Anticipation by Terri Breneman

Author:Terri Breneman [Breneman, Terri]
Language: fra
Format: epub
ISBN: 1594930554
Published: 2012-01-25T18:05:35+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Officer Patty Green was back on patrol. She and Steve had can-vassed Judge Haley’s neighborhood but gotten no leads. No one saw or heard anything unusual. After informing Frank, she resumed her normal routine. The unusually slow night had given her way too much time to think about the crime scene, and the way Judge Haley looked. The image of Mr. Haley stuck in her head.

How horrible it must have been for him to find his wife like that.

Patty glanced at her watch. Only a couple more hours left on her shift. The night dragged on. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she got a call from dispatch. It never failed. Once she told herself how slow it was, she always got a call. Murphy’s law.

The dispatcher gave her the address of a citizen at his residence. Report of a possible prowler. Name was Ralph Fredrickson.

Patty rolled her eyes. She had taken many a report from Ralph.

Most of the time they were about one of his neighbors. She was only a couple of blocks away. “Ten-four. Put me out at that address.” When she pulled up in front of the house, Ralph was on the 130

front porch waiting. She grabbed her clipboard and a blank report form and got out of the patrol car.

“Good evening, Mr. Fredrickson. What can I do for you tonight?”

Ralph was his usual animated self. He began talking a mile a minute.

Patty let him go on for a bit and then stopped him. “Okay. Let’s start at the beginning. When did this happen?” Ralph took a deep breath and retold the story that he said he had told Anne Mulhoney the night before. When he got to the end, he shook his head. “See, I told this to Ms. Mulhoney, but I figured she wouldn’t do anything about it. I know she’s awfully busy with this killer out on the loose, but I feel kinda protective.

We have to take care of our own neighbors, don’t you know. She probably thought it was no big deal, but I worry about things. I just wanted to make it official.”

Normally Patty would have taken the report and left, but tonight had been slow, and he was the neighbor of Ms. Mulhoney.

And Judge Haley had been killed, probably last night, not too far from here.

“Why don’t you show me where the man jumped the fence?” Patty said.

Ralph nodded and explained that although he didn’t see it, the Simpson girl had pointed to the general area. He walked across the street with Patty. She shone her flashlight along the top of the fence, expecting to find nothing, of course. About midway along the fence, she spotted something. Upon closer inspection it looked like a torn piece of fabric. There was a dark stain on both the fabric and the fence. She went back to her car and retrieved a small plastic bag. Carefully she covered the area with the bag.

“Which side of the house did the girls see him come from?” she asked.

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