This wasn’t just a piece of paper, this was a photograph. An instant photograph of Kate and Liz standing on Theresa McConnelly’s front porch. The door was still closed and Liz’s hand was on the doorbell. Kate was biting her nails and looking nervous, clearly fidgeting. This picture was taken when they had arrived, just a few hours earlier.
“Get in the car, Kate.” Liz said firmly, it was not unkind but it was also not to be questioned so Kate just nodded and did as she was told. Liz looked at the photograph again and studied the angle to figure out where the Photographer had to have been standing to take it.
She looked around the yard and surmised that the row of bushes that separated Theresa McConnelly’s yard from the street was the vantage point. She walked over and pulled out her phone, turned it to the camera setting, and took some photographs of the location. She looked around on the ground for anything left behind, any scuff marks, anything suspicious but nothing glared out at her.
She clenched her jaw angrily, furious at herself for not having seen him there earlier or thinking to check that she could have been followed. She slipped this new photograph into an evidence bag that she always carried on her and then walked back to the car climbing in. Kate still looked pale and ashen, staring forward but clearly lost her thoughts and memories. Liz didn’t say anything, she was so angry at everything and knew that there was nothing helpful that she could say.
She had failed Kate. Again. This was becoming an ugly pattern.
CHAPTER TEN
“Kate, come on, I feel like you have practically shut the door on me. You never answer my phone calls, you haven’t come up here to see me. Can I come down there next weekend?” Annie whined to her older sister in the phone. Annie lived in New York City and the sisters normally visited each other once a month, rotating between who traveled. Annie had been in Washington, DC a month earlier during the attack and had stayed several days.
“It’s only been like three or four weeks since I’ve seen you, even less I think. Don’t be so dramatic.” Kate joked to her sister.
“Well, I wouldn’t have to be if you picked up your phone every once in a while!” Annie said indignantly.
“Come down this weekend and we can have all the sister time you want. I have some news I want to tell you anyways.” Kate chuckled into the phone, purposefully being vague.
“What kind of news? Good or bad?” Annie questioned.
“Guess you will have to wait and see!” Kate teased her sister. This wasn’t news she was going to tell over the phone so she was definitely going to make her sister wait.
“Alright, well I will be down maybe Saturday morning? Do you think you can pick me up from Union Station?” Annie asked.
“You can figure out New York subways but not the DC metro yet?” Kate balked at her, not looking forward to driving out to Union Station. DC driving was always hell, especially if you got stuck in one of its infamous circles with eighteen different exits.
Kate would get stuck going around and around forever and even when she thought she had gotten off, somehow she found herself back driving in a loop. It was infuriating so Kate always tried to convince Annie to take the metro to her apartment, but Annie had yet to give in on that.
“Kate, how have you been doing with everything? Any news from the police on the investigation?” Annie said solemnly after a few moments of silence. Kate tucked the phone between her ear and her shoulder and thumbed through the magazine that was on her lap, not really reading anything but rather releasing nervous energy.
“It’s been up and down, you know. Sometimes they find something, other times they realize it was nothing, so I don’t know...I am just trying to not get my hopes up much.” Kate stayed vague and left out everything about the new photographs and the discovery of her attacker being a renowned serial killer.
She was the big sister and although Annie had stepped up and taken care of her during her recovery, she didn’t want to keep putting that burden on Annie. Kate was the older sister and she wanted to take care of her baby sister and shield her from the indecencies of life. Not that that was even possible, but didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
“Yeah, I guess it’s not an easy case. I have faith though, Kate. Something will turn up, it will be okay. What about Derrick? How are things going with him?” Annie asked her sister, curiously.
Annie had always liked Derrick and didn’t really fully understand what had happened at the hospital between the two of them but she had been hoping that they would work it out. Seeing the way Kate was with Derrick, before the attack, was a revelation to Annie.
It was the first time she had seen her sister outgoing and truly happy. The first time she had seen her sister actually taking time out to enjoy herself and make her needs a priority. She had always been the caregiver and Annie was so glad to see someone was taking care of her.
“Oh, Annie, things are so wonderful. I can’t wait to tell you all about it this weekend.” Kate was beaming into the phone.