Chapter Thirteen #3
“Go on,” Hallie prodded her.
“Well, when I first began jogging, I did notice a dark-colored SUV that was headed in this direction. I couldn’t see who was inside…”
Lexi paused, and Cooper looked at her and, detecting something, asked, “What is it?”
“This may be nothing,” Lexi said, a catch to her voice, “but the SUV looked an awful lot like one that I had thought recently was following me around.”
“Really?” Hallie lifted a brow with interest.
Cooper’s forehead creased. “You never mentioned this before.”
Lexi colored. “I didn’t feel there was any need to. After this seemed to stop, I just thought it was all in my head.”
Robyn told her, “Maybe it wasn’t a figment of your imagination. Could be that home invaders were stalking you—looking for an opportunity to target you.”
“But the target could have turned into your neighbor,” Hallie suggested, “if she seemed like an easier mark because of her age and living alone.”
Lexi fretted at the thought. “I’d hate to believe that I’m responsible for Eleanor being attacked.”
Cooper said firmly to her, “What happened to Eleanor isn’t your fault in any way, shape or form, Lexi.
Home invaders are opportunistic by nature and who they choose to go after is a choice based on circumstances.
Besides that, the SUV you think could have been stalking you may not be the same one you saw today.
And it may have nothing to do with Eleanor’s home invasion. ”
“He’s right,” Hallie agreed. “We won’t know if the SUVs are one and the same till we do. Or if targeting your neighbor was happenstance. Or if it was the plan all along, and you were never the target.”
“Okay,” Lexi uttered sedately.
“We noticed that Eleanor Palakiko doesn’t have a security system,” Robyn said.
Lexi closed her eyes for a moment. “She didn’t feel she needed one.”
“Wish that hadn’t been the case,” the detective said, and peered at her. “But you do have one—and the camera may have been able to catch enough of the home invader or invaders to give us something to work with.”
Cooper said to Lexi, “Can you access the security footage from your tablet?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Lexi stood and retrieved the tablet from the kitchen countertop. Everyone gathered around her and watched as the video showed two men—one heavier than the other, with both wearing ski masks and dark clothing—approaching Eleanor’s property.
“Hmm,” Hallie muttered thoughtfully. “The home invaders—with their ski masks and body build—look a lot like the unsubs in the Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi carjacking homicide cases.”
Cooper said, a decided edge to his voice, “I was thinking the same thing.”
Lexi eyed them both. “Are you saying that Eleanor may have been attacked by the same people who murdered Horace…and Neal?”
Hallie answered matter-of-factly, “We have to consider that as a strong possibility…when you put everything together.” In her head, that included the obvious ballistics connection between the carjackings and the symmetry between the unsubs and the home invaders.
Though most perpetrators of home invasions tended to wear masks to obscure their faces, Hallie’s instincts told her that—with the likeness of these ski masks, in particular, in combination with the other variables in play—it had to be more than coincidence that this architect’s neighbor should be victimized by home intruders who likely were aware of Lexi and chose to stalk her for whatever reason.
“Let’s see what else the security footage shows. ”
Lexi played it and they saw one of the masked unsubs, carrying items from the house, race to a black SUV, get in and drive off. Shortly thereafter, Eleanor Palakiko’s white Acura Integra came into view. The other masked assailant was driving it.
“We need to get a BOLO alert out on both vehicles,” Robyn said urgently.
“Definitely!” Cooper said, and added, “With this home invasion planned in advance, I’m guessing that the unsubs will want to hang on to Eleanor’s car for at least a little while—and continue driving the SUV that may or may not be stolen itself.”
“Right,” Hallie concurred, suspecting that the home invaders would likely change the plates on Eleanor’s car to throw off the investigation.
Unless a license plate reader could pinpoint the vehicle first. Along with the dark SUV, which looked to Hallie like a Ford Explorer.
She gazed at Lexi. “We’ll need a copy of this security video footage and any other footage from, say, the last couple of weeks, to see if the home invaders—” and to Hallie, the suspected carjackers “—may have been casing your house and Eleanor Palakiko’s. ”
“All right,” Lexi agreed readily, her voice a bit shaky, and understandably so. “I’ll do whatever you want me to, if it can help to capture the people who invaded Eleanor’s home…and apparently perpetrated other serious crimes that connect in some way or form to me.”
Hallie eyed Cooper musingly. The concerned look on his face told her that he feared for Lexi’s safety and would do whatever he could to protect her.