As he walked up to the front of one house, she headed over to the door of her victim’s as well. She wasn’t expecting anybody to be here, so when an older woman answered the door, Kate was surprised. “Hi. Is this Jenna Barney’s home?”
“Yes, of course this is the Barney residence,” replied the woman, who Kate thought might be her mother. The woman looked at her, then frowned and asked, “You’re with the police?”
“Yes, I am.” Kate held up her badge.
“What’s the matter?” asked the woman, puzzled, then she panicked. “Oh my God, is it about Jenna?”
“May I come in?”
The woman looked at her, wordless, and stepped back so Kate could enter. “Please don’t tell me that it’s Jenna.” Tears had already formed in the corners of her eyes as she waited, hoping not to hear the bad news she already knew was coming.
“Are you her mother?” Kate asked. When the woman slowly nodded, Kate continued. “I’m very sorry.” She held up her phone, showing a photo of the face of the dead woman. “Is this Jenna?”
“Yes,” she cried out, tears pouring down her cheeks. “She’s dead, isn’t she?” she asked, staring at the picture.
“Yes,” Kate whispered quietly. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
She shook her head. “No words can ever make this right.” She looked over at Kate, squaring her shoulders a bit. “Please tell me that you’ve picked him up already.”
“Picked who up?”
“Her ex-husband,” the woman said, frowning. “You know he did this.”
“Why do you say that?” Kate asked.
“They fought terribly. He swore he’d kill her before he’d let her have the house and everything else.” She waved a hand around the home. “You can see that Jenna is—was—still in it.”
“And you’re living here with her?”
At that, the old woman gasped. “Oh my God. Yes. Yes, I have been living here. Am I in danger?”
“And is that because you don’t have another place to live or because you wanted to be here with Jenna?”
“She actually asked me to move in with her. She said she didn’t want to be living alone.”
“And what was the ex-husband’s problem?”
“He’s an awful man, and I know that she was really worried about him. He was very abusive, very aggressive, and she was scared of him.”
“Did she have reason to be? Was there a history of abuse?”
“Oh, yes, absolutely,” she declared.
“Did Jenna go to the police or tell anybody?”
“No,” she replied, “it wasn’t good for her business.”
“What was her business?” Kate asked, looking confused.
“She was in real estate.”
At that, Kate just stared.
“That’s what I said to her too. Big deal if you’re in real estate. It’s not as if you’re a celebrity, protecting your reputation. Wife beaters come from all walks of life.”
With her notebook in hand, Kate wrote down the name of the ex-husband and asked, “Do you know where Barry is living these days?”
Jenna’s mother shook her head. “I just know that it’s an apartment somewhere. I don’t know that I ever heard her say where. But he was not very happy about downsizing, while she stayed in this house.”