PART III Chapter Sixteen
Kate had one more interview scheduled for the day and she decided to get it over with. The neighborhood she drove through for this interview was not nearly as affluent as the one she had just completed. Smaller houses surrounded her as she parked next to the curb where her GPS had directed her to stop. She glanced up at the house number that had been placed on the mailbox and double checked it with the one she had scribbled in her notebook. It was the home of Alana Miller and the name was the only thing Kate knew.
The front door was opened. Alana apparently was waiting to talk with Kate. A closed storm door was the only thing that separated Kate from the inside of Alana’s home. Kate knocked on the door trim and Alana quickly came to the door to give access to Kate. As a professional habit Kate glanced around and made mental notes about the contents and locations inside.
Alana invited Kate inside and offered her a seat. It was clear to Kate that Alana was upset at the death of her friend. That gave some comfort to Kate, somebody should be saddened by the death of a friend. Kate took a seat in the place indicated by Alana when she pointed for Kate to sit.
Alana said, “I will be happy to answer any questions you have. Shannon was my closest friend and I will miss her deeply.”
Kate said, “Thank you, how long were you friends with Shannon Graves?”
Alana replied, “We have been friends since high school. We met freshman year. For a while we were inseparable, going to all school events together.”
Kate asked, “Did Shannon share personal information with you?”
Alana responded, “As far as I know Shannon and I had no secrets. She knew about my skeletons and I knew about hers.”
Kate inquired, “Our main questions are about the men in Shannon’s life, especially one that was reported as being married.”
Alana replied, “You must be talking about Tim. Shannon and I talked a lot about him and I had trouble understanding why she was with him at all. I told her she should have more respect for herself than that. She just kept telling me she didn’t have time for real dating and finding the right guy. She said it was an arrangement between them that worked.”
Kate asked, “What can you tell me about this Tim? Do you know his last name?”
Alana responded, “I only heard it a couple of times. She was careful not to reveal his name so his wife wouldn’t find out about them. Thomas is what I think she said but she didn’t refer to him by name very often.”
Kate made a note of the name Tim Thomas and would run a background search after this interview. Kate continued asking questions.
Kate inquired, “Can you tell me any other details about Tim.”
Alana answered, “He had a great job, I don’t know exactly where, but he was successful and so was Shannon. He was decent looking and had a good sense of humor. He was probably in his thirties and seemed to be in shape. They never went out anywhere in order to stay out of view of the wife but Shannon never had much time for going out anyway. She worked seventy hours a week, lived on fast food and ordered everything online. Their relationship consisted of him stopping by for sex before going home. She obliged his wishes and that was all there was to it.”
Kate asked, “Shannon was okay with the way things were with the friends with benefits relationship?”
Alana replied, “She was more than okay, she said it was her idea. She referred to Tim as her ‘call guy’. She said when she needed him she just called and he came over to take care of her.”
Kate asked, “Did Shannon have any other relationships that you know of? Did she ever mention to you about being pregnant?”
Alana responded, “She never told me that she was but she had mentioned that she didn’t know if she would ever get married and she wanted to have a baby.”
That information came as a shock to Kate. She had never even considered the pregnancy may have been her idea and deliberate. It gave the case a new twist. She was pretty sure however that “Tim” wasn’t in on this deliberate act. He would have been unnerved by finding out about the pregnancy.
Kate questioned, “Do you think she would have intentionally let herself get pregnant with Tim?”
Alana responded, “If she decided she wanted a baby, I can see her using Tim as a donor without even telling him. I told her it wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Kate was writing down information as fast as she could. She was finally getting some information that may help solve the case. She would take the new information back to the station to share with Megan and Cindy.
Kate made a note of that answer, a motive for the murder was already taking form. She still wanted to run a check on Tim Thomas to see what she could find out. She sent the name to Megan to begin her search.
Kate thanked Alana for her information and handed her a card with her contact info. She gave the familiar speech to Alana about calling if you think of anything new.
Kate took her notebook out when she arrived back at the station. She would stop by the lab and talk with Megan when she walked by.
Kate asked, “Megan, did you get the name I sent to you?”
Megan replied, “I did. Do you know how many Tim Thomas’s there are in the metro area?”
Kate answered, “I assume a few. How many are there?”
Megan said, “There are three hundred and forty seven. It is going to take a while to go through the list and narrow it down.”
Kate said, “I guess I will let you get to it and I will go through my notes.”
Kate sat and began going through her notes. She knew a lot of their investigation depended on figuring out who Tim Thomas was. Kate read through her notes looking for anything that she may have overlooked. There was not a lot of evidence that led anywhere.
Megan was working through her list of names, trying to narrow down the ones that did not fit the criteria. Kate would take photos of the ones in the final list to see if Alana could identify the correct one. Alana had guessed that Tim was in his thirties so Megan eliminated all of the Tims on the list over forty. Since he was in good shape, Megan eliminated all the names that showed a weight above three hundred.
Kate stopped by the lab to see if Megan had made any progress. She could see that Megan had a stack of papers she assumed was contact information on all of the Tim Thomas’s.
Megan said, “I whittled the list down some more. I will go back through and eliminate using income and anyone that shows as single. Single guys can be eliminated from the list and also poor guys.”
Kate said, “That sounds like a good idea. Once we get a list to a manageable size I will get photos and take them back to Alana to see if she can pick one out of a photo lineup. It is getting late, maybe we could bring the list home and stop by and grab dinner on the way.”
Megan agreed and took the stack that had now been narrowed to forty two men and put it in a briefcase to carry home. She didn’t know what her mom would choose for dinner but she was hoping for anything but Italian. Megan thought Kate ate a lot of Italian food for an Irish girl.
Kate asked, “Why don’t we stop by and get a clam chowder and maybe a salad?”
Megan replied, “That sounds okay, at least it isn’t Italian.”
Kate said, “I will be sure to tell Mario how much you appreciate his cooking.”
Megan replied, “I don’t have anything against Mario’s cooking. It was great the first hundred times we went there but I just think we should have something else for a change.”
Kate responded, “Okay, I get the message. It has been cooler weather and a nice clam chowder might hit the spot.”
There was a small locally owned restaurant that Kate discovered when she was a patrol officer. It specialized in seafood with an emphasis on clam chowder. The name was simple, “Boat Dock Eatery”. Kate loved their clam chowder and they had a drive thru window.
Kate said, “Let’s go to the Dock and I will stop and get us a pack of Guinness to drink with our meal.”
Kate went in at the Boat Dock Eatery because she knew the owner. Kate had been a cop in this area for years and knew everyone. She stopped to talk to Sam for a few minutes before placing her order. Megan was used to everyone knowing her mother. Even the people who hadn’t known her for years knew her from news stories that had appeared on television or in the papers.
Kate just drove through the liquor store drive thru and placed her order with some kid at the window that she evidently didn’t know. With dinner in hand, Kate and Megan drove home and Kate carried in their dinner takeout and Megan carried in the printout of their possible suspects named Tim Thomas.
The stack of printed papers rested on a table just out of the way of the more important thing at the moment, their dinner. The temperature ran a little cooler in their little slice of the world. Clam chowder was a good choice Megan thought to help warm their insides.
After dinner it was time for list name reduction. Megan and Kate divided the stack in half and began their work. They had a trash can to throw the eliminated names into. When finished they would combine the “keepers” and see how many that were still left. They were separated by income and living location. They knew their suspect would be in an affluent neighborhood.
Kate and Megan threw away the names from the list that didn’t seem to fit their criteria. Kate knew they could go back and visit those names later if they needed to but for now they wanted to isolate the most likely candidates. They would search through and print out the items they kept along with photos of each one.
It was common for Kate and Megan to work late when they got started on a project that grabbed their attention. List culling seemed to be a likely goal for the two forensics experts.