Page 44 of It's One of Us

He wasn’t wearing gloves, was he? Surely, they’ll be able to find his prints and figure out who he is.She doesn’t know. She wasn’t paying attention to his hands.

She pulls out her notebook and writes up everything as she remembers it—the chapped lips, the toolbox, the red hoodie, the coffee cup... Did he take that with him? A quick look confirms he has. The van with the extension ladder. She line-sketches the flat, serpentine eyes.

A knock on the front door. Moore has arrived.

Olivia lets the cop in. Moore’s eyes are guarded as she looks around.

“Any sign he broke in?”

“Not that I’ve seen, though I haven’t checked upstairs yet. Nothing down here. He must have had the contractor code to the door. But look. Here’s what’s bizarre.” She hands Moore the papers. “Park has nothing to do with my business. It’s not like he would come here and leave his birth certificate. And this, from Winterborn Life Sciences. I have no idea why these things are here.”

Moore nods, lips pursed, looking very interested now. “I do. Someone broke into your husband’s shed last night and emptied his safe. I think we can assume your intruder this morning was involved.”

“So he stole stuff from Park and brought it here. To me? Why?”

“An excellent question. To make sure you know about Winterborn, is my guess.”

Olivia grapples with details, lets them run through her mind as quickly as a flooded creek. There is only one answer, but she needs to ask anyway.

“Detective, are we in danger?”

“Also an excellent question.” Moore takes the papers and flips through them, either ignoring or unaware that Olivia is staring. The cop is just so blasé about it all. It’s like she’s seen everything; nothing surprises her. Olivia doesn’t know whether to feel reassured or terrified.

A cramp takes Olivia’s belly, and she gasps inadvertently, just a little intake of her breath. She turns away to grimace and rub the spot. Brigit the nurse told her to call if she was having any issues. She’s still spotting, and the cramps have been nasty. Maybe she needs to get looked at. She had to have a D&C—“just to clean things up”—after her second miscarriage. It felt a little like this. Insult to injury.

Moore doesn’t miss it, though.

“Are you okay?”

Is she? Is she okay? Her world has shattered around her, yet she is still standing. She is strong. But okay? No.

“I miscarried. Right before you arrived the other day. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Park, and suddenly you were there with the news...” She chokes back a sob. “I’m sorry. It’s been a lousy week.”

Moore looks both horrified and sad. She awkwardly pats Olivia’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she says quietly. “Truly. Can I help? Do you want to sit down or something?”

“No. I’m fine. Do you have children, Detective?”

The woman shakes her head. “Always too busy with the job. Kids just weren’t my thing.”

“They’re clearly not meant to be mine, either. And now we find out Park has twenty-eight of them? It’s ridiculous to think...”

“Think what?”

“That having one with me will matter to him anymore,” she finishes, then dashes a hand against her cheeks and wipes away the tears.Get yourself together, Hutton.You’re letting her in too far. “Sorry, that is really not your problem. What do you want to do about this guy who was here today?”

Moore seems grateful to return to the break-in. “Can you sit down with a sketch artist for me? So I have an idea what he looks like?”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’ll have an evidence team look for prints and any other biologicals he might have left behind, too. Now, tell me everything he said, what he did.”

Olivia runs the cop through her interaction, shows her the coffee-stained marble, walks to the back door and describes how he stood on the other side of the glass, clearly relishing how uncomfortable he made her.

“It felt like he was trying to send me some sort of message. Though I haven’t a clue what. He gave me the willies, though. Something about the way he looked at me. I can’t describe it. It felt wrong. I’m making this into more than it is, I’m sure. My hormones...”

Moore shakes the papers. “I don’t think you are, Mrs. Bender. Could be something here. I’m not a big believer in coincidences. Especially when women are being murdered. Run me through what happened when he left.”

“He got in a van and drove off. Well, I didn’t see him get into the van, but it left right after, so I just assumed it was him.”