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That could have alerted someone with a grudge or an agenda. It could have allowed them to know where she would be and when. But who was this person, and was he directly linked to her?
Looking further, at last, she hoped she had found an answer. "I've found something in the records," she said, feeling glad that she'd managed to dig deep enough. "It shows here that she got a restraining order against someone about five years ago. That would have been before she even met her current husband, I guess? A chapter in her life that she closed and turned her back on?"
Only maybe he hadn’t wanted to close it,Cami thought, with a shiver.
"Let's investigate that lead," Connor decided. "A restraining order means there was trouble, for sure."
They headed back to the car. Cami was now moving deeper into the database, trying to get the historic details on this court order.
"Isn't five years too long to be connected with the murder?" she asked as she worked through her next set of searches.
"It depends. If he's tried to contact her since, then no, not necessarily. And if she's been advertising her new, happy life online, then also no. She could have been doing it deliberately, as a form of payback, and he finally cracked," Connor said.
"It was taken out against a man called Seth Armitage." Cami had the results she needed. "And it looks as if the reasons given were that he stalked her. I don't know if they ever dated, but it definitely looks like he was obsessed with her."
The thought chilled Cami. She knew that the next step would be to find if there was a link between Seth and Caroline Elder. Since they all lived in the same area, it was surely possible.
"He lives just a few miles away," Cami observed. "So, I guess he could have come into contact with Caroline, also."
"That's something we can ask him," Connor said. "What other information is there? Any place of work?"
"No listed place of work," Cami said.
Connor sighed. "Then I guess we go to his home address and start digging from there."
Quickly, Cami keyed the coordinates into the satnav, and Connor pulled off. Already, Cami saw that traffic was easing as evening turned to night.
"We’re definitely looking for someone who’s either linked to the victims or thinks he is, or even wants to be," he muttered as he sped away from the scene. "That meal on the stove. The alarm turned off. It's pointing to someone with familiarity and access that they shouldn't have."
Would it be this stalker? Cami felt nervous, but optimistic, as they headed to his address. As they drove, she soon realized that this was a very different part of town from the upmarket residential area that Shiree had lived in. Now, they were heading into a more rundown suburb, one where small, shabby homes and older looking apartment buildings competed for space. They passed a seedy-looking motel, a biker bar, and a few used car lots and motor spares places.
But it wasn’t a long drive. Seth wouldn’t have had to travel far if he was still obsessed with Shiree. He could easily have violated the terms of his restraining order.
Connor pulled up outside a small, single-story house sandwiched between a dilapidated apartment block and a vacant plot with grass growing wild.
"This is his place."
It looks far from appealing,Cami thought. And also, it doesn’t look as if there’s anyone home. The garage door was open, and the darkened space beyond was empty. The house was firmly locked up with a bolt and a chain on the outside of the door.
"He's not here, that's for sure," Connor said reluctantly.
With no listed place of work, Cami felt fearful that this could be a dead end. They didn't need that, not with such a strong lead so early in this case. It was vitally important to question Seth. There was a strong chance that he could be this killer.
But, with the streets and the house looking empty, what else could they do?
"We need to dig up more information on him," Connor said, clearly feeling as impatient as Cami was. "I'm not going to wait here for hours on the off-chance that he decides to come back. There must be a way of finding out where he is."
Cami went hunting. What could she find on Seth Armitage? There must be something, somewhere. At least he had an uncommon name.
She searched various databases and did intensive searches online, specifying his name and the Boston area. Nothing came up—or almost nothing. Here was a comment made on an online chat site. It looked random, but as she read through it, she realized that it wasn't. For sure, it was a clue.
"I've got something here that might help," she said to Connor.
"What's that?" He turned back to her. He'd been pacing around the open garage, clearly looking for anything that might help them learn more.
"He posted here on an online chat site. He was complaining about speed ticketing. He got two fines in three days. But this is interesting. He said, ‘You'd think that riding a motorbike, you could speed ahead of a car if it means keeping yourself safe, and the cops would understand. But they don’t care.’”
"So, he's a biker?"
