As Kate left the small town of Whip Springs and headed for Roanoke,DeMarco used her iPad to pull up the case files on the first set of murders.It was nearly an exact copy and paste of the Nash crime scene;a couple had been murdered in their home in a particularly gruesome fashion.Preliminary results turned up no likely suspects and there had been no witnesses.
"Does it say anything about anything left behind in the throats or mouths of either of the victims?"Kate asked.
DeMarco scanned the reports and shook her head."Not from what I can see.I think it's maybe a--no,wait,here it is.In the coroner's report.The fabric wasn't discovered until yesterday--a day and a half after the bodies were discovered.But yes…the report says that there was a small piece of fabric lodged in the mother's throat."
"Does it give a description?"
"No.I'll give the coroner a call and see if I can get a picture of it."
DeMarco wasted no time,making the call right away.While she was on the phone,Kate tried to think of anything that might be able to link two seemingly random couples,given what had been found in the throats of the females.While Kate had yet to see the piece of fabric that had been taken from the throat of the first female victim,she was fully expecting it to match the one that had been found in the throat of Mrs.Nash.
DeMarco's call was over three minutes later.Seconds after she ended the call,she received a text.She glanced at her phone and said: "We've got a match."
Approaching a stoplight as they inched their way further into the city of Roanoke,Kate looked over to the phone as DeMarco showed it to her.As Kate expected,the fabric was soft and blue in color--an exact match for the one found in the throat of the Nash mother.
"We've got pretty extensive records on both couples,right?"Kate asked.
"Decent,I suppose,"she said."Based on the records and case files we have,there might be some stuff missing,but I think we've got quite a bit to go on."She paused here as the GPS app on the iPad dinged."Turn left at this light,"DeMarco said."The house is half a mile down this next street."
Kate's mental wheels were turning quickly as they neared the first crime scene.
Two married couples,slaughtered in a brutal way.Remnants or scraps of some sort of old blanket found in the throats of the wives…
There were many ways to go with the clues they had been given.But before Kate could focus on a single one and put it together,DeMarco was speaking up.
"Right there,"she said,pointing to a small brick house on the right.
Kate pulled up alongside the curb.The house was located on a thin side street,the kind that connected two main roads.It was a quiet street with a few other small houses taking up the space.The street had an almost historic feel to it,the sidewalks faded and cracked,the houses in a similar state.
Faded white letters on the mailbox read LANGLEY.Kate also spotted a decorative L hanging on the front door,made of aged wood.It stood out against the bright yellow of the crime scene tape that hung from the porch railings.
As Kate and DeMarco headed for the front porch,DeMarco half read,half recited the information they had in the reports on the Langley family.
"Scott and Bethany Langley--Scott fifty-nine years of age,Bethany sixty-one.Scott was found dead in the kitchen and Bethany was in the laundry room.They were found by a fifteen-year-old boy who was taking private guitar lessons from Scott.It's estimated that they had only been killed a few hours before the bodies were discovered."
When they entered the Langley residence,Kate stood in the doorway for a moment,taking in the layout of the place.It was a smaller house,but well kept.The front door opened into a very small foyer which then became the living room.From there,a small bar top counter separated the kitchen from the living room.A hallway stood off to the right,leading to the rest of the house.
The layout of the house alone told Kate that the husband had likely been killed first.But from the front door,there was pretty much a clear view into the kitchen.Scott Langley would have had to have been quite busy not to notice someone walking through the front door.
Maybe the killer came in some other way,Kate thought.
They entered the kitchen,where bloodstains still stood out prominently on the laminate floor.A frying pan and a can of cooking spray were sitting by the edge of the stove.
He was about to cook something,Kate thought.So maybe they were killed right around dinner time.
DeMarco started for the hallway,and Kate followed her.There was a small room immediately to the left,the door opening to reveal a crowded laundry room.Here,the blood splatter had been much worse.There were bloodstains on the washer,the dryer,the walls,the floor,and on a load of neatly folded clean clothes sitting in a hamper.
With the bodies already removed,there seemed to be very little the Langley residence could offer them.But Kate had one more thing she wanted to check.She walked back out into the living room and looked at the pictures on the walls and atop the entertainment center.She saw the Langleys smiling and happy.In one picture,she saw an older couple with the Langleys posing by the end of a pier at the beach.
"Do we have a breakdown of the Langleys' family life?"Kate asked.
DeMarco,still holding the iPad in her right hand,scrolled through the information and started to read out the details they had.With each one,Kate found that the hunch she had been sitting on for a few minutes was likely true.
"They were married for twenty-five years.Bethany Langley had a sister that died in a car accident twelve years ago and neither of them have any surviving parents.Scott Langley's father passed away recently,just six months ago,from an aggressive form of prostate cancer."
"Any mention of kids?"
"Nope.No kids."DeMarco paused here and seemed to catch on to what Kate was speculating on."You're thinking about the fabric,right? That it looks sort of like a kid's blanket."
"Yeah,that's what I was thinking.But if the Langleys didn't have kids I don't think there would be any obvious connection to be found."
"I don't know that I've ever seen an obvious connection to anything,"DeMarco said with a shaky little laugh.
"That's true,"Kate said,but she felt like there had to be one here.Even with the seemingly random victims,there were a few things they did have in common.
Both couples were both in their mid-to-late fifties,early sixties.Both were married.The wife of each couple had a piece of what appears to be a blanket shoved down her throat.
So yes…there were similarities,but they were leading to no real links.Not yet,anyway.
"Agent DeMarco,do you think you could make a call or two and make sure we can get some office space at the local police department?"
"Already done,"she said."I'm pretty sure Duran handled all of that before we even arrived here."
He thinks he knows me so well,Kate thought,a little irritated.But then,on the other hand,it appeared that he did know her pretty damned well.
Kate glanced around the house again,at the pictures,at the bloodstains.She was going to have to get deeper into the details of each couple if she wanted to get anywhere with this.And she was going to need to get some kind of forensic results on the fabric pieces.Given the similarities between the two scenes,she assumed some good old basic research more than anything would uncover some leads and clues.
They returned to the car,Kate again reminded that they had started this day ridiculously early.When she saw that it was just after ten in the morning,she was somewhat invigorated.They still had most of the day ahead of them.Maybe,if she was lucky and the case broke the way she felt it might,she'd be back in Richmond by the close of the weekend to see Michelle one more time--if,that was,Melissa would allow it.
See,some wiser part of her spoke up as she got back behind the wheel of the car.Even in the midst of multiple bloody murders,you're thinking of your granddaughter--of your family.Doesn't that tell you something?
She supposed it did.But even as she stepped foot into the later quarter or so of her life,it was still very hard to admit that there was something more to life than her work.It was especially hard when she was on the trail of a killer and knew that at any moment,he could be killing again.
