Just thinking about losing Lacey sent an ache through Laura’s chest so hard she couldn’t breathe. It made her want, more than ever, to solve this case. But it wasn’t because she wanted to get justice for this woman’s grief. No, it was more selfish than that. It was because she wanted to get back to focusing on the custody hearing, and preparing enough that she would never lose Lacey again.
“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Wurz said, managing to compose herself just enough to speak again. Even her voice was watery, like she was so soaked in tears it was spilling out everywhere, and her skin was so pale without makeup she could almost be translucent. “I just…”
“It’s quite all right,” Laura said. “You take your time.”
“I just can’t think of anything,” she replied, placing the used tissue delicately on the sofa cushion beside her. She was growing a pile of them. “I don’t know why anyone would want to do this. My boys have lived here their whole lives, had the same friends since they were in school. I wish I had the answers, but…”
“Kevin mentioned that Kenneth had been brought up on a misdemeanor charge for vandalism,” Laura said, trying to tread softly. There was so much about this that would only be more upsetting for the woman, but that was how it had to be. She couldn’t skip the difficult questions to spare her feelings. She needed to know. “Do you recall anything about that? About the man who pressed charges?”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Wurz said. “He was a very bitter man. But then Kenny did such a stupid thing. He knew it, afterwards. And the police were so helpful back then.”
“They were?” Laura asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Wurz said. She dabbed one of the old tissues against her eyes. She was so upset, she probably didn’t even realize it wasn’t a new one. “We thought it was such a blessing at the time. He could easily have been charged with a felony, you know. The property damage—it would have amounted to enough. But they downgraded it to a misdemeanor because he had a spotless record until then, and he avoided jail time. That really straightened him out.”
Laura nodded. She noted it down, even though she couldn’t see that it added anything important. Nate was already on his way to interview the hotel manager; he’d know if anything was suspicious. And even though this maybe gave the man more reason to be angry at Kenneth, it didn’t give him more reason to kill him. And it certainly didn’t go any way toward explaining why he might want to kill Ruby and Jade.
“Thank you, Mrs. Wurz,” she said, getting ready to wrap things up. “I know this has been very hard for you, so we really do appreciate your cooperation.”
“Of course,” the woman said, looking about ready to burst into a fresh round of sobs again. “Anything to help—to help…”
Laura paused sympathetically, not wanting to leave her on her own. “If you think of anything else, you can reach me at any time,” she said. “And if for some reason you don’t get through, you can count on the local police force as well. They’ve got detectives and officers working on this round the clock, so there will always be someone to take your call.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Wurz said, brightening—or at least, pretending to brighten—enough to reassure Laura. “I’ll do that.”
Laura held her gaze for a moment and gave her one last nod before turning to leave. What else could she say? All the old cliches always seemed worthless in these situations. Besides, you never knew how someone would react. People got angry, sometimes, at empty platitudes.
She left the house feeling far heavier than she had when she entered it, and checked her phone. The interview had taken longer than expected with all the pauses, and she’d found out nothing at all. All she could do now was get back to the precinct and hope that Nate had had more luck.
***
Laura saw him sitting at his desk already as she entered the bullpen, and her heart sank. Nate was sitting with his hands up on top of his head, leaning back in his chair, staring blankly ahead at his screen. He looked like he was absolutely racking his brains, which in turn meant all hope she’d had of him finding something from those leads had failed.
“Nothing from the mother that we could use,” Laura said. She set the car keys down on her desk, happy to let go of them for a moment. Between the isolation of tackling it alone, and the fact that Mrs. Wurz lived out on the outskirts of the city, she was done with driving for a moment.
“Nothing here, either,” Nate said. “All three of them have alibis, and I don’t think they’re suspicious anyway. The hotel manager even had to look up the name of who I was talking about. I gather hotel room destruction is not an uncommon thing.”
Laura sighed. “I think it’s time to put out a media statement,” she said.
“Already?” Nate frowned. “What if he goes to ground?”
“What if he kills again tonight?” Laura countered. She shook her head. She was exhausted already, and they likely had so much further to go. The thought of running against the clock again tonight, with no idea where to go next—Laura could barely face it.
Nate rubbed a hand across his eyes, reflecting the same tiredness. “Fine,” he said. “It’s not a bad idea. We hit the TV, radio, all major local newspapers—get them to tell any identical twins in the city to be aware.”
“Not even identical,” Laura said. “Just twins. We can’t be sure, at this point. We should cover all possible bases.”
Nate nodded in agreement, stretching his arms up above his head before tipping himself out of his chair. “Lock your doors, stay home, have a friend over,” he said. “I’ll go and tell Captain Gausse to start coordinating a press conference.”
Laura nodded. “I’ll go over my notes again,” she said. “I don’t know. There must be something here to go on. Something we’ve missed.” She wanted to add, something we’ve missed by not working together properly. But it wouldn’t help. Playing the blame game would only make things more tense between them. Besides, it probably wasn’t even true.
The frustrating thing about being in law enforcement was that sometimes, criminals just didn’t make mistakes. And until they did, you had about as much chance of catching them out as becoming Pope, no matter what tricks you had up your sleeve.
Laura sunk back into her own chair as Nate crossed the bullpen, leaning her head back against the seat and slumping down. She ran the conversation she’d had with Mrs. Wurz back in her mind, reanalyzing every word, every angle.
My boys have lived here their whole lives. That was what Mrs. Wurz had said. They were born and bred in Milwaukee. Laura wondered if the Patrickson twins were the same. It might be a link. She had no idea what it would mean, but it might be a link.
She started to search birth records on her computer, looking up Ruby Patrickson. The good thing about it being twins was that she didn’t need to look up both of the women. Their records would be the same, which meant half the work. In a matter of minutes, Laura found her: date and t