CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kate and DeMarco arrived at the Bennett house for the second time in two days; with the return trip to the Rodriguez house before it, Kate felt like she was moving in some strange time loop.
As DeMarco pulled the sedan into the driveway, Kate noted that the crime scene tape had been removed and a car was parked out front—presumably Jake's.
He had finally been dismissed as a subject (an event Kate thought had taken a bit too long), and she presumed he would have come back here…
to grieve, to pick up the pieces, or to handle the arduous task of trying to plan his mother's funeral.
The house looked different now, less like a crime scene and more like a home where someone was trying to resume a normal life after tragedy.
"You sure he'll talk to us?" DeMarco asked as they walked up the front path. "From what I understand, he wasn't exactly thrilled about being arrested and held overnight without any strong evidence. And rightfully so."
They reached the front door, and Kate knocked, waiting for a response from inside.
After a moment, she could hear movement through the house, followed by the sound of someone approaching the door.
The deadbolt turned, and Jake Bennett appeared in the doorway.
He looked terrible. His hair was disheveled, his clothes wrinkled as if he'd slept in them, and his eyes were red-rimmed with exhaustion and grief.
When he recognized Kate and DeMarco, his expression immediately shifted from neutral curiosity to barely contained anger.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jake said, his voice tight with frustration. "Haven't you people done enough damage?”
"We just—," Kate started, but he wasn't quite done yet.
“I just got released from jail this morning after spending a night locked up for something I didn't do."
"Jake, I understand you're upset," Kate began, keeping her voice calm and non-confrontational. "We're not here to arrest you or cause you any more problems. And we do deeply regret the way things went down earlier."
"Then why are you here?" Jake demanded, gripping the door frame as if he might slam it shut at any moment. "Because from where I'm standing, if what you just said was meant to be an apology, it was awful and half-hearted.”
DeMarco stepped forward slightly. "Mr. Bennett, we have reason to believe that your mother's death might be connected to another recent death—and that they may potentially be murders. We're following up on some new information."
"Another death?" Jake's anger wavered slightly, replaced by confusion and concern. "What do you mean, another death? Murder?"
Kate seized on his momentary uncertainty.
"Jake, we think someone else might have been killed the same way your mother was.
Someone who was also an empty-nester dealing with an adult child moving back home.
We need your help to figure out who might be responsible.
Really… we just have a few questions, and your help might be invaluable. "
Jake stood silent for a long moment, processing this information. Kate could see the conflict playing out across his face as he weighed his anger against his desire to find his mother's killer.
"You're saying my mom wasn't the only one?" he asked finally.
"We think there might be a pattern," Kate said. "And we believe whoever did this is still out there.”
Jake's shoulders sagged slightly, and some of the tension went out of his posture. "I just... I can't believe this is happening. First Mom dies, then I get arrested for killing her, and now you're telling me there's some kind of serial killer?"
"We don't know for certain yet," DeMarco said. "But we're exploring the possibility. That's why we need to ask you some follow-up questions about your mother's routine and the people who had access to her house."
Jake looked back and forth between the two agents, clearly struggling with his decision. Kate could see him weighing his distrust of law enforcement against his desperate need for answers about his mother's death.
"Fine," he said finally, stepping back from the doorway. "But I want to make it clear that I'm only talking to you because I want to find out who killed my mother. Not because I trust you people."
"Fair enough," Kate said, following him into the living room. "We appreciate your cooperation."
The interior of the house looked much the same as it had during their previous visit, but there were subtle signs of Jake's continued presence.
A coffee mug sat on the side table next to his mother's reading chair, and a laptop was open on the dining room table, surrounded by printed resumes and job application materials.
Jake gestured for them to sit on the couch while he remained standing, his arms crossed defensively. "So what do you want to know?"
"We're trying to identify anyone who might have had access to both your mother's house and the home of this other victim. Service people, contractors, delivery drivers, anyone who wouldn't seem out of place coming and going."
"You think someone who worked here killed my mom?" Jake asked, his voice rising slightly.
"It's one possibility we're exploring," DeMarco said. "Can you think of anyone who did work here recently? In the past month or so?"
Jake thought for a moment, running his hand through his already disheveled hair. He looked so exhausted that just looking at him made Kate feel tired. "Well, there was the guy who came to fix some stuff around the house. Mom mentioned it when I called to tell her I was moving back home."
Kate felt her attention sharpen. "What kind of work did he do?"
"I'm not sure exactly. Some kind of handyman stuff, I think. Mom said she'd been putting off some repairs and decided to get them taken care of before I moved in." Jake paused, his expression growing slightly irritated. "Actually, it kind of annoyed me at the time."
"Why did it annoy you?" Kate asked.
"Because she'd been complaining for weeks about the damn security system acting up, but when she had this handyman here, she didn't bother to ask him to look at it.
I kept telling her to get it fixed, but she said it wasn't that important.
" Jake shook his head. "If she'd had the guy check the alarm system, maybe it would have been working properly and whoever killed her wouldn't have been able to get in so easily. "
"Do you remember the handyman's name?" DeMarco asked.
Jake frowned, concentrating. "No, I don't think Mom ever mentioned it. She just said she'd found someone to take care of the repairs."
"Would there be a record of the payment somewhere?" Kate asked. "A check register or bank statement?"
"Maybe," Jake said, pulling his phone from his pocket.
"Mom gave me access to her checking account after Dad died, just in case something happened and I needed to handle her finances.
I can check the recent transactions." He had come around a lot since answering the door, perhaps simply resigning himself to the fact that this needed to be done.
Jake swiped through his phone, accessing what appeared to be a banking app. Kate watched as he scrolled through recent transactions, his finger moving down the screen as he searched for payments to service providers.
"Here," Jake said suddenly, holding up the phone so they could see the screen. "There's a payment from about two weeks ago. Seventy-five dollars to someone named Michael Torres."
A chill flushed through Kate. It was the same name on the business card she'd found on Thomas Rodriguez's refrigerator.
"Michael Torres," DeMarco repeated, writing the name in her notebook. "Did your mother mention anything specific about what he fixed?"
"Not really," Jake said, still looking at the phone screen.
"She just said he took care of some things that had been bothering her.
I was more focused on my job situation at the time, so I didn't ask for details.
" He frowned at this and, without saying anything, Kate could tell that he felt guilty.
Maybe he should have asked more questions about his mother's life.
Kate leaned forward slightly. "Jake, do you remember if your mother seemed different after this handyman visited? Any changes in her behavior or routine?"
Jake considered the question carefully. "Not really different, but maybe a little more anxious? She'd been worried about me moving back home anyway, so I figured it was just stress about that."
"Did she mention feeling unsafe or worried about anything specific?" DeMarco asked.
"No, nothing like that. If anything, she seemed relieved to have gotten the repairs done. She mentioned that it was one less thing to worry about before I moved in."
Kate studied Jake's expression, noting that his anger had been largely replaced by concern and curiosity. The revelation about Michael Torres had clearly shifted his perspective on their visit, it seemed.
“Can you think of anything else your mother might have said about him?” DeMarco asked. “How she found him, whether he seemed professional, anything that might help us locate him?"
Jake sat down heavily in his mother's reading chair, the weight of this new information clearly affecting him. "I wish I'd paid more attention,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. “I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I didn't really listen when she talked about household stuff."
"That's understandable," Kate said gently. "You were dealing with losing your job and having to move back home. Nobody would expect you to remember every detail about home repairs."
"But if I had listened, maybe I could have prevented this," Jake said, his voice breaking slightly. "Maybe… I mean, are you suggesting it might be worth looking into this handyman?”
"We aren’t sure, but it’s an avenue we will be exploring,” Kate said. “And even if that turns out to be the case, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it."
“Can you… can you keep me posted?”
“Yes, of course we will.”
Jake nodded slowly as a few tears streamed down his face. "Is there anything else I can do to help? Any other information that might be useful?"
Kate considered this question. "If you think of anything else your mother mentioned about the handyman, no matter how small, please call us immediately. And if you find any paperwork or receipts related to the work he did, that could be helpful too."
"I'll look through her papers tonight," Jake promised. "Maybe she kept a receipt or something with more details about what he fixed."
"That would be great," DeMarco said, standing up from the couch. "We should let you get back to your day. I know this has been a difficult time."
Jake walked them to the front door, his demeanor now completely different from when they'd arrived. "Agents, I owe you an apology for how I acted when you got here. I was angry and hurt, but I can see that you're really trying to find out what happened to my mom."
"No apology necessary," Kate said. "You had every right to be upset after what you've been through."
"Just please find whoever did this," Jake said, his voice thick with emotion. "My mom was a good person who didn't deserve to die like that."
"We will," Kate promised, though she knew such promises were dangerous to make. "We'll be in touch as soon as we know more."
As they walked back to their car, Kate felt the familiar mixture of excitement and apprehension that came with a major breakthrough in a case.
The connection between Michael Torres and both crime scenes was too significant to be coincidental, but it also meant they were dealing with someone who had been planning these attacks carefully.
He could already be several steps ahead of them.
"Looks like we need to find Michael Torres," Kate said, pulling out her phone to call the field office. "And we need to do it quickly, before he has a chance to claim another victim."
DeMarco nodded and pulled away from the Bennett House, not quite sure where to go yet but confident that they were at least headed in the right direction.