Page 60 of The Accomplice
She had died younger than Tobias. At thirty-four, the Sandman had ended her.
Moving through the lounge, Bloch found the large kitchen and noticed the back door. Built from solid oak with two heavy deadbolts. One at the top with the bar going into the ceiling, and one at the bottom with a bolt hole in the stone floor. Even if the Sandman had drilled the mortice lock, there was no way past those deadbolts. Bloch opened the back door and stepped out into a narrow, covered alley. A Perspex canopy, affixed to the back of the building leading on from the brownstone, covered the trash cans. A brick wall on the right, she followed the alley left as it wound around the house and back onto the street. The mortice lock on the back door had no tooling marks. The Sandman had accessed the property from the front. There was nothing else of interest on the rest of the first floor, and Bloch followed Lake upstairs.
The second floor had a playroom, bathroom and large studio. Stacy had been an architect who worked mostly from home. The third floor had another bathroom, two children’s rooms opposite one another. They made for the main bedroom down the hall.
The king-sized bed was still in the room. In the center of the mattress was a huge stain. It was an oval shape, like the abdomen of a giant black spider.
Bloch went to the window and looked out. She could see straight into Mrs. Broder’s little apartment. She took the iPad from her backpack, fired it up and skimmed through the crime-scene photos for the Nielsen murders, looking for the pictures taken of the victims as the police found them.
Looking at the faces of the dead is hard. Studying the faces of those who had died violently was something else. It was nothing new to Bloch. She had been trained to look past the horror so that she would be able to see the evidence. Every murder told a tale.
After he had sedated the children, he pulled the comforter up under their chins. They were found with their eyes closed and, at first, the cops thought they were dead. At least the first responder did, the officer who had subsequently taken his own life. The girl woke first and stumbled out of her room to find a cop in her house, staring at her parents who had been murdered in their bed. The shock traumatized them both.
Tobias had a bullet wound on the left side of his nose. The exit wound was on top of his head, suggesting he had been lying down when the shot was fired, and the shooter was in an elevated position. Stacy had multiple stab wounds. According to the medical examiner, any number of them could have been fatal in a matter of seconds. They were found in bed, the comforter covered their bodies, eyes missing, sand in those sockets and in their wounds.
‘Why a family ?’ asked Lake.
The FBI analysts, including Delaney, thought they had an answer.
He was upping the ante.
Taking greater risks and showing the world his power.
Bloch could see the logic in that, but somehow it didn’t quite fit.
‘He let the children live. Made sure they wouldn’t interfere. He shot the father in the head, but used a blade on the wife. I get the impression the couple were the target. The children were just part of the job,’ said Bloch.
‘Why this family ?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Bloch as she began to pace around the room, thinking.
‘This is not an easy house to access,’ said Lake. ‘He went in the front door. That’s a busy street and he risked being spotted. Actually, Mrs. Broderdidspot him, and a female, casing the place.’
Something Lake said seemed important. When he’d spoken just now, Bloch had felt a prickling sensation over her skin, sending goosebumps running along her flesh.
‘Say that again,’ said Bloch.
‘What ?’
‘Just repeat what you said.’
‘Ah, ahm, this house is pretty secure and visible from a lot of windows. He was taking one hell of a risk in—’
‘No,’ said Bloch, frustration creeping into her voice.
‘Take it easy, let’s just think this through,’ said Lake.
‘I can’t take it easy,’ said Bloch. ‘He took my friend. We have to move quicker. You said something else. You said something about this house.’
‘Oh, he had to go in through the front – a major risk for—’
‘That’s it,’ said Bloch, moving out of the room and quickly down the stairs.
‘What ? What is it ?’ he asked.
Bloch said nothing, she just went straight into the kitchen and waited for Lake to catch up.
‘If you were going to break into this house, how would you do it ?’ asked Bloch.
