“Who would do this to such a nice person? She never hurt anyone! And if you were late on your rent a day or two, she didn’t even charge the late fee! She was so nice. Everyone loved her!” I continued to rock my body as Jonah pushed a chair next to me and wrapped his arms around my form.
“I’m sorry about your friend. We won’t know what happened until the team has investigated, but it’s not a coincidence that she was killed here on the same night the Backseat Strangler took off in your car with your purse and contact information.”
“Oh my god! My mom! My sisters!” I screeched and stood so fast the chair slammed back behind me. I moved to go, not knowing what I was going to do, or where I was going to go. I hadn’t even driven here. I shoved my hands into my hair at the roots and looked around at the destruction. “My entire life is so messed up and someone I know is dead! I don’t know what to do!” I hiccoughed into a sob, the tears tracking down my face.
Jonah pulled me into his arms again and held me tight. “You’re going to breathe. Then we’ll go over everything you know about last night and what you know of the victim. Agent Russell and I have been tracking the Backseat Strangler all over the state. We’re going to find him. And then the FBI and the criminal justice system are going to throw everything we have at him. Which means he’s going to pay with life in prison.”
I shook my head, thoughts of what happened last night mixing with everything I’d just seen. “No, he’s going to get away with it. Just like with all those other women. He’s going to get away with it!” I screeched and cried at the same time.
Jonah cupped my cheeks and held my head still, his dark gaze tethering me to the here and now. “I swear to you, Simone, we will get this man. He will pay for what he’s done to those women, to you, and to your friend. I won’t stop looking for him until he’s found.”
“He’s going to find me and do t-th-that to m-me.” My teeth started to chatter.
His face turned to stone and he gritted through a snarl. “No man will ever fucking touch you. Not even one finger to your beautiful hair.” He wiped my tears with his thumbs. “That’s a promise you can bet I’ll be keeping, sweet girl.”
I stared into his eyes and watched the brown and gold flecks swirl. This was a good man. An honest man. A hero. Someone I knew with my whole heart I could trust.
It took all my will power, but I whispered, “I believe you.”
And I did. As long as my savior was near, I knew I’d be safe.
But what would happen when I was alone?
I’d been sitting at my kitchen table with a dead woman in my bedroom for well over an hour. I’d given Captain Mandle and the guys everything I knew about Katrina and the last time I was home. Yesterday, before the diner shift. Then I’d been pulled over by Agent Fontaine and the shootout occurred where we were both injured, and the perpetrator took off in my car. He already knew everything that had happened at that scene, but together, Jonah and I pieced together the accounts of what we experienced as it occurred, detailing anything that we may have remembered since last night.
The police captain stepped outside to discuss the information with others while Jonah secured approval to remove some of my clothing and Agent Russell checked in with their Director. Everything was placed outside of the apartment ready to be taken with me.
I didn’t dare go back into the bedroom, but every so often I’d hear a buzzing sound like something was charging up and then a clicking from what I assumed was one of those big cameras with the giant flashes you saw on television.
I was never coming back to this apartment. Not ever. I’d get some friends or someone to come in and salvage what they could. Or maybe I’d start new. I didn’t care. There was no way I’d be able to unsee Katrina’s dead and bloodied body lying in my bed.
As I sipped on my lukewarm coffee the Captain entered the front door, maneuvered my way, and stood a few feet from me. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth from heel to toe as though he was working through something in his head.
Eventually he spoke. Direct and to the point. “Victim is Katrina Dushay, manager of the Valley Oak Apartments. Worked here for six years. After talking to the boyfriend, we believe Katrina left her apartment last night at midnight because she’d received noise complaints from a couple neighbors. We’ve interviewed them and all they could tell us is that they heard glass breaking and loud thumps coming from your apartment as though someone was trashing the place. At approximately twelve-thirty the neighbors said the noises stopped. That’s the last anyone heard or saw anything. The boyfriend fell asleep and didn’t even know she was missing when we showed up. He’s contacting her parents.”
Katrina was killed in my apartment between midnight and twelve-thirty. Thirty minutes and then a vibrant and beautiful young woman was taken out of this world. And no one was the wiser.
“How could something like this happen? There was so much blood…” My hands shook so I put down the mug. “She had to have screamed.”
“Look, Ms. Wright-Kerrighan, I can’t get into particulars, but I will say the killer left a message.” Captain Mandle frowned deeply and rubbed at the back of his hairy neck.
“A message?” I reached out and Jonah took my hand under the table.
Just having his presence there to lock onto kept me from passing out cold.
“Hide and seek,” the Captain said.
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
He closed his eyes. “I really didn’t want to share this, but he carved the words into her back using a knife he found in your kitchen. Killed her on your bed. We believe he’s escalated from his activities as the Backseat Strangler. She was definitely strangled, but the added violence wasn’t there before in any of the other cases. He wrote those words for a reason and I think they’re a message for us, or perhaps for you. We need to proceed with extreme caution. This man has your phone, ID, your car, and knows where you live.” He lifted his hands around the room. “I need you to look around the room and see if there is anything you can tell may be missing.”
I blinked as though he’d asked me to search a beach for a long-lost diamond. This was needle in a haystack territory, not to mention my nerves were so far gone I wasn’t in the realm of reality let alone capable of truly seeing anything through the mess.
“I, I, d-don’t know. There’s so much…”
Jonah squeezed my hand. “We’ll do it together. Just try, yeah?”
I nodded and he helped me to stand. My arm was throbbing, and I needed a pain pill, but I had to get this over with and get back to the safety and comfort of my mother’s home. Bury my head straight under a stack of blankets and make all of this disappear.
Jonah held my hand and led me over to the center of the living room. “Start with the couch, tables, anything on them that’s not on the ground now.”
I scanned the space seeing my candle holder, coasters, magazines all spread out on the floor. I shook my head.
“Bookcase.” He brought me to the bookcase. All the books were on the floor. I used my foot to move them around. It was nothing but books and CDs.
“It looks like it could all be there, but I’m not sure. It held mostly books and CDs I’d collected over time.”