“But why would she do that?”
“Could she have?”
“No… maybe when I was in the kitchen, but then she would have had to sneak out the front door instead of the back. Or when I was in the bathroom; but I’m sure she was here the whole time. Neither of us left the house. Just Declan.”
“How long was Declan playing outside before Isabella said he was missing?”
“An hour… maybe an hour and twenty…?”
“And in your experience… how closely did she supervise him? How often would she have looked out at him?”
“I’ve never sat down and timed the intervals. I don’t know how you could expect me to know. I suppose it depends on how involved she is with her painting.”
“And does she tend to get distracted and lost in her work?”
Spencer’s hand was on the door, eager for Zachary to be gone. Wanting just to shut the door and be done with him.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know if she gets distracted by what she’s doing? So involved that she isn’t paying attention to what’s going on around her?”
“I suppose she does. Anyone does.”
“Has there been any time when Declan has gotten hurt or upset while he was in the back yard and Isabella was supposed to be supervising him? Or another time when he was her responsibility, and you got angry at her for not watching him closely enough?”
Spencer’s face got red. “I don’t appreciate your implications. Declan’s death is not Isabella’s fault.”
“I didn’t say it was. I’m trying to establish how long it was between the last time Isabella checked on him and the time that he died. What is the longest possible length of time he could have been missing from your yard?”
“It’s impossible to know that.”
“Unless you know what time it was that Isabella checked on him last, or have a pretty good guess. Did she look in on him every five minutes? Every ten? Every half hour? Maybe she only checked when he came near the window, or she heard him crying.”
Zachary stared at Spencer, waiting for his answer. Spencer was a man who liked an ordered, predictable experience. He must have had certain expectations of his wife, and must have known when she broke what he considered to be the house rules. If she didn’t do a good job supervising Declan or she left the house unexpectedly, he would have had some idea.
Spencer wiped his hand down his face in a tired gesture.
“I can’t tell you how often she checked on him or how long he was missing from the yard. I know she was in the house and I know that she was supervising Declan playing outside. That’s all I can tell you.”
Zachary stared into Spencer’s face, looking for any sign of deception. He nodded. “Okay. Thanks for your help. Good luck.”
He had started to turn away to leave when Spencer’s voice recalled him.
“Zachary…?”
“Yes?”
“Your investigation… it will be done soon? It’s causing a lot of stress on the family.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Chapter Nine
Looking down at his phone, Zachary realized that he had a voicemail message. Swiping over to the screen, he saw a message had been left by ‘unknown caller.’ Probably a telemarketer, but some of his legitimate contacts had blocked caller IDs as well. The police department, for one. He tapped the message and held the phone to his ear.
You’ve been warned to drop the case. This is your last warning.
He pulled the phone back away from his ear and stared at it. A voice changer had been used, which made the voice of the caller impossible to recognize. Which, of course, meant that if he were to hear the caller’s voice unaltered, he would have recognized it. Zachary closed his eyes, drumming his fingers on his steering wheel and considering.
The Antonelli insurance fraud case was rumored to involve the mob, but he suspected that any threat that came to him from organized crime would have more finesse, and they would leave no doubt as to which case it was they wanted him to drop. He had a couple of infidelity cases that he hadn’t reported on yet, but he had most of the information he needed to finish them off, so there wasn’t any point in dropping those cases. The Senator’s background checks weren’t likely to cause him any trouble. They were all routine, and none of the subjects had any reason to threaten him.
It bothered him that there was no real threat. His ‘last warning’ was not even a legitimate warning. There was a possibility that the warnings were about the Declan Bond case. It was the kind of case that made people emotional. The police or medical examiner might not like him reinvestigating the case. Isabella and Spencer were tired of his questions, and maybe one of them just wanted him off the case. Or Halloran, worried that word would leak out that his star was being investigated. Even Molly, afraid that the expenses were adding up, but too timid to call him off.
Zachary’s address and phone number weren’t that hard to find. Everyone had his phone number. His home address was more difficult to find, but only slightly. He wasn’t a big name. He wasn’t like the private detectives on TV, solving a murder a week. He was a nobody, and there was no need to hide from the public or discontented clients or police. He received threats from time to time. The one on his door had been a little disturbing. He tried to tell himself it was nothing, but whoever had left it wanted him to know that they could reach him. They knew where he lived. That was the message.
He didn’t delete the voicemail. If the caller did escalate from half-threats to action, Zachary might need something that the police could trace.
Kenzie had come to Zachary’s apartment when he called her, but she seemed cautious and reserved. She didn’t have
