Page 16

15

“Do you think it was Jared?”

Kimmy’s voice catches when she says our neighbor’s name, and her eyes get wide, like she can’t believe he could ever do such a terrible thing. She has no idea what people are capable of when they’re pushed too far.

She sits down on the edge of Caroline’s front porch and shakes her head as Caroline tries to make her feel better by saying, “I wouldn’t have said yes before the party, but I’m still in shock that he brought her and thought his wife would be okay with it. That tells me he wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Marilyn said she thinks she saw someone running behind the houses last night around the time it all happened.”

My body stiffens at hearing that. However Jared got to Sara’s house, it wasn’t along that path that goes behind the houses to the next street over. How the hell did Marilyn see me? Does she think it was Jared, or is she unsure who she saw?

“Did she tell the police?” I ask before lifting my bottle of water to my lips in an attempt to hide my expression.

Kimmy shakes her head and sighs. “No. She isn’t sure it was him, and to be honest, she doesn’t want to get involved. What if the person who did that is a homicidal maniac and he finds out she told the police about that?”

“She’s right to be careful,” Caroline says. “Killers will do anything to protect themselves, including hurting innocent bystanders.”

In an attempt to ease both their worries, I say, “I don’t think Jared is a homicidal maniac. I’d say it was more a crime of passion than anything else.”

Caroline turns to face me and gives me a strange look. “So you think it was him?”

My expression probably says far more than I’d like, so I force myself to smile. “It seems logical. They were seeing each other. I don’t think Sara had a lot of enemies. I was surprised to find out she was really a nice person while we were running for those couple days. It was because she was being thoughtful that she sprained her ankle on our run yesterday.”

“Oh? How so?” she asks, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Kimmy staring up at me waiting to hear what I have to say.

“She was running backwards so we could talk face-to-face while we were running. Seemed pretty thoughtful to me.”

While Caroline doesn’t say a word, Kimmy nods and smiles up at me. “It does seem thoughtful. That’s actually very nice. Now I feel even worse that someone did that to her.”

“She made a mistake by sleeping with a married man, but once I got to talk to her, she really wasn’t so bad. Sara wasn’t Jared’s only extracurricular buddy either.”

Both women stare at me in shock with their mouths hanging open. Caroline is the first to regain her composure and says, “Sara wasn’t the only one? Does Suzanne know?”

“I have no idea. I was pretty surprised myself when Sara told me. She expected him to give up the other woman once he moved out of the house here, but he refused. I can tell you Sara was very angry. She said she wasn’t taking him back no matter what if he didn’t give her up.”

In a small voice, Kimmy mumbles, “Maybe that’s why he killed her.”

A second later, she jumps up and waves to us as she heads down the stairs to the street. “I have to go tell Marilyn. See you later!”

Caroline and I turn to look at each other. “I guess that seemed important to her,” I say, a little shocked at how quickly Kimmy ran off after what I said.

“My guess is she wants to tell Marilyn to put her mind at ease. The older woman probably has visions of some crazed ax murderer running through her head this morning. I bet that’s why she doesn’t want to tell the police about that man she saw running behind the houses last night.”

Her reference to a man seems odd, so I ask, “How do you know it wasn’t a woman?”

Caroline shakes her head as she purses her lips, like she’s thinking about my suggestion and then immediately dismissing it. “Women don’t kill that way. They don’t sneak around and come up behind someone to slit their throat. They’re more emotional than men. If a woman wants you dead, she’ll plan it down to the tiniest detail, but she won’t surprise you from behind. A woman wants her victim to see her coming, especially if it’s a man.”

Curious how she could think she knows so much about killers, I turn in the wicker chair and level my gaze on her. “Why especially if it’s a man?”

She looks over her shoulder at me and grins. “Because if a woman wants to kill a man, she wants him to see it coming. He still won’t believe she could do it, but no matter. She wants him to know and still not expect it.”

“What if the woman is killing another woman? Does your theory still stand?” I ask, intrigued that the innocent looking woman who lives in this green house seems to know that much about killing.

Nodding, she turns her attention back to the street where Kimmy and Marilyn are talking. “Yes, but the woman would know she’s coming to kill her. Women rarely underestimate other women. If anything, we overestimate their abilities.”

“So by your reasoning, it had to be a man who killed Sara because you think he snuck around the back of the houses to get to her street and then surprised her?”

“If that was her killer going on that path back there, then it was definitely a man.”

I disagree with her argument that women aren’t sneaky when it comes to killing, but I don’t press the point. I’m more curious about how sweet Caroline knows all of this.

“You sound like you’ve put a lot of thought into how people kill. Why’s that?”

She doesn’t respond at first and instead takes a long sip of her coffee. I watch as she sets the mug down on the table between us and then looks up at me in a way that makes me feel like she’s staring into my soul.

“I find people interesting. I watch murder mysteries and real crime shows all the time, and if there’s anything I’ve learned from the hundreds of hours I’ve spent viewing them, it’s that women and men are very different when they decide to kill someone.”

She stops for a long moment and then adds, “Assuming it’s planned. Crimes of passion are a completely different story. In those, men and women are very similar.”

Impressed by her opinions, which are quite correct, I smile and say, “You should have gone into law enforcement. You could be a great profiler for the FBI.”

That gets me a frown. “No, that’s not for me. It’s too depressing. I don’t think I could handle being around all that death for a living.”

“But you enjoy watching true crime shows about killers. Don’t they depress you?”

Caroline shakes her head as she stares off in the distance at Kimmy and Marilyn. “No. That’s different. Those shows focus on the why, not the how.”

Interesting. She likes the psychology of killers but not their actual deeds. Yes, Caroline has definitely lost someone, but how? Was it cold-blooded murder, or did it happen by chance, like a thief breaking into a home and being surprised by the person living there or a mugging gone bad? I want to ask about the circumstances, but I don’t get the sense she’d tell me.

Not yet, anyway. Maybe in the future. Today has gone a long way to bringing us closer. Now that she’s provided me with an alibi for the time of Sara’s murder, I don’t think it will be long before we’re friendly enough for her to invite me inside her home.

Then she’ll tell me what I want to know.

“I guess I better go in and get some work done. Thanks for coming over, even if you don’t drink coffee,” she says as she stands to walk inside the house.

Too curious about her job not to ask now, I say, “What do you do for a living?”

She stops and turns to face me. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she says with a chuckle.

Now I’m really curious. “Try me.”

For a long moment, she hesitates, but then she finally gives in and says, “I edit true crime stories.”

That was not an answer I was expecting.

“Really? I would have never guessed. Do you write your own too?”

With a direct stare, she looks at me and answers, “Not yet, but I have one in mind. I just need to work a few more things out before I put my plan into motion.”

“Sounds intriguing. Any chance you want to share some with me? I’m a bit of a crime aficionado myself.”

Grinning, she nods. “Next time.”

“I’ll be waiting with bated breath,” I say as I stand to leave. “Have a good day, Caroline.”

“You too, Adam. Try to stay cool. You wouldn’t want to keel over from heat stroke.”

I intentionally avoid Kimmy and Marilyn on my way up the street to my house as I have nothing more I want to say about Sara’s death. I suspect they’ve all but convicted Jared in their minds already, so I doubt I could give them anything more to add to that.

Harold waves to me as I pass by his house, and I notice he looks downright miserable this morning. He’s probably unhappy about not getting to go off fishing once again. Twice in one week to give up his favorite thing to do seems to be more of a sacrifice than he’s willing to give.

“Stay cool,” I call out with a friendly smile.

“You too!” he says back to me. “This weather has to break soon, I think.”

I nod, hoping he’s right. Something about this heat day after day is beginning to wear on me. Everyone feels off, like the temperature is making us all slightly on edge but sluggish at the same time.

“Hope so! Have a good one, Harold!”

Almost to my front door, I’m surprised to see Aaron out in his yard during the day. He waves at me like we didn’t have the most awkward encounter the other night, and as much as I don’t want to interact with him, I know if I don’t at least make an effort to be neighborly then someone’s going to see. I wave back to him and give him a smile I don’t mean as I hurry up my sidewalk.

Unfortunately, I’m not fast enough, and he catches up to me right as I reach the door. Sure that Kimmy and Marilyn, if not Harold too, are seeing all of this, I stop when he comes up behind me and turn around to deal with him.

He doesn’t say anything at first, keeping up with his creepiness that seems to be a constant with him. I glance down the road and see everyone watching us, so I need to look like I’m actually being kind to him.

“Hey, what’s up, Aaron?”

With his usual vacant and lost look, he stares at me and asks, “How do you know my name?”

I sense an edge to his question that strikes me as odd. I’ve been nothing but nice to this guy, even as he keeps popping up and freaking me out with his weird questions, and now he’s angry at me because I know his name? Of all the things I don’t like about this neighborhood, he’s quickly shot up to the number one spot on my list.

To be honest, I don’t know how to answer him. He never told me his name, but that means nothing in a neighborhood full of busybodies.

“How do you know my name?” he repeats.

I shrug, already tired of this thing he and I have going these past few days. “I don’t know. Someone around here told me, I’m sure.”

Aaron takes a step toward me and stops. “You know, I’m not crazy. Everyone thinks I’m some lost soul up here in this house who used to have everything but lost it all. I’m not lost, though. I know a lot of what goes on in this neighborhood.”

“That’s good.”

“Like, for example, I know you like that woman in the green house.”

Angered by his nosiness, I squint my eyes and ask, “Have you been spying on me?”

He shakes his head and frowns. “No. Just observing the obvious. Want to know something else that’s obvious?”

I don’t answer, already tired of this conversation. I give him another shrug since he’s going to keep talking anyway, but I can’t decide if he’s the crazy guy I thought he was the other night or far more lucid at this moment.

“She doesn’t like you as much as you like her. You can tell by the way she looks at you when you aren’t paying attention.”

God, this guy’s a dick. Who tells another man that kind of thing? It’s not like we’re best friends and he’s trying to look out for me. He’s just being an asshole, and I don’t even think he’s right. She’s the one who keeps inviting me over, and she gave me an alibi for the police, for Christ’s sake.

If anyone is into anyone, it’s her with me.

“Yeah, thanks. Better go back inside. The sun is starting to get to you.”

I hurry inside before he can say another word. Damnit, I’m getting tired of that guy. Why did I have to move into the house that’s next to a crazy man?

Right before I close the door behind me, I look out and see Marilyn, Kimmy, and Harold looking up the street at me. They’re probably talking about Aaron and how sad his situation is. And he thinks I’m spying on him? He has no idea.

There’s always someone watching in this neighborhood.