Page 60 of I'm Watching You

Warwick didn’t miss a beat. ‘I’d like for C.C. to start going through the phone records. Look for any patterns,connections to the shelter, any unusual calls Mrs Turner might have made.’

C.C. nodded. ‘Will do.’

‘Vega, talk to Ruby Dillon, the woman who stayed at the shelter the night of the murder. Kier talked to her but she made it clear she doesn’t like him. She might remember something ifyouask the questions.’

‘Sure,’ Vega said.

Zack wasn’t about to take a backseat to Warwick. ‘Also, C.C., once you’ve gone through the phone records, find out who sells machetes or anything sharp enough to cut bone.’

She glanced at Warwick, and when he didn’t protest she nodded. ‘Sure.’

Warwick glanced at his watch. ‘I’ll send the teletype to Hanover now and then Zack and I will head up there.’

Chapter Thirteen

Tuesday, July 8, 9:15A.M.

‘We’re with Henrico County Police,’ Warwick said to the clerk at the Hanover sheriff’s office. ‘I’m Detective Jacob Warwick.’

Zack showed his badge. ‘I’m Detective Zackary Kier. We sent a teletype an hour ago about the Hines murders.’

The clerk was a short, round woman in her midfifties. She wore her graying hair in a tight perm that drew attention to a strawberry birthmark on her left cheek. ‘The sheriff and most of his deputies are in a staff meeting this morning, but the deputy who worked the case stuck around so he could talk to you personally. Let me buzz him.’

She picked up the phone and told the person on the other end they’d arrived. ‘Deputy Graves will be right out.’

‘Thanks,’ Warwick said.

Zack knew the personnel turnover in this office had to be low. ‘You been here long?’

The woman nodded with pride. ‘Thirty years.’

‘You remember the Hines case?’

Her weathered face twisted into a deep frown. ‘I sure do. It was one of the saddest cases I’d ever seen. Just about everyone in Hanover knew someone who knew the Hines family. And when their little girl ran away, it just aboutbroke my heart. We said prayers for her at Sunday service for months.’

Zack rattled the change in his pocket and tried not to pace. He thought about Lindsay at seventeen: young, alone, frightened.

The urge to protect her was so strong.

They didn’t have to wait long for Graves. He pushed through a side door. He was a tall, stocky man with full, ruddy cheeks and thinning red hair. His protruding belly stretched the fabric of his brown uniform.

He offered his hand to Zack. ‘Deputy Marty Graves.’

Zack shook his hand and discovered the deputy’s grip was strong.

‘You’ve come about the Hines murder?’ Graves said.

‘Yes,’ Zack said.

‘I’ve got the file on my desk. Come on back.’

They followed him through a pair of heavy security doors and down a narrow corridor to his cramped office. Both took a seat in front of his desk.

‘Can I get you men coffee?’

Both declined.

Graves sat and put on his reading glasses. ‘I remember this case. Fact, I knew Frank Hines from Rotary. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. And Deb was in my wife’s circle group at church. Both would give you the shirts off their backs.’ He cleared his throat. ‘We were all shocked at first when Frank did what he did. But then later, as folks started to compare notes, we started to piece together a few things. Life in the Hines house had to have been bad for years.’

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