Page 37 of The Fragile Ones

Lowering their guns, they apologized, as Katie let out a deep breath.

“What are you two doing here?” asked the taller patrol officer.

“The chief told us that the Mayfields lived here,” said Katie. “We were just checking it out.”

“Mayfields?”

“The parents of the two girls that were murdered,” reminded Katie.

“Oh yeah,” said the shorter one.

“Do you know them?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course, everyone does.”

“We’re trying to locate Mr. Mayfield right now, actually. Any idea where he could be?”

“Nah, Whitey could be anywhere.”

“Haven’t seen him in a long time,” countered the tall cop.

Katie moved closer to the men. Close enough to see their identification tags: Mason and McKinney.

“Officer Mason, is it?” said Katie.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Katie couldn’t help but notice the sarcasm in his voice.

“Do you know anything about Mayfield that could help us track him down? Like what he likes, places he might go, his favorite thing to do, other family members. Anything?”

Mason shrugged. “He’s just a guy.”

“What about you?” she said to the other officer, who was trying to avoid eye contact.

Officer McKinney hesitated then stared directly at her. “We don’t know nuthin’ about him except he was a guy who lived here. He worked odd jobs whenever he could.”

“Like?” Katie prodded.

“Handyman, bus driver, auto parts store, stuff like that.”

“Was he ever in trouble?”

“Nothing serious. Bar fights mostly. But that was before my time on the force.”

“We’re working the double homicide case, so we’re running down every lead to find their killer. You understand that, right?” she said.

“We understand,” said Mason.

“Good. Because I think you’re going to be seeing a lot of us in the future, so we would appreciate you not pointing your guns at us.”

“Noted.”

“How long you staying?” asked Officer Mason.

“We’re leaving now. But we’ll be back,” said McGaven. He moved closer to the two men, towering over them. For such a gentle guy, he could turn on the intimidation when he wanted.

“We’ll be in touch,” Katie said as she walked by the two officers, followed by McGaven.