Page 28 of Absent Reason

"Maggie," the woman said. "Maggie Cruz."

"I know it's hard, Maggie," Simon said. "But do you think you would be able to talk to us? To tell us what happened?"

Maggie nodded, her eyes still filled with tears. Amber could see the tracks of them on her cheeks. "There isn't much to tell. I… I work as a nurse over in the local hospital. I came back from my night shift, and usually, she's gone by the time I get back when I'm working nights. This morning, I found her there... like that. She was hanging there in the living room. I cut her down and got the noose from around her neck.”

“You did that, rather than the police?” Simon said.

“I thought there was a chance that I could still save her, but she was... gone."

"That's when you called the police?" Amber asked.

Maggie nodded.

"Can you tell us about Victoria?" Simon asked in a careful tone. "What was she like?"

"She wouldn't do something like this to herself," Maggie snapped, anticipating the possible line of questioning. "She wasn't depressed; she wasn't worried about anything. I would have known if she were."

"No one's suggesting that she killed herself," Amber said quickly, wanting to make it clear that they believed Victoria. "We just want to understand more about her."

"Victoria was... she was always so kind."

"What did she do for a living?" The question was just to get Maggie to talk more about her friend.

"Victoria is... was a teaching assistant down at the university."

That was enough to make Amber stop short. The university again. Everywhere they looked, in this case, it seemed to be there. Amber looked over to Simon, and he nodded. He'd obviously come to the same conclusion.

"What department did she work in?" Simon asked.

"The Math department," Maggie said. "Why?"

Because that gave them another potential connection between the victims. They'd had one studying physics, one statistics, and now one who taught math. They might be three different subjects, but mathematics represented a clear link between them, one that seemed impossible to ignore. Everything pointed back towards the university.

"Did you notice anything unusual in the area when you came home?" Amber asked, hoping to jog Maggie's memory for any clues that might help.

Maggie shook her head. "No, nothing. It was quiet when I got back. I didn't hear or see anything out of the ordinary. I was late getting in from work this morning. Maybe if I'd gotten here earlier..."

Amber reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "You can't think like that, Maggie. This didn't happen because of anything you did or didn't do."

And if she’d shown up at the wrong moment, then maybe she would be dead as well right now. The killer had already broken his pattern by killing someone at home; maybe he wouldn’t have waited for his victim to be alone, either.

"Do you know who did this?" Maggie asked.

"Not yet," Amber admitted. "We're working to catch him."

There wasn't anything else she could say when they had so little to go on. There was only a connection to the math department at the university.

"Is there anyone you can go stay with for today while the forensic teams continue their work?" Simon asked.

Maggie nodded. "I have some friends across town."

"Good," Amber said, "and if you think of anything else, get in contact with us through the Verdice PD."

Amber and Simon made their way back out of the bedroom to the crime scene. One look told Amber that the police were stumped. They had been through the murder scene carefully and found nothing that would connect to the killer.

"Anything?" Amber asked the nearest forensic investigator.

He shook his head. "There's no DNA left behind; there isn't even a single fingerprint that we can't explain. It looks like the killer was careful or wiped it all away."

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