Page 27

Indian Mountain Lake, Pennsylvania

B ryan sits in the basement. He’s out of drugs, of cash, of friends.

Now his mom is on him to go to Bible study with her. She thinks that will fix him. He’s gone a couple of times.

A text beeps on his phone. Bryan reads it. Maybe there’s something to the Bible stuff after all. This is divine timing.

Jeremy Saba has been arrested for a DUI and possession of drugs. He’s in jail.

One man’s misfortune is another’s opportunity.

Bryan calls a familiar person. “Connie?” he says to the woman who picks up. She trusts him. Wrongly.

“Bryan,” she says, and thanks him for what she assumes is a call of condolence and support.

Jeremy’s mom tells him that she and Jeremy’s dad will visit their son tomorrow at the jail by the courthouse in Brodheadsville.

As Bryan hopes, the trusting woman shares the time they’re planning to go. Would Bryan come visit Jeremy right after?

Bryan says yes.

But as he ends the call, he might have been forming his real plan.

Connie later said that the Sabas’ absence from their home gave him the perfect window to get what he needed.

He used to live next door, so he knew the house, knew where Connie kept her jewelry and where she left her iPad, things he could sell to get his next fix.

And he knew exactly how to break in: through the garage.

The next day he executes the plan perfectly.

As Connie and Jiries Saba leave the courthouse in Brodheadsville, Connie wonders where Bryan is. Why hasn’t he shown up? He sounded so concerned and solicitous on the phone. Something Jeremy once said nags at her: “Bryan is manipulative.”

When the Sabas pull up to their house in Effort, she sees at once why Bryan didn’t come.

Someone has been in their home—the door from the garage has been forced open.

Her iPad is gone.

She doesn’t need to wonder who the thief is.

She knows.

Will she call the police?

Her fingers hover over her phone. She thinks about Bryan’s mom, Maryann, a teacher who, like Connie, works in the local school district.

Maryann has in the past occasionally and uncharacteristically shared some of Bryan’s struggles with her.

There was his Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis, and, later, the drugs.

She puts the phone away without calling anyone.

She doesn’t know any of the specifics, but she intuits that the Kohberger family is in enough pain right now without Connie Saba adding to their problems.