Some Like It in Handcuffs by Christine Warner Page B

Slater’s image with a permanent black marker. He turned toward Sunny. “He has absolutely no reason to be there.”
    “Exactly. I have to check my background info again, but I’m sure he didn’t live anywhere near there.” Sunny pulled out the storage box from beside the file cabinet and leafed through the files. “Aha!” She grabbed a neon green folder covered with doodles and drawings from the box and pulled it out.
    Sunny licked her fingers, sorting through the papers spilling from the folder until she found what she needed. She separated it from the others, bumped her glasses up the front of her nose, and scanned it.
    Judson looked over her shoulder. “Right there.” He pointed to Slater’s address listed on the bottom of the form. “His address is probably a good fifteen miles from her.”
    “So, why would he just happen to be at the crime scene within hours of her being murdered?” Sunny looked at Judson. “It probably hadn’t even made the news yet. Between this, Slater and Tasha’s conversation yesterday and the note in my mailbox, we’re getting some good leads.”
    “Whoa, slow down. What conversation, what note? You didn’t tell—”
    “I know. I brought it with me last night hoping we’d have a moment alone so I could show you, but things got…how should I say it…sidetracked?” Sunny hurried from the office to get the paper from her carry-all, Judson hot on her heels. She pulled the letter from her purse and handed it to him. “It wasn’t sent through the post office. Whoever left it knows I’m working this case and they were daring enough to come right up to my front door.”
    Judson unfolded the paper and grimaced. “Come here, I have to show you something.” He turned back toward her office and this time Sunny followed.
    “This isn’t the first one I’ve received. Another was left a couple of weeks ago on the front seat of my car, along with a picture of Benny and Karina.” Sunny grabbed the note she’d tucked on a shelf and snatched the picture from the wall. “I also overheard an odd conversation between Tasha and Slater before I punched in last night.”
    “And?”
    Sunny relayed all she’d heard, but Judson didn’t seem as excited over it as she’d been.
    “Interesting, but nothing concrete.”
    “But enough to make me think we’re moving in the right direction.”
    Judson opened the white letter sized envelope that had been tucked inside the larger brown one Glen DeVito had given her yesterday. He removed several sheets of paper. “Take a look at these. What do you make of them?”
    Sunny plucked the sheets from his fingers and scanned through them in quick succession then handed him the note left on her front seat with the picture.
    Her jaw tightened as she recognized the simplistic lettering of each short sentence written on the papers. Although she was no handwriting expert, it was obvious that all the printing matched. Upper case straight lined letters were used to print each word, no curves or slants and the backside of the paper indented outward from the pressure of the writer’s black marker. It looked like something a child had written.
    “The writing looks the same, but the newer notes were written with a shaky hand. Did Glen mention anything to you about including any letters with the envelope?”
    “Not one word. Maybe he didn’t even know they were there.” Sunny glanced at the clock resting on the shelf across the room. “I’m going to call him and see if he can shed some light on this.”
    Judson grabbed his cell phone from the table and Sunny shook her head. “I don’t get reception in the back of the house. I’m going to use the land line.”
    Sunny took the letters Judson offered. “You coming?” She stopped to glance at him over her shoulder.
    “No, go ahead. I want to check a few things on line.”
    She returned several minutes later to find Judson surfing the internet on her laptop, copying and pasting information from archived