who delivered bottled water!” Conner stormed.
“Back to the night in question. Was there a light behind the store, in the alley where you allegedly witnessed the crime?”
“His headlights were on,” Conner said.
“Answer the question, please.”
“No! No light behind the store. There was one, but it wasn’t on. His headlights were on!”
“And you say he walked in front of the car?”
“Yes.”
“So the headlights hit him where? Right about the level of his thighs?”
“The police found blood in his car!”
“Okay, okay, this is the reason for these questions, Conner,” the A.D.A. said. “We don’t know what will be asked, but if it’s going to set you off, let’s let the anger out here, during the prep, not on the stand. Just try to hold it together and answer the question without elaborating. Yes or no, whenever possible.”
It went like that on and off for two long mornings.
When he was finished on Tuesday afternoon, he drove to the house in which he grew up, a police officer in an unmarked car following him. Conner seriously doubted that Regis Mathis had anyone sitting surveillance on his empty house a couple of days before the trial, but he used caution. Conner wanted to look around the property and pick up a couple of things. He was cautious and observant.
His folks had bought this house the year he was born—thirty-five years ago. It had been a small three-bedroom on a large lot—the size of the lot remained a value to this day. When Katie came along, his dad had remodeled and built an addition, doubling the size of the kitchen and living room, adding a bedroom and bathroom. It was a process that Conner barely remembered but his dad had reminded him frequently that it had taken about three years to complete since he’d done it mostly alone.
After their parents had died, Katie lived there with him until she got married. Then she came back to live with him in that house again when Charlie deployed. When Charlie was killed, Katie stayed with him, like it was a foregone conclusion.
Eventually, she’d found a small three-bedroom not that far from Conner and together they’d bought it. It was in both their names. And even though Conner had been somewhat relieved not to be awakened in the night by a teething baby, he had been very lonely when she left. He’d been happy for her—she’d seemed to be getting on with life. But it had been a little too quiet.
Now she would be three thousand miles away. That was going to be a real adjustment, even with Leslie.
He looked around the house he had lived in for thirty-five years. Given his business, he’d been good about keeping things updated—like cabinetry, paint, woodwork, fixtures, et cetera. But the furniture? It should be given away. It was old and worn. Even the mattress had belonged to his parents, and he wasn’t sure how outdated it was. The TV was a large-screen, but not high-definition or flat-screen or anything that had been marketed in the past ten years.
Samantha had wanted to renovate the house, but he’d told her to go to work on Katie’s house; that house had needed it more, and he wasn’t ready to make any big changes in his. He probably should have let her—it seemed so old and shabby now.
There were two things he wanted to take from the house. His desktop computer with portable backup hard drive and his guns. He was making do fine with his laptop, but he should have the computer with the larger memory and the store records from the past few years. Of course, the store computer had been destroyed in the fire.
In his gun safe he kept a rifle and two handguns. He unloaded the guns, stowed the bullets and put them in a duffel, wrapped up in a winter parka. Then he placed the computer and duffel in the backseat of the extended cab. He covered the computer with a tarp he found in the garage. Even though the guns had been secure in the safe at the house—with a gun safe so heavy and hard to move, it would take a very determined thief to steal it—he had already decided he wanted them with him in the hotel. Not because he was necessarily worried about anything, but because why wouldn’t a man whose life had been threatened make an effort to defend himself?
Then he drove a few blocks away and called Katie.
“I’m sitting in front of your house,”