On Friday morning, Faith was at the door moments after Geneva was picked up for her babysitting job. She stood on the opposite side of the welcome mat, wearing glistening white athletic shoes with a pink stripe and pink edges on the soles. She had on jeans, a tight-fitting white T-shirt, and a baggy, creamy-colored sweater with sleeves that covered the backs of her hands.
“Do you want some coffee?” Hadley asked. “I made a list of the neighbors we should talk to. We can look it over, and I’ll tell you a bit about them before we get started.”
Faith stepped carefully across the mat and into the house, following Hadley to the kitchen. Hadley filled two mugs with coffee, and they sat at the table with Hadley’s tablet between them.
“Jon and Sylvie Ortega live on the opposite side of Deborah. They’re out of town, so they’ll have to wait. On the other side of you are Jack and Emily Quinn. They both work from home, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Across the street are the Finkelsteins. Josh is probably at work, but Annie stays home with their twins. The Laines are retired, and they’re always up early, so we should start there.”
“Don’t you think we should talk to everyone on the street instead of just the people around you? I think the detective went door-to-door,” Faith asked.
“And that’s already his first mistake. He thinks talking to lots of people is thorough, but really, except for these I’ve listed, the others probably didn’t even know Alice existed. We only see them in passing and at block parties, which are once or twice a year, at best.”
Faith nodded. She nudged her mug toward the center of the table and pulled the tablet closer, studying the list of names and the street number for each. They sipped coffee while Hadley described her relationship with the people living around her. She felt warm toward all of them and told Faith she didn’t want to put anyone on the defensive.
Talking to the Laines proved fruitless. They hadn’t even known Alice was visiting, but they’d spoken to her in the past and thought she was a sweet girl. It was terrible to hear what had happened to her. Then, without warning, Craig Laine went on a rant about how the violence and filth and drugs from big cities was moving to their beautiful mountain community, and it seemed as if the scourge would soon cover the entire earth, and there would be no place to live a peaceful, decent, law-abiding life.
Hearing him get more and more worked up over the state of Flagstaff and the country in general made Hadley’s fingers and legs twitch with impatience. It seemed hurtful that he was more upset about the overall condition of the world than about the horrifying murder of her sister, but in some strange way, it didn’t hurt at all. She was more angry that he was wasting her time, and frustrated that he didn’t have anything to offer in the way of having seen unfamiliar cars on their street, or people who looked like they were lurking. With all his concern over the decay of things, he wasn’t paying much attention to his own front yard.
Vicki said nothing at all, clearly used to his diatribes and not wanting to offer any opinions of her own that might prolong the conversation. She kept glancing over her shoulder, obviously eager to get back to whatever she’d been doing before Hadley rang the bell. When Hadley asked if they’d noticed anything off in Kenny Bascoe’s behavior, Vickie batted her hand in the air, but said nothing and wouldn’t be pressed for an explanation.
Annie Finkelstein was equally unhelpful. She was mostly concerned about the danger that had been introduced into her children’s lives with a murder so close to home. She worried whether it was safe for her children to play in the yard. She fretted that she and Josh both liked to run on the trails, and now they were restricted, too nervous to enjoy it even if they were bold enough to try.
Was everyone this self-absorbed? Hadley had thought she would be given more than sorrowful gazes and pats on the arm. Instead, everyone seemed mostly concerned about their own safety, how their lives might be impacted, how it left them feeling. They seemed almost oblivious to Hadley’s grief.
By the time they pressed the bell at the Quinns’, she was defeated. As they’d walked from house to house, Faith had assured her that this was important, that getting information was slow, tedious work, and she shouldn’t assume it was a waste of time. “This is why I wonder if we should talk to everyone on the street.”
“To be honest, the main person I want to talk to is Kenny Bascoe,” Hadley said.
Faith nodded, slowing her pace and pulling her phone out of her pocket. She tapped at the screen and studied something that Hadley couldn’t see. After a moment, she returned the phone to her back pocket, lifting up the long folds of her sweater to slide it into place, letting the sweater fall back around her. The garment was so oversized, it made her look even thinner than usual.
“So far, they all said they never saw him anywhere near Alice,” Faith said.
Hadley sighed. “I guess our neighbors aren’t the kind to be watching everyone out their front window, hiding behind the drapes and taking notes on everyone’s coming and going.” Hadley laughed. It was shocking to hear the sound of her laughter, and it felt good. Faith was bringing her out of herself, which was a nice surprise. The fact that she hadn’t known Alice was probably part of the reason for that. “It is a private community, so I should have realized that.”
Emily opened the Quinns’ door, her hair still wet from the shower, leaving damp spots on her T-shirt with the UCLA logo. “Hi. How are you doing?” She stepped onto the porch and wrapped her arms around Hadley, holding her for a moment in a way that felt comforting.
“This is Faith Reed,” Hadley said. “She moved in next door to me a few—”
“Yes. Sorry I haven’t stopped by to welcome you.” Emily smiled. “I feel terrible you had to come to me.”
“Not a problem,” Faith said.
“Sorry you had to move in at such an awful time.”
“She’s been a great support for me,” Hadley said.
Faith turned toward her. “That is so sweet of you to say. I want you to know I’m here for you. Anything you need. Anything.”
Emily nodded. “We all are.”
“The reason we stopped by,” Hadley said, “is that I wanted to ask a few questions about Alice.”
Emily took a step back toward the door. “Do you want to come inside?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Jack is on a conference call, so we—”
“No, that’s okay. We only have a few questions,” Faith said. She proceeded to run down the list.
Emily responded to each of Hadley’s questions about seeing Alice the morning she died, about noticing anyone unfamiliar in their neighborhood, about anything Alice had said to her or whether she’d spoken to Alice at all, with a simple no.
Listening to her, Hadley felt as if her heart were growing thicker and heavier by the minute. This was truly a waste of time. She’d been so hopeful, and now she felt slightly ridiculous. They weren’t private investigators. There were no secrets hiding on their street that had been concealed from Detective Taft and would now reveal themselves in response to Hadley and Faith’s inquiries.
When Faith reached the end of her list, Emily looked genuinely disappointed, as if she’d wanted to help and had believed nearly as much as Hadley that there was some small, unnoticed piece of information that would cast everything in a new light.
“I’m sorry I can’t help,” Emily said. “It’s so horrific. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Hadley. And I can’t believe someone would do something like this…following her, because it wasn’t as if…” She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s awful. There are no words. Has anyone been able to help the police? Do they have any leads?”
“They have a sketch of the guy who assaulted that woman in May.”
Emily nodded. “I saw that. He didn’t look familiar to me.”
“It’s so frustrating,” Faith said.
“The only person we know who talked to her was Kenny,” Hadley said.
“Ugh. Deborah’s son?”
Hadley nodded.
“He’s a creep and a little scary.”
“What makes you say that?” Hadley asked.
Emily’s face tightened into a look of distaste. “I was taking out the recycling a few weeks ago, and when I stepped around the side of the house, he was standing right there.” She shuddered. “It sounds like nothing, but…maybe I shouldn’t even be saying this. I mean, anyone can walk around the area, and neighbors come into your yard. There’s nothing wrong with that. But he scared me, suddenly being there when I thought I was alone. And he was so close. He put his face right up to mine, breathing all over me.”
“Ew,” Faith said.
“He said he knew I wanted him. He’d been watching me, and he could feel how hot I was for him.”
Hadley’s breath felt ragged. “What did you do?”
Emily closed her eyes. “I told him to f-off. Then he said he was going to tell Jack I was lusting after another guy.”
“Wow,” Hadley said.
“But it suddenly struck me as funny. I started laughing, because I knew that’s what Jack would do. The laughing unnerved him, so he backed away. Anyway, I’m sorry if he was bothering Alice, too. What a horrible thing when you’re taking a little vacation, trying to relax and enjoy yourself.”
Hadley nodded. She couldn’t bear to tell Emily that Alice had claimed to like Kenny, claimed to think he was a friendly, interesting guy. How had he managed to come across so differently to her sister?
“Anyway, good luck talking to him. He’s not the kind of person who’s going to understand why you’re asking questions. Maybe in his case, it’s better to leave it to the pros,” Emily said.
Faith thanked Emily for the detailed story. Hadley said nothing. This was not going to prevent her from talking to Kenny. It was even more important now that she knew it wasn’t just her. She didn’t care what she had to put up with. He could say whatever he wanted. He wasn’t going to intimidate her.
As they walked away from Emily and Jack’s, Hadley quickened her pace. She stepped into the street and cut across, heading toward Deborah’s yard. A moment later, she felt Faith tug on the hem of her shirt, pulling it back so it pulled against her neck.
“Wait,” Faith said, letting go of the fabric.
Hadley turned. “What?”
“We should go back to your house and figure out how to handle this.”
“No. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure he—”
“Do you actually think Kenny killed her?” Faith’s eyes were wide with shock. She gnawed on the corner of her bottom lip.
“I think it’s possible. More than possible. You heard what Emily said.”
“He’s creepy and predatory, but that’s a lot different from killing someone.”
“He loses his temper at nothing. We need to talk to him. Now.”
“You’ve seen him blow up? That’s—”
“Not blow up, but he’s very impatient.”
“But you think he would follow your sister for miles without her noticing? And then sneak up on her?”
Hadley felt her eyes cloud over, followed by a dull ache behind them. “You said you wanted to help me. It was your idea. Now it seems like you don’t want to find out what was going on between him and Alice.”
“Of course I want to help. I just think we should be careful.”
“And we will be,” Hadley said. “Let’s go.”
“Not yet. It can’t look like we’re accusing him without having anything but a feeling. You could get in a lot of trouble.”
Hadley laughed. “Get in trouble? For trying to find out who killed my sister? While the killer is out there walking around, doing whatever he wants?”
Faith gave her a tender, sympathetic smile. “I know you want justice, and I do too, but if you don’t have more information, you might mess up your one chance.”
Hadley sighed. She knew she wasn’t herself. She could hear it in her tone of voice, feel it in the movements of her body and the wild, out-of-control trains of thought. Faith was right. And Jonah would agree with Faith. It was better to catch Kenny lying about something important, something related to Alice, and the best way to catch him in a lie was to give some careful thought to what they would ask him.
When she saw the way Hadley’s shoulders sagged, Faith put her arm around her. “Let’s have a look at her social media and see if she had any other interaction with Kenny.”
“She had her phone when she went running, and whoever killed her took it.”
“Does she have a laptop?”
“Yes, but I don’t know the password.”
“Let’s just try, okay? And then figure out how to handle Kenny.”
The password wasn’t too difficult to figure out—it was Geneva’s name and the year of her birth. It was almost too easy, but after the rush of excitement that they’d cleared that hurdle, they found nothing. Alice rarely posted on Facebook and Instagram, and when she did, there was nothing remarkable—pictures of hikes and a few cultural landmarks. There were no messages to Kenny or anyone else who wasn’t a close friend. They closed the laptop, defeated.