I’m Watching You (Richmond Novels #1)

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Tuesday, July 8, 9:15 A.M.

‘We’re with Henrico County Police,’ Warwick said to the clerk at the Hanover sheriff’s office. ‘I’m Detective Jacob Warwick.’

Zack showed his badge. ‘I’m Detective Zackary Kier. We sent a teletype an hour ago about the Hines murders.’

The clerk was a short, round woman in her midfifties. She wore her graying hair in a tight perm that drew attention to a strawberry

birthmark on her left cheek. ‘The sheriff and most of his deputies are in a staff meeting this morning, but the deputy who

worked the case stuck around so he could talk to you personally. Let me buzz him.’

She picked up the phone and told the person on the other end they’d arrived. ‘Deputy Graves will be right out.’

‘Thanks,’ Warwick said.

Zack knew the personnel turnover in this office had to be low. ‘You been here long?’

The woman nodded with pride. ‘Thirty years.’

‘You remember the Hines case?’

Her weathered face twisted into a deep frown. ‘I sure do. It was one of the saddest cases I’d ever seen. Just about everyone

in Hanover knew someone who knew the Hines family. And when their little girl ran away, it just about broke my heart. We said prayers for her at Sunday service for months.’

Zack rattled the change in his pocket and tried not to pace. He thought about Lindsay at seventeen: young, alone, frightened.

The urge to protect her was so strong.

They didn’t have to wait long for Graves. He pushed through a side door. He was a tall, stocky man with full, ruddy cheeks

and thinning red hair. His protruding belly stretched the fabric of his brown uniform.

He offered his hand to Zack. ‘Deputy Marty Graves.’

Zack shook his hand and discovered the deputy’s grip was strong.

‘You’ve come about the Hines murder?’ Graves said.

‘Yes,’ Zack said.

‘I’ve got the file on my desk. Come on back.’

They followed him through a pair of heavy security doors and down a narrow corridor to his cramped office. Both took a seat

in front of his desk.

‘Can I get you men coffee?’

Both declined.

Graves sat and put on his reading glasses. ‘I remember this case. Fact, I knew Frank Hines from Rotary. Nicest guy you’d ever

want to meet. And Deb was in my wife’s circle group at church. Both would give you the shirts off their backs.’ He cleared

his throat. ‘We were all shocked at first when Frank did what he did. But then later, as folks started to compare notes, we

started to piece together a few things. Life in the Hines house had to have been bad for years.’

‘What about the daughter? What can you tell me about her?’ Zack said.

‘Lindsay.’ A sad smile played at the corners of Graves’s mouth. ‘She was a lifeguard at my grandkids’ pool. She saved a child

from drowning that summer. The youngest Thompson kid, a four-year-old, had gotten out of the baby pool and fallen into the

deep end of the main pool. The Herald-Progress did a story on her. Both her folks seemed proud. And all the boys wanted to date her, but she kept them at arm’s distance.

My grandson, Joel, worked with her as a lifeguard at the pool. He always figured she was playing hard to get. Of course, none

of us really knew what was going on at home. Her mother never reported any abuse and Lindsay never said a word.’

Zack wondered what kind of hell Lindsay had witnessed in her home.

Warwick tented his fingers. ‘What happened to Frank Hines?’

Zack knew the short answer to that question but wanted to hear the deputy’s version. He realized now how much Lindsay had

downplayed the problems in her past.

‘After he killed his wife, he fled the scene. Went to a local motel, downed a bottle of Jack Daniels, and then killed himself.’

Graves flipped through the file. ‘He left a suicide note for Lindsay. I never showed it to her.’ He found the note in the

file and handed it to Zack.

Zack read it. Typical MO for a wife beater. ‘Shit.’

Graves nodded. ‘There was no sense dumping that kind of crap on a kid. She had enough to deal with.’

Zack handed the note to Warwick. ‘He blames his wife and Lindsay for his problems. Said if they’d been a better wife and child he’d have been fine.’

‘What a piece of work,’ Warwick muttered.

‘You think you know a guy,’ Graves said.

Zack thought about the hell he’d put Lindsay through when his drinking had gotten so heavy. No wonder she’d tossed him out.

Graves dropped his gaze to the file. ‘We did receive a 911 call from the Hines’ house about three months before Frank and

Deb died. Before the caller could speak the line went dead. According to the report, the dispatcher called the house back.

Frank answered. He said it was a mistake.’

‘Only the one call?’ Zack asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Anything unusual happen recently to remind you of this case?’ Zack said.

‘Nope. Of course, I saw that article a couple of months ago about Lindsay. I recognized her the very instant I saw her. She’s

the spitting image of her mama. It did my heart good to see she’s done so well for herself.’

‘That article didn’t prompt any talk about the murders in town?’ Warwick asked.

‘Well, of course it did. We all remembered it. I talked about it with Joel at Sunday supper after the article came out. But

nothing out of the ordinary came up. Why all these questions about a twelve-year-old murder?’

‘Just following up on a lead,’ Zack said. ‘Lindsay have any relatives?’

‘No one came forward after her parents’ deaths.’ Graves shook his head. ‘There was no one to take custody of her, so the state stepped in. She was sent to a foster home.’

‘But she ran away,’ Zack muttered.

‘Right,’ said Graves. ‘This got something to do with the murder at Sanctuary yesterday?’ When they hesitated, he smiled. ‘I

wasn’t born yesterday, boys. You think that murder’s tied to Lindsay’s past?’

‘We don’t know,’ Zack said honestly. ‘Can you tell us where the Hines house was?’

‘I can draw you a map to the lot. The house burned to the ground not one month after the murders. Fire department said it

was arson, but we never did figure out who set it.’

‘Was Lindsay a suspect?’ Zack said.

‘No. She’d run off by then.’

‘We’ll take a look at the lot then.’

‘Sure.’ The deputy drew a map, clipped it to a copy of the file, and slid it across the desk.

Five minutes later, Zack and Warwick left the building armed with the hand-drawn map and the Hines file.

Zack tossed his keys to Warwick. ‘Mind driving? I’d like to look at the file.’

‘Sure.’

They got in the car.

Zack opened the file and studied the color photos of the murder scene. The victim lay on her back, her face discolored and

swollen from the brutal beating. Her wide-eyed death stare reflected the panic she had to have felt those last few seconds

of her life.

‘My God,’ Zack said.

Warwick glanced at the map. ‘Never gets easy.’

‘No, it doesn’t.’ His problems with alcohol abuse this past year had been a bitch, but through it all he’d had a solid family

behind him. Lindsay had been alone when she’d lived her nightmare.

‘The less personal you make this,’ Warwick said, ‘the easier it will be.’

His partner’s sudden empathy surprised Zack. ‘Autopsy reports on Lindsay’s mother show that she’d suffered multiple factures

over the years – nose, right arm, left hand.’ He flipped over a page and discovered a medical report on Lindsay. ‘Lindsay’s

doc reported that she was in a state of shock. He also stated that she’d suffered a spiral fracture of her right wrist.’

‘Someone twisted her hand so hard her wrist broke.’

Zack tamped down his anger. ‘Yeah. Doctors reported that her and her mother’s breaks occurred a couple of years before the

murder/suicide.’

‘What does the report say about Frank Hines?’

‘Died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. A forty-five.’

‘Like Turner,’ Warwick said.

Turner and Hines shared similar fatal wounds made by the same caliber gun. Another coincidence. Things weren’t looking good

for Lindsay. ‘Yeah. Autopsy reports show advanced liver disease, a by-product of excessive drinking.’

Warwick shook his head. ‘Lindsay ever tell you this stuff?’

His wife had hidden her darkest secrets even from him. ‘Only the barest details. I tried to talk to her about it, but she always changed the subject. She said she’d put her past behind her and didn’t want to discuss it.’

Warwick tightened his hands on the wheel. ‘This is the kind of stuff that can really fuck with someone’s head.’

Zack flipped to a picture taken of Lindsay when she was a junior in high school. Challenge radiated from her eyes. ‘That doesn’t

mean she killed Turner.’

‘Turner smacked around his wife. Lindsay knew it. Maybe she’d had enough of bullies.’

Zack stared at the more than decade-old crime scene photos. And then he noticed the date. ‘ Shit .’

‘What?’

‘Yesterday was the twelve-year anniversary of the Hines murder/suicide.’

Warwick tightened his jaw and turned down a country road. ‘This is a little too connected to be a coincidence.’

‘Yeah.’

Another right and another left and they arrived at the Hines’ driveway. As Graves’s map indicated, it was marked by a tall

oak tree that had been split down the center by lightning. The rusty mailbox had long fallen from its post and lay on the

side of the road covered in weeds.

They drove down the rutted driveway until they reached the end. Before them stood the charred remains of the home Lindsay

had grown up in. The only part of the structure left standing was the brick fireplace and the foundation.

They got out and walked toward the foundation.

‘Who owns the land?’ Warwick said.

‘Lindsay said the county took it for back taxes about eight years ago. They tried to sell it to a developer, but the well water in the area turned up contaminated from one of Hines’s underground storage tanks. Remediation was too expensive

so the land has just been sitting.’

Lindsay had said her mother had loved to garden, but there were only hints of the flower beds she’d told him covered the property.

Soil mounds for vegetables cut through a portion of the field behind the house. A flowering vine twisted around a gazebo that

had been ravaged by the weather and time. And on the back of the lot, there was a greenhouse.

‘Let’s have a look.’

They walked around the house’s foundation toward the greenhouse. Most of the windows had been shattered by vandals’ rocks.

The door hung on one hinge and it was easy to push open. Inside were rows of long-dead plants and a collection of clay pots.

Zack picked up a stack of pots. Lindsay’s birthday was tomorrow. If he had time, he’d clean these up for her.

‘We’d better get back to town,’ Warwick said.

‘Yeah.’

As they turned, Zack spotted words carved over the doorjamb. The letters were crude and looked as if they’d been carved with

a knife.

He reached up and wiped the dirt free. The words read, L and J forever . ‘L and J. What was Graves’s grandson’s name?’

‘Joel Heckman.’

‘Let’s have a chat with Joel.’

It wasn’t hard to find Joel Heckman. He worked at a bicycle shop in the town of Ashland, the county seat. Zack and Warwick stepped through the shop’s doors fifteen minutes later.

A lean man in his early thirties stood behind a glass display case filled with expensive bike accessories. He was holding

a bike shoe and trying to fasten a clip to the bottom. ‘Welcome. Can I help you?’

Both detectives pulled out their badges as they approached the counter.

‘Joel Heckman?’ Warwick queried.

‘Yeah.’

‘We came to ask you a few questions about Lindsay O’Neil.’

He looked puzzled. ‘O’Neil?’

‘You’d know her as Lindsay Hines.’

Joel’s eyes widened. ‘Lindsay. God, I haven’t seen her in years. What’s this all about? Is she okay?’

‘She’s fine,’ Zack said. ‘We’re looking into her background.’

Joel nodded. ‘Her mother’s murder.’

‘Yeah,’ Zack said. ‘What can you tell us about it?’

He shoved out a breath and set down the shoe. ‘I wish I’d gone into the house with her that day. I always thought if I’d gone

in I might have found her mother first and spared her the sight.’

‘But you just dropped her off,’ Zack said.

‘Yeah. She was excited to be home early. It was Thursday and her mother’s regular afternoon off. Her mom had started working

at the diner in town and had to work all the time. They didn’t see each other much.’

‘Know anything about her extended family? She ever talk about anyone?’ Warwick said.

‘Naw, she never talked about them at all. I think her mom had a falling out with her family. They didn’t like Frank, I think.’

‘She talk about anything?’ Zack said.

‘She always kept the conversation light. She never brought friends home and spent a lot of time in the library. She could

have graduated a year earlier because she had so many credits but she wanted to stay in town. I think now it was to be close

to her mom. Maybe she thought she was protecting her.’

‘What about her father?’ Warwick said.

‘There’s no nice way to say it – he was an asshole. He lost his temper once with her at the pool because she kept him waiting

five minutes.’ Joel shook his head. ‘Lindsay had been giving a kid a swimming lesson. The kid was terrified of the water and

Linz always spent extra time with her.’

Linz. Joel’s affection for Lindsay was clear. ‘She was your friend.’

‘Yeah. She was great. And I can tell you she didn’t deserve her father’s shit. I can tell you if Frank Hines hadn’t killed

himself, there were about a half dozen people in town who would have killed him. Myself included.’