“It’s okay.” Stuart squeezed his wife’s hand and nodded. Lisa’s lips trembled and she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “We want to help if we can.”

“I appreciate your cooperation.” Jason flipped open a small notebook, pen poised. “What can you tell us about your brother, Mr. Gaines? What were his usual daily habits? Who were his friends? That sort of thing. Please, take your time.”

Husband and wife quickly glanced at one another before Stuart spoke. “Roger was currently unemployed. He’d been having some trouble finding full time work since he graduated.”

“That was from the University of Montana, correct? In psychology?”

“Yes, that’s correct. He was planning to go to graduate school but he hadn’t gotten around to filling out the paperwork and so forth.”

While Jason and Stuart Gaines discussed the mundane topic of Roger’s educational goals, Brinley allowed her gaze to wander around the room. The kitchen was bright and sunny, scrupulously clean and tidy. The living room they’d walked through when they’d entered the home had been the same, barely looking lived in. Brinley’s own home was always clean but cluttered with books and newspapers in the living room and socks on the bedroom floor.

“So how did Roger spend his time when he wasn’t looking for a job?”

Lisa’s lips thinned and Stuart shifted in his chair. “Well, that’s an interesting question. The last several months Roger wasn’t really looking for a job. Not seriously anyway. He spent most of his time on his laptop. Pretty much all day and most of the night too.”

That sounded boring as hell but then Brinley was used to talking to people all day, even if those people happened to be short and about seven years old.

“Did Roger have any enemies? Anyone who might have wanted to hurt him? Anyone he may have owed money to?”

“He only owed money to us,” Lisa said, sitting up straighter in her chair. Stuart gave her a quelling look but she shook her head, rejecting whatever silent message was passing between the two of them. “What can it hurt now? Roger was a good boy but he had very little ambition since he graduated. The fact is I don’t think he wanted a job. When we would ask him about it he would talk about making YouTube videos and making a living that way.”

Brinley hadn’t even known you could make a living doing that. Apparently Jason hadn’t either because his brows had shot up and he was intently scribbling in his notebook.

“So you had to lend him money? But he didn’t borrow from anyone else?”

“Not that we know of. I asked Roger and he said he hadn’t.” Stuart answered this time and Lisa twisted her hands together, the knuckles white. “Roger had simply lost his way, that’s all. The fact is we didn’t see much of him unless it was dinner time. He kept to himself. Strange hours. He would have gotten bored eventually and straightened out.”

“What about his friends? Is there anyone he was close to? Maybe a girlfriend?”

“Roger didn’t go out much. He was kind of a homebody these past months.” Stuart frowned for a moment. “He did have a good friend in high school and college. Brad Enright. Good guy. We liked him a lot.”

Jason scratched down the name. “Is Brad local to the area?”

Lisa smiled and nodded. “He certainly is. He took over his father’s car dealership on the edge of town. Enright Luxury Cars. Brad was such a good friend to Roger. They were inseparable for the longest time.”

“We’ll want to talk to Brad. Can you think of anyone else?”

Stuart shook his head, red streaks high on his cheeks. “Roger didn’t share much with us, and I didn’t want to pry. He was a grown man, after all.”

Kind of. It sounded like Roger had never really launched into adulthood the way he should have.

“Can we see his room? It might help.”

The couple looked at each other, their expressions dubious, but finally Stuart relented, nodding his agreement.

“I guess it would be okay. We haven’t been up there in several days and it might be messy.”

“That’s fine,” Jason assured the man. “We’re not here to judge, only to try and find some leads.”

Lisa seemed to breathe easier. “I’ll show you up then. If you’ll follow me.”

The couple stood and she and Jason followed them past the laundry room to a set of stairs at the far side of the house. At the top was a closed door that Stuart opened, flipping on a light switch on the wall.

“Here it is. I don’t know how it will help.”

The smell was the first thing to hit Brinley. A combination of body odor and rotting food. She felt her stomach twist in her abdomen and she had to swallow down her rising breakfast that had lodged in her throat.

This was beyond mere clutter.

It looked like Roger had never put away anything in his entire life. Clothes, books, magazines, even dirty dishes were stacked everywhere. The only place that could be considered habitable was the desk area and still it was covered with papers and dust.

Lisa and Stuart looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. They’d probably had no idea of what they were going to find in this hidden room.

“You don’t need to hang around while we search if you don’t want to. We’ll call you if we need anything,” Jason offered.

“Well, if you don’t mind.” Stuart looked eager to leave the room. “We do have some arrangements still to make for the funeral. If you need us we’ll be in the kitchen.”

The couple practically fell over each other as they ran down the stairs. Brinley watched their hasty exit and then looked balefully at the room. “I can’t say as I blame them. This is beyond disgusting. How could he live in this?”

“You should have seen the apartment I lived in with three other guys in college,” Jason chuckled. “It wasn’t quite this bad but it wasn’t good either. We never brought girls back home. They would have run screaming from the building and never looked back.”

Brinley wrinkled her nose in distaste. “It stinks in here.”

“It sure as hell does so let’s get to it so we can get out of here. First rule, don’t touch anything.”

“No problem,” she retorted, eyeing a plate encrusted with something that looked like spaghetti with a layer of green mold. Acid rose in her throat and she shuddered at the thought of what might be buried in these piles. “I wasn’t planning to, believe me.”

Jason pulled a set of rubber gloves from his back pocket. He’d retrieved them from a case in the back of his truck when they’d arrived at the Gaines home. She’d thought it strange at the time but now it made perfect sense.

Evidence. She needed to be more cognizant of that little detail.

“Here’s my phone.” He handed her his cell. “You can take pictures.”

“Of anything in particular?”

“When I ask you to. I don’t have a warrant and I doubt they’ll allow me to take anything, so if we find something interesting we’re going to have to take a picture of it.”

Jason waded through the stacks of laundry on the bed and floor, tossing things aside until he’d dug all the way to the mattress. A white shirt landed on top of the ever growing pile and Brinley froze when she saw a large red stain.

“Wait. Is that…blood?”

Jason frowned and picked up the discarded shirt to examine it more closely. He spread out the fabric and even sniffed at it, making her stomach turn at the thought of doing the same.

“You’ve found something alright.”

Maybe a clue. Something that would tell her why Roger Gaines had her address. She leaned forward over the garment that was laid out on the bed.

“What did I find?” she whispered, her heart beating fast in her chest.

“A ketchup stain. That’s never going to come out. He might as well have tossed the shirt in the garbage.”

Brinley’s head whipped around and her gaze landed on Jason, who was having a difficult time not bursting into laughter. His lips twitched and his green eyes danced with mischief.