The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (7)

The two of them had made their way down the stairs and to Mrs. Ditch's apartment. She scowled as she opened the door to them. "There had better be a VERY good reason for you two to disturb me at this time of night," she said.

"It's a VERY good reason," Lilly countered. "Look at this." Kayla opened her hands to reveal the handful of plucked petals and the rose stem. "This was left in her apartment's bathroom."

Mrs. Ditch peered at the stem and petals. "Left, you say?"

"Mrs. Ditch, this is important," Lilly said. "Were you here all day today?"

"What's it to you?" Mrs. Ditch snapped.

"It's important," Lilly retorted. "Say yes or no."

"Yes, I was here all day today. My rheumatism was acting up."

"Did you have any people coming to this building today other than yourself and Kayla—Miss Shepherd?"

"Just the handyman! He came by to tell me that one of my back windows was broken. Stupid kids using them as target practice!" Mrs. Ditch muttered.

"He...came by. You didn't call him for it?"

"I didn't even know I had a broken window! He just walked on up to my door and said he noticed a broken window."

"And you trust him?" Lilly asked.

"Of course I do! I trust him completely, not like that barbaric simpleton you associate with." She sneered at the thought of Riley as she turned in Kayla's direction.

At that point, Lilly decided that she had had enough. She straightened up and glared at Mrs. Ditch directly in the eye. "That 'barbaric simpleton' is my BROTHER, and he is the son of one of one of the GREATEST detectives in the entire city! And I’m going to be one just like him and my father! And my Papa told me...'If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.'"

Mrs. Ditch was suddenly quiet, cowed by this small girl's show of strength. Kayla was suddenly reminded of the old story of an elephant being scared of the tiny mouse that had appeared in his pen. Silently, Mrs. Ditch stepped back into her apartment, closed the door, and locked it, leaving the two girls standing in the hallway.

"Lilly...that was amazing!" Kayla breathed a sigh of relief. "I...I don't know if I could've ever stood up to her like that."

Lilly blushed. "Thank you. We gotta call my brother. This is important."

Kayla nodded as the two of them ran back upstairs to the apartment.

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"So this person...he just came by and said the back window was broken," Riley said. He gripped his pencil tightly as he rapidly scribbled the report from Kayla into his notebook.

"Yes, that's right," Kayla said.

"Did she say anything about which one it was?"

"No, she didn't say anything about that...Hold on."

Lilly came back into the apartment. She was carrying a heavy torch in both hands. "I just went around the back, and I didn't see any broken glass, or any signs that someone was around the windows." She held up the fingerprint kit. "And no fingerprints on the windowsill or anything. So he was probably lying."

"You hear that?" Kayla relayed the news to Riley. "Riley...I've got a very bad feeling about this. We've got to investigate this person, and fast."

"All right. I've got an idea." Lilly crowded close to Kayla, and Kayla lifted the receiver slightly from her ear so that Lilly could listen in. "Lilly, have you tested out that perfume bottle I mentioned the other night?"

"Not yet," she said. "But I will."

"I was hoping you'd say that you hadn't yet, that makes it better. Now listen. Tomorrow morning, tell Mrs. Ditch that something is broken in your apartment. We'll distract her in some way, and I'll sneak into the apartment with Officer Leroy. And then once that handyman comes upstairs, we'll be ready. If his fingerprints match the ones on the perfume bottle, then I think we have our man."

"Yes...that's perfect," Kayla said. She grinned. "Actually, I don't even think I want to pretend to break something up here."

"Wait...what?" Lilly and Riley both reacted at the same time to Kayla's mischievous tone. She looked down at Lilly, still radiantly beaming.

"Lilly, tomorrow morning, let's clog the toilet, shall we?"

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"Mrs. Ditch, you really need to have someone fix my bathroom upstairs! I'm SO embarrassed! I went to use the toilet this morning and it overflowed all over the floor! I cleaned everything up but I'm afraid it will happen again if I try to use it! So please, please call someone!"

Kayla was hoping she sounded realistically frantic, after she knocked on Mrs. Ditch's door at eight in the morning. She and Lilly were anxious and barely got any sleep last night, but both of them were ready and hoping to see this plan through.

Across the street, Riley was sipping the strongest cup of tea the cafe served. He, too, had an anxious night last night. He hoped that the two girls would've had a fun time together, but now there was a new sense of urgency. Today would be the day that he'd find out if his hunch was correct.

Officer Leroy was seated across from Riley. He was about Joseph Franklin's age, and looked every inch the career law enforcement officer. He sipped his cup of strong coffee, and glanced at the house across the way. "Let me know when you see them leaving," he said. In order to keep up the camouflage, he picked up a discarded copy of the Veritas Tribune and started reading.

Across the street, Riley noticed Kayla and Lilly exiting the house. "They're just leaving. Get ready," he said. Officer Leroy nodded and put aside his newspaper.

The two girls waited at the corner to cross, and entered the cafe just as Riley and Officer Leroy were leaving. As they crossed paths, Kayla pressed a small brass key into Riley's hand, and winked. "Quietly, now," she whispered.

The two men approached the apartment house. As quietly as possible, Riley creaked the door open, and motioned for Officer Leroy to follow. The two of them silently made their way up the stairs to Kayla's apartment, and unlocked the door.

Riley looked around inside as the two men entered and Officer Leroy locked the door behind them. The dishes from breakfast were clean and draining next to the sink, and one of Kayla's coats and hats were hanging from a shining brass hat stand. Riley was trying not to let his eyes wander. You're here on business. Stay alert, he reminded himself.

"Stand behind this screen with me," Officer Leroy said. "We won't be seen if anyone enters."

Riley nodded. As he did, there was the faint sound of a knock at Mrs. Ditch's apartment door.

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"Oh, Eric, thank you for coming by on such short notice," Mrs. Ditch said as her usual handyman came in. "My tenant says that there's something wrong with her commode."

"It's a pleasure, ma'am," said Eric. He was a pleasant looking young man, with wiry ginger hair, who was wearing a plaid work shirt and a pair of denim overalls. He always carried his toolbox with him, even if his visits were for pleasure rather than business. "Third floor, right?"

"Yes. Here's the spare key."

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll be back down once I'm done."

He mounted the stairs, but as he did so, opened his tool box to reveal HIS spare key—a master key he managed to steal and copy from the old raisin downstairs without her even noticing, thanks to some work that he managed to spread out over two days.

Clumsily, his hands shaking from pure excitement, Eric put the key in the lock and turned it. He was back in the lovely lady's apartment. Perhaps he'd even take a nice souvenir this time? She probably wouldn't miss a pair of--

"Excuse me, sir, but the toilet is backed up. Would you mind looking at it?" Riley said.

Eric's blood suddenly ran cold as a man's voice cut through the silence. He turned to see two men emerging from behind the screen—one dressed in a patrolman's uniform, the other looking as if he was one of those fancy-pants private detectives.

"Who...Who are you?" Eric spluttered. He dropped the tool box, and it clattered to the floor, spilling tools everywhere. He flinched at the noise, and Officer Leroy took this chance to close the door behind him and lock it.

Riley pulled his insignia out of his pocket and brandished it in the man's face. "Riley Rowley. Licensed detective of the Empire, and I have a few questions I want to ask you."

"D...damn it..." Eric's eyes darted from Riley to Officer Leroy, who was cracking his knuckles. "You think I'm gonna spill my guts to the likes of you?" Riley stepped closer to Eric, who found himself backing up. His back hit the wall and he slumped down to the ground, seemingly in defeat—but within reach of one of his screwdrivers.

"GRAAAAHHHH!!"

In one swift move, he grabbed the screwdriver and attempted to stab Riley with it. Riley leaped back in alarm, colliding with the folding screen and falling down with it against the couch. Officer Leroy grabbed Eric by the wrists, trying to force the weapon from his hands. Riley recovered from his fall, then grabbed the toolbox and hit Eric across the back of the head with it. Eric was unfazed from the hit, and merely grunted in pain.

"Damn it, boy! You hit like a girl!" Officer Leroy yelled, trying to subdue the handyman.

"Sorry! I was never the athletic type!" Riley shouted back. "What do I do?"

"Get the damn screwdriver!"

Riley ran over and tried to pry the screwdriver from Eric's hands. He managed to get it out, but not without a few gouges in his palm. "Got it!" he shouted.

Officer Leroy's knee shot upwards and made contact with Eric's groin. His face grimaced in pain and he dropped to his knees. Before he could recover, Officer Leroy pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt and locked them around Eric's wrists. "Whew. Got him," he breathed, out of breath from the ordeal.

Riley nodded. "All right. We'd better give the girls the all-clear. But first..." He went over to the bookshelf and took down his father's fingerprint kit. "Sir, if you would allow me to borrow your fingers for a brief moment?"

Eric was still recovering from the low blow, but was coherent enough to answer Riley's request with a wad of spittle aimed in his general direction. It landed harmlessly on the carpet.

"Oh, now, that's not very nice," Officer Leroy said, as wagged his finger. "You don't do that, especially not in a nice lady's apartment."

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Riley placed a call to the magistrate's main office, and a few minutes later Officer Leroy's superiors had arrived, along with Kayla and Lilly, who had been keeping watch across the street. Mrs. Ditch had also been ordered to come upstairs, and she did so, with lots of groaning and protests from her old knees. They entered the apartment to see Eric kneeling on the floor, his hands cuffed behind him, and glaring at everyone.

"So this is our suspect, a certain Mr. Eric Hunter. Officer Leroy and I were hoping to talk to him about a series of troubling incidents concerning Miss Shepherd. Unfortunately, he decided to put up a fight when we asked him a simple question, which makes him a lot more suspicious in my book," Riley said.

The two superior officers ordered Eric Hunter to stick his hands out as Riley carefully applied ink to the surfaces of his fingers, then pressed them against some paper. "Lilly, if you could bring out the item in question, please?"

Lilly nodded and carefully picked up the bottle of Champs-Elysees perfume, wrapping it in a scarf to avoid leaving more prints. She brought the bottle into the living room as Riley was opening up the fingerprint kit.

"According to the landlady, a certain Mrs. Elvira Ditch," Riley said, indicating the landlady with a wave of his hand, "this man had come to her building to replace a glass pane in a broken window at the back of the house. When inspected, there were no fingerprints present anywhere on the glass or the windowsill of EITHER of the windows in question. Which leads me to believe, Mrs. Ditch, that this Mr. Eric Hunter had an ulterior motive for coming to this building—and was taking advantage of your trust in him."

Mrs. Ditch looked furious. "You perverted lowlife!" she shrieked. She raised her cane to hit Eric, but Officer Leroy gently caught her arm.

"Ma'am, please. Let justice deal with him," he said, as he guided her over to Kayla's couch.

Riley continued with his explanation. He opened up the box containing the knife that had been used to vandalize Kayla's portrait. "Mr. Hunter. Does this knife look familiar to you?" He held the box up to Eric's face. He did not answer. "Answer me, Mr. Hunter. Yes or no." When Eric refused to speak a second time, Riley shrugged. "Oh, that's perfectly all right if you want to stay silent—I have a person that'll be arriving in a few minutes to confirm that you came to his shop, smelling strongly of Champs-Elysees perfume, to buy this same exact knife. And this same knife was later used to deface a portrait containing Miss Shepherd and her late fiance."

Lilly came back into the sitting room, holding the scarf containing the bottle of Champs-Elysees perfume. She placed the bottle on a sheet of newspaper on the table, and carefully shook a brush full of black powder all over it. It clung to the bottle in several places.

"Miss Shepherd was kind enough to supply me with a complete record of her fingerprints," Riley said, holding up an index card containing the impressions of her ten dainty fingers. "And Mr. Hunter was kind enough to supply me with a record of his own." He held up the bottle to the light, and inspected the black smudges with a magnifying glass. It was clear that a lot of the prints were smaller, but there were a few that were much larger. Riley pointed to a very large, clear fingerprint that appeared to have been made by a man's thumb.

"And it appears to me that this fingerprint was made from a different person. Someone with much larger hands and fingers than Miss Shepherd." He held up the hastily made fingerprint card, and glanced at the two thumbprints. The right thumb was a perfect match. "Someone...like Mr. Hunter." Riley gave a grim smile as he looked down at Eric Hunter. "Someone who decided to abuse the trust given him by this fine, upstanding lady—" Riley indicated Mrs. Ditch with a sweep of his hand, while he tried to keep himself from throwing up in his mouth. "—to terrorize this young lady who has done nothing to deserve this treatment."

Eric looked up at Kayla, who was looking at him with utter disgust. "Lady," he said, "You...how could you let them do this to me? You were always so nice to me."

"Excuse me? I don't know you. I didn't even know your name before now," Kayla retorted.

"You said good morning to me..." Eric was frantic.

"What makes you think saying hello one time in the hallway counts as being friends?"

"Enough," said one of the patrolmen. "You can obsess over this later." He and the other patrolman hauled Eric to his feet. "We're going to the station. I believe this isn't the first time you've crossed paths with the magistrate."

"Damn it...DAMN IT!" Eric screamed. "You have no idea what you’re missing out on!" He was dragged from the room, screaming profanities all the way downstairs.

Lilly looked concernedly up at Kayla. “Are you all right?” she asked.

Kayla nodded. “Yes…I just…I can’t believe someone could just become obsessed like that.” She looked over at Riley’s hands, which had deep scratches from the head of the screwdriver. “Oh no…”

“It’s all right. I don’t think there was much blood,” Riley said.

“Seriously, let me put some medicine on that for you!” Kayla said. “Infection is no joke!” She ran to a shelf and grabbed a small wooden box, which she revealed to be a first aid kit.

Riley sat down on the sofa, and Kayla opened a bottle of antiseptic. “This might sting,” she warned, as she dipped a cotton swab into the bottle and began brushing Riley’s hand with it.

“It’s…okay,” Riley said, before grimacing.

Lilly was watching the police officers load Eric into a squad car and drive off. All she could think about was Riley’s lecture to her earlier that week. That man must’ve been the type of person that likes to hurt others, Lilly thought. And now he won’t hurt anyone anymore…I hope. She turned around to see Kayla carefully wrapping a gauze bandage around Riley’s hand. Maybe…knowing that someone’s safe is the best part about being a detective.

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A few hours later, Riley, Kayla and Lilly were sitting in the waiting room of the local precinct. After Eric Hunter had been taken into custody, the owner of the antique shop was able to positively identify him as the sweet smelling gentleman who purchased knife. This, combined with the evidence that Lilly and Riley had gathered, pinpointed him as the person that had been trespassing in Kayla's apartment.

"Right now we're trying to convince the magistrate to hold him as a dangerous criminal," Riley explained to the two girls. "Technically...the law says that he's still a simple criminal, since he didn't hurt you physically," he said, turning to Kayla. "But since he tried to stab me with a screwdriver, and since he was in possession of a dangerous weapon, the penalties are looking more and more dire for him."

"I hope they lock him up," Lilly said. "They can lock him up if he doesn't pay his fine, right?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah. He certainly doesn't seem like he can afford whatever fine he gets." Just then, the door for the interrogation room opened, and one of the patrolmen, along with Officer Leroy, emerged.

"Got some good news," he said. "Good news for you, that is, but bad news for Mr. Hunter. It's not the first time he's done this. Apparently, word from the grapevine is that he's pulled this with other young ladies."

"Really, now," Riley said. "So does this mean they'll be locking him up?"

Officer Leroy nodded. "He's not very happy about the prospect of going to jail for something he's gotten away with multiple times."

Kayla sighed with relief. "Thank you so much," she said. "Honestly...I'm so glad that this is behind me now, but...I don't think I'm going to go back to that apartment after all that. So first thing Monday morning, I'm going apartment hunting."

"Good luck with that," Riley said. "And I do hope that you and Lilly had fun last night."

"We did!" Lilly said. "Despite everything that happened, of course...So you need to move closer to us, Kayla, so we can spend more time with each other. You'd like that, Bro, wouldn't you?"

Riley suddenly blushed bright pink. "Uh...Yes. Yes. Yes I would."

Kayla giggled politely. "Well, we'll see about that, won't we?"