Jamie Brodie 02 - Hoarded to Death

paper towels stacked in front of it. When we did get the door open, the odor rushed out. Val quickly shut the door again. "Oh shit. That's nasty."
    Susannah made a gagging sound. "What was that?"
    Val waved her hand in front of her face, fanning away the fumes. "It looked like old takeout containers."
    Now we needed to get out of the kitchen. We inched through the narrow path back to the master bedroom. It was full of clothes, mostly in bags, either shopping bags or garbage bags. There were clothes piled on every available surface, up to the ceiling in the corners, and there were cobwebs in the corners again. There were magazines and newspapers in here, too. What was it with the magazines and newspapers?
    Jennifer had a twin bed shoved against the back wall, and the path ended there. The bed was piled with clothes and blankets. I didn’t see how she'd been sleeping there. Val looked around. "Where's the bathroom?"
    "This way." The cameraman pointed. We had to climb over a couple of small piles of clothes to get to the door; there wasn't a path here anymore.
    The floor of the bathroom was piled with more paper towels, magazines , and newspapers. There were also plastic drink cups in here. There was a narrow path in front of the sink and toilet, leading to the tub. The toilet was clean, thank God. There were clothes hanging from the shower head; it looked like Jennifer must only take baths. The bathtub was clean, but there were a couple dozen bottles of shampoo and conditioner lining its edges, and a few sitting inside the tub itself.
    We'd been pretty quiet. The cameraman said, "You all aren't saying much."
    Val opened her mouth, then closed it again. I said, "I think we're stunned. You know, I've watched the hoarding shows a lot, and I thought I was prepared for whatever was going on here, but seeing it in person is a whole different experience."
    Susannah said grimly, "I would never have thought that Jennifer would be one to do this. She never seemed that type to me. Whatever that type is."
    "But how well did you really know her?" Val scratched her forehead and looked around again. "We were related to her, and we had no idea. When she and Kevin were around I always tried to draw her out, but she never would say more than a few words."
    "I was in England for almost the whole time they were married. I didn't really know her at all." I shrugged. "When Raven told me Jennifer was going by Graham now, I thought maybe that was a good sign, that she'd taken back her maiden name and now she was going to get her act together. Maybe she'll be successful here. Maybe we can really help her do this."
    Val looked at me skeptically. Susannah sighed dramatically. The cameraman signaled Mike, who rubbed his hands together. “Great stuff, guys. Great stuff. Let’s step outside until Jennifer and Dr. Hayman get here.”
    We went back out to the Jeep to wait for Jennifer to arrive. Pete had another muffin. I sipped my Coke; the smell from the refrigerator had killed my appetite. Val paced a little, then scooted into the cargo area with us. Susannah immediately started talking on her phone. Raven went to the other side of the parking lot to smoke and talk to her assistant and the cameraman.
    In about 15 minutes, Jennifer and Dr. Hayman, the psychologist, arrived. Dr. Hayman was pleasant but harried looking, a moderately heavy set lady with a faded red dye job, dressed in a long skirt and what looked like a man's sweater hanging down over it. Pete and Val introduced themselves, and she thanked us for coming. Jennifer looked stressed. She was sticking close to Dr. Hayman.
    There was a few minutes of general milling around , then Stan the Junk Man and his minions arrived. Stan was a local entrepreneur, with junkyards, recycling centers, and self-storage units all over LA and Orange Counties. I'd seen hoarding shows where the junk trucks actually had the word "JUNK" prominently displayed on them; that seemed to me to be the icing on the humiliation cake for the hoarder. Stan's trucks were decorated with the logo of his self-storage business. So if any of Jennifer's neighbors got nosy, it would just look like she was moving a bunch of stuff to storage.
    Finally, Raven called us all to attention. We gathered at the foot of the staircase leading to Jennifer's apartment. Raven said, "Okay, what we want to do now is to get some footage of the friends and family talking to Jennifer about the hoard and their reactions to it. Then we'll get