Page 40 of If She Stayed
DeMarco's expression shifted as she understood Kate's thinking."You want to set up a sting operation."
"Look at this house.From the outside, there's no obvious indication that Janet has fled.Her car is gone, but that could mean she's running errands.The front door was left open, but someone approaching might assume she's in the backyard or just stepped out briefly."
Kate began moving through the house with a new purpose, examining the layout and considering how they could use the space to their advantage."If the killer is planning to target Janet like he did the others, he might come here expecting to find her."
"And instead find us waiting for him," DeMarco finished.
"Exactly.But first, we need to understand why Janet was so afraid.We need to know what happened twenty years ago that would make her flee immediately upon learning about these murders?"
DeMarco pulled her phone back out again and settled into Janet's living room chair."I'll dig into Records and Research, see what I can find about incidents involving Janet Klein or the book club members from that time period."
Kate nodded and continued examining the house's layout.She did so from a different perspective now that they were planning an attempt to get a jump on the killer.As she surveyed the space, she noted the sight lines from windows and identifying potential positions for surveillance.The living room window provided a clear view of the street, while the kitchen window looked out onto a small backyard.There were only two entrances to the house: the front door and a back door off the kitchen.
Kate thought it through.The killer had shown a pattern of approaching victims when they were alone and vulnerable.Margaret in her library, Jennifer with her evening tea, Eleanor in her garden.If the killerwastargeting Janet, he'd probably wait for what appeared to be an opportune moment.
DeMarco called out from the living room.The suddenness of her voice made Kate jump."I'm finding some interesting connections,” DeMarco said.“Janet Klein filed a police report in Richmond twenty years ago.In October 1995, she claimed someone was following her and making threatening phone calls."
"What kind of threats?"Kate asked as she returned to the living room.
"The report is brief, but it mentions harassment related to her participation in a social group,” DeMarco said as she read from her phone.“The investigating officer noted that Klein seemed genuinely frightened but couldn't provide specific evidence of the threats."
"Did she name any suspects?"
"No.No names at all."DeMarco scrolled through more information."The case was closed after a few weeks when the harassment apparently stopped."
Kate processed this information while continuing to plan their potential sting operation."So thereissomething from her history—about twenty years ago—thatcouldpotentially have her running scared.But… still… how the hell is it tied to the book club?”
“No idea,” DeMarco said.“But I’ll keep digging to see if I can find the answer.”
Kate checked her weapon and surveyed the house one more time.She positioned herself near the living room window where she could watch the street while remaining concealed.The afternoon was growing late, shadows lengthening across the quiet neighborhood.Her watch told her that it was come to be 6:20.She seriously doubted she was going to make it home by seven.She'd be breaking yet another promise to Allen.But with the case this close to a major break—and maybe even an arrest—she pushed that to the side.Allen would understand, and she could deal with the fallout.
For now, she had lives to save.If their theory was correct, they might not have to wait long before the killer they’d been looking for walked right through Janet Klein’s front door.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Robert Fisher pulled his aging Toyota Camry to the curb three houses down from 1247 Maple Lane. He’d positioning himself where he could observe Janet Klein's small brick ranch while remaining inconspicuous among the other parked vehicles in the quiet neighborhood.He turned off the engine and sat in the driver's seat, studying the house through his windshield while his hands gripped the steering wheel with white-knuckled intensity.
Twenty years.Twenty years had passed since that October night when his world had collapsed in a single phone call from the Richmond Police Department.Twenty years since he had driven to the hospital, still believing that Brandon might only be injured… only to learn that his seventeen-year-old son was already gone.
The memory of that night played in Robert's mind with the clarity that trauma sometimes preserved, every detail sharp and painful despite the passage of time.The police officer had been professional but gentle, explaining how Brandon had been found on Riverside Drive around eleven o'clock, approximately three hours after the estimated time of the accident.A jogger had discovered him lying in the grass beside the road, having apparently crawled nearly fifty feet from where the initial impact had occurred.By that time, he’d already lost so much blood…
"It looks like he tried to make it to that house there," the officer had said, pointing to a modest home with a porch light that would have been visible from where Brandon lay dying."He was trying to get help."
That detail had haunted Robert more than any other aspect of his son's death.Brandon had survived the initial impact, had been conscious and determined enough to drag himself across rough ground toward the promise of assistance that never came.He had died alone in the darkness, within sight of safety, while the person who struck him fled without calling for help or checking on his condition.
The investigation had yielded frustratingly little evidence.Fragments of headlight glass, tire marks that were too common to trace, no witnesses who had seen the actual collision.The investigating officers had assured Robert that they would pursue every lead, but as weeks turned to months without progress, it became clear that Brandon's killer would never be identified through conventional police work.
Robert had tried to move forward with his life, tried to honor Brandon's memory by continuing the routines and relationships that had defined their family before the accident.But grief had a way of changing everything it touched, and Robert found himself unable to maintain the emotional connections that had once sustained him.
His marriage to Tanya had been the first casualty.She had wanted to process their loss together, to attend support groups and counseling sessions where they could work through their grief as a united front.But Robert had found himself unable to share his pain with anyone, even the woman he had loved for eighteen years.The anger that consumed him felt too dangerous to express, too volatile to risk exposing Tanya to its full intensity.
The fights had started small, disagreements about practical matters like whether to keep Brandon's bedroom exactly as he had left it or whether to attend his high school graduation ceremony six months after his death.But those surface conflicts had been symptoms of a deeper incompatibility in how they processed trauma.Tanya had needed connection and communication to heal, while Robert required solitude and silence to contain the rage that threatened to overwhelm him.
The divorce had been finalized two years after Brandon's death, another loss that Robert blamed directly on the unknown driver who had destroyed his family and fled into the night.
His job performance had suffered next.Robert worked as a maintenance supervisor for the city's parks department, a position that had always provided him with satisfaction and stability.But after Brandon's death, he found himself unable to concentrate on routine tasks, missing meetings, and snapping at coworkers who made innocent comments about their own children's activities and achievements.The first formal reprimand had come eight months after the accident, when Robert had failed to complete a required safety inspection of playground equipment in three different parks.The second had followed six months later, after Robert had gotten into a heated argument with a parent who complained about the condition of a baseball field where his son's team practiced.
Robert had managed to avoid termination, but his career advancement had effectively ended.He had remained in the same position for twenty years, watching younger colleagues receive promotions and opportunities that should have been his.Another aspect of his life that had been stolen by the person who killed Brandon and drove away.
