Trane went over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as Lucas stepped awkwardly inside the door and closed it behind him.
—
When Virgil showedup twenty minutes later, they were all sitting in the overcooked living room. Grandfelt had a roll of toilet paper sitting on the couch beside her, and she was using pads of the tissue to blot her eyes during sporadic episodes of weeping.
Virgil was also good at notifications, and touched Grandfelt’s shoulders as Trane had, muttering comforting cop cliches as he did it.
They listened to her talk about Wise for the best part of an hour, but then Grandfelt asked the question that was most obvious to the three cops: why now and why Wise?
They all agreed that Wise was murdered because she resembled Grandfelt and was driving Grandfelt’s car. Several things fell out of that assumption.
The killer had access to a database that gave him Grandfelt’s address and the makes and models of her cars. One place that was all available was the DVS. The database wasn’t open to the public, but entry was easy for anyone who had the right passwords.
“A lot of people do. Mostly cops and public employees, and I suspect quite a few media people and politicians, so there’s that,” Virgil said.
Grandfelt: “What if they know me, and have been here in this house and have seen my cars?”
“That’s not likely,” Trane said. “Marcia closely resembled you. But if they’d actually met either of you face-to-face, they wouldn’t have attacked her. We know she’d already gone into Whole Foods because of the grocery bag in the car. That means whoever was watching her saw her in good light…and they attacked her anyway. That suggests that they really didn’t know you, but were acting on the basis of your address and automobile and the resemblance. They staked out your house and followed the Jaguar.”
“Sounds a little like a cop,” Lucas said. “Access to the DVS and he could follow her without giving himself away.”
“We’re pulling video from every camera we can find around the store, that may kick out something,” Trane said. “We don’t yet know exactly how the killer approached the car.”
“He’d have to have a car of his own to follow her,” Lucas said. “Maybe there were witnesses at the store who saw the killer or his car…”
“Maybe,” Trane said. “I wouldn’t bet my life on it. It was dark and we have no idea of what car we’re looking for, or who might have seen it.”
“If we’re looking for a motive, I’d say the killer was attempting tocomplicate the whole reward situation,” Virgil said. “If he’d killed you…” He looked at Grandfelt. “…I would think that the reward offer would be up in the air. Especially if your heirs challenged it.”
“My heirs are my parents and a few nonprofits,” Grandfelt said. “My folks want to find Doris’s killer as much as I do.”
“Still…”
“That’s a good point, Virgie,” Trane said. “I would be surprised if that wasn’t a motive.”
“What are the chances that it was a random killing?” Grandfelt asked.
“About zero,” Trane said. “Her purse is under the car, she was hit a bunch of times, not just once. Whoever did it was there to kill her, not rob her.”
Lucas said to Grandfelt, “I spent some time talking to Chief Trane at the scene, and to Virgil, and we’ve sort of agreed that we did something during this true crime situation, the reward thing, that stirred up the killer. We’re a threat to him. We suspect that we’ve posted photos of him…”
“I saw those,” Grandfelt said. “They didn’t mean anything to me.”
“We’re hoping they mean something to somebody, and we get a call,” Lucas said. “Because we think they mean something to the killer. We need to figure out what that is.”
“I plan to lobby all the TV stations, get the photos on every news program and keep them up,” Trane said. “If the killer is worried about the photos, that means he’s worried that somebody might recognize him.”
Grandfelt: “I can call the major stations. I could buy ads showing the photos and talking about the reward.”
“That might help, but it would be expensive,” Trane said. “If youdo it, you should press for some extra news time, to go with the paid time.”
“I could do that,” Grandfelt said. “I’m already in this for five million dollars…”
—
They all lookedat each other: they were finished here. Then Grandfelt suddenly began weeping again, blotting her eyes with the toilet tissue, and Trane said to Lucas and Virgil, “I’ll hang around here for a while. I’ll stick a couple of cops out front overnight.”
Virgil and Lucas stood up, and Virgil said to Grandfelt, “We’re so sorry about your friend,” which sounded stupid when said out loud, but Lucas nodded: that was all they had.
