Free Played to Death by Meg Perry

and took it on break with her. After the break, her body was found by a caterer. Her bag was missing.”
    Now all three women were staring at me. Donna said, “Do you know her name?”
    “No. But I know she was a student at Pasadena City College. My brother Kevin and his partner caught the case.”
    “Let me have his phone number.”
    I gave Donna both Kevin’s and Jon’s numbers, and she entered them into her own phone. “Okay, thanks. I’m going to call them right now.” She left the conference room.
    Dr. Fleming ran her hands through her hair. “At least it wasn’t one of our students.”
    Detective Poston said, “It could be unrelated.” But she didn’t sound convinced.
    I wasn’t convinced either.
    As I was walking to Bunche Hall to teach my history class, I texted Scott. Dark-haired girl with Hello Kitty tote likely stole Isaacson solo. Seen on security cameras leaving library.
    He answered almost immediately. WTF??
    Right? Theft tied to murder.
    Shit. Guess I’ll be seeing Kevin again.
    Very likely. Sorry.
    I didn’t get a response to that.
     
    When I got out of class and turned on my phone, I had a text from Pete. Kevin coming to dinner.
    I called him as I was walking back to the library. “Hey, did he tell you about Kristen Beach?”
    “No, what about her?”
    I told Pete about my conversation with Kristen that morning. By the time I ended, Pete was laughing. “Well, she’s different from his usual, that’s for sure.”
    “This all feels kind of incestuous. You and me, Jon and Liz, now Kevin and Kristen?”
    “Don’t get excited yet. They’ve only exchanged numbers. I don’t think he’ll be moving very fast.”
     
    I got off the bus and turned right onto 17th Street just as Kevin’s car turned left from Wilshire onto 17th. He had to park a couple of blocks away, and we met at our front gate. I said, “Did Donna Aguilar call you?”
    “Yeah. We’re meeting with her tomorrow morning to see the video.”
    “I told Scott the cases were connected. He said he guessed he’d be seeing you again.”
    “Probably. We need to talk to the girl’s family first.”
    “I’m going to see if I can find any chat rooms or discussion boards about this composer. If so, it might be possible to find out who collects his music.”
    When we went inside, the house smelled like soup. Pete greeted us from the kitchen. “Hope you’re hungry.”
    I said, “Ravenous. What is that?”
    “Leek and potato soup.”
    When we sat down to eat, Pete said to Kevin, “So. Kristen Beach?”
    Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
    Pete laughed. “No reason I can think of. You don’t think you’re moving too fast, though?”
    “I’m not moving fast. I might invite her to go hiking. That’s it.”
    I said, “From what she said, I don’t think she’s looking for serious either.”
    “Good. For now, it’ll just be nice to talk to an attractive woman who’s actually read a book in the past five years.”
    “Kristen’s smart and well-educated. You won’t have any problems there.”
    Kevin said, “The coroner autopsied Elena Morales today.”
    Pete asked, “Anything useful?”
    “Yeah.” Kevin ate a spoonful of soup. “The coroner was able to measure the size of the hands of the murderer, from the bruises on her neck. It won’t help us a lot in identifying the killer, but it might help us rule people out. And another thing.” Kevin waved his spoon. “Elena was pregnant. About eight weeks.”
    Pete whistled. I said, “Whoa.”
    “Yeah. Now we’ve got to break that news to the parents.”
    “Have any of her friends told you anything about a boyfriend?”
    “No. So far we haven’t found anyone she confided in.”
    I said, “Maybe she kept it secret because she was dating a minor. Brian.”
    “That’s occurred to us.” Kevin frowned at his soup. “We have to get Brian to talk somehow.”

 
    Thursday, June 11
    Jamie
    I spent the morning grading papers. The graduate history course I’d been