Last Breath

Forty minutes later, Co

“Well, at least we caught them before they moved,” Daria said as they got out of the car and started across the lawn.

“I’m not so sure of that,” Co

They walked up to the front door and peered through the side lights.

“You’re right, I spoke too soon,” Daria said. “The house is totally cleaned out.”

“Let’s walk around back.” Co

The Blumes’ backyard was a peaceful oasis consisting of a stone patio with a wall on three sides and a koi pond at one end, and quiet, lush gardens in shades of cool greens.

“It’s lovely,” Daria said. “I’d sure be hard-pressed to leave a house like this.”

Before Co

“Let’s see if the neighbor knows anything,” Co

Daria caught up to him just as he was introducing himself to the neighbor, a petite blond woman wearing a short denim skirt and a coral T-shirt. Her face was mostly hidden by very large dark glasses, and she wore sandals of braided leather.

The woman placed a shopping bag bearing the name of a tony-sounding store on the ground next to her car. “I’m happy to see someone looking at the house. We’d love to have new neighbors. With the houses spread out the way they are here, and us being one in from the corner, it’s gotten a bit lonely. We’d love to see the house inhabited again.”

“Did you know the previous owners well?” Co

“I’d say we knew them fairly well,” the neighbor seemed to choose her words carefully. “They were about twenty years older than we are, so we didn’t socialize a whole lot, except for holidays. Someone in the neighborhood always had a big open house, so we’d see them then. And sometimes I’d see her out on the patio and she’d invite me over for a cup of coffee or something, and we’d chat. So we were friendly, but not the best of friends, if you follow. Still, we really do miss them. They were lovely people.”

“How long ago did they move?” he asked.

“They didn’t exactly move,” she said with some apparent discomfort.

“What do you mean?” Co

“Look, the realtor said we shouldn’t talk about it to anyone, that we should just direct potential buyers to her. That’s probably what I should do.”

“We’re not potential buyers,” Co

“Really, you need to talk to the realtor. Her name and number are on the sign.” She picked up her shopping bag and went through a service door into her house.

“Well, that was odd,” Daria said. “What do you suppose that was all about?”

“Maybe there was some scandal, maybe the Blumes went bankrupt and the bank took the house.” Co

He was in luck. She was not only there, but willing to show the house right away if Co

The realtor drove up the driveway in a brand-new sedan and parked at the end of the drive. She was very fashionably dressed in a short black linen dress and sandals with kitten heels. Her dark hair was expertly cut-a fact that did not go u

“Thanks for waiting, Mr. Shields.” She extended a well-manicured hand. She turned her attention to Daria. “And Mrs. Shields. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, I’m not-”

“We appreciate you dropping everything and coming over to show us the house,” Co

“It’s a wonderful neighborhood, isn’t it? Did you look around the outside while you waited, as I suggested?”

“We did, yes. Very nice.” Co

Fishing her keys from her shoulder bag, Nancy waved them on to the front door, which she unlocked and held open so that Daria and Co

“Don’t you love the chandelier here in the foyer?” She stepped past them and went straight to the kitchen. “Let me turn on the air and cool the house down. I usually try to do this before buyers arrive. Would you prefer to wait outside until it cools off a bit?”

“No, we’re fine,” Daria said and winked at Co

“Then let me show you around the first floor. As you can see, the foyer floor is marble-that’s Italian marble, by the way, hand-selected by the previous owners.”

“Really?” Daria said, feigning interest.

“Oh, yes. They oversaw every bit of the renovation, just three years ago,” Nancy assured them. “Everything was replaced, and I mean everything.”

“I noticed the living room has a lot of niches built into the walls,” Co

“The people who lived here were collectors. They had a very valuable collection of ancient pottery and things of that nature.”

Co

“This is a wonderful space,” Nancy said, coming into the room a few minutes behind him. “Large bedroom, sitting room with a fireplace, two dressing rooms, baths, and walk-in closets.”

“It looks like the carpet in here is brand-new,” Co

“Yes, it was replaced before the house went on the market.”

“Fu

“Yes.” She shifted her gaze to the pull shade in the front window and pretended to fuss with it. “It was an odd color.”

“Was it red?” he asked.

She turned to him and, all the charm now gone, asked flatly, “Who are you?”

He held out his badge. “We’re looking for the Blumes.”

“If you’re really with the FBI, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding out what happened to them. I’m sure you can get the reports-”

“Let’s say we want to hear your version.”

“The Blumes were murdered in this house a few months ago. It’s made it a real hard sell.”

“What can you tell me about it?” Co

“Very little. Just what was in the papers, actually. The son listed the house, and he didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t pump him for information. All I know is what everyone else knows. The Blumes were at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on a Saturday night, they came home and apparently caught someone in the act of burglarizing their home. They were both killed.”

“The killers ever caught?”

“Not as far as I know. It really cast a pall over the neighborhood, though,” Nancy told them. “Everyone was very nervous for months afterward, though the police said the Blumes were most likely targeted because they had a lot of valuable things in their house and never made any effort to hide that fact.”

“Things from their collection?” Daria asked.

“Yes. They often loaned things to the museum in Philadelphia, that’s how important some of their items were. There was a big article about them in Philadelphia Magazine about a year ago.”