If She Fled

Mrs. Patterson led them into her living room. The TV was on, tuned to Good Morning America with the volume quite low. This made Kate assume that Mrs. Patterson was a widow who could not get used to being alone. She’d read somewhere that older people tend to always have a television or stereo on in the house after they lose a spouse, just so the house seems alive and active at all times.

As Kate settled down into a recliner, she looked out of the living room window that sat on the east side of the house. She saw the street and did her best to estimate the layout of the yard and the street. She was pretty sure they were indeed in the house she had spied from Karen Hopkins’s office window.

“Mrs. Patterson, clear something up for me, please,” Kate said. “When we were in the Hopkins home, I looked out Karen’s window and saw a house right across the right edge of their back yard. It was yours, right?”

“Yes, it is,” Mrs. Patterson said with a smile.

“You said you know the Hopkinses a bit. Could you elaborate?”

“Sure! Karen would ask me questions about her little garden from time to time. She has one right there outside her office window, you know. She didn’t grow much in it, just herbs used for cooking: basil, rosemary, some cilantro. I’ve always had something of a green thumb. Everyone in the neighborhood knows it and they usually come to me for advice. I have my own garden in the back, if you’d like to see it.”

“No, thank you,” DeMarco said politely. “We’re sort of against the clock here. We just need you to tell us what you know about the Hopkinses. Did they seem happy when you saw them together?”

“I suppose. I don’t know Gerald all that well. But from time to time, I’d catch them sitting out on their back porch. Fairly recently, I’ve seen them holding hands out there. It was quite nice to see. Their kids are all grown and moved out, I suppose you know. I liked to imagine they were talking about their retirement plans, making travel plans and whatnot.”

“Did you ever suspect they were having issues of any kind?” Kate asked.

“No. I never heard anything or saw anything that would suggest such a thing. As far as I know, they were just a standard couple. But I guess any couple could have potential issues after the kids are out of the house. It’s not uncommon, you know.”

“Did you see either of them within the past week or so?”

“Yes. I saw Karen out in her little garden, snipping at something. This would have been about four or five days ago. I can’t be sure. I turned seventy-four this year and my mind is sort of like soup sometimes.”

“Did you speak with her at all?”

“No. But there is something I thought about yesterday…something I didn’t necessarily forget about but never really bothered to think twice about. And honestly…I don’t even know what day this happened, so…”

“When what happened?” DeMarco asked.

“Well, I’m quite sure it was Tuesday…the day Karen was murdered from what I understand. I’m quite certain I saw someone walking around in their back yard. A man. A man that was not Gerald Hopkins.”

“Did it appear as if this man was trying to break in?” Kate asked.

“No. He looked like he belonged there, if that makes sense. He was walking around like he had been invited, you know? He was wearing some sort of suit or uniform. There was a little badge or patch right here.” She tapped the area above her left breast to indicate where she was talking about.

“Did you get a good look at the patch?”

“No. All I can tell you is that it was mostly white and looked sort of like a star shape. But that could be wrong…my sight is about as good as my memory these days.”

“But in terms of communicating with either of the Hopkinses, you say there was nothing over the past week?”

“No. The last time I spoke with Karen was when she came over to ask for my recipe for a pineapple upside down cake. And that’s been nearly three weeks ago, I believe.”

Kate racked her brain, trying to think of any other avenues Mrs. Patterson may be able to help them open up, but came up with nothing. Besides, they had this man in a uniform to check out, so it was not like they would be leaving empty-handed.

“Mrs. Patterson, thank you so much for your time. If you do happen to think of anything else, feel free to call the local police. They can get a message to us.”

“I feel like I do need to ask…but with the FBI involved, can I assume the murder from earlier is connected? It’s been what…about a week or so ago? I think her name was Marjorie Hix.”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Kate said. “Did you happen to know Marjorie Hix?”

“No. I’d never even heard the name, honestly, until one of my friends told me about what had happened.”

Kate nodded and headed out of the room. “Again, thank you for your time.”

DeMarco joined her and they headed back outside, where the rain was coming down steadily, despite the sun still shining through.

Kate nearly took her phone out to see if Melissa had left a voice message, but decided against it. All it would do would be to give her one more thing to stress out over. And if she didn’t learn to separate her personal life from her bureau life, she may as well hand her gun and badge back in now.

She hated herself for it a bit, but she pushed Melissa out of her mind for the moment as they headed back for the car.

In the back of her head, a little ghost voice spoke up, haunting the halls of her mind. Remember what happened when you pushed her aside earlier in your career? It took a long time to repair that damage. You really want to go through all that again?

No, she didn’t. And perhaps that was why she found herself fighting off tears as DeMarco pulled out of Mrs. Patterson’s driveway.

CHAPTER FOUR

Sheriff Bannerman was back at the police station when Kate and DeMarco arrived. He waved them back into his office, Kate noticing a shuffling hitch to his steps as they followed him. He held the door open for both of them and then closed it behind him.

“Any luck?” he asked.

“We spoke to a Mrs. Patterson, the woman who lives in the house that you can see from the window in Karen Hopkins’s office,” Kate said. “She says she recalls someone in the back yard on the day Karen was killed.”

“She says she thinks it was that day,” DeMarco added.

“Sheriff, can you think of any companies around the area that have a logo that is star-shaped and mostly white in color? The employees may be wearing dark-colored suits.”

Bannerman considered this for a minute and then started to nod slowly. He typed something into the laptop on his desk, made a few clicks with the touch pad, and then turned the screen to them. He had typed Hexco Internet Providers into a Google search and pulled up the first image.

“There’s this,” he said. “This is the only one that comes to mind straight away.”

Kate and DeMarco both studied the logo closely. It was an almost identical match to what Mrs. Patterson had described. It was indeed in a star shape, only the back arm was stretched and slightly curved. A small trail of lines followed the star, the center one containing the word Hexco.

With speed like that of a gunslinger, DeMarco pulled out her phone and instantly started dialing the number beneath the logo. “Let’s see if there was a service call of some kind to the Hopkins residence on Tuesday.”

She sat down, waiting for the phone to start ringing. As she did, Bannerman turned the laptop back around and closed the lid. In a soft voice, as to not interrupt DeMarco as someone answered the phone, he looked at Kate and asked: “You got any initial thoughts?”

“I think we’ve got a killer that has a certain type of victim he’s targeting. Both Karen Hopkins and Marjorie Hix were in their mid-fifties, at home alone. The assumption is that the killer knew the husbands would not be there. And I also assume he had studied the houses, as there was no sign of forced entry. So…our killer has a definite type, and he does his homework. Other than that…I’m at a dead end.”

“I can try to add to that,” Bannerman said. “There were no signs of struggle, either. So the killer knew how to get into the houses without tripping security and then was also able to strike without the victims knowing. It makes me think the victims invited the killer in. That they knew him.”

Kate had assumed the same thing but decided to let Bannerman get it all out. She rather enjoyed hearing him speak. His older age made him sound very wise and she greatly appreciated his experience. She usually felt as if working closely with anyone from the local police force could be a hindrance, but she was already starting to like Bannerman.

As she nodded her agreement, DeMarco ended her call. “I got confirmation that Hexco Internet did indeed send a tech out to the Hopkins residence on Tuesday. The woman I spoke with said there had been reports of spotty internet service all over the neighborhood around that time, starting Monday night. There were about a dozen other similar calls for maintenance that day.”

“Well, it’s a huge jump to make, but being a tech for an internet company during interrupted service would grant pretty easy access into just about any house,” Kate said.

“Well, it’s not too big of a jump, actually,” DeMarco said. “I also asked if there had been any Hexco techs sent to the Hix residence lately. Turns out, there was a request put in by Joseph Hix two weeks ago. And according to their records, the same technician replied to both calls.”