Page 24 of If She Remembered
Jake gestured for them to sit on the couch while he remained standing, his arms crossed defensively."So what do you want to know?"
"We're trying to identify anyone who might have had access to both your mother's house and the home of this other victim.Service people, contractors, delivery drivers, anyone who wouldn't seem out of place coming and going."
"You think someone who worked here killed my mom?"Jake asked, his voice rising slightly.
"It's one possibility we're exploring," DeMarco said."Can you think of anyone who did work here recently?In the past month or so?"
Jake thought for a moment, running his hand through his already disheveled hair.He looked so exhausted that just looking at him made Kate feel tired."Well, there was the guy who came to fix some stuff around the house.Mom mentioned it when I called to tell her I was moving back home."
Kate felt her attention sharpen."What kind of work did he do?"
"I'm not sure exactly.Some kind of handyman stuff, I think.Mom said she'd been putting off some repairs and decided to get them taken care of before I moved in."Jake paused, his expression growing slightly irritated."Actually, it kind of annoyed me at the time."
"Why did it annoy you?"Kate asked.
"Because she'd been complaining for weeks about the damn security system acting up, but when she had this handyman here, she didn't bother to ask him to look at it.I kept telling her to get it fixed, but she said it wasn't that important."Jake shook his head."If she'd had the guy check the alarm system, maybe it would have been working properly and whoever killed her wouldn't have been able to get in so easily."
"Do you remember the handyman's name?"DeMarco asked.
Jake frowned, concentrating."No, I don't think Mom ever mentioned it.She just said she'd found someone to take care of the repairs."
"Would there be a record of the payment somewhere?"Kate asked."A check register or bank statement?"
"Maybe," Jake said, pulling his phone from his pocket."Mom gave me access to her checking account after Dad died, just in case something happened and I needed to handle her finances.I can check the recent transactions."He had come around a lot since answering the door, perhaps simply resigning himself to the fact that this needed to be done.
Jake swiped through his phone, accessing what appeared to be a banking app.Kate watched as he scrolled through recent transactions, his finger moving down the screen as he searched for payments to service providers.
"Here," Jake said suddenly, holding up the phone so they could see the screen."There's a payment from about two weeks ago.Seventy-five dollars to someone named Michael Torres."
A chill flushed through Kate.It was the same name on the business card she'd found on Thomas Rodriguez's refrigerator.
"Michael Torres," DeMarco repeated, writing the name in her notebook."Did your mother mention anything specific about what he fixed?"
"Not really," Jake said, still looking at the phone screen."She just said he took care of some things that had been bothering her.I was more focused on my job situation at the time, so I didn't ask for details."He frowned at this and, without saying anything, Kate could tell that he felt guilty.Maybe he should have asked more questions about his mother's life.
Kate leaned forward slightly."Jake, do you remember if your mother seemed different after this handyman visited?Any changes in her behavior or routine?"
Jake considered the question carefully."Not really different, but maybe a little more anxious?She'd been worried about me moving back home anyway, so I figured it was just stress about that."
"Did she mention feeling unsafe or worried about anything specific?"DeMarco asked.
"No, nothing like that.If anything, she seemed relieved to have gotten the repairs done.She mentioned that it was one less thing to worry about before I moved in."
Kate studied Jake's expression, noting that his anger had been largely replaced by concern and curiosity.The revelation about Michael Torres had clearly shifted his perspective on their visit, it seemed.
“Can you think of anything else your mother might have said about him?”DeMarco asked.“How she found him, whether he seemed professional, anything that might help us locate him?"
Jake sat down heavily in his mother's reading chair, the weight of this new information clearly affecting him."I wish I'd paid more attention,” he said, his voice breaking slightly.“I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I didn't really listen when she talked about household stuff."
"That's understandable," Kate said gently."You were dealing with losing your job and having to move back home.Nobody would expect you to remember every detail about home repairs."
"But if I had listened, maybe I could have prevented this," Jake said, his voice breaking slightly."Maybe… I mean, are you suggesting it might be worth looking into this handyman?”
"We aren’t sure, but it’s an avenue we will be exploring,” Kate said.“And even if that turns out to be the case, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it."
“Can you… can you keep me posted?”
“Yes, of course we will.”
