Great. Jillian had obviously went to explore and enjoy Hidden Springs on her own. And Kenzie couldn't say that she blamed her.
Stretching and yawning, Kenzie stumbled over to the dining table. Jillian had left her a note in her neat, round handwriting, letting her know that she was going to the spa, and wishing her luck on solving her "big case".
Kenzie felt like crying again, but there were no tears left. She thought to herself that strangers might mistake the two of them as having a lovers' brawl, considering one of them ended up sleeping on the couch. Finally, she got dressed and had a bowl of cereal to consummate breakfast.
After she was through eating, Kenzie wondered what to do with herself. She hadn't found any records of Alley's case in the SBI database, but there had to be some way to find those letters and see what they said.
But then, it hit her. The local newspaper had done a report on these threatening letters. How had they found out? Surely Alley didn't turn them in. That would make the sender even more angry. Of course, maybe she hadn't thought of that.
With a new plan in mind, Kenzie left a note for Jillian, as well as some money in case she wanted to keep enjoying herself alone and needed some help doing so, headed to her car, and drove toward the newspaper office.
********************
The newspaper office turned out to be inside the corporate towers. The place looked immense from the outside, but it was easy to navigate inside thanks to all the signs. The person who'd written the article about Alley's letters was Saundra Birch. Her office was on the sixth floor. A receptionist at the building's front desk had called ahead and cleared Kenzie to go inside.
Knocking on the door, Kenzie heard a chipper voice call, "Come in!"
Kenzie opened the door and was greeted with an office that was perfect for a journalist, or any writer in particular. From the framed newspapers on the walls to the scattered papers on the floor and even newspaper patterned decor, it was obvious what Saundra Birch was passionate about. The only bad thing about the office was its size - it didn't have a lot of room for expansion.
The heavyset woman sitting behind the desk greeted Kenzie and gestured for her to sit down. Kenzie obliged as the woman smiled at her.
"Hi there," Saundra said. "It's nice to meet you. You're the famous Kenzie Howell?"
"That's me. It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Birch."
"You can call me Saundra."
"Well, then you can call me Kenzie."
"So tell me, Kenzie, what brings you here? As far as I know, nothing's going on in town that needs a detective of your talents, and this office isn't the biggest tourist attraction."
"Well, I'm here on vacation with my best friend, and I managed to find your article in the newspaper. The one about Alley Catraz."
"Oh yeah. Terrible thing, her getting letters like that. Who would do that?"
"That's what I'm hoping to find out. I was hoping you could tell me who gave you the information for that article?"
Saundra furrowed her brow. "Come to think of it, those letters came in an envelope here to the office, with no return address. There was a note inside telling us here at the paper to print out a story about them. I don't know why, but the editor thought it would be a good thing for the people to read. Something they'll really gobble up. So I wrote the article, and the editor ran it. But they didn't think it was a good idea to include the contents of those threatening letters, so they got left out."
"Didn't you check your sources?"
"I always check my sources. I was editor of my high school newspaper."
"But you didn't check this one? Just because it's about a celebrity and people will gobble it up?"
"Now, I wouldn't put it like that."
"Then how would you put it? Did the note blackmail you into running it? Did it not matter who sent it because it was good for business? And why haven't the police investigated?"
"As far as I know, the police have tried to investigate, but Ms. Catraz won't let them anywhere near her house. I have no idea why. So they figure, if she doesn't report it herself, there's no need to investigate. Now, I don't know why the editor had me write that article, but you'll have to take it up with him. Unfortunately, I'm running this place right now, since he's out of town. Went to Barnacle Bay to visit his sister. She's sick with some nasty flu bug and doesn't have any other family."
"I see."
Kenzie was about to give up when one more thought occurred to her.
"Saundra, do you still have the letters that were sent to you about printing that story?"
"Yeah, I think they're in my filing cabinet."
"Do you think I could borrow them? The threatening letters and the note asking you to write the story?"
"Well, normally I'd say you needed a warrant, but everyone who reads the paper already knows about them, and you're a detective, so surely you won't let them fall into the wrong hands."
"You have my word. You'll get them back."
"Well, I appreciate that, but would it be all right if I made you copies and gave you those instead of the originals?"
"I need the originals to look for evidence. Fingerprints, handwriting matches, you name it. How about you keep the copies for now, and I'll take the originals? I promise you'll get them back."
Saundra pondered this, but finally caved. "All right, I'll hold you to that. I'll be right back."
Saundra stood up, her hefty body causing her chair to creak. She then went to a filing cabinet in the corner, withdrew some papers, and left the office to make some copies. She was back in under two minutes.
"Here you go," she said as she handed the originals to Kenzie. "These are the originals. But as for fingerprints, you're probably out of luck. A lot of people here at the office touched those papers. The editor and me especially. Actually, you're probably out of luck all around since these are typed and not handwritten."
"Thanks, I appreciate this."
"No problem. Did you need anything else?"
"No, that's all. Thanks again."
"You're welcome. You have a good day, and good luck."
"Thanks, you too. Oh, and one more thing - this visit? It's off the record. Please don't run a story about me coming here. It'll tip the person who's writing these notes off."
"Got it. No story about a detective coming into my office trying to solve a crime about one of our town's celebrities."
"Thanks," Kenzie said between chuckles. She left Saundra's office, closing the door behind her. In the hall, she stared down at the papers she had in her hands. The contents were vile.
Alley, beauty is only skin deep. You'll get what's coming to you.
Do you know what it feels like to have everything you worked for destroyed? Or to have your dreams shattered? You will soon enough. I promise.
Keep one eye open at night. You still won't see me watching you.
This really got Kenzie's suspicions going. Beauty is only skin deep? There was no way her older appearance was a coincidence. But how was such a thing accomplished? Was it really magic? Did someone really put a spell on the fountain?
If that were the case, everyone who used the fountain would suffer the same fate. But a quick search through the local newspaper's website showed that no one else had mentioned such a thing. Plus, since the fountain was so well hidden, it was doubtful anyone else had even tried it.
Kenzie always brought her evidence kit with her, never knowing when it would come in handy. It was back at the house, along with her fingerprint dusting kit. But that didn't offer her much help. She couldn't access the criminal database, which contained thousands of fingerprints from various people such as public officials or suspects, because she didn't have her high-tech equipment here. Taking a picture of any fingerprints she found and sending it through the computer would yield circumstantial results at best. Still, these letters had to contain something. She headed back to the house to get started.
********************
As Saundra had said, all the letters and the note were typed. Kenzie dusted each one carefully to find fingerprints. There were several partials and even more smudges, but without the special scanner found in the lab that analyzed fingerprints, they'd do her no good.
Resting her head on her hand, Kenzie stared down at the papers dejectedly. The only way she might possibly find out who sent these letters would be to use clear tape and stick it to the papers, then use the tape to secretly take fingerprints of suspects. Then she could lay one piece of tape over the other and see if they matched up. It worked on TV anyway.
But Kenzie knew better. That was a long shot. Yet it was all she had.
Or so she thought.
Because as she scrutinized those papers, her eyes caught something. Something that one wouldn't notice had they not been concentrating hard enough on finding something. Something so small and irrelevant that anyone else would have overlooked it entirely.
The threatening letters were typed. But there was an impression in them. The first letter had a greater indentation than the others, but it was there. And it wasn't just any impression. It was letters, spelling out words.
These letters were printed from a printer, but before they were inserted, they were underlying another piece of paper that someone had written on. And that someone was Kenzie's suspect.
Kenzie grabbed her fingerprint powder and the paper with the biggest indentation and carried them over to the kitchen sink. She then got a clipboard out of her suitcase, attached the paper to it, and delicately poured some fingerprint powder over the paper, darkening and thus bringing out what was hidden from the naked eye. The charcoal colored dust spotted the sink, and Kenzie was somewhat glad that Jillian wasn't back yet, or she wouldn't be too happy about that.
As soon as she was finished and could clearly see the hidden message, Kenzie found some plastic wrap in one of the kitchen cupboards, spread it over the paper on the clipboard to protect it, and then looked at it closely.
Nothing important was written, really. Just a reminder of some doctor appointments and a small grocery list. But the handwriting itself was enough. Kenzie now knew how she could find out who sent the threatening letters.
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