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  Once they had arrived and were situated, they went in to see Captain Wells. Kacey could see him sitting at his desk, eyebrows furrowed, reading through some files. She quickly rapped a couple of times on the door, and when he took his reading glasses off and motioned at them to come in, she entered his office. The Captain gestured towards the two chairs across from his desk and leaned back in his chair.

  “So, Detectives, I have a little info for you on our two victims. Let’s start with Alice Benning.” The Captain glanced down at his desk and opened a file.

  “She was 40 years old and a Senior Manager at Fabre Equities … the youngest ever, I was told. She ran a very successful fashion blog that was making her fairly well known in that community … something about fashion for everyday women. Her social life was pretty non-existent, but she had several friends. I have a list from her phone for you to follow up on. Apparently, this was her first date in a long time, but she was very tight lipped about it. Maybe her friends could shed more light on that. She was divorced in her 20s with no children, so I would imagine that’s irrelevant to your case, but keep it in mind.

  “Connie Forsythe was 42 and a successful real estate broker. Unlike Alice, she had a very active social life, somewhat due to her job. Her phone showed multiple social events and lots of friends. Again, I emailed a list for you to follow up on, and everything we have so far from the crime scene. There was DNA on the bottle you found in the trash, and the blood from the entryway and it’s being processed. These two women obviously have something in common. Find out what it is and go see Dr. Forrester later in the day. Hopefully he will have something by then.”

  The Captain waved them out and put his reading glasses back on, continuing to peruse the files.

  Mike followed Kacey down the hallway to the conference room they had claimed as their evidence room.

  The detectives sat down and Mike began to print off everything the Captain had forwarded to them, while Kacey powered up her computer and pulled up Facebook to see if she could get a read on what Alice and Connie had in common. They had worked so many cases by now that they didn’t even have to discuss how they would divvy up tasks. Mike went to get the printouts while Kacey worked.

  Neither of their victims seemed to care about privacy. Both of them, probably because of their occupations, had it all out there for the world to see. Alice was definitely a bookworm, while Connie was a social butterfly. They both had hundreds of “friends” and seemed to love selfies. Alice loved to travel while Connie loved to hit all of the hot spots around the Metro Area with her many “actual friends” and had lots of pictures of her nieces and nephews. At first glance, the only thing they seemed to have in common was their age.

  When Mike's emails were finished printing, he went back to the conference room to spread out. Mike began pinning crime scene photos to the board and Kacey began sorting what little evidence they had in some semblance of order. She grabbed the cell phone list from the stack of prints and began calling the contacts on Alice’s phone while Mike tackled Connie’s. By now most people would’ve heard of the murders from the local news stations, so they wouldn’t have to explain that, at least. Most of Alice’s contacts were business related, so they had nothing to offer. Finally, Kacey narrowed it down to the few friends who actually seemed to know the two women. She jotted those down in her notebook to call later to make appointments with her or to just drop in.. When Mike was done with his calls, there were significantly more friends on Connie’s side of the table than on Alice’s. Both women, however, were well loved and would be missed greatly.

  Mike stood up and stretched.

  “So, partner and little partner … lunch?” Mike knew that by now Kacey would be getting ‘hangry’.

  “How about doggy duty, then lunch.” Kacey countered. “Thor probably could use a potty break and some play time. Maybe by then Dr. Forrester will have something for us. He's back from his conference."

  Mike smiled and grabbed his keys. “I’ll drive.”

  The drive to Kacey’s house only took a couple of minutes. Kacey got out to go let Thor out with Mike right behind her.

  “You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to.”

  “You kidding? I have to see my god dog.”

  When they arrived at Kacey’s house, she let them in the side door and when they walked into the living room, Thor looked at them with sleepy eyes. When he recognized them, his tail beat a quick rhythm against the side of the crate. When Kacey opened the door and Thor stumbled out, the puppy began wagging his tail so hard that it twisted his body in such a way that his tail was whacking him in the face. Kacey laughed when he scrunched up his face to avoid getting hit in the eyes.

  “He’s even cuter than yesterday!” Mike grabbed him up and carried him outside, as Kacey chuckled at him.

  “If Jack’s off today, call her to meet us for lunch.” Kacey suggested.

  “She is and I will.” Mike reached for his phone and while Kacey used the bathroom he called Jaqueline. She readily agreed and said she would meet them at the diner. After she hung up, Mike took a selfie with Thor and sent it with the comment ‘you need one of these’.

  Chapter 15

  The Professor was bored. Alice had been so beautiful and he remembered how glorious it had felt when his knife had so elegantly sliced over her neck. He shivered with delight as he remembered. Connie was not as glorious. She had forced his hand and it felt more primitive. When he reflected on it, it didn’t bring him the joy that he had felt with Alice. It made him angry.

  He absentmindedly stroked the strands of hair he had collected as his prize. A small bunch of blond tied secured with a tiny yellow band, and a small bunch of brunette tied with a tiny brown band.

  He needed to try again. Once you have the perfect experience, it’s hard to go back. He scrolled through the eligible women, just ripe for the picking. Maybe this time, a redhead. He stopped scrolling. She was perfect! She described herself as a petite redhead with freckles. ‘Sounds cute.’ He opened up a chat with her.

  Chapter 16

  Kacey and Mike beat Jack to the 'Cafe' by only a few minutes. She slid in beside Mike and they all ordered.

  “Could we please get a large order of fried pickles to share?” Kacey asked, looking up from her menu.

  As the waitress walked away, she looked up to ask Jack how she’d been, she noticed that they seemed to be laughing at her.

  “Large order?” Mike said with a grin.

  “Shut it, Parker … baby Yates wants them.”

  “My bad.”

  Kacey decided not to comment after Mike ate at least half of them. Jack wasn’t as restrained.

  “Geez, Parker … you pregnant too?”

  Mike just laughed.

  Lunch was spent catching up and with Kacey telling them all about her cruise. Jack was especially amused at the snorkeling photos.

  After they walked out, absolutely stuffed, Jack went on to finish out her plans for the day while Mike and Kacey went back to work. Mike called Dr. Forrester to see if he was ready to see them. Since he wouldn’t be done processing until tomorrow morning, they decided that they would go on home for a bit, deciding to meet back at the station at 5:00 to find people to interview. The hope was that by then, the people they needed to talk to would be home from work.

  Kacey and Mike organized their notes and left for home. Mike to feed Mika, his rescue cat and Kacey to hang out with Thor. As they walked out to their respective cars, they decided Kacey would pick Mike up and he could navigate. Kacey still wasn’t feeling like she could safely navigate riding and reading without getting sick.

  A couple of hours later, Kacey put Thor in his crate and fastened it behind him.

  “You be a good puppy … Mommy will be back soon.” She blew him a kiss and left to go pick up Mike.

  First on their list was Alice’s friend, Donna Sanis. As Kacey pulled up to Donna’s apartment, she noticed the flicker of several curtains as Donna’s neighbors closely watch
ed them make their way up the sidewalk.

  “At least Donna has a great security detail.” Mike said as he rang the bell which gave a pleasant chime. Kacey gave her a few seconds to get to the door and smiled so that Donna could see her. She put her badge up to the peephole in the door, realizing that Donna would probably be too petrified to open the door to a stranger after what she had seen.

  The door slowly opened and Donna greeted them by name and gestured them inside. She was in a bathrobe and her makeup was smeared all over her face. It looked like she hadn’t showered yet today and her eyes were red rimmed with dark circles beneath. Kacey was genuinely shocked at the young woman’s haggard appearance.

  “Are you OK?” Kacey gently asked her as the woman led them into the dining room.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever be OK.” She answered. “Would you both like some coffee? I just made a fresh pot.”

  “That would be great, thanks.” Mike replied. “Actually, you sit down, I’ll get it.”

  He went to the bar cart that held the coffee pot, several mugs, creamer and sugar. He asked Donna how she liked hers ... black. Then he made his and Kacey’s and walked them over to the dining room table.

  Donna sat stirring her black coffee absentmindedly. Kacey shot a worried glance at Mike and gently removed the spoon from the woman’s hand.

  “I am so sorry you are going through this. It’s hard to bear, I know. Are you talking to anyone about it?”

  “My boyfriend. He’s working tonight, but he has been my rock. It just hit me, again, right before you arrived that I would never see Alice again.” Donna choked back a sob. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize.” Mike said, gently.

  “Donna, if you feel up to it, we would like to ask you a few questions about Alice. Would that be OK?” Kacey began.

  The woman sniffed and nodded. Mike pulled his notebook and pencil out.

  “How long have you known Alice?”

  “Most of my life. We met in grade school, but didn’t become friends until middle school. We’ve been best friends for years.”

  “I have a video to show you and I need you to tell me if anything about this man looks familiar to you.”

  Kacey pulled her phone out and pulled the video feed up, and then handed her phone to Donna. She pushed play and watched the video without a word. She hit the replay icon and watched it again.

  “Is this the man who killed her?”

  “We aren’t positive, but we think so.” Mike answered her. “Do you know him?”

  “No. Nothing about him is familiar at all. I wish I could look at him and name him so you could put him away forever or, better yet, let him fry.” Donna collapsed in sobs as Kacey got up and went around the table to comfort her.

  “I’m so sorry, Donna.”

  It took a while, but finally Donna had calmed down enough for them to feel comfortable leaving her. Kacey wasn’t sure she had ever seen a more distraught woman.

  “So, I guess it was too much to hope for that Donna would know exactly who the man on the video was.” Mike said wryly.

  “Yeah, but we never expect it to be that easy. Tomorrow we need to see what they got off of her computer and see if we can figure out what Alice was up to and who she was seeing.”

  “We can also go to their workplaces and see if we can get a better read on their professional and personal lives. Maybe Dr. Forrester will be ready for us by then.” Mike waggled his eyebrows at her.

  “Knock it off, Mike.” Kacey would never admit her fascination with the good doctor.

  “Our visit with Donna took longer than expected, but let’s fit in one of these contacts from Connie’s phone.

  "While we were in there, Todd texted me that he found the owner of the 'makeamatch' domain. We can contact him in the morning. It's just a business number so they are probably out of the office.

  Kacey whipped her car around, making a blatant U-turn. She was very satisfied when Mike grunted as his head banged against the top of the window frame. Thirty minutes later they pulled into the front of the house of the most called person on Connie’s phone. The man was sitting on his front porch swing reading a John Grisham novel. He looked up when he heard the car doors slamming shut.

  The detectives walked up to him and showed them their badges. Kacey filing away the image of his colorful potted plants and cheerfully painted patio furniture for later.

  “Evening. I’m Detective Parker and this is Detective Yates. We would like to ask you a few questions about Connie Forsythe.”

  “Of course. Please sit down.” The man gestured to two very comfortable looking patio chairs, putting a bookmark in the book to save his spot.

  “Mr. North, how did you know Connie?” Mike began as Kacey pulled her notebook and pencil out.

  “Please, call me David. She sold me my first house, we had an immediate connection, because it was her first sale. We had so much fun during that whole process and have been friends ever since. Why?”

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you, but Connie was killed three days ago. That’s about all we know at this time. You were one of the people she contacted the most on her phone.” Kacey was as gentle as possible as she told him.

  “I can’t believe it. Connie was such a kind person. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He leaned forward, putting his face in his hands. He looked up as Kacey spoke.

  “David, do you know what plans she might’ve had the night she was killed?”

  “As far as her plans … not a clue, unless it was maybe a date. I do know that she had been interested in dating someone serious, but everyone she met was either too immature, too old, or already committed. She was very frustrated and had been considering a dating website.”

  Mike and Kacey sat up a little straighter at this tidbit of information.

  “Do you know if she followed through with that?” Kacey asked tentatively.

  “I don’t think she would tell me until after the fact. She was a pretty private person even though she was crazy active socially. Even then, she would probably only tell me if she had made a love connection or if something hilarious had happened.”

  “Did she happen to mention a particular website?” Kacey said as a follow up.

  “No. But there are so many, aren’t there. I’m glad I enjoy my single life so much. It would be hard to meet anyone these days.”

  Kacey and Mike asked several more questions but didn’t receive any more insight. Finally, they said their farewells and handed David their business cards with instruction to call either of them if he thought there was something they should know.

  “I’m calling it a day.” Kacey said as they wearily walked to the car. “Thor is probably leaning against his kennel with his little legs crossed by now.. and I’m exhausted. Any plans this weekend?"

  “Jack and I are going to go see her and Tom this weekend. He’s in town and we might catch a movie or something. I just think their lives are about him traveling all of the time and her holding down the fort. Seems to be working so far.”

  “Good. Maybe then you can stop worrying about her.”

  “Yeah, it was probably nothing, anyway. Just my overactive brother imagination kicking in. When you see them together, you can tell that they genuinely love each other."

  “Well good.”

  Kacey dropped Mike off at the station and went on home to take care of her puppy.

  Chapter 17

  Detective John Denard walked into his house after a very long day. As he got closer to the kitchen he smelled something burning. He made his way over to the stove and turned the burner off. It looked like his wife had started to boil water and gotten distracted. He smiled and shook his head.

  “Marsha?” He called as he hung up his coat in the hall closet. No answer.

  He loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt as he walked into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of Marsha’s famous sweet tea. He leaned back against the counter, took a sip and closed his eyes, sighing wit
h pleasure, feeling himself relax.

  ‘Where was Marsha?’ He wondered.

  He pushed himself off of the counter and walked towards the back of the house. She was probably reading in the family room. That woman loved a good book, and this wasn’t the first time dinner had been ruined because she had become so wrapped up in a story. He just loved the way the space between her eyes crinkled when she was immersed in a good book.

  ‘We might be ordering pizza tonight.’ He thought with a smile.

  He rounded the corner into the family room and stopped dead in his tracks in shock and horror.