Page 63 of I'm Watching You

Lindsay had said her mother had loved to garden, but there were only hints of the flower beds she’d told him covered the property. Soil mounds for vegetables cut through a portion of the field behind the house. A flowering vine twisted around a gazebo that had been ravaged by the weather and time. And on the back of the lot, there was a greenhouse.

‘Let’s have a look.’

They walked around the house’s foundation toward the greenhouse. Most of the windows had been shattered by vandals’ rocks. The door hung on one hinge and it was easy to push open. Inside were rows of long-dead plants and a collection of clay pots. Zack picked up a stack of pots. Lindsay’s birthday was tomorrow. If he had time, he’d clean these up for her.

‘We’d better get back to town,’ Warwick said.

‘Yeah.’

As they turned, Zack spotted words carved over the doorjamb. The letters were crude and looked as if they’d been carved with a knife.

He reached up and wiped the dirt free. The words read,L and J forever. ‘L and J. What was Graves’s grandson’s name?’

‘Joel Heckman.’

‘Let’s have a chat with Joel.’

It wasn’t hard to find Joel Heckman. He worked at a bicycle shop in the town of Ashland, the county seat.Zack and Warwick stepped through the shop’s doors fifteen minutes later.

A lean man in his early thirties stood behind a glass display case filled with expensive bike accessories. He was holding a bike shoe and trying to fasten a clip to the bottom. ‘Welcome. Can I help you?’

Both detectives pulled out their badges as they approached the counter.

‘Joel Heckman?’ Warwick queried.

‘Yeah.’

‘We came to ask you a few questions about Lindsay O’Neil.’

He looked puzzled. ‘O’Neil?’

‘You’d know her as Lindsay Hines.’

Joel’s eyes widened. ‘Lindsay. God, I haven’t seen her in years. What’s this all about? Is she okay?’

‘She’s fine,’ Zack said. ‘We’re looking into her background.’

Joel nodded. ‘Her mother’s murder.’

‘Yeah,’ Zack said. ‘What can you tell us about it?’

He shoved out a breath and set down the shoe. ‘I wish I’d gone into the house with her that day. I always thought if I’d gone in I might have found her mother first and spared her the sight.’

‘But you just dropped her off,’ Zack said.

‘Yeah. She was excited to be home early. It was Thursday and her mother’s regular afternoon off. Her mom had started working at the diner in town and had to work all the time. They didn’t see each other much.’

‘Know anything about her extended family? She ever talk about anyone?’ Warwick said.

‘Naw, she never talked about them at all. I think her mom had a falling out with her family. They didn’t like Frank, I think.’

‘She talk about anything?’ Zack said.

‘She always kept the conversation light. She never brought friends home and spent a lot of time in the library. She could have graduated a year earlier because she had so many credits but she wanted to stay in town. I think now it was to be close to her mom. Maybe she thought she was protecting her.’

‘What about her father?’ Warwick said.

‘There’s no nice way to say it – he was an asshole. He lost his temper once with her at the pool because she kept him waiting five minutes.’ Joel shook his head. ‘Lindsay had been giving a kid a swimming lesson. The kid was terrified of the water and Linz always spent extra time with her.’

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