Page 23 of A Soldier's Pledge
“I should probably go over and see Betty.” When he looked at her oddly, she clarified. “Hugh’s wife, umm widow now. I guess. She’s the sweetest thing, and the opposite of her husband.”
“I’d rather you didn’t. At least not until someone can go with you. He was murdered, and we don’t know who’s behind it. I’d prefer you stay here and set the alarm as soon as I close the door.”
Anna understood his reasoning, but she wasn’t a child. She was trained in self-defense and was more than capable of taking care of herself, whether he wanted to admit it or not.
He got ready and headed out. She knew he waited outside until he was sure she’d set the alarm. She watched him drive away then got dressed. Yes, he was worried about her, but this was getting out of hand. If she didn’t put her foot down soon, he’d have her wrapped in cotton so she didn’t break, and to use one of his expressions, “fuck that noise.”
Double-checking the address, she left a note on the kitchen counter for Ethan in case he returned before she did. She disabled the alarm, went through the mudroom, and opened the garage. As she stepped into the garage, she was hit hard on the back of her head.
***
Ethan arrived at the house as CSU finished and released the scene. Steele was conferring with the LT, and there were several uniforms spread out to keep the press and public away. It was exactly the scenario they’d been hoping to avoid. Hugh’s violent death brought back visions of Iraq, but he pushed them away. He needed to stay focused on the scene.
Steele waved him over, and his grim look didn’t bode well. “What do we know?”
“Not much yet. CSU dusted for prints, but from what the coroner said, the victim was killed with blunt force trauma. It looked like he fought back. But we still don’t know whether it is more than one person. It’s not like the victim was in the best shape or young. He was sixty-five according to his driver’s license.”
Ethan nodded. It wouldn’t have taken too much to subdue him so it could have been one man, although he was convinced it was a group. They got in and out too efficiently for it to be only one.
“We’ll know more when we get the autopsy report but don’t look for that until Monday,” Lt. Mark Watson stated. It wasn’t often he came to a crime scene anymore, so the fact that he was there meant it had gone all the way up the food chain, and no one was happy.
“Did the coroner say anything else?”
“No, liver temp indicated the victim had been deceased about four hours. It was still light when it went down. I’d say that pretty much cements your theory that they really know the neighborhoods they’re hitting.”
“Exactly.”
“Does Anna know?” Steele asked after their lieutenant walked away to speak to the press.
“Yeah. She wanted to go see his widow, but I told her to stay home until I had more information.”
“Youtoldher? You really don’t listen, do you? No wonder you’ve been single for so long. You don’ttella woman like Anna what to do. You ask her or cajole her. But anything remotely like an order will only get you the opposite of what you want.”
Ethan looked from the house, crawling with police, back to Steele. Was he right? He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed her cell. He didn’t want to wait for her to text him back. Except she wasn’t answering. One ring, two, three, four, voicemail.What the fuck?
“She’s not answering, is she? What did I tell you! You really do need to get on Facebook more.”
“So, you’re telling me the handbook on how to deal with women is stalking Facebook?”
“Yup. Just do it, you’ll see.”
“First, I have to find my woman. She was half-asleep when I left so maybe she went to bed and didn’t hear the phone.”
“Really? That’s the best you’ve got? Bro, what have you been smoking?”
Ethan rolled his eyes. Sometimes he thought Steele would have been better as a private investigator, or maybe he should have joined his brother’s security firm.
Calling over one of the uniforms, he asked him to go to Anna’s house and let him know what he found. He’d have gone himself, but he had a crime to investigate.
They went into the house after putting on their gloves and crime scene booties. The place was trashed. It was a huge departure from the other crime scenes. Those homes hadn’t been wrecked inside, just cleaned out of valuables. It looked like there’d been a knockdown drag-out fight in the front room.
“What the fuck happened here?” Steele asked. “None of the others were torn apart.”
“I’m wondering the same thing. Could it be different perps? Or maybe there was something else going on here.”
“Do you still think Johnson is involved?”
“Yup. I do. There was something not right about him.”
