searching for the real killer of my Charli. The house was taped off. No one was there but the front door key was still in my pocket from the night before. I decided to go in. I walked through the house paying close attention to the parts of the house were Charli would have spent most of her time. I found nothing, and then finally went to the room where it happened. I stood in the doorway and could not stop the tears from coming. When I finally got myself under control, I searched the room. Then I found it, something missed by the police. There, hidden in a crack in the flooring, behind one of the bedposts. Now I had the great clue. That and Charli’s continued help would help me catch this bastard. I looked around for anything else, but found nothing more. If something had been left behind, it must now be in police hands. I procured a small locket case to store my newfound evidence and carried it with me everywhere. As I drove home, I thought of what I would need to do to find this animal. However, before that, there was the formal farewell to Charli.
The Farewell
I closed the office for two weeks out of respect for her and flew the flag at half-mast. Charli had a sister that lived in the next state about one hundred-fifty mile away and parents that lived in Ohio. By now, her sister, Sam short for Samantha was in town and her parents were on the way. They would make all the necessary plans and I would help in every way possible.
“Good afternoon, fellow friends and loved ones of Veronica Charlene Lewis. For those of you who may not know me, I am Reverend Fletcher; I am the senior Pastor here at Christ Lutheran Church. We meet here today to say farewell and celebrate the life of Charli, as she is lovingly known to us. Many of you were not only friends and relatives, but also her clients. Charli probably sold most of you a home or helped you sell your home. I know she helped my wife, Cyndi, and I sell three and buy four homes over the years. Many of you may wish to say a few words. I’d like to first ask her partner and fiancé, Jake Fowler to start us off.”
I told my short story about how we met.
“It was ten years ago, I was managing a large office in town and Charli had just bought a RE/MAX franchise. She was a powerful agent and decided she was tired of giving away her money to the firm she was affiliated with at that time. She soon discovered that her production was being cut down by managing other agents, recruiting, dealing with problems as well as a sundry of other issues that agents typically don’t realize come with the management side of a business. She called me one day and invited me to lunch. She asked me to come in with her as an equal partner in the business. It took some persuading on her part, but you know that when Charli would make up her mind about something she was relentless. That was how we met and we worked very well together while creating a successful business.
We were so well matched that we became engaged. God bless you Charli, Thank you for allowing me to share that with you today.”
Many others came forward to tell stories of things where Charli had touched their lives. In fact, the afternoon was filled with short stories of Charli and afterwards the reception was also held in the church. In the end most people were strengthened by the event and they slowly departed.
I spent the evening at Charli’s home with her parents, Sarah and Dan, and her sister, Sam. They all stayed there while they were in town. Sam fixed dinner and we again relived our lives and times with Charli. We even joked about how these two beautiful women ended up with nicknames of men. Seems that was their dad’s idea. He started calling them Charli and Sam as far back as anyone could remember and the names just stuck.
Two days later we all met at the attorney’s office for the reading of the will. She left me in charge of selling her house and investment properties and the net proceeds were to be divided equally among the three heirs. She left all of her interest in the business to me. Sam got her car and her clothes. She left everyone taken care of that was Charli.
The office we owned and in which we worked was a highly productive office but Charli was always the number one agent in our office and in any of its three branches. She had two clerical people that keep her appointments and all paperwork straight and one licensed assistant to do open houses or anything that she felt was not directly in the way of producing revenue. When she was working, her tasks were limited to lead generation, showing houses, meeting with Sellers to prepare their home for the market and getting listing and sales contracts written and signed. She would usually spend an hour a day locked in her office making calls within her database. She was pure production and her clients knew that they could trust her to the max.
It was about seven thirty on a Thursday evening when I stopped by the office to retrieve my cell phone that I had inadvertently forgotten when I left the office earlier that day. When I checked the front desk, I noticed that the monitor was showing someone using the phone in Charli’s office. At first I thought that perhaps someone had opened a line and not realized it, but who would have been in there? So I grabbed the key from the key box in the supply room, walked down the hall and into her office. The line was off, nothing looked out of order. I stood there for a moment.
The Hunt
I sat down at Charli’s desk and lightly ran my fingers over it. It had been about a month since Charli’s death, but her office was left untouched. I just could not bring myself to let anyone else have that space and all her personal affects were still there. Charli and I were lovers and had been together for about five years. I wanted to marry her but she felt that her main mission in life was to assist people getting into their new home and that would drastically change if we were married. Charli made a very handsome living, but it was truly not about the money, as she gave large sums of it to the church, charities and even back to her clients, if they truly needed help. She was independent, strong and she didn’t need a husband. She would always say that she just needed me. So I agreed to a life as her fiancé, a role that I would have until her death.
As I sat there remembering her and what we had, the phone rang. It was her extension, which was a line that didn’t go through the main switchboard, and only her best clients had the number. I let it ring until the caller gave up. And just as I started to enjoy the silence again, the phone began to ring again. I was so annoyed with this intrusion into my moment of reflection, that I grabbed the receiver,
“Hello!” I barked.
“Hi Jake, it’s me Charli.” A voice said.
It sounded just like her and I got even angrier.
“Who’s this and what kind of sick joke are you playing?”
“No, Jake it’s me really, I don’t know how but it is me!”
She then proceeded to tell me a few things that no one else in the world knew, except she and me. I knew it must be her but how could it be? Still even though it was hard to believe, I decided to play along in an attempt to glean as much information as I could.
“I know I gave you his description on the way to the hospital, but there is more I can tell you and I can’t rest until this man is caught. I know you didn’t tell the police so I will help you catch him. It seems the only way I can talk to you is through this line.”
She began to give me a description of the car but made me promise that once we located him. I would not try and apprehend him or seek revenge but I would instead bring the police in to do that part. She told me it was a late model black Mercedes four door.
“Describe the man to me again. I want to be sure I had it right and now I can write it down.” I asked.
“He is about six foot two inches tall lean build, long straight black hair. He has a tattoo on his right front shoulder of a scorpion. He is not circumcised and rather large, it hurt me.”
“I doubt I’ll be checking his privates, but the tattoo is a big help. Anything special about the car?”
“Not that I recall.”
We talked about personal things for a while then she hung up with instructions to check her private line voice mail everyday for instructions of when she would call again. I told her I would and we ended our call.
One
of Charli’s clients was a woman that worked in the DMV. I decided to call in a favor. Would she supply me with all names and addresses of all car owners that fit Charli’s vehicle description and provide a print out of same, I asked. She resisted at first, but I told her it would help solve Charli’s murder. She finally agreed and said she would drop a list by my office on her way home, but I better never tell a soul what she had done. She was good to her word and dropped off the list for the entire state, so I started with the ones closest to the house where she died. I plugged the closest dozen addresses from the list into my GPS and started out. I decided I would knock on the doors of the houses as though I were a Realtor looking for business. It was the perfect cover. I approached the first door and rang the doorbell.
“Yes, may I help you?” Said the little old lady who answered the door.
“Yes, ma am, I am Jake Foster, with RE/MAX Elite and I have a buyer/client that really loves this neighborhood and location. Therefore I was wondering if you knew anyone in the neighborhood that may be thinking of selling?
“No, I can’t say that I do.”
“Well thank you for your time…oh by the way, is that your Mercedes in the driveway, it is really a beautiful car.”
“No that belongs to my husband and he