‘Isn’t it terrible? Such a young woman. Her whole life ahead of her …’
Madelaine Baines had a very full schedule this morning – dropping off the dry cleaning, picking up the groceries, a trip to Phone Shack and the Nail Bar – but some things were too important to let pass without comment. She wasn’t sure her designated server, who was busy sorting out her handset upgrade, shared her feelings, but this did not deter her from making her emotions plain.
‘They said on the news that she was only twenty-six. To end up like that, in the trunk of a car. They’re saying that she’s the second victim … You know, after that poor man …’
‘Right …’ her server grunted, as he laboured to insert her new SIM card.
‘What was his name? Jacob something?’
As she spoke, Madelaine cast around for someone else to engage with. Men were so useless sometimes … but the store was busy this morning and there were no other servers to share her shock with. They probably weren’t from round here anyway and wouldn’t understand why it was so alarming. God knows, Chicago was no stranger to homicide, but this was something else.
Two innocents, abducted from their homes, then brutally murdered. From West Town of all places, the neighbourhood she’d made her home since she moved to Chicago twenty years ago. Jacob Jones – that was his name – had lived a few blocks from here. Was it possible this young woman lived close by too?
Madelaine continued to let her mind turn on this, as she hurried back to her car. She had plenty of other things to distract her – the kids, Paul, her charity work – but already a plan was beginning to form. Madelaine knew she was a strong flavour – that occasionally people found her bossy, even a touch domineering – but say what you like about her, she was never found wanting in a crisis. She was always ready to step up to the plate.
And that’s what she would do now. They would not be intimidated. They would not be cowed. It was time for the people of West Town to fight back.