Page 73 of The Last Close Call

He turned to his wife, and they exchanged a few muffled words. Then he turned to Jack and Bryan with sharp look.

“Keep this quick, all right? She’s had enough.”

He brushed past them, and the other detective followed him into the kitchen.

“Maura, these are the investigators from Austin I told you about, Detective Bruner and Detective Hunt.”

“Thanks for making time for us,” Jack said. “We understand it’s been a long night.”

She nodded, watching them warily. “You can sit down.”

Jack took the ottoman near the door, and Bryan sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Heidi, directly across from Maura Mooney. He smiled and nodded, taking care not to encroach on her physical space as he mentally reviewed what he knew about her. Maura Catherine Mooney, thirty-one. She was a paralegal at a San Antonio law firm, and her husband was a sales rep for a local pharmaceutical company. Heidi had given Jack the basics over the phone during their drive down here.

“Like I mentioned,” Heidi said, “these detectives are investigating a similar crime in Austin, and they just wanted to get your take on what happened. I filled them in on the basics already.”

Maura pulled a green throw pillow into her lap and nodded. “All right.”

Jack gave her his relaxed forget I’m a cop smile. “Sometimes it’s easier for us to get details from a conversation instead of a report.”

She nodded again. “Sure, okay. You want me to just—”

“Why don’t you start with the garage door?” Heidi suggested.

Maura took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay, well... it was broken. It’s been broken. For the last few days, my remote hasn’t worked, and I’d been meaning to get a new battery. It takes those specialty ones, and I don’t have any around. Anyway, I got home from the store after work—”

“Do you remember what time that was?” Bryan asked.

“Yeah, around seven thirty,” she replied. “I had to stay late because my boss wanted me to help with something. Anyway, I noticed the door was up a couple of inches off the ground, and I thought I’d closed it all the way when I left this morning. But I didn’t think much of it. So I just grabbed my groceries off the seat and went into the house.”

“Which door did you use?” Jack asked.

“The front. I parked in the driveway, because I didn’t want to get out and open the garage manually when I had all the bags to deal with, so I just got my stuff and went inside and made dinner.”

Bryan took a spiral notebook from his pocket and caught Maura’s eye. “Do you mind if I take a few notes?”

“Go ahead.”

“Did you do anything before dinner?” Jack asked.

“No. I just got the soup going. Jason had texted me earlier to say he had dinner in the airport before his flight, and I didn’t really want to cook anything elaborate, so I just opened a can.”

“Sorry, okay if we back up?” Heidi asked. “Did you say you went into the bedroom when you first got home?”

“Oh. Yeah, right.” She pulled the pillow closer to her body. “I went in and changed clothes. I put on yoga pants and a T-shirt.”

At the moment, she was wearing jeans and a turtleneck sweater.

She took a deep breath. “I ate in here with the TV on,” she said. “I watched a little of the Spurs game. Then I—” She stopped abruptly and looked down. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Heidi said. “Take all the time you need.”

Another deep breath. “I went to take a shower. Jason was coming home, and I haven’t seen him in three days. I was in there awhile, shaving and whatever. Then I turned off the shower, and that’s when I thought I heard something. A noise.”

“While you were still in the shower?” Jack asked.

“Yes. But, again, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“What was the noise like?” Bryan asked.

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