Discombobulate

Chapter Nine

"On the seventh of August, I woke up in a hotel in Detroit. I don't remember the name of it. You'd have to ask Ellen, she was the tour manager. She took me where I needed to go. She planned the whole book tour from start to finish."

Denise tried to keep her voice from wobbling as she spoke. She had been in a rush that morning. She shared a room with Ellen and the two of them woke up late for their last stop.

There was a final book signing at a larger bookstore. Denise had been terrified because the owners wanted her to give a speech before she sat down to sign books. She hadn't been prepared for it.

"We left the hotel at seven. We were supposed to be at a bookstore at eight. We arrived twenty minutes late. It took a little over two hours to get through it."

"After that, we had lunch at a small diner. It was Ellen's way of congratulating me. It was my first book tour and she was proud of me."

"And this all happened on August seventh?" Detective Mullen asked.

Denise nodded her head and continued. "We went to a mall to go shopping. I bought my mom and sister a gift. I never had the chance to give it to them. Ellen and I had dinner together. We went back to the hotel and called it a night."

"Okay, but what about the eighth?" Detective Mullen pulled a piece of paper out of the file. "When did you go home?"

"Ellen and I got up at five the next morning. She drove me home and left when I arrived at the front door. It was sometime around seven. I knew my mom would be up. I wanted to surprise her with her gift. Sammy met me at the door."

"That's the dog, right? One of the deputies took him to the vet. Someone sent me a photo of him. He's a cute golden retriever."

Sheriff Winston turned his notebook around to write on the other page.

"Sammy is the dog," Denise confirmed. "His face was covered in blood. I thought he injured himself until he led me to my mom. She was laying on the kitchen floor. I stood there in shock for who knows how long."

"I ran to find my sister. She was in her room on her bed. Both of them were dead and covered in dried blood. I called 911 a few minutes later."

"Why didn't you call 911 right away?" Sheriff Winston took part in the conversation. He paused his writing to look at Denise.

"It was shocking. I had been having the time of my life. I wasn't expecting to be greeted with dead bodies. I thought I was dreaming. Sammy jumped into Jennifer's bed and whimpered. That's what made me realize it was real. I ran to the phone after that."

"Did you notice anything unusual that morning? Anything out of place? Anything suspicious? Was the door unlocked? Anything like that?" Sheriff Winston continued writing again.

Denise rapidly shook her head. "The door wasn't unlocked, I used a key to get in. The coffee pot was still on. Whenever it happened, my mom was in the kitchen making her morning cup of coffee."

"I assume my sister was sleeping when she was attacked. There wasn't blood trailed throughout the house. It was only on Sammy's face."

Detective Mullen cleared his throat. "Where did you get Sammy?"

"What?" She didn't understand why he was asking her this question. What did that have to do with her family's murder?

"Where did you get Sammy? Did you adopt him from the pound? Did you purchase him from a breeder? Where did you get Sammy?" Detective Mullen repeated himself.

"Hold on a minute," Andy interrupted. She asked the question Denise wanted to know. "What does this have to do with anything? Besides, don't you have evidence and stuff?"