Page 91 of Mia Amata

Ron shrugged, “It could be. We will look into it.”

“Detective? Ron,” Jacob asked, “Can you tell me what happened? I just don’t understand.”

Ron nodded. “I can tell you what we know right now. It appears that this man entered through the basement doors. He snuck up the stairs, but I think your dog heard him. Mattie must have either heard the guy or heard Lucky get up and growl. They walked out of the bedroom and probably saw the man standing in the dining area.”

“Somehow, probably by pointing the gun at her, he got her to walk toward him. We are not exactly sure what happened first, if he shot her first, or if Lucky attacked first, but the gun must have flown out of his hand. The man’s hand was almost torn off, Lucky had a hold of him and apparently wouldn’t let go, until he saw an opening and went for the man’s throat. Mattie was able to get to the gun. The man stabbed Lucky, which made Lucky let go, and then Mattie shot him in the head, killing him instantly. He fell, landing on her legs.”

“Truthfully, had Mattie not finished him with a bullet, he probably would have died from his throat wounds. Lucky did a hell of a job on him. We hope to learn more after the doctor’s reports are done, it should tell us in what order things happened when we learn more about Mattie’s injuries.” Jacob looked at his family, they all seemed to be in shock.

“There are a couple of other things that we discovered,” Ron said, opening his notebook. “First off, we realized that the no one was able to use their cell phones in your house. Upon a search, we found three devices that blocked cell phone services hidden, one under the desk in the basement, one behind the TV in the living room, and the third behind the headboard of the bed in the master.”

“What?” Jacob said. “That means he had to be in our house at some point in the past. How could that be.”

Ron shook his head, “We will know more when we find out who he is, I hope. Have you had any repairmen or delivery men come to the house in the last several months?”

Jacob shook his head, “No, Josh and I take care of all repairs that would need to be done. No delivery men at all.” Ron made note of that.

Donald asked, “You said a couple of things, what else did you find.”

Ron hesitated, then said, “It appears that this man intended to kidnap Mattie.”

“What?” Jacob cried, “Why?”

Ron shook his head, “We don’t know. Outside the basement door was a homemade sled. Inside the door, he left his snow boots, parka, and gloves. We found a backpack near the basement door. It was filled with rope, duct tape, a couple rags, needles, and a couple of vials of some drug. We have sent that in to be analyzed. Can you think of anyone that would want to harm Mattie?”

Jacob shook his head, “She did move here because of a bad relationship, but he ended it with her. He was married and had never told her that.”

“Do you know his name?” Ron asked.

“No, she never said, and I never asked. It wasn’t important to me; I didn’t need or want to know the details.”

Ron nodded. “OK, I’ll look into that. You mentioned that Lucky followed a path through the trees down to the lake shore. That is how he got to your house. The snow covered a lot of his tracks, but in the trees, it didn’t.”

“Do you think he came across the lake? That he had been watching Mattie from there?” Josh asked.

“I think that is a good possibility. We will check into that. Is there anything else any of you can think of that might help?”

Jacob shook his head. “Mattie had a rough childhood and went from foster home to foster home. She told me about her past once, and then we never really talked about it again. She had worked hard to get over the past.”

Ron nodded, put his notebook in his jacket pocket, and pulled out some business cards, “If you think of anything that might be helpful, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, please call me.” He gave a card to all of them. “I’ll be in touch when I know more.” He looked at Jacob, “Your house is an active crime scene, so you will need to stay somewhere for at least tonight. If you need to go pick something up, the cops on the scene will let you in. I would suggest that before you go home, you hire someone to clean up. You shouldn’t have to see that. Again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

They thanked him and the detective left the room. Jacob and his family sat there in stunned silence.

Finally, Josh spoke up, “Come on Jacob, you can stay with me. Lucky will be happy to see you.” Jacob nodded. They all got up and left the room. Jacob left his contact information with the NICU, so they could reach him. He told them he would be back first thing in the morning, which truthfully was only a few hours away.

***

They walked into Josh’s house and were met by Randy. She had been crying, immediately she wrapped Jacob in a hug. “Oh, Jacob, this is horrible.”

Jacob hugged her, then pulled back. He had spotted Lucky over by the fireplace. He walked over, sitting on the floor next to the dog. Lucky put his head on Jacob’s lap as Jacob leaned back against the wall next to him. “Hey, Lucky,” Jacob said.

“He is a brave dog, a hero in a sense,” Josh said.

Jacob looked up at him, “What do you mean?”

Randy said, “If Lucky hadn’t found a way to get out of the house to make his way over, Josh would have never found Mattie.”

“You found her?”

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