There were notebooks upon notebooks stacked next to the computer, as well as a mostly empty bowl of soup with just a few carrots shriveled at the bottom and a mug with a dried-up tea bag clinging to the ceramic.

A sink, an out-of-place bright yellow mini fridge, and a few cabinets passed as the kitchen, and by the bed was a darkened emptiness that Izzy assumed was the bathroom.

Her guess was confirmed after she flipped on the stark single bulb that hung above the toilet. Rustic.

Dandruff shampoo and a cheap generic bodywash sat on the ledge behind the plastic curtain that was more soap residue than anything else at this point.

Izzy turned back to the main room, her eyes touching on the bare surfaces. “Would be hard to tell if there was a disturbance here.”

“The owner said the door was still locked when she came in after they found the body,” Mia said, her voice muffled since she was searching through the cabinets. “I just checked the windows. They don’t show signs of forced entry.”

A black bag tucked into the narrow nook between the headboard and the wall caught Izzy’s eye. She knelt and inelegantly shoved her fingers into the pair of latex gloves she’d pulled from her pocket. Once they were on, she unzipped the duffel with careful deliberation.

The caution didn’t prove to be necessary. Everything was neat and in order, jeans folded on top of a few flannel button-downs, a handful of T-shirts slotted in next to boxers and socks.

“Anything?” Mia called from somewhere behind her.

Izzy shook her head as she stood. “Just clothes. Toiletries kit on the sink in there.” She tipped her chin toward the bathroom. “Not seeing much else.”

“He must have had his wallet on him,” Mia said. She was standing over the desk, the tip of her pen hovering by the corner of one of the notebooks like she was about to flip it open. But she hadn’t yet.

“Or someone with a copy of the key cleaned up behind themselves.”

Mia’s mouth twitched at that suggestion. “They can’t exactly just run down to the local locksmith.”

“So he probably took his important stuff with him,” Izzy conceded. “What do you think are in those?”

“Whatever he was working on.” A no shit answer to a no shit question.

Frigid air licked at the exposed skin of Izzy’s wrist when she took the gloves off, and her exhale was a frozen white coil that drifted toward the ceiling. “Can we take those somewhere else to read?”

Izzy’s request earned her an actual smile. “Yeah, we’ll see if tech has any suggestion on the laptop, too.”

“Bless you,” Izzy said, swiveling to flip the light switch off in the bathroom. As she did, she noticed something right near the bottom leg of the bed. Bending down, she slid the small object out from the darkness.