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“No. I mow it,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose that said it wasn’t a task she enjoyed.
“Have you had anyone in to work on your house since you moved in?”
“The inspector and real estate agents when I was purchasing, but no one since. It needs a lot of work, but I don’t like having strangers in my house. It never seems like a good idea for people to know I live alone,” she added with a shrug.
That was true.
The vast majority of break-ins we’d had in the area over the years came from people that homeowners invited in. Handymen, people who worked for the electricians or HVAC companies. And because they were in the houses, they knew who lived alone or who was old and unable to fight them off if it came to an altercation, who had dogs or a security system.
Film and TV made crime seem a lot more detached than it typically was. Most rapes are perpetrated by spouses, friends, or family members. Most robberies are from friends-of-friends or people who’ve done service at your house previously. Most murders are domestic or from an acquaintance.
It was rarely the stranger in the hoodie on the street that we had to worry about; it was usually the people we allowed into our lives.
“What about ride-hailing?” I asked.
We’d scoured Ashley and Madison’s phones and apps. They both used ride-hailing services on occasion, but not often.
“Not until this morning,” she admitted. “And I only used women. I haven’t been able to get my car yet. The news…”
“Yeah, it’s a circus,” I agreed. Our chief was going to have to give a statement once it was crafted for him. None of us were looking forward to the scrutiny we were about to be under by the news and the city as a whole.
And, lord knew, people were going to want to talk to Mari. Hear her firsthand account of the events.
“I can’t demand you don’t, but I would prefer it if you didn’t speak to the press,” I told her.
“I have no interest in speaking to them,” she said, making me relax slightly. “The last thing this guy needs, if he is still alive, is more notoriety.”
“On that, we are definitely on the same page. Okay. So no ride-hailing. What about… food delivery or grocery delivery? Do you do that often?”
“I… yes,” she admitted, seeming only to sense the potential for danger there after I brought it up. Which I got. I mean, it seemed very detached the way people drove to your house and dropped off your stuff outside, no contact at all.
But guys had stalked to get less insight into people’s lives.
This way, they knew a lot about you. What foods you liked, what products you used, hell, even when you were on your period or not.
There was a wealth of knowledge to be gathered by doing a job like that.
Both Madison and Ashley had been avid orderers of their groceries. Madison, because she seemed to avoid the public as much as possible. And Ashley, because she didn’t have a lot of time, and liked to save it where she could, according to her friends.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t always an easy way to track that sort of thing. Sometimes the jobs were contracted out to other companies, other times the logs weren’t great about who went where and when.
But I was going to look into it regardless.
I jotted down Mari’s details about what stores and restaurants she ordered from the most, and asked to be able to go through her phone to see if the drivers were listed or not.
For some orders, they were.
Others, no luck.
“If there’s anything else you want to look through,” Mari said, waving at her phone. “I have nothing to hide.”
It felt invasive going through her phone with her sitting right there. But as it would turn out, there wasn’t much to see. Not many calls or texts. She had a shitton of screenshots. Most of them about books or podcasts she wanted to remember to watch.
“I don’t think there’s anything else I need to see on here,” I told her, passing it back. “But don’t delete anything for a while. Just in case.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Have you guys come to any conclusions on if he is going to try to come back for me?” she asked after a long pause.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to speak to our profiler,” I told her. “I want him to update it now that we have a survivor. As soon as I do, I will let you know what he has to say. Are you worried about going home?” I asked.
