by Mary Stone
“Detective Leavens is waiting for you,” the man said.
“What about the witnesses?” Noah posed the question before Levi could interject. Though Noah didn’t doubt the man’s professionalism, he wasn’t ready to test his luck quite yet.
The officer nodded. “Mariah Young is with her father in an interview room.”
Noah lifted an eyebrow. “I thought Tim Young was shot?”
“Left the hospital against medical advice. Shot in the shoulder.” The officer glanced to the hallway. “Head up to the second floor, then take a right. Go past the desks out in front, and Detective Leavens should be back there before you hit the interview rooms.”
Noah gave the man a quick nod of thanks before he and Levi took off toward the elevator.
They followed the officer’s instructions, and as promised, Doug Leavens and his partner, Grace Meyer, were seated on a wooden bench beside the entrance to a short hall.
“Detectives.” Noah extended a hand as he closed the distance. “I wish I could say it’s nice to see you, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
“I’m afraid not.” Detective Leavens stood to shake Noah’s hand before he turned to Levi. “I’m Detective Leavens, and this is my partner, Detective Meyer.”
With a stiff nod, Levi accepted the handshake. “Special Agent Brandt with the Victim Services Division. We’ve already heard a little about it, but could you two fill us in on what happened?”
Grace’s brown and green eyes flitted back and forth between Noah and Levi. “The Young family were the targets. I checked through my notes, and only two of them were at the Riverside Mall. Dana Young and her oldest daughter, Sadie Young.”
Noah’s mouth was suddenly devoid of moisture. Was that why there were two survivors?
Detective Leavens crossed his arms over his black suit jacket. “Sadie Young was stabbed to death three times in her bed, and Dana Young sustained a handful of stab wounds, one of which pierced through her left lung. She died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.”
Scrubbing one hand over his face, Noah clenched his jaw. Timothy and Mariah might have survived, but their lives had been irreparably damaged.
“Timothy Young was the only one who was shot,” Grace went on. “He was trying to shield his wife.”
Noah shifted in his seat. “Why did the killer leave, then?”
Grace tipped her head to the side, and Noah could hear her neck crack with the movement. “We aren’t sure. Tim Young had a sidearm stashed in a nightstand, and he was trying to get to it when he knocked a lamp to the floor.”
“Who called 911?” Levi asked.
“The younger daughter, Mariah. The perp barged into her room before he left, but she yelled at him and told him the cops were on their way. Then something crashed inside the house, the lamp we believe, and the man fled.”
Levi pursed his lips. “That doesn’t explain why he left the husband alive.”
Grace shook her head. “No, I know it doesn’t. My best guess right now is that he thought he had subdued Tim and he wanted to get out of the house after the noise of the gunshot.”
“Either that or he thought his work was finished.” Levi’s tone was as foreboding as the grim reaper himself.
Grace’s expression matched Levi’s grave statement. “Detective Leavens and I already went through the usual round of questions with Mr. Young. Between what the daughter witnessed and the physical evidence, we can confidently rule out the possibility that Mr. Young was involved in his wife’s murder.”
Before they had even left for Danville, Noah was sure that Tim Young was as much a victim as his wife and his daughters, but old investigative habits died hard.
“We were told that Mr. Young was injured,” Noah said. “Did he get a look at the killer?”
Shaking her head, Grace crossed both arms over her chest. “No. Well, yes and no. Mr. Young saw the killer, but the perp was wearing a mask that concealed the top half of his face.”
Noah gritted his teeth and nodded.
Detective Leavens cleared his throat. “We got Mr. Young’s statement when he was at the hospital, so you can feel free to go over it and see if there are any other questions you’d want to ask.”
“We appreciate it,” Levi said.
Grace gestured to the closed metal door beside the bench where she and Detective Leavens sat. “We told Tim and Mariah that you would be here to ask them some questions. They’re in the second interview room, just down this hall.”
Leavens buttoned his suit jacket. “We’ll be in the next room over, so you can let us know if you need anything.”
Levi offered the detective an appreciative nod. “Will do.”
The hinges of the old door groaned as Noah and Levi stepped into the dim hall. They passed room one, and Levi paused to straighten his black tie. Levi flashed him a questioning look, and Noah nodded.
When they stepped into the interview room, Noah had to fight to keep the surprise off his face. As soon as Levi’s foot touched the tiled floor, he was a different person. He was no longer the methodical, take no prisoners agent who had a reputation for his scathing reprimands and candid observations.
Two sets of honey-brown eyes snapped over to the doorway as Levi and Noah entered the interview room. Rather than the drab, imposing space Noah had expected, the room felt almost cozy. Against one wall, Timothy Young sat on a leather couch with his one good arm wrapped around the shoulders of his daughter.
The girl was a carbon copy of her father. Their eyes were the same shade of light brown, and their high cheekbones lent them each a regal air.
“Mr. Young, Mariah, I’m Special Agent Levi Brandt. I work with the Victim Services Division of the FBI. This is my partner for this case, Special Agent Noah Dalton.”
With a polite smile, Noah extended his hand to Tim Young. Tim nodded slightly as he accepted the handshake before wrapping the arm around his daughter again.
“We’re here to ask you a few questions to get a better idea of what happened.” Levi pulled a chair closer to the coffee table in front of Tim and Mariah, and he gestured for Noah to do the same.
Tim glanced to his daughter as he straightened in his seat. “We’ll do our best. We already answered a few questions for the Danville PD.”
Noah dropped down to sit at Levi’s side. “We’ll skip the usual questions about whether or not you know anyone who would want to do this.”
Levi’s eyes shifted from Tim to his daughter. “Mariah, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?”
Shadows moved along her throat as she swallowed. “Okay.” The word was hardly above a whisper.
“Let’s start with your day. Did you notice anything strange while you were at school?”
The girl shook her head.
Levi spread his hands. “Anything at all? Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal.”
She shook her head again. “No, there wasn’t anything weird at school.”
With a slight smile, Levi nodded. “Okay. What about after you got home?”
Glancing to her father, Mariah frowned with a look of concentration. “No, I-I don’t think so. Mom picked me and…” As she trailed off, the overhead light caught the tears that welled up in the corners of her eyes. “Me and Sadie. She picked up me and Sadie, and then we went home.”
Tim tightened his grasp on Mariah’s shoulders.
Noah had broken bad news to the families of many victims during his tenure in law enforcement, but the sight never got any easier. When Tim blinked against the glassiness in his eyes, Noah felt as if a phantom hand had clamped down around his throat.
Propping both elbows on his knees, Levi hunched forward in his seat. “Okay. What about when you got home? Could you tell me what happened after you guys got home?”
Slowly, Mariah nodded. “Mom made us some French toast because she said the bread was getting stale and she needed to use it. I was reading a book for one of my classes while we ate, but Mom and Sadie were talking about ma
th stuff.” Her eyes dropped to the floor as she sniffled.
“It’s okay. Take as long as you need.” When the girl glanced back up, Levi offered her a reassuring smile.
Dabbing at her nose with a tissue, Mariah nodded. “We did our homework after we ate, and Mom told us that Dad would be getting home a little late. I had to sweep the kitchen, and Sadie had to vacuum the rugs in the living room and the dining room.”
Noah wasn’t sure how the man did it, but Levi’s calm smile never wavered.
“My daughters have to do those same exact chores. My oldest, I don’t know what it is, but she loves to vacuum.” Levi’s eyes shifted to Tim as he shrugged. “We have a German shepherd and two cats, so I never argue when she wants to break out the vacuum cleaner. If it wasn’t for her, we’d be as furry as the animals.”
Through a sniffle, Mariah managed a wistful smile. “I hate vacuuming. That’s why Sadie always did it.”
“What about after your chores? What happened for the rest of the night?” Levi asked the questions with the same patient smile.
The look in Mariah’s eyes turned vacant as she fixed her gaze on the floor. Dabbing at her nose again, she shook her head. “Nothing, really. Before me and Sadie went to watch TV, there was some guy who came to the door, but I didn’t talk to him much. My mom did.”
As Tim patted Mariah’s shoulder, he nodded slightly. “Oh yeah. The salesman, that’s right.”
Noah leaned forward, every muscle tensing, although he tried not to let his excitement show. “Salesman? What type of salesman?”
Tim shrugged and glanced at his daughter. “I wasn’t home yet, but Dana…” His voice strangled on the word, and he cleared his throat with a loud cough. “My wife mentioned it to me while we were cooking dinner. Some security system salesman.”
Before the realization fully dawned on him, Noah had already known what Tim was going to say. Anger mixed with excitement at the prospects of a lead made his blood pump faster. “Do you remember the name of the company he worked for?”
As Tim nodded, his eyes met Noah’s. “She said he was from Anderson’s Alarms.”
Maintaining the same pleasant look as before, Noah raised his eyebrows at Levi. “Agent Brandt, could I have a quick word with you in the hallway?”
Curiosity flashed across Levi’s face as he nodded.
With a reassuring smile to Tim and Mariah, Noah held up a finger. “We’ll just be a second.”
By the time Noah and Levi stepped into the dim hall, Noah was ready to kick a wall or scream the rooftop off. Revelations and realizations were always accompanied by a fleeting high, the result of a flood of dopamine and norepinephrine.
The door latched closed with a metallic click. After glancing over his shoulder, Noah returned his attention to Levi.
Though mostly calm and patient, there was a distinct edge in Levi’s visage. The man knew that Noah wouldn’t have pulled him away from the two victims without a damn good reason.
Noah covered his mouth with one hand as he cleared his throat. “The security salesman. At two of the three previous murder scenes, the victims’ home security system was disabled.”
Levi took in a deep breath and scratched the side of his face. “You’re thinking that the killer might be an alarm technician?”
“If he isn’t now, then he might have been at some point in the past. Showing up at the victims’ doorstep pretending to be a home security salesman is one way to figure out whether or not the homeowners actually have a security system, and even what type it is. If they’ve got experience as a technician, then they use that knowledge to plan how to disable the system.”
With one hand on his hip, Levi rubbed his chin. “You’re right. It’s pretty unassuming. Most people think of a door to door salesman as more of a nuisance than a threat.”
Noah checked the time. “The bureau is holding a press conference about the murders in about four hours. I might want to add something about our home security salesman.”
“Tim said he wasn’t home yet, so the only people who would’ve seen the guy would be Mariah and her mother. Any idea how big Anderson’s Alarms is? Maybe we can see if Mariah recognizes any of the employees.”
Noah tapped at his phone. “They’ve got locations in Richmond and Norfolk. It’s a decent-sized operation, and my guess is that there are enough people who come and go in their business that we might miss our guy if we take that route. Plus, there’s no guarantee that the perp actually works for Anderson’s Alarms. He might have disguised himself as an employee just so he could ask his questions and leave.”
Levi nodded his understanding. “A sketch artist.”
Noah returned the nod. “Exactly. If we’ve got that to go on, then we can look through their employees ourselves. And, I’ll access the Young’s system myself. Maybe we’ll get lucky and catch the guy on some hidden camera.”
Levi briefly crossed his fingers. “You tackle the alarm system, and I’ll get Mariah set up with a sketch artist.”
20
Though Autumn made an effort to avoid national news on a regular basis, she still liked to keep up with the goings-on around the city. As long as she was home during the evening broadcast of the local news, she almost always flipped over to the station, at least for a minute or two.
Tonight, however, she and Winter had anxiously awaited the nine o’clock timeslot. The FBI and the Danville Police Department had teamed up for a press briefing that had been aired on Danville’s news station earlier that night. Due to a hazardous weather forecast and the fact that the FBI’s announcement wasn’t local to Richmond, the briefing hadn’t made the cut for the earlier broadcast.
With one more sip from her chai latte, Autumn settled back into her corner seat on the sectional couch that took up most of her living room. At the other end of the sofa, Winter scratched the head of the fat, orange cat curled up in her lap. Autumn’s little Pomeranian mix had taken up residence in the cat bed beside the entertainment stand—the cat hardly slept in it anyway.
Autumn stretched her legs to prop her feet on top of the stone surface of the coffee table. “Is Noah still thinking about getting a cat?”
As Winter nodded, she held up two fingers. “Two cats. He doesn’t want to get only one because he thinks it’ll get lonely since we work so much.”
Autumn smiled as Peach turned over onto her back, wanting a belly rub. “He’s not wrong. When I adopted Toad, I was at the shelter to find a friend for Peach. I wasn’t all that familiar with having a dog as a pet, but little Toad just looked so sad. I figured that since he was about the size of a cat, it should work out.”
Winter glanced to the sleeping pup. “They seem to get along pretty well, so I’d say it was a good choice.”
The orange cat opened her eyes slightly, almost as if she knew she was the topic of their conversation.
“Sometimes, I’ll catch them snuggling together, and then they’ll both run out of the room like they’re embarrassed that I caught them.”
Winter let out a half laugh, half snort. “I’m a little excited for Noah to adopt his cats. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned a pet, and sometimes I forget how comforting it can be. I figure him adopting a couple is the next best thing to me going out to adopt them myself.”
Before Autumn could voice her agreement or ask Winter what she and Noah planned for their future living arrangement, the evening news jingle drew their attention back to the television screen.
The newscaster, Rosa Carrero, nodded to the camera. “Hello, and welcome back to the Richmond nine o’clock news. As we mentioned earlier in our broadcast, we now have a story from our neighbors to the south in Danville. No doubt, we all remember the tragedy that took place earlier this year at the Riverside Mall.”
As Rosa folded her hands atop a stack of papers, Autumn glanced over to Winter. “So, it’s official? You think the killer is targeting the survivors of the shooting?”
Winter’s expression grew solemn. “After what happened to t
he Young family last night, there’s no way it’s all coincidence.”
With a nod, Autumn returned her attention to the broadcast.
The news anchor’s dark eyes were fixed on the camera. “We go now to the footage of a press briefing conducted earlier today by the Danville Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The scene cut away to a short stage, in front of which sat at least twenty members of the press. A man in a black police dress uniform stood behind a wooden podium. To one side of him was Noah and a federal agent that Autumn vaguely recalled. To his other side was a well-dressed man and woman, each of whom wore silver police badges around their necks.
“Thank you all for coming.” As the man at the podium glanced around the room, the glare from the overhead lights caught the two gold bars fastened to the lapel of his suit jacket, causing her to almost squint from the momentary glare. “As most of you know, I’m Captain Steven Polivick with the Danville Police Department.”
As the captain paused, a quiet murmur ran through the crowd.
Captain Polivick cleared his throat. “In the past few days, even just the past few hours, we’ve learned some troubling information about a series of seemingly pointless murders that have occurred in Danville over the past six months.”
Autumn settled her feet on the floor and straightened herself. Winter had given her a high-level overview of the case so far, but Autumn wanted to see how the press would react to the announcement that a serial killer was preying on survivors of a mass shooting. The crime spree was unprecedented—to this day, Autumn couldn’t recall a similar situation that had occurred elsewhere in the country.
“However, we now have more than adequate circumstantial evidence to tie these killings together. As of now, we do not have a suspect, but we intend to provide the public with the knowledge necessary to keep themselves and their families safe.”
The captain must have been nervous, but to his credit, he hid the sentiment well. However, Autumn was adept at reading people, and she knew anxiety when she saw it.