I See You (Criminal Profiler #2)(44)

“What does your husband do?” Vaughan asked.

“He’s a lawyer.”

“How long have you lived next to the Fosters?” Zoe asked.

“We moved here from Nevada about five years ago. And they moved here in January.”

“Do you mind if I have a look out the back of your house?” Zoe asked.

“Go right ahead. As you can see, there’s a very good view of the Fosters’ house.”

Zoe peered out the kitchen window, which overlooked the Foster house, and looked inside their family room. From this vantage point, it would have been impossible to see the front door, where Mark Foster had collapsed, or the interior entrance to the garage. And unless you were watching very closely, it would be easy to miss people passing in front of the narrow doorway visible from here.

“Did you notice a disturbance this morning?” Vaughan asked.

“I heard the family car pull out of their driveway very quickly. It was early. Maybe five or six.”

“Which was it?” Zoe asked.

“I slept through my alarm, which is unusual. The sun hadn’t risen.”

“The sun rose at 6:13 a.m.,” Zoe said.

“Then it must have been closer to five, because it was pretty dark.” She shook her head, trailing Zoe’s gaze with her own. “This is such a quiet neighborhood. We don’t see trouble like this.”

“Were you curious about what was happening at the Foster house?” Zoe asked. “Did the Fosters usually leave so early?”

“No, not that early,” she said. “I wanted to call over and make sure everything was okay, but that felt too nosy. People are entitled to leave early if they want to. Now I wished I’d at least called.”

“Did you see anyone looking at the house?” Vaughan asked. “Anyone in the neighborhood who didn’t belong?”

“What kind of person are you talking about?” Mrs. Pollard asked.

“Anyone that didn’t seem to fit,” Zoe said.

“No one today,” she said.

“What about yesterday or any day before?” Vaughan asked.

“Nothing. And I’m home all day and have a tendency to notice.” She pressed a trembling fingertip to her mouth, shaking her head. “This is just so terrible. I’ve spoken to my husband, Rodney, on the phone, and he says you can call him anytime today. He is more than willing to talk to you. But if he’d seen anything out of the ordinary, he’d have said something to me. And he didn’t.”

Nothing out of the ordinary. A regular day, other than the car leaving the driveway quickly between five and six o’clock. Around five o’clock in the morning, the roads would have been easier to travel. Closer to six o’clock, and those times would have tripled.

Vaughan asked Mrs. Pollard a few more questions but got nowhere. The stress underscoring Vaughan’s tone was growing more pronounced, and Zoe took the lead.

“Did Hadley ever talk about her family?”

“She mentioned that her sister died when she was a teenager. Said something about a car accident,” Mrs. Pollard said. “It’s odd that you should ask about her family. Normally, she had a bright smile on her face and a great disposition. But about a month ago, I saw her struggling with a garden hose, and she suddenly started to cry. I asked her if she was okay, and she said she’d run into someone who reminded her of her sister’s death.”

“Did she mention a name?” Zoe asked.

“No. In fact, it was like she caught herself and stopped talking. Next thing I knew, she was smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world.”





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Tuesday, August 13, 3:30 p.m.

Alexandria, Virginia

Just over Eight Hours after the 911 Call Vaughan and Spencer spent the next several hours knocking on doors and talking to the immediate neighbors. Another woman confirmed the Lexus had left well before dawn, closer to five than six. However, no one had seen anything unusual.

Their one and only witness to whatever had happened in the Foster home was Mark Foster. Now that he’d had a few hours to rest, it was time to talk with him again. They pushed through the hospital doors and made their way to the charge nurse on the floor. She told them Foster was conscious and threatening to check out if he couldn’t talk to the cops again.

“Well, he’s about to get his wish,” Vaughan said. He thanked the nurse, and the two walked toward his room. Vaughan stopped to speak to the uniformed officer. “Has he said anything?”

The female cop rose from her chair and shook her head. “He yelled at the nurses about a half hour ago when they tried to give him a sedative. He refuses to turn off the television news.”

“Any reactions to the news story?” Vaughan asked.

She checked her phone. “We’re starting to get calls. Some say they’ve seen the two, but the few we’ve followed up have been bogus. The networks have also posted Skylar’s and Hadley’s pictures on their websites and have listed both as missing and endangered. Nikki McDonald has updated her site four times today with video footage.”

“Has he had any visitors?” Vaughan asked the nurse.

“A couple of reporters tried to get up to the floor, but hospital security stopped them. It is the beauty of a lockdown unit.”