“Okay, what do you know about the victim?”
She wiped her eyes. “He’s a friend of my brother,” she said. “We were just going to the mall. I wanted to go, but I’m not allowed to go alone, so they were walking me there. I never want to go to the mall again now.”
“Take it easy,” Kate said quietly, “this isn’t your fault.”
“But you said maybe it’s because we were laughing at the truck.”
“No,” she said firmly, “that’s not what I said. And, even if that were true, you’re not the one responsible. The guy who did this shooting is responsible. Remember that. But next time somebody drives something that you think is funny, or you want to make fun of someone, maybe just keep quiet.”
The younger woman nodded. “I will,” she promised. She looked over at Billy. “He was a really nice guy,” she said. “He’s the reason we’re walking because he wouldn’t let me go alone. He said it wasn’t safe anymore and that the world was different now.”
“And he’s right,” Kate said sadly. “Unfortunately his death proves that.”
The girl started to wail again, while Kate moved on to the next witness and then the next, the brother of the victim, who sat off to the side, stunned. She looked over at him and asked, “Are your parents on the way?”
“Yeah, they are,” he said, “but I don’t want to leave Billy like that.”
“The coroner is coming too,” she said. “There’s nothing more you can do for Billy now, except help us catch this guy.”
“I don’t even know who it was,” he said, staring up at her face. His eyes were wide and dry, from holding back the tears, but his anger kept his spine stiff. “I’ve never seen the guy before.”
“Did you get a good look at his face?”
He shook his head. “No, he was wearing a baseball cap, pulled down low.”
“Of course he was,” she muttered. “What about the truck?”
“It was an old Chevy. Beat-up. The front grille was bashed in. I noticed that. Billy and I were talking about the repairs it needed. One of the doors, the driver’s side door, looked like it was a different year or style than what was originally on it.”
“Do you think the driver heard you at all?”
The brother looked at her in surprise. “I—I don’t know. I don’t know why or how he could have. We were on the street, and he was driving by. An old truck like that… chances are he wouldn’t have heard anything outside of the cab.”
She just nodded and didn’t say anything. “And, as far as you know, you’ve never met this guy before? And I don’t suppose you would have any idea if Billy had met him.”
“He didn’t sound like he did,” he murmured. “He didn’t say anything about it at all.”
By the time she was done, and everybody had been interviewed, she headed to where Rodney stood. “It looks very similar to the drive-by we had a couple days ago. Same truck description too.”
He nodded. “We’re pulling the footage from all the cameras we can find,” he said. “That should help us to tie it in.”
“And hopefully tie these current cases into the open one from three years ago.”
He looked at her and shrugged. “That’ll be a lot harder.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I guess one of the biggest problems is that three-year break in pattern, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Why would there be three years between shootings and then only two days now?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea, but it seems like something significant happened to change his timing.”
“Maybe,” Rodney said, but he was distracted, as he looked at the sheet-covered form in front of him.
“Or are there other cases that we haven’t connected?”
He looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t know if there are any others—cold or not. And it could also be that our database isn’t as complete as we’d like. Maybe they came from Surrey or Richmond or somewhere else.”
She nodded slowly. “I was thinking of that too. We need to pull some more data, before this gets too far along. I’ll contact Reese.” She pulled out her phone.