the house searching for something, rummaging through drawers and closets. But he failed to locate whatever he was looking for. Then he abruptly stopped the search and went out to the garage through the laundry room. That’s when he spotted the hammer laying out in plain sight on top of the washer. He picked it up and decided it would do the trick. But why a hammer? Why not use a knife? There were knives in the kitchen. Which begs the question, why didn’t he come armed with his own weapons? The knives were out in plain sight, too. He’d walked past them to go into the laundry room. Why use the hammer from Todd’s workbench?”
“That is weird,” Lianne decided, beginning to feel spooked at the idea of standing on the very spot where the killer might’ve stood.
“What else?” Leia prompted. “His choice of murder weapons aside, why kill the little girls?”
Gemma turned her head to stare toward the other two bedrooms. “The five-year-old woke up. Julie recognized him. Now, he’s in a tough spot. He has just a few seconds to make a decision. Does he leave witnesses behind?” She shook her head. “Nope, can’t do that. He believes he doesn’t have a choice. He leads Julie back into her bedroom, and when she turns her back to crawl into bed, he brings the hammer down, crushing her skull with the same instrument he used on her mom and dad. Then he went into the other bedroom and finished off Hallie.”
Gemma snapped her fingers. “And just like that, four people are dead in under thirty minutes. No suspect in sight after all these years.”
From the top of the stairs, Lando cleared his throat. “Any clue who this killer might be?”
Gemma jumped at the question. “Sorry. No. What are you doing here?”
“I should ask you that,” Lando said, taking two steps toward his wife. He glanced from woman to woman until his eyes seared into Gemma’s. “What gives? You really did bring your crew. What happened to the mayor staying out of police business?”
“Back at the office, after Anna Kate left, I got this overwhelming urge, this feeling that I could help out if I could just get inside the house and see where it happened. A feeling not altogether different from the one this morning when I wondered if you were in trouble.”
“So you brought the whole gang with you for support? Who’s running the grill at lunch?” Lando asked his sister.
Leia placed her hands on her hips. “It’s my day off. I am allowed a day off once in a while.”
“What’s the big deal?” Lianne tossed out. “We’re not bothering anyone. And it’s long past an active crime scene here.”
“You’re trespassing,” Lando fired back. “There’s a caretaker that keeps an eye on this place. Bruce Barnhart. Bruce put in a call to Jocelyn Williams, who’s owned this property since 2001 after it went through probate. I just got off the phone with her. Believe me when I say that she’s not happy about anybody being here.”
“Maybe you should ask her why she feels that way,” Gemma stated. “Maybe she had a beef with her sister and—”
“Killed them all one night?” Lando finished for her. “I don’t think so. Jocelyn Williams had an alibi for that night. She was away at college, San Francisco State, verified by at least six people who lived in the same apartment.”
“Doesn’t mean they aren’t covering for her. It doesn’t mean she didn’t pay someone to get rid of her sister,” Gemma pointed out. “What about a boyfriend? She could’ve sent him back here to do the deed. I think we should find out more about this Jocelyn Williams.”
“We?” Lando proffered. “There is no ‘we’ on this investigation.”
Lianne ignored that and lobbed back, “Or what about this caretaker? Where was he the night of the murders?”
“Let’s just move along,” Lando suggested. “We could stand here all day and name suspects.”
“Really? There were that many suspects?” Gemma asked.
“We’ll talk about this outside. For now, Mrs. Williams wants all of you out of her house.”
Instead of arguing in front of everybody, Gemma decided to take a different tack. She looped her arm around her husband’s. “No need to get in a snit. We’re going peacefully. But just so you know, the four people who died here are counting on all of us to find answers anywhere we can get them. If that’s uncomfortable for Jocelyn Williams, so be it.”