Page 76 of Everything She Feared

“Not yet,” Pierce said.

“Bottom line this for us, Heidi,” Acker said.

“This case is suspicious and it remains open,” she said. “You’ve done good work. But you need to eliminate all areas that raise doubt. Keep going on Katie Harmon. Keep nailing down the open elements wherever possible—the prints on the rock, finding Anna’s phone, the security camera. Strengthen your case.”

The meeting ended, and Pierce and Benton returned to their desks.

“I’m going to the kitchen for coffee. Want me to get you one, Carl?” Pierce placed her files, notebook and tablet on her desk. They slid, sending her framed photo of Webb and Ethan to the floor with a crack. “Oh, shoot.” She picked it up, studied the fractured glass. “I’ll have to replace that.” She set the broken frame in her drawer. “So, coffee?”

Benton was looking at his phone.

“Thanks, I’ll go with you.” He put his phone away.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Still no word.”

“Hang in there.”

“Kim, you’ve been on the right track on this, right from the get-go.”

She shrugged as her phone rang. She looked at the number.

“Heidi Wong is right. We’ve got a lot of work yet and we can’t get tunnel vision. Hello,” she said into her phone.

“Detective Pierce?”

“Yes.”

“Andy Newell, forensics. I was hoping to get this update on the parking lot security camera to you before your meeting. But we just got this. We’ve finally been able to clean up the footage recorded at the time of the fatality.”

“How clean?”

“Still working on it, but we should get plates.”

33

Seattle, Washington

Sara took Katieto Kerry Park. From a slope in Queen Anne Hill, it offered an unbroken view of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle.

Taking it in from the bench where they sat, Katie seemed lost in a thought and was humming softly to herself. Sara had brought her here to get out of the house, hoping to talk. She was searching for a way to start when Katie beat her to it.

“Mom, does it hurt to die?”

The question cut into Sara, but before she could answer Katie continued.

“Because I was wondering like how much pain Anna felt when she fell.”

“I don’t think she—”

“I was wondering like what her very last thought was before she hit the ground. Like, if she knew she was going to die and how awful it would be.”

“Oh, honey.” At a loss, Sara turned away, then said: “Have you talked to Dr. Mehta about it?”

Katie nodded.

“What does she say?”

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