Page 37 of If She Remembered
She smiled and saved her work, closing the laptop before heading upstairs to get her son.Michael was standing in his crib, his hair sticking up at impossible angles, and his pajamas twisted from sleep.When he saw her, his face lit up with the kind of pure joy that could make anyone forget their troubles.
"Good morning, sweetheart," Kate said, lifting him out of the crib and carrying him to the changing table."Did you sleep well?"
"Sleep good," Michael confirmed, then looked down at his diaper with interest as Kate began changing him."Mama, no more diapers?"
Kate laughed as she cleaned him up."Soon, buddy.When you get a little bigger, we'll learn to use the potty like a big boy.And… you know, that might just be a few more weeks from now.I think you might be ready."
"Big boy!"Michael announced proudly.
"That's right!”
Michael nodded seriously, as if this was a matter of great importance that required his full agreement.Kate finished getting him cleaned and dressed, then carried him downstairs to the kitchen, where she settled him into his highchair.
Allen appeared in the kitchen doorway, dressed for work and looking much more awake than he had twenty minutes earlier."How's our little man this morning?"
"Big boy!"Michael declared, apparently having decided this was his new favorite phrase.
"He is indeed," Allen said, ruffling Michael's hair before turning to Kate."I've got him for breakfast if you need to wrap up some work stuff."He nodded toward her laptop on the table, letting her know that he was fully aware of where her head was.
"Thanks," Kate said, giving Allen a quick kiss before returning to the case files."I'll just be a few more minutes."
She reopened her laptop while Allen began preparing Michael's breakfast, the familiar sounds of their morning routine providing a comfortable backdrop to her work.Kate pulled up the phone records for all three victims, deciding to review them more thoroughly now that she had access to the complete files.She spent the next several minutes going over it all.
The records went back several weeks for each victim, showing the usual pattern of calls to family members, doctors' offices, and service providers.Kate methodically compared the numbers, looking for any connections between the three cases that might have been overlooked.
"Mama, banana!"Michael called out from his highchair.
"Coming right up," Allen replied, slicing fruit while Kate continued her analysis.
Kate was scanning through Linda Harper's phone records when something caught her attention.A phone number appeared in all three victims' call logs, sometimes as incoming calls, sometimes as outgoing.In Linda Harper's case, the number appeared just three days before her death.It was the sort of detail that never really stuck out, but stayed hidden in the weeds.
But Kate had noticed it, and now it stuck to her like a thorn.Feeling the stirrings of hope, she ran a search on the phone number using the bureau database.The results came back in less than ten seconds.The number belonged to a business called "New Beginnings Home Design."
Kate quickly opened a new browser window and navigated to the company's website.The homepage featured professional photos of beautifully decorated rooms and a mission statement about helping clients"reimagine their living spaces during life's major transitions."The site explained that New Beginnings specialized not only in home staging for sales but also in renovations and remodels, with a unique service model that allowed clients to experience new decor and furniture for a couple of weeks before making final purchasing decisions.
Major transitions, she thought.Maybe like a grown child coming back home?
Kate scrolled down to the "About" section of the website.There, she found that the owner of the company was a woman named Margaret Holloway.There was more information on the unique approach of bringing furniture and small items into clients' homes to let them experience the decor for weeks before finalizing transactions.Kate wasn’t sure she’d ever heard of such a thing before.
“Huh,” she said out loud as another bit of information registered with her.If Holloway was moving things in before an actual financial transaction, that could result in murky financial records for the victims.There could potentially be no paper trail between the victims and New Beginnings.
It also meant she had access to all three homes in the weeks before the murders.
Kate began to move a bit faster, really locked in now.She accessed the bureau database and ran a background check on Margaret Holloway.
Michael banged his spoon against his highchair tray, apparently satisfied with his breakfast and ready to move on to more interesting activities.Allen wiped his hands and face while Kate focused intently on her laptop screen.
“Everything good?”Alan said, apparently noticing her sudden focus and concentration.
“Yeah, I’m good.I think I may have just had a breakthrough.”
She poked around the results, and it took less than five minutes before she landed on something that made Kate stop dead for a moment.Her coffee cup froze halfway to her lips.
Margaret Holloway, age forty-nine, had a daughter named Sarah Holloway who had died in a car accident just five months ago.According to the police report, Sarah had been twenty-six years old and was driving to her mother's house after ending a long-term relationship.The accident had occurred late at night during a rainstorm, and investigators had ruled it a tragic accident caused by poor visibility and wet roads.
Kate stared at the information, feeling pieces of a dark puzzle clicking into place.From a profiling perspective, the death of Margaret's daughter had created a textbook scenario for psychological breakdown and displaced anger.A mother who had lost her adult child just as that child was preparing to return home during a crisis… it was heartbreaking, but also a perfect frame for what she and DeMarco were currently investigating.It could be psychologically tormenting to see other parent-child reunions as painful reminders of what she had lost.
The timing was particularly significant.Sarah had died less than half a year ago.Maybe it had taken those months for Holloway to build up the courage to carry out her plans… to get her hands on those deadly pills.If Margaret Holloway was their killer, there was really only one huge question that needed to be answered: was she acting out a grief-driven delusion that other parents needed to be "saved" from the disappointment and heartbreak she believed was inevitable, or were these wretched acts of jealousy?
