Hoarded to Death (A Jamie Brodie Mystery) (4 page)

"Or maybe he's looking for coupons. Or just nosy."

Eddie came in the room to gather two more bags at that point, so we switched the subject back to football.

After a couple of hours, we'd cleared both bedrooms of periodicals. I hadn’t seen any boxes of books yet. They were probably under piles of clothes. There was still a huge hoard of other stuff in the room, and no one else had ventured back here yet. So we moved to the bathroom, then the closets. There wasn't much for us to toss there, so after another hour we ended up in the main room with everyone else.

That's when we realized that the drama had begun, and Valerie was in the middle of it.

We heard raised voices. We sneaked to the front door and glanced out. Val, Susannah, Mike the organizer, Dr. Hayman, and Jennifer were standing on the balcony outside the front door, arguing. Apparently they'd come across several bags of baby clothes. Why did Jennifer have baby clothes? She and Kevin were never pregnant. They’d never planned to have children.

I jerked my head back out of sight. "I'm not getting involved in that."

Pete shook his head. "No way. Let's find another roll of garbage bags and start loading them. We can stack them up in here and let the junk guys take them out."

We were working our way toward the corner of the dining area, moving aside anything other than newspapers and magazines. No one from the TV crew had said anything to us since we started. Greg the cameraman was walking around, filming us working. He’d been outside for a while filming the drama, whatever it had been, but had joined us inside about thirty minutes ago. The junk truck guys were hauling bags away as fast as we could fill them, and filling some of their own also. At this rate, we'd have the place cleared of paper by the end of the first day.

I scooped up a pile of magazines, and something moved. "Oh, shit."

"What?" Pete came over to look.

"Mice." I'd uncovered a nest. There weren't any baby mice in residence, but there was a good bit of mouse poop.

Pete waved Mike the organizer over. The cameraman followed. "We've got mice. And mouse poop."

"Oh, great. No surprise, though. Let me get the hazardous waste bags." Mike hurried off. The cameraman got in close for some better shots.

We got the mouse poop cleaned up and were working on the magazine stacks again, when we heard yelling and crying.

Pete looked at me. "Uh oh."

Valerie came in at that point, muttering and shaking her head. I motioned her over. "What's going on?"

Val was disgusted. "Well, it's taken us two fucking hours to figure this out, but apparently we have collected thousands of dollars’ worth of baby clothes because she always wanted to have kids, even though she told Kevin it was fine with her to not have any. So buying baby clothes makes her temporarily feel less bad for not having a baby."

Pete groaned. I was stunned. "Kevin never wanted kids. Ever. How could she not know that?"

"She did, but was hoping he'd change his mind someday." Val rolled her eyes. "So now she's all distressed about getting rid of the baby clothes because apparently that represents the final death of her dream of motherhood."

"She's still young." Pete was in analyst mode. "It doesn't represent the death of her dream of motherhood, just of motherhood with Kevin. She's not hoping that somehow she and Kevin are going to get back together, is she?"

I was incensed. "Is that why she's asked all of us to do this? Because she wants to re-establish a link with Kevin? Like, if she cleans up her house and we tell Kevin how well she's doing, he'll come back to her? That is
never
going to happen. She needs to know that."

Pete laid a hand on my shoulder and said to Val, "We found a framed picture of Jennifer and Kevin's wedding in the bedroom. It looks like she has some very unrealistic expectations."

"Hmph." Val snorted. "I'm getting very tired of Cleopatra’s shenanigans. I think the shrink needs to know about that picture." She stomped back to the front door and went outside. It was quiet for a minute, then we heard more raised voices.

Pete gave me a look. “Cleopatra?”

“Queen of Denial.”

Pete laughed. We went back to work.

By the end of the day, we’d gotten rid of all the magazines and newspapers. Jennifer’s bathroom was clear, the paths through the apartment were wider, and the kitchen was in much better shape. Tomorrow, we had all the bags of stuff in the living room and guest room to tackle before we could even uncover the boxes of books. I was starting to think we might not even get to those tomorrow.

When we left Jennifer's apartment we all felt filthy. We went straight home and hit the showers. Pete and I took a long steamy one together while Val commandeered the guest bathroom. I checked my lung function; it was at 92% baseline. Not too bad for having spent a day in dusty, musty conditions. We reconvened in the kitchen and ate, heating up some leftover chili, and each having a beer to go with it. After we did the dishes, we ended up in the living room, Val on the love seat and Pete and I on the sofa, with another beer for each of us.

We hadn't talked much about the day to this point, but now we started dissecting it. Pete asked, "What was the thing that surprised you most?"

I didn't have to think about that. "It was Jennifer's announcement that she wanted kids. That's unbelievable for anyone who knows Kevin, right? 'Cause everyone knows how he feels about kids."

"Yeah. That bothered me a lot." Pete was pensive. "I was Kevin's partner for four of the five years that he was married to Jennifer, and he never said that they were arguing about having kids. And I think he would have said something. We spent a lot of time sitting in that patrol car and we talked about everything. He said a lot of other stuff about her. I knew that she was hoarding and running up the bills and doing crazy stuff, all of that. But the issue of kids never came up."

"But
you
knew he didn't want kids."

"Sure, I knew. Kev didn't mind being around other people's kids, but the last thing he wanted was any of his own. I never knew exactly what he had against it, but he made it clear.
Very
clear."

I nodded. "I wasn't around then, obviously, but I talked to Kev a lot, and he never mentioned anything about kids to me either, and I think he would have."

Val chimed in. “I’m sure Jeff never knew anything about it; he would have mentioned it to me. I know when our boys were born, Kevin kidded Jeff, thanking him for taking the pressure off his shoulders for producing grandkids for your dad. I remember your dad saying that he knew that the only grandkids would come from Jeff. So everyone knew.”

I sighed. “Kevin’s always thought that the world is too fucked up a place to bring children into it. And he’s an environmentalist, so he never wanted to add to the world’s population. But it sounds like Jennifer didn’t want to believe it.”

Pete frowned. "What a mess that girl's brain must be. I hope the show provides enough aftercare funds for her to get some extensive therapy, because she's going to need it." He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me against him. "It's a good thing we're so normal."

I laughed. "Speak for yourself, sir! I consider myself to be extraordinary,
not
normal."

Pete chuckled. "Oh, you're extraordinary all right."

Val laughed. "What do you think will happen to Jennifer?"

“Realistically? The relapse rate for these people is pretty high. Although it is a good sign that she's changed her name. It might indicate that she's ready to make other changes in her life. But it's not a good sign at all that the only people she had to help her with this were her ex-husband's family.”

Val rolled her eyes. “Yeah, she didn’t want her actual friends to know.”

I sighed. "It's sad. Kevin married her for some reason. There must be a very valuable person in there somewhere."

Pete nodded. "They had a lot in common, on the surface. She liked outdoor stuff. She'd rollerblade while Kevin ran, she hiked with us, they'd go camping down at San Onofre. And she loved baseball. Knew how to keep score and everything. They went to Dodgers games all the time, and she never missed one of our LAPD baseball games. But she did display some OCD symptoms. You know who she reminded me of, in a way? The counselor on Glee. Everything had to be in its place and lined up correctly. And she always had wet wipes with her and wouldn't touch any man-made surfaces until she'd wiped them down."

"Weird that she'd end up a hoarder."

"Well, yeah, but you can see how she had everything stacked up neatly at first. And it's a vicious circle that these folks get into. The hoard starts getting out of control, and it makes them feel even worse about themselves than they already do, so they hoard more, which makes them feel worse...and on it goes."

We went to bed early because we had to be up early. I dreamed that I came home from work one day to find, to my horror, that Pete had filled the townhouse with baby clothes.

The next morning we were scheduled to meet at Jennifer's apartment at 5:30 again. We made record time through McDonald's drive through and got to the apartment with five minutes to spare, only to find that nothing was happening. Raven, Mike, and Raven’s assistant were huddled together by the TV truck with Greg the cameraman discussing something intently. Jennifer, Susannah, and Dr. Hayman weren't there yet. The junk guys were all milling around a little, shivering in the damp morning air and drinking coffee. Stan the Junk Man was on his phone, pacing the parking lot. He looked mad. Every so often he'd hang up, call another number, and get mad again. I looked around and realized that Stan’s guy Wally was missing.

Pete had packed a cooler full of Cokes. He put up the tailgate of his Jeep, and we sat inside the cargo area with our feet dangling over the bumper eating our Egg McMuffins and drinking Coke. After about ten minutes, Raven separated herself from the group by the TV truck and came over to us.

"Hey, guys. Sorry we're running a little behind schedule. Stan's assistant was supposed to be here at 5:00 with the key to the apartment, and he hasn't shown up yet."

"Stan's assistant…
Wally
is Stan’s assistant? Why would he have a key?"

"Wally was going to meet Greg to get some shots of the apartment before anyone else got here, to use as the visual starting point for the second day's cleaning. Greg showed up but Wally wasn't here. So Greg called Stan, and Stan's been trying to get hold of Wally, but his phone goes right to voice mail. So, we're waiting for Jennifer to get here, so she can let us in and Greg can get his preliminary shots."

I glanced at Pete for confirmation. "I don't remember Jennifer ever being late for anything."

Pete shrugged. "Neither do I."

"I don't think it's Jennifer, I think it's Susannah. Jennifer stayed with Susannah last night. They called me a few minutes ago; they're on the way." Raven gestured to the TV truck. "We've got coffee in the van if you want something warmer to drink."

"Thanks." We watched Raven go back to the truck. Dr. Hayman arrived a minute or so thereafter. Stan was still pacing and talking on the phone, looking angrier by the minute. In about ten minutes, Jennifer and Susannah pulled in to the parking lot.

"Sorry we're late." Jennifer glared at Susannah.

Susannah glared back. She was dressed somewhat more appropriately today, in designer jeans, a black jacket, and high heeled boots. "Well, we're here now. Let's get started."

Raven crossed to them. "We need your key, Jennifer. Wally hasn't shown up yet."

"Um - okay." Jennifer fished her key out of her pocket. "Where is Wally? I need my other key back."

"Oh, he'll be along. Stan is tracking him down now." Raven started walking toward the apartment. "Come on and unlock the door for us, then you all can relax for a few minutes while Greg gets a few shots inside. We've got coffee and donuts in the TV van."

Jennifer and Raven walked up the stairs. Mike the organizer - I still couldn’t remember his last name - walked over to us. "Here's what I was thinking for today. Pete and Val, you can continue to help inside, but Jamie, to spare your lungs, I plan to have you outside to help Jennifer go through the books we bring out. She says that she thinks some of them may have some value, and I thought you'd be the best qualified of us to determine what books, if any, are worth passing on to an appraiser. And it will give you something to do which doesn't involve being in the dust and mold."

"That sounds great."

"Cool." Mike turned away. Jennifer and Raven were at Jennifer's doorway; Jennifer was opening the door. I had just unwrapped my second Egg McMuffin when Jennifer and Raven both screamed.

Pete jumped off the end of the Jeep and ran for the stairs; I went after him. Pete was pounding up the steps, with me in close pursuit and Stan right behind me. Jennifer and Raven were pale as ghosts, clutching each other, on the balcony outside the door.

"What is it?" Pete was panting.

"There's a body!" Jennifer was actually slightly calmer than Raven, who seemed to be hyperventilating.

Pete stepped into the apartment and I stuck my head around the doorframe. Even from the door, I could smell it.

I'd spent enough time in emergency rooms after asthma attacks to recognize that smell.

Blood.

A lot of it.

I backed up. Pete took another step in and looked, then backed out, closed the door, pulled his phone out, and dialed 911.

When they answered, Pete said, "I'm with a friend and we've just found a body inside her apartment."

He gave the rest of the information; while he was still talking we heard the sirens. Two patrol cars from Pacific Division arrived. They got things in hand quickly. One of the cops started talking to Pete, one to Jennifer, and one to Raven. The fourth cop went in the apartment, did a quick check, came back out and called the detectives and the crime scene unit.

The detectives arrived in less than twenty minutes. Jonathan Eckhoff was tall and sandy haired, around my age, wearing jeans, desert boots and a leather jacket. Cesar Belardo was older, probably in his late forties, with the beginnings of a paunch. He was shorter and dark-haired, wearing rumpled slacks and a sport coat. They disappeared into the apartment for a while, then came back out. Eckhoff came to where Val, Pete, and I were sitting on the end of the Jeep again. He took our names; when I said mine, he looked at me closely, then said, "Are you related to Kevin Brodie at West LA?"