Chapter 7 - What Laura Knew
Laura recovered quickly.
“My mother told me.”
“No, she didn’t.”
Her eyes narrowed.
I did know Margaret had not spoken to Laura since the garage.
Still, I did not argue.
I simply said:
“Detective Harris will probably want to talk to you.”
Laura smiled without warmth.
“Good.”
Then she left.
Charlie watched her until the door closed.
That afternoon, Margaret came to the shelter.
She looked ten years older.
“I talked to police.”
“How are you?”
“Angry.”
Not broken.
Angry.
That was new.
She sat beside Charlie’s kennel.
“He always hated her perfume.”
“Laura’s?”
Margaret nodded.
“Robert said Charlie would leave the room whenever she came over.”
Charlie pressed his head to the bars.
Margaret scratched behind his ears.
“I thought he was jealous.”
“Maybe he noticed things.”
She gave me a tired look.
“Fair.”
Animals do not solve crimes.
People build meaning around that.
Still, Charlie kept pointing us toward things Robert had intentionally scented or hidden.
That was different.
Margaret pulled a photograph from her purse.
Robert and Charlie in the garage.
On the workbench was a red toolbox.
“I can’t find this.”
“Was it important?”
“Robert never let anyone touch it.”
Police searched the garage again.
No red toolbox.
Laura claimed she had never seen it.
Then Margaret remembered something.
“The day after Robert died, Laura took two boxes to donate.”
“To where?”
“She said Goodwill.”
“Did you see them?”
“No.”
Detective Harris checked nearby donation centers.
Nothing.
Then Charlie did something strange at the shelter.
He ignored his dinner.
Walked to the laundry room.
Margaret stared.
“That came from our garage.”
I checked the donation tag.
Dropped off twelve days earlier.
Name:
L. Bennett.
Laura had donated Robert’s things to Lakeside.
Not Goodwill.
Why lie?
We pulled the intake log.
Two boxes.
One marked clothing.
May you like
One marked tools.
The tools box was missing.
