“I don’t know,” she said. “But think about it. Five annually at the same time at or near the same place seems like a revenge thing. So someone died six years ago—or, hell, ten years ago for all we know—that meant a lot to someone who got no closure, so he’s doing this. Then we’ve got Brandon. I can’t make a connection between the possible revenge thing and the sheer bullying thing gone wrong. None of this is making any sense. I can’t help thinking that Candy was killed because she knew something about what Brandon and his gang had done.”
“Knew something or saw something.” Rodney nodded, sitting back.
She stood. “I think I’d like to go back to the scene.”
He agreed. “That’s fine. I’ll come with you, if you want.”
She shook her head. “Better if you keep running through these to see if you see anything that links them. Fresh eyes and all that.”
“I can do that,” he said.
She took related stacks of paper and shoved them into a big envelope. “I’ll take these with me too.”
“Good enough. You’re sure spending a lot of time up there.”
“I know. It’s as if I feel like somehow I’ll be on the spot when the next one happens.” She almost laughed at her own statement, sounding like Simon, with the jumpers. “It’s just that weird sensation that I should see something that I’m not otherwise seeing.”
He nodded. “Just don’t get obsessed over it.”
“Of course I will.” She gave him a half smile. “It’s an open case.Obsessedis what I do best.”
He snorted. “I get it, but it’s also not a good way to live.”
“Neither is not having any answers,” she said quietly. “For us or for the families.”
And, on that note, she headed to her vehicle, thankful she had driven in today. The drive across town wasn’t too bad, but it was still about forty minutes before she pulled into the pizza place. As she hopped out, she walked into the place, studying the intersection through the big front windows and ordered coffee. The same kid was behind the counter.
He looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. “I’m back, just looking at the intersection again.”
“I don’t know what you’ll see. It’s not like it’s changed much in the last few days.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“A couple years.” He shrugged.
“You’ve seen any other accidents around here?”
“Sure, but nothing where anybody got badly hurt. The one with a couple pedestrians. One where they were playing around, and she got pushed into the road. She was lightly tapped by a car, but that was it.”
She nodded. “Did you know any of the victims?”
“Nope, I stay away from the university crowd. Not that the people in the accidents were all students—or maybe they were. I don’t know.”
“Why is that?”
“Partly because it’s not my scene. Another part is because I don’t think they see me as part of their scene.”
“I can understand that. Thanks for the coffee.” She paid and turned to walk out.
“You haven’t found anything yet, have you?”
“Not yet,” she said sadly, “but we’re on it.”
“Yeah, it must be hard to figure out though.”
“Trouble is, it takes time to get forensics. It takes time to get anything. So, as much as it might look like we’re not doing anything, we are.”
He nodded. “I didn’t mean that the wrong way.”