Page 72 of You Know Why

“You can’t leave just yet. You know Keenan Aikman, Mabel’s kid? He thinks he saw the Lockes’ killer. He’s called looking for you.” Mabel Aikman used to be the town librarian before she got sick and retired early. She knew everything about everyone in Malogen. Used to, at least.

“Is he at home?”

“At his momma’s. She’s doing poorly. He had her at the clinic in Alpharetta for her treatment and stayed there with her overnight, so we missed him on the neighborhood canvass. They just got home.”

“Wanna ride with me?”

“Sure.” He hops into the car, clearly delighted by the offer. As a crime scene tech, Kevin doesn’t get to do much straight investigative work.

She calls the station and gets a hold of Jayden Grimes, the captain’s admin.

“Y’all okay?” she asks immediately.

“Yes, Jay, but can you do me a favor? Tell the captain I’m heading to Mabel Aikman’s to interview Keenan, and to hold off going home for the day until I report back? I have K-Swiss with me. It’s in relation to the Lockes’ murders. I may need him.”

“Oh my goodness. Yes, of course. Be careful, doll.”

“You know I will.”

The drive to the Aikmans’ only takes five minutes. Mabel lives on the outskirts of town in a small white clapboard cottage. Her son keeps the place looking nice. There’s an inflatable reindeer lying in the yellow grass, waiting for nightfall and the fan to be turned on.

Theresa shivers in her coat as they walk up the drive, and not just from the cold. She needs a break.

She raps on the door, and Keenan answers right away. He’s a former linebacker who blew out a knee his first year at the University of Georgia and came home to go to work at the hospital. Another dream deferred, Theresa thinks as he walks her into the house.

“Momma’s asleep,” he says. “Can I get you some coffee? Cold as a witch’s you-know-what out there.”

“I’m fine, thank you. She doing okay?”

He shakes his head. “They say it will be only a few weeks now. She’s ready to go, I think. I’m not ready, but I hate seeing her in pain, you know? K-Swiss,” he says to Kevin, who gives him a fist bump. They were in school together, a year apart.

“Anything I can do, man. Just shout.”

“Thanks. So like I said on the phone, I think I may have seen the man who killed the Lockes. I have a picture.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I’d just finished putting up the decorations for Momma, and the house looked so nice, I thought I’d take some pictures to show her. Maybe I just wanted them for me, later on, too. So I took a few, and while I was doing it, this car got into one of my shots. I didn’t think much of it, other than I didn’t recognize whoever it was. We left the next morning, and I didn’t hear about the Lockes until yesterday. I started thinking about the photos . . . Well, here.”

He hands her the phone. It’s taken from the side of the house, the reindeer inflated proudly, the lights dangling from the eaves, but the foreground is fuzzy. The camera focused on the vehicle as it passed by. It’s a black SUV, and two men are in it. The picture is surprisingly vivid for a nighttime shot. The man in the passenger seat definitely has curly hair.

“Thank God for portrait mode.”

“Yeah. I had it set up for night shots, which helped. These men are definitely strangers. Don’t recognize them or the car. Does this help?”

She pats his arm. “So much. Can you text that to me right quick? I’ll get it in the system, and we will run it immediately. Thank you, Keenan. This is huge.”

K-Swiss gestures for her to go ahead without him. “I’m gonna stay here. Let me know what happens, okay?”

Theresa doesn’t suggest otherwise. Her heart is full. This is what small-town living is about. You see your friend from high school in pain, and you stay to shoot the shit and cheer him up.

She leaves them reminiscing and hightails it back to the station.

She tries Drake on the way, but he doesn’t answer. A glance at her watch shows he’s probably already at the airport.

Captain Armstrong is waiting when she gets back. She shows him the photo.

“We need to run this through facial recognition. These men could very well be their killers. And now we know there are two of them.”