Martha nodded.She sniffed and said, “She had a meeting with some investors about sponsoring her mayoral campaign.I told her not to go.I’m pretty sure they just wanted to get her to put up her house as collateral so they could take it when she lost.She wouldn’t listen to me, though.She never listened to me.”
Martha wiped tears from her eyes, and Kate shared a look with Marcus.Marcus tried again.“Why did you come to the house?”
“She wasn’t answering her phone.She missed the meeting.She never missed meetings.I came over to check on her, and her door was unlocked, so I…”
She pressed her palms to her eyes.Her lips trembled.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Marcus said gently.“We’ll go through the back so the press doesn’t hound you.Kate, can you tell Baltimore’s finest to have a cruiser take Miss Lowe home?”
“One last question before you go,” Kate said.“Can you tell me the significance of the letter opener?”
Martha looked up at the silver item and laughed.“That was… Grandma being Grandma.”
“Can you explain?”
“She had this thing where she’d steal things from the offices of her political opponents.She’d always make up a reason why she had to visit their office for a meeting or something, and she’d take something.Always something small, but she had to take something.”
“Did she ever say why?”
Martha laughed again.“I asked her once why she took the letter opener—that was councilman Richter’s, by the way—and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, ‘Because it’s mine.’I just let it go.Grandma could be weird sometimes.”
Her face took on an almost desperate expression.“She was a good person, though.I know it sounds bad, but she was.She was good to everyone who was good to her.”
Kate’s mind strayed to the embezzlement scandal, but they weren’t here to investigate Patricia Lowe, and she didn’t need the details of Lowe’s embezzlement to know that it counted as a transgression of the eighth commandment.She left to ask for a cruiser, and Marcus escorted the weeping young woman out of the house, taking care to give her grandmother’s body a wide berth.
Kate gave Slocum a hard look when she returned to the living room.“Why did you keep her here?”
“Press showed up minutes after we did,” Slocum muttered, his eyes on the ground.“Didn’t want to throw her to the wolves, and we thought if we took her out back, they’d figure out and find us.And if we take her to the station, then the press thinks she’s a suspect, and every news network in the city digs up rumors about Martha hating her grandmother or wanting her money or something.”
Kate frowned.Those were all good points.“Still, you could have taken her to another room.”
“Well…” He shifted his feet.“We wanted to see how she’d react.We wanted to make sure.”
“Make sure of what?”
“That she didn’t… you know.”
Kate gave him another hard look.“This murder matches the MO of seven different murders over the past two months, all of them committed by a known serial killer.”
“People copy serial killers,” Slocum replied.“Especially family members who sense an opportunity.We had to make sure.”
That was a good point too.Kate hated it, but it was.“She needs a ride home.”
“Miller.”
The big officer nodded at Slocum, then at Kate, then headed toward the back of the house.
Kate looked back at Patricia Lowe’s body.She wondered if Cox ever thought about the side effects of his “correction”.Did he consider the fact that peoplewouldcopy him?At least one woman had already murdered her husband and written the seventh commandment on the wall of their home in his blood after catching him cheating.Did he think about the innocent people harassed and suspected of his crimes?Did he even try to justify that, or did he just accept it as part of the price of bringing the world back in line with God’s commandments?
This needed to end.She needed to get him off the streets.For good.
Those last two words danced around the back of her mind.She didn’t let the thought solidify.That would only make things worse.She needed Cox off the streets, but she would do it the right way.If she lost sight of her moral center, then she would be giving Cox a moral victory he didn’t deserve.
You will not break me.I will not become your scapegoat.
She pulled her camera out and began taking pictures of the scene.Maybe this one would finally reveal the critical piece of information she needed to bring Cox to justice.She could always hope.
CHAPTER TWENTY
