“And you can give me the actual details, can you?”
He shrugged. “I could, except that it’s something so horrific, I really don’t like bringing it back into my mind. I’m sure you guys think that’s absolutely stupid, but reliving that just brings my son’s death back for me.”
“And I get that, but you might want to consider the reality that there could be somebody out there causing these accidents and hurting other kids.”
Bill paled slightly. “Now that you mention it”—he stared off at nothing really and then turned to look back inside his apartment—“I did get an email from somebody that was a little odd.”
“From whom?”
“They just called themselves aconcerned citizen.”
“Do you still have it?”
He frowned. “I don’t know. I was pretty upset about it.”
“What was it all about?”
“They wondered about changing the traffic pattern, after the proposal had already been rejected. Something about bystronger means.”
“That is something I need to see,” she said instantly.
He frowned at her, and she shook her head. “Please, this is not the time to fool around. There’s already been a couple deaths in the last handful of days, I don’t want more to happen and have more families torn apart.”
“God, no,” he said in shock, “but I don’t even know if I’ve still got it.”
“Can you take a look?”
“I guess, but I don’t understand why somebody would be doing this. When you say that, what do you mean? Are they trying to cause accidents?”
“Exactly,” she said instantly.
“But that’s just sick. Who’s sick enough to do that?”
“Somebody who’s broken over the loss of a loved one maybe,” she said quietly, “and that is something you should understand, Bill.”
“Understanding the pain is one thing, but doing something so outside the law and causing the same pain for somebody else? No, I don’t understand that at all.”
“I get that, and I’m really glad to hear it.” She quietly studied his face but heard only truth. “I still need to confirm your whereabouts, so we can move on.” Then she gave him the date of the first accident.
He frowned. “My days pretty well roll one into the next. I live alone, and, outside of the time that I’m out shopping, either I’m here or I tend to haunt the pizza parlor. It’s just…” He stopped, looked shamefaced. “I feel connected to my son there.”
She nodded gently. “Did you see the first accident?”
He shook his head. “No, I arrived just afterward.”
“It’s pretty traumatic to see a duplicate of the horror you already went through. Did you recognize anybody who was there at the first scene, when youwerewatching?”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “A couple people, somebody who made my blood run cold. I’ve seen them before. They were usually just—”
“Go on,” she urged, with a gentle smile.
Bill frowned. “I don’t know for sure that it was the same person. Those damn kids were hassling her.”
“Hassling who?”
“The blind woman. She comes around here once in a while too. I think it’s the same one who lost her daughter. It’s not just me who hangs around those street corners. It would be better off if we hung around their graves, but it feels like they aren’t there. It feels like we lost them here, so this is where we are.”
Kate understood, but, at the same time, it was ghoulish. “And you saw the blind woman there?”