And if Rory’s gut was right, the unidentified intruder was someone who had done this not just once before, but at least two times. Maybe more. Someone who wasn’t afraid of getting caught.
“I’m going to try and get an interview with Rick Hill,” Chance said. “I don’t know that he will tell us anything, but it won’t hurt to try.”
“You’re right,” she agreed. “It can’t hurt to try.” She leaned back in her seat. “Can we go by the house and see how bad the damage is?”
“We can.” He glanced at her. “Then we’ll go back to see Detective Fowler. I have a few new questions for him.”
Rory studied Chance’s profile. “You think we’re on to something here. That maybe at least two other cases are related to mine? I mean, there was nothing of real monetary value taken from us.” Except the precious life of a good man. “But we weren’t home, so there really was nothing to take.”
Chance sent a look her way. “I believe there is a strong possibility they are related. But there’s one major difference besides the murder.”
She waited for him to go on, not daring to breathe.
“The other two we’ve learned about were home invasions—the homes where the victims lived. Where there was a greater likelihood of finding sellable assets—like that coin collection. There’s a possibility they may have targeted the Allston home because of that collection. Your attack didn’t occur at your home and didn’t appear to be about sellable assets. Which begs the question, were the intruders targeting the place or the two of you?”
The reality of what he had just pinpointed felt like a blow to her gut. He was right. It was no random invasion. Certainly not a random act of violence. It was targeted. Not at the place but at the victims.
This was solid proof! Who couldn’t see that? Everyone but her and Chance it seemed.
Kindred Residence
Tupelo Pike
Scottsboro, 10:00 a.m.
The kitchen areaof the house was a complete disaster. A total loss. That whole section would have to be rebuilt.
The good news was, the other rooms were in pretty good condition other than the smoke and water damage. If Chance hadn’t woken up and taken immediate action, the whole house would no doubt have gone up in flames. And they would both be dead.
She glanced at the man walking around the house with her. They weren’t allowed to go inside, but Chance had been able to get details from the fire marshal’s office. Rory had called Austin and told him the latest episode of their ongoing nightmare. He too was devastated, but also thankful that she was unharmed. He passed along the name of the insurance company Lulu had used. That could wait as far as Rory was concerned. The case was all she could think about right now.
Rory suddenly felt utterly exhausted. She sat down in one of the swings on the old set Lulu had bought secondhand at a moving sale. She’d had to dismantle it and bring it home one piece at a time. In her bug at that. What a sight it was. Another hilarious scene had been Lulu trying to put it back together.
It was a miracle it didn’t collapse now with grown-up Rory slumped in one of the swings, but she was too tired to care. On one level, she felt a bit of new confidence given that the case in Henagar was so similar to hers. With potentially another in Fort Payne. There would need to be further investigation—or some way to get the one jailed perp to talk in order to make it matter. The timing appeared to be correct in that he would have still been a free man when it came to the invasion at the cottage. Hecould very well be the man who assaulted her, except he’d been smarter about not leaving any evidence that time.
She shuddered at the thought.
Either way, she still had no rock-solid proof of the connection.
Chance joined her but didn’t risk sitting in the remaining swing. “I think we should try getting another meeting with Carter. He may be able to give us some additional insights since we’ve spoken with Alita Whitmore. Who knows, he might be able to get us in to talk to the guy they caught, Rick Hill.”
Rory tugged her phone from her hip pocket and made the call. It went straight to voicemail. She left a message and ended the call. “Hopefully he’ll call me back.”
“Next step,” Chance said, “I suggest we track down Detective Fowler. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled that we’re finding more questions for him to answer.”
Rory laughed as she rose from the swing. She actually had nothing to laugh about except an image of Fowler hiding under his desk that had just popped into her head. “At least with all these curveballs we keep throwing his way, he won’t get bored—as my aunt would say— licking his calf over.”
Because he damned sure hadn’t done the job right the first time.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Scottsboro Police Department
South Broad Street
Scottsboro, 11:30 a.m.
Fowler made them wait a ridiculously long time. While they waited, Chance had dug into the case in Fort Payne via the internet. Again, masked intruders. Again, one victim was sexually assaulted and a number of items were taken. Like the Henagar case, the glaring difference was that no one was murdered.
