box. Kate wasn’t sure they had enough evidence to get a judge to sign off on a warrant for the box. She knew they had to go try to sell it to the judge.
Kate and Sean paid their judge a visit. He had written many warrants for them but didn’t seem that anxious for this one. They gave him all of the information they had and the judge informed them the key could have belonged to whoever had the gym locker before Linda. Since they didn’t know what name it was under they couldn’t say for certain it belonged to Linda.
The judge was just as reluctant as Kate suspected he would be. He delayed his decision and told them he would have to think about it and research precedents from past cases. Kate knew from experience, if the judge has to think about it, you can most likely forget about it. The only thing they could do for now was to concentrate on the note.
The lab concluded the only DNA present was that of the victim, which could have been easily transferred when she read it. Kate needed to make sure it wasn’t Linda’s writing on the note. She could have merely made herself a note about a meeting. They needed handwriting samples from Linda and Kate knew they would have just as much luck getting a court order for that as they did the safety deposit box.
Kate did think they might be able to get the victim’s sister, Vicky, to give them something if she had it. Since they were still gathering test results, this would be a good time to talk to the sister and see if she had anything they could use. She had been cooperative in past encounters and that gave Kate some hope.
Vicky was very cordial when Kate was explaining over the phone, about needing handwriting samples. Vicky told Kate that she had saved cards and letters from Linda in a box. Kate was excited there would be ample samples to choose from. Kate and Sean knew it was worth a trip to Vicky’s residence to get the samples.
Vicky was waiting for them and had her front door open before they could even begin to knock. Vicky was holding cards in her hand when she opened the door. Kate took the cards and thanked Vicky for her help, adding that if she thought of anything that might be of value to please give them a call.
Kate took the cards and walked back to her car with Sean following close behind her. Kate would drop the samples off at the lab on the way back into the station. She could already tell by looking that it wasn’t Linda’s writing as she compared the scribbles across the cards to the note. Kate could already say that Linda didn’t write the note as a reminder, it was a note that was passed to her to invite her to meet.
Kate looked at Sean and said, “She didn’t write the note.”
Sean simply replied, “I know.”
If they could figure out who wrote the note it might be of importance, but there was no guarantee of that. Kate wanted to check Richard Mile’s handwriting first. Kate had a plan for that. She called his home and left word that there was some paperwork he needed to sign for the release of Linda’s body. It was a true statement and Kate could use the signature to compare with the note.
Richard Miles was all business when he showed up to sign for the body. Kate met him as he walked in and led him to the morgue. She told him it was a usual practice to have the funeral director from whatever establishment he was working with come and load the body directly from the morgue. She handed him the paperwork and watched carefully as he signed it.
She didn’t think Richard seemed very distraught or upset by his wife’s death. She had actually seen more empathy come from strangers, but that didn’t prove anything. She had learned over time that some people are just cold individuals, devoid of much feeling. Kate figured Linda was mostly eye candy and an arm ornament for business gatherings that required her to be present.
Kate took the signed documents to the handwriting expert, as soon as Richard was out the front door. Kate didn’t think there was a match but waited patiently for the expert to either contradict her or support her belief. The expert took a magnifying glass and examined every stroke and then said what Kate already knew. It was not a match.
Kate put the note back in evidence and took the signed documents back to the morgue for them to file away in some dusty cabinets somewhere. Kate walked away feeling dejected. It had been a long day and the only thing she knew at the moment was that getting a warrant for the safety deposit box was unlikely and Linda didn’t write the note they found and neither did her husband.
The Miles family could have a funeral now, even though that didn’t seem to really matter. In the meantime she had her own funeral to go to. She stopped by the captain’s office to take the next day off so she could take her daughter to Addison’s mother’s funeral. She explained to the captain that it was her daughter’s first funeral. The captain knew Kate didn’t use personal days frivolously. He wasn’t even sure she knew what they were since she had very rarely ever used them.
She had told Sean about taking off for the funeral. Sean was like most of the others at the office, they hadn’t seen Kate take time off before. Sean mentioned Kate not taking any personal days in the past, but he didn’t dwell on it.
Kate said, “I don’t recall you taking any personal days either.”
Sean replied, “Of course you haven’t, that would require that I stay at home with the family.”
Kate let that drop and just told Sean to keep hounding the lab guys and check to see if they had all the cell phone data.
Sean replied, “Don’t worry Kate, I can handle it, just go take care of your daughter.”
Kate had checked her phone tracker earlier and it showed Megan was still at Addison’s house. She would stop by there to tell Megan she needed to come home and rest. She would also let Megan know that she would be attending the funeral. Kate didn’t socialize outside of work and most of the people she had contact with after hours were the very same people she worked with.
She knew one big truth, being on the police force was like being part of a family. They were the ones who would protect you when things went bad, just like family would be.
When Kate stopped at Tom O’Brien’s house, Megan was standing outside talking with Addison and a few other teen girls. Kate walked to where Megan was standing to give her the message.
Megan said, “I was about to leave. We were all saying goodbye and a few family members are going to a hotel for the night. Addison has some cousins staying the night with her or I would ask to stay with her.”
Kate said, “I will see you at home or you can ride with me now, I just wanted to come by and see if the family needed me to do anything.”
Megan said, “I wanted to stay a few more minutes to say a proper goodbye to Addison, but one of her cousins will drop me off on the way to a hotel.”
Megan knew instinctively that Kate would have to know who it was that would be giving her a ride and she pointed her out to her mom to head any complaints from ever forming.
Kate walked away to her car and drove the short distance to her town-home. The funeral would make for a long day and Kate would rather be working, but her daughter needed someone there for support.