Friday, January 21, 2011

Chapter 9

9: Kenn thought for a moment about how to answer Mina's questions in an orderly fashion.  "It was an apparent homicide that Stratford was trying to warn me about so that I could try to prevent it.  I only live about a two minute drive from Bill's house, but I couldn't get there in time to save her.  I was standing there looking at the crime scene when suddenly the door opened in my face and Bill here stepped in.  I figured he lived there and that the body was that of his wife so I grabbed him and took him out of the bathroom into the hallway."  Kenn paused, thinking about what happened next.
  "I didn't know if the perpetrator was still in the house so I wanted to bring Bill to safety.  I used a pay phone to call the police and reported the crime before I drove Bill here to my house so I could talk to Stratford and try to make sense of the situation.  I remembered that I had left the front door wide open, leaving Stratford vulnerable.  When I got here, I told the bird about what I found and he replied by screaming, 'She's in the closet!'  By that point, I was so damn frazzled that I had completely forgotten that you were coming.  I had no idea what Stratford was talking about, but I've come to trust his word, so I checked the closet.  That's when I found you and here we all are."
  Bill hung his head and silently began weeping.  Mina put her hand on his shoulder, but could do little else to console him after the loss of his beloved wife.  "So there's a killer out there somewhere?  Are you aware of any other killings that may be linked to him?  Do you know anything about him?"
  "No, this town has so few murder cases regularly.  Mostly I work on missing persons cases and drug busts."
  Something seemed to click in Bill's mind.  He sat straight up and turned to Mina.  "You said you're a reporter.  Which newspaper do you work for?"
  Bill had been so quiet that his sudden outburst startled Mina.  After a second, she said, "I work for Marble Cliffs Today."
  "My son, Jeffrey Ahn, works there.  Can you take me to him?  He needs to know what happened to his mother."
  "He's your son?  Of course I'll take you to him."
  Kenn piped in, "I'll go with you two and we'll take Stratford.  We still don't know why the killer targeted your wife and so we don't know if you or your son are in immediate danger."  So the four of them made their way to the newspaper office building.

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