“What can you tell me about her?”
“Nice. Kept her lawn in good shape and had done some good renovation projects in the last year that increased the value of her house.”
Another renovation project. “Know much about the woman?”
“Not much.”
“Issues, problems?”
“None that I knew of. Why’re you asking these questions? It was just a fire.”
Rick ignored the question. In a neighborhood filled with young, working professionals, most were too busy to notice the day-to-day stuff. “What did she do for a living?”
“She works in real estate, I think. She’s coming and going all the time. But like I said, I don’t see her much. Today is my day off. Normally, I’m never home.”
“You have much interaction with Nancy?”
“Just to wave and smile on the rare times we saw each other.” The medical examiner’s car pulled up and the man’s frown deepened.
“Do you think Nancy was in the house?” The question came from the woman, who folded her arms over her chest and hunched forward slightly.
“I don’t know much at this point.” He tossed her a smile meant to be friendly but he suspected it fell short. “What’s your name?”
The woman shoved her fingers through her hair. “My name is Linda Nelson. I live on the other side of Nancy. And she wasn’t dating anyone as far as I knew. She worked hard. It was all about the job.”
“How well did you know Nancy?”
“Nancy and I were good friends. We just went out for drinks last week.”
“Tell me about her.”
“She had a boyfriend but they broke up last year. In fact, he broke up with her. She works as a manager in a real estate firm. She liked her job and her boss liked her.” She glanced back toward the ruins. “I smell fuel. That fire wasn’t an accident, was it?”
“I don’t know. Nancy have anyone bothering her lately?”
“No. Not really. I mean she did text me yesterday about a guy at the corner package-delivery office. Said the guy cut in front of her and was a real jerk. She couldn’t believe it. Nancy, being Nancy, told him where to get off.”
“Did she ever see this guy before?”
“She didn’t give me the impression she had. She’d have told me if someone was hanging around or stalking her.”
“What delivery office does she use?”
“Normally, she goes to the one on Church Street. It has later hours and she’s often racing to make it there before it closes. She sends packages to her brother. He’s in the military.”
“You saw no unusual people around here last night?”
“No, Nancy would have said something if she thought she had a problem.”
Diane Smith had not been killed in her own home so it was possible that whoever had died here was not Nancy. “Do you have contact information for Nancy?”
“Yeah, sure.” She dug a cell from her back pocket. “Want me to call her?”
“Yeah.”
She hit SEND, put the phone on speaker so they both could hear it ring. On the fifth ring it went to voice mail. Nancy had a soft, pleasant voice.
Rick scribbled down her number. “Did Nancy ever mention a woman named Diane Smith?”
“Not that I remember.”
Doubtful he’d find a connection this easily to the other victim, but it was worth a shot. “How long has she been in the neighborhood?”
“Six years,” Nelson said. “She’d talked about moving but decided against it because it’s too expensive right now. She’d just sold her mother’s house and moved her into an old folks’ home. The process took it out of her and her mother died just a few months ago. That’s why she opted to do the renovation work instead. Redid the bathrooms.”
“Who did the work?”
“I’ve no idea but she liked the work he’d done.” Linda stared at the ruined house. “It was all normal twelve hours ago. All the work and love she’d put into the house was really showing and now it’s destroyed.”
Whoever had done this had planned carefully. It would take planning to buy the diesel and if Thermite had also been used, it would take more time to get that. Rick handed his card to the neighbor. “Call me if you think of anything.”
Rick returned to his office to find the Thompson murder case files on his desk. Dusty and faded with age, the cases took up five file boxes that the clerk had stacked around his desk. Curious, he moved to the top box, flipped off the lid, and opened the first file. Investigating officers were Buddy Morgan and KC Kelly. He shook his head, staring at his father’s bold handwriting. Buddy Morgan, the legend. Closed more murder cases than anyone else in the history of Nashville homicide.
Whereas his older brother, Deke, had tried to live up to the legend, Rick had never suffered under such pressure. He wanted to close cases, be the best cop he could be, but he’d had no desire to chase Buddy’s legend.