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Janet shook her head again. “No, not really. She had a hard job, and there were worse days than others, but nothing very recent.” She met Faith’s eyes and Faith could see that hers were bloodshot and puffy from more tears than simply the ones she was shedding today. Faith felt a pang of guilt at her earlier judgmental thoughts. Whatever her faults, this woman was grieving her sister, and it was Faith’s job to find the person responsible and bring him to justice.
“We’ll find the person who hurt your sister,” Faith said. “I promise.”
Michael glanced at Faith, then turned back to Janet. “Did your sister ever mention a Marvin Prescott?”
Janet looked up at him. “No. No, she didn’t. Is he… is that your suspect?”
Faith and Michael shared another glance. “No, ma’am,” Michael said. “He’s connected to the case, but he’s not a suspect.”
“Is he another victim?” Janet asked. “Was my sister the victim of a serial killer?”
“We’re not sure,” Faith said, which was the truth but only on a technicality. “We believe his death might be related to your sister’s death, but at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the two except that they were both medical professionals.”
“Did Marvin Prescott work at the hospital?” Janet asked.
“No, he was a paramedic,” Michael said. “He worked for the fire department.”
Faith watched Janet’s face carefully, but no lightbulbs went off. She simply nodded and said, “Well, I don’t recognize the name, but if I think of anything, I’ll give you a call.”
Faith recognized the subtle hint that the interview was over, and a moment later, she understood why when the front door opened and three children—all high school age—walked inside, followed by an average-looking man with thinning hair and glasses—Mr. Quigley, Faith presumed.
The two agents stood, and Janet introduced them as police detectives. Faith decided not to correct her. They said their goodbyes and left their card, then left the family to their grief.
On the way to Marvin Prescott’s house, Michael asked, “What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Do you think Janet’s telling the truth that she doesn’t know anything?”
“I think so,” Faith said. “Why, did you feel differently?”
Michael shrugged. “She seemed honest enough, but her answers were very generic.”
“To be fair,” Faith pointed out, “our questions were very generic.”
“Fair enough,” Michael admitted, “but she didn’t seem to know much about her sister’s life at all. It just seems unusual.”
“How much could you tell me about your sister’s day-to-day life?” Faith asked.
“All right, all right,” Michael said, lifting his hand. “Fair enough. I just wish we could find something useful.”
“It’s still early, Michael,” Faith reminded him. “We never learn something useful on the first day. Nothing we would recognize as useful, anyway.”
“I know,” Michael said. “I just wish that one of these cases would work out differently.”
“I get that,” Faith said.
Marvin, or rather his wife, Julia, lived on the other side of Houston in Sugar Land. With traffic, it took over an hour for them to reach her. They arrived just around dinner time, but Faith suspected that Julia wouldn’t be cooking right now.
She was right. Julia answered the door in a T-shirt and sweatpants that Faith suspected she hadn’t changed since yesterday. She regarded the agents with tired, vacant eyes that were if anything even more bloodshot and puffy than Janet Quigley’s. She invited the agents inside and offered them coffee, which they declined.
“We’ll have to keep it quiet,” she said emotionlessly. “I just got Harper to sleep.”
“Harper’s your son?” Michael asked.
“Daughter.” She took a seat across from the two special agents and tears welled in her eyes. “She keeps asking for her daddy. I don’t know what to tell her. I just keep telling her that he’s at work. How am I going to tell her that her daddy’s dead?”
She pressed her fingers to her eyes and Turk walked over and laid his head in her lap. Julia stroked behind his ears with her other hand and spent a minute or so composing herself before looking up at the two agents. She took a deep breath and said, “You want to know if I know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Marvin.”
