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“He’s a baseball player?” Laura asked. It wasn’t that obvious of a question. There could be any reason for a man to be dressed like that, and for it to have nothing to do with baseball. It could have been a dress-up party, like Halloween or something. He might have been wearing it for a dare. For a special event. Maybe a one-off game that he never played again.
“Local minor league,” Ross said. He frowned up at Laura like he was seeing her for the first time and starting to wonder why she was there. “Why?”
Laura bit her tongue. Now wasn’t the time. You didn’t go around spouting suspicions to the families of victims. Not if you didn’t want them to go off the handle and attempt some sort of vigilante justice before you had the chance to stop them and get the real answers. Nate was giving her an odd, questioning look, but she ignored that, too.
“I’m just curious,” she said. “Were they in contact often? Spending a lot of time together?”
“Not a lot,” Ross shrugged. “Mostly we’d hang out as part of a larger group. Over the years, I guess we started having less time for that kind of thing.”
“Did you ever get the impression there were lingering feelings on Brad’s side?”
Ross blinked slowly at her. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t… why are you asking this?”
Laura took him in, how he was pale and swaying slightly, like it was a struggle just to keep his head up. He wasn’t suspicious. He was confused. He was finding all this hard to take, and she couldn’t blame him for that. She changed tack, trying to squeeze a little more out of him before he shut down completely. “Let’s move on from that. So, there’s nothing you can think of that might tell us why Stephanie was targeted in this way?”
Ross closed his eyes, shook his head slowly from side to side. Like it was all too much to bear.
Laura glanced at Nate again, concern starting to override her need for answers. Ross was clearly broken. There should have been a local officer here to support him, but perhaps he’d turned it down. He was a long way down a dark path, and they weren’t helping him by asking him these questions. If it had seemed like he wasn’t hearing them, or wasn’t thinking hard enough, Laura would have wavered. But as it was, it seemed as though he just couldn’t think of anything that would make this happen to his wife.
And he looked like he’d spent the past couple of days trying to.
“Thank you, Mr. Marchall,” Laura said, as Nate got to his feet again beside her. It was almost unnerving, going from being the tallest person in the room to having him tower over her again. “We’ll be in touch if we have any news for you. In the meantime, please call us if anything comes to mind.”
Ross nodded numbly, and Laura wondered if her words had made their way inside his head at all, this time.
Laura exchanged a glance with Nate one last time, a hesitant look that showed her they were on the same page. It felt bad, leaving him here alone. But they had to. Their job was to catch the killer, not to look after the families of the victims. As much as he needed someone, it couldn’t be them. A call to the precinct could maybe get someone out here, someone who was better placed to help him out.
They left, with a reluctant slowness, just in case he would call them back at the last minute.
Outside, Laura sighed, rolling her shoulders back. The overcast sky seemed to match the mood, as did the cold air. Still, it was bright winter daylight, which seemed not to fit. It should have been the dead of night, judging how it felt inside that house.
“We should call someone to come down here,” Nate said, echoing her own thoughts. Trust him to show that he, too, could empathize deeply with t
hese people. Could spot the worrying signs and actually care that they were dealt with.
“Yeah,” Laura said, digging out her cell. “You drive. I’ll call Blackford from the car.”
They sank into their respective seats, though Nate did not start the engine right away. He rested with his hands on the wheel, his back braced, and for a moment Laura thought he was going to say something.
Given their most recent conversation – the one at his home – Laura had a sudden and strong feeling that she didn’t want to hear what it was. She dialed the number quickly, pressing the phone to her ear so that Nate couldn’t interrupt.
“Yeah?”
That was Blackford, surly and short. At least he’d answered.
“Couple of things,” Laura said. “We’re going to need someone with trauma training over here at the Marchall house, keep an eye on the husband. Second, I need you to look up a name for me.”
“What is it?” Blackford grunted, with a considerable air that suggested she could have asked a more junior member of the team than the Captain.
“Brad Milford,” Laura said. “I wondered if you have any information on him in the system.”
“Oh, you’re looking up the boyfriend?” Blackford said. “We already checked him out.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” Laura corrected, her heart sinking all the same. That was one viable lead gone.
“Where’d that intel come from?” Blackford asked. “We have him down as current from all the family members. Even him.”
Something began to dawn on Laura. Something she maybe should have seen right away but hadn’t. “Whose boyfriend?” she said.
