“No, of course not,” she said. “I need the name of the man involved in the altercation.”
“His name was Kirby. I’ve got his number, but I’ll have to find it.”
“Yeah, I’ll wait,” she replied. Sure enough, he came back with it just a few minutes later. “Here it is.”
“Do you have an address?”
“No, we don’t keep that information, only cell phones.”
And, with that, she thanked him and hung up.
She turned, looked at Rodney. “Finally a decent lead.”
*
Kirby, she repeatedthe name in her mind, over and over again. “Have I heard that name before?” She paused, then looked through all her notes on the case and shook her head. “Yet it sounds a little familiar, and I don’t know why.”
“Just let it roll around in the back of your head,” Rodney suggested, standing beside her now. “You never know what might come up.”
“I’m bringing up his Facebook page right now.”
“Yeah, I’ve been tracking everybody involved in this to see if anybody posted anything.”
“I never understood that whole thing about posting about killing someone.”
“I think the percentage is pretty small too.”
“Neither woman posted anything beforehand, saying they were aware, afraid, or had any premonition of what was happening,” she murmured. “The other couple didn’t either.”
“I get it,” he agreed. “Social media for some isn’t very interesting. For others it’s a lifeline.”
“Oh my God.” Kate rolled her eyes at him. “Some people post everything, including the underwear they put on that day.”
“Are you kidding? Some people start with that?”
She shook her head. “It’s nobody else’s business, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. “Are you sure Simon doesn’t have any say in it?”
“He has no say in it at all, thank you very much,” she stated firmly. She quickly sifted through the various Facebook pages, checking to see posts from the husbands of both of the dead women. And yet nothing was there. “Neither husband was involved on Facebook.”
“I think that’s fairly common too,” Rodney noted, “for them, the grieving.”
She nodded. “The one has kids, but they’re pretty young, so I doubt they’re on Facebook.”
“I would hope not,” Rodney huffed, “but you know that stranger things have happened. But these really young kids can’t handle keyboards yet, so I think we’re safe.”
Yet, just to be sure, she punched in the names; thankfully nothing was there. Of the husband and wife who had been recently taken down, the wife was much more into fashion and constantly posted photos of the clothing that she made. Kate had to admire somebody who had the perseverance and style and know-how in order to make some of the outfits this woman had designed. “What a freaking waste.” She shook her head. This was so senseless because she really, in her heart of hearts, now believed that couple may have just been collateral damage. The killer’s real goal was the first two.
Kate knew just enough to dislike both Jenna and Robin, so she saw them being specifically chosen as targets. Kate hadn’t uncovered anything negative on the second couple yet. He worked at home at his own graphic design business. Forensics had already gone through his computer and found no threatening emails or letters, nothing in there to say he was anything but what he appeared to be. The woman had been in the process of setting up her own clothing design company.
As Kate looked at their Facebook pages, it read true and yet very sad. The last post on both was that they were heading out for a run. And, of course, nothing else had been updated. She didn’t even know what to do about that. Like, how did one handle that? Did family members go in and post about their deaths, or did you have to contact Facebook to have something posted to say they were now deceased?
She frowned, wondering what the protocol was. Was there even such a protocol? And considering it was social media, did the protocol change every day of the week, depending on who was in charge? She kept checking through the sites she had bookmarked to see if anything was new or different, but nothing stood out. She sat back, tossed her pen on her desk, and said, “I need to set up a meeting with this Kirby guy.”
“Yeah, make sure you choose a time when I can come with you.”
She looked over at Rodney in surprise.