I Am Death

Forty-five

Tom Hobbs parents’ house was located down a quiet road, just a block away from Pomona’s Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery. The sedatives the medics had given Tom the day before had had their desired effect. He had slept for twelve consecutive hours and, despite the fact that the trauma of what he’d seen would stay forever in his mind, he had finally overcome the initial shock stage.

Tom’s mother, a very elegantly dressed woman in her fifties, showed Garcia into the white two-storey house, which was surrounded by a well-kept cluster of small evergreens.

While Mrs. Hobbs went upstairs to fetch her son, Garcia began browsing the bookshelves in the lavishly decorated study. They were packed full of classics, from Tolstoy and Victor Hugo to Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

At the far end of one of the bookcases, Garcia found several picture frames neatly arranged on a shelf. All of them of Tom and his family.

Garcia pulled his attention away from the photographs and turned around as he heard steps coming to the study door. Tom Hobbs was standing next to his mother. He wore faded blue jeans, an old pair of black All Stars and a long-sleeved white shirt that looked to be at least two sizes too big.

‘Hello,’ Garcia said, stepping forward and offering his hand. ‘I’m Detective Carlos Garcia of the LAPD. We met yesterday at your place, but you might not remember.’

Tom looked a mess. His hair was disheveled and flattened at the back. His striking eyes, now framed by dark circles, were puffed up and red from crying, and the skin on his face seemed blotchy and dehydrated.

‘I’m... not sure if I remember or not,’ Tom said, shaking Garcia’s hand, his tone beaten. ‘My mind is still a little hazy about yesterday.’ He let go of Garcia’s hand and broke eye contact. ‘I really hoped that I would wake up this morning and find out that it had all been just a horrible nightmare.’ His voice caught on his throat. ‘But it’s all true, isn’t it?’ He looked back at Garcia.

‘Unfortunately.’

Tom’s mother kissed him on the cheek.

‘I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?’ Garcia said, breaking the silence. ‘Not about yesterday, but about Sharon Barnard. As I understand it, you knew her better than anyone else.’

Tom nodded. ‘She was my best friend.’

‘Do you mind?’ Garcia asked, indicating the sofa set. ‘I’ll be as brief as I can.’

Tom turned to face his mother. ‘Mom, could you give us a moment, please?’

Mrs. Hobbs looked back at Garcia with a look that said: Please, don’t upset my son.

Garcia had seen that look many times. He gave her the subtlest of nods.

Mrs. Hobbs left the study, closing the door behind her.

‘Please have a seat, Detective,’ Tom said, taking one of the armchairs himself. Garcia took the other.

‘I apologize for my mother,’ Tom added. He sat at the edge of his seat with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He kept on squeezing them tight against his body every now and then, as if he was feeling cold.

‘There’s no need to apologize. I was also an only child. My parents were just as overprotective.’

For a moment, Tom frowned.

Garcia read his doubt and explained. ‘The photographs on the family shelf.’ He indicated the picture frames. ‘Other than your parents, you’re the only person in them.’

Tom nodded as he looked at the picture frames.

Garcia began with basic questions, mainly to allow Tom to relax, even if just a little bit. Tom Hobbs had known Sharon Barnard for over six years. They had gone to Claremont High School together and they’d been best friends since ninth grade. According to Tom, Sharon never had any enemies, neither in school nor at work, or at least not in the proper sense of the word.

Within five minutes, Tom was sounding more relaxed. His arms had uncrossed and he had moved back a little from the edge of his seat.

Garcia had no doubt that neither of the two murders had been a crime of passion, but experience told him that it was very probable that at some point prior to the murders this killer had come into direct contact with his victims. He needed to start there.

‘Do you know if Ms. Barnard was seeing anyone?’

Tom chuckled uneasily. ‘Sharon just isn’t the relationship type, if you know what I mean, Detec—’ He stopped himself and his eyes saddened again. It would take him some time to be able to automatically refer to his best friend in the past tense. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s OK.’

‘Sharon wasn’t the relationship type,’ Tom tried again. ‘Even through high school, she only dated a couple of guys, and neither lasted any longer than just a few months. But with the job we do? Always away, never really around.’ He shook his head at the thought. ‘It’s quite hard to find a partner who is willing to put up with that sort of schedule. Not that she was actually looking for one.’

Garcia understood those restrictions perfectly. His job, although very different, carried a very similar downfall.

‘Any casual affairs?’ he asked.

For the first time, a hint of a smile grazed Tom’s lips. ‘You want to know if she had “sex buddies”?’

Garcia nodded. ‘Unfortunately, I do have to ask a few questions of a more personal nature.’

Tom lifted a hand. ‘There’s no need to apologize, Detective. I totally understand that it’s your job. And yes, of course she did. Sharon is—’ Another heartfelt pause. ‘Was a very attractive woman. She got a lot of male attention, sometimes even female. Yeah, she used to get approached all the time, especially by married men. But she never went anywhere near them. “Man with a wedding band is a problem times ten.” She used to say that all the time.’

Garcia gave Tom a sympathetic smile.

‘Do you know if any of Ms. Barnard’s affairs were based here in Los Angeles?’ Garcia asked.

‘No. None. That was one of her “little rules”.’ Tom used his finger to draw quotation marks in the air. ‘She had a few of those. She wouldn’t “play” close to home.’

‘And why was that?’

Tom shrugged. ‘To avoid unwanted complications — now and in the future.’

Garcia nodded his understanding. ‘Had Ms. Barnard ever mentioned any one of her casual affairs becoming too forceful with her? Too insistent, wanting to move things to the next level when she didn’t?’

Tom didn’t take long to answer. ‘No. Never. Of course some of the guys she saw wanted to be more to her than just a casual fling. As I’ve said, Sharon was a very attractive woman, and most guys would love to properly date someone like her, but as far as I know, every time anyone mentioned maybe moving things to the next level, she ran a mile.’

Garcia kept an eye on Tom’s body language and facial expressions. Since he had begun to relax, he had stayed that way, which was a very good sign. His answers also flowed spontaneously, with no hesitation, and weren’t preceded or followed by any sort of nervous telltale signs, which indicated that he wasn’t trying to hide anything.

If this killer really had directly approached Sharon Barnard prior to the murder night, it didn’t sound as though he had done it as a lover. Garcia decided to move away from this line of questioning.

‘And had she mentioned anything about anyone else she’d met recently?’ he asked. ‘Not a lover, or anyone trying to pick her up, but maybe someone who had approached her at the supermarket, or a coffee shop, or on the streets... anywhere, really. Someone new whom she had chatted to for a little while but had made no sexual advances on her.’

This time Tom took a little longer to reply.

‘No, I can’t recall her saying anything.’

‘Are you sure?’

Tom took another moment.

‘Yes, I’m pretty sure.’

This killer was also very comfortable in assuming different identities. He’d proved that when playing out the ‘cousin’ scenario with Nicole Wilson. From that, Garcia had to assume that he was also very good at disguising himself. If he really had come face to face with Sharon Barnard prior to the murder night, chances were he didn’t do it as himself.

‘How about mentioning anything about someone that she might’ve seen before, but was unsure? Maybe a face that she thought looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place? Did she ever comment on anything like that?’

Tom scratched his left elbow and his eyes squinted one more time as he thought about it.

‘In our line of work, that happens quite often, Detective. It’s not uncommon for some of us to get scheduled anywhere up to fifteen flights a week. As you can imagine, that’s a lot of faces to greet, smile at, serve, smile at some more and then say goodbye to as they disembark. Some of them we might remember well for one reason or another, but most just get logged into our subconscious and we tend to forget about them. If I had a penny for every time I heard one of my colleagues say “That person looks familiar”, I’d be a billionaire.’

Garcia understood that very well, but he still had to try.

‘Yes, I imagine it happens a lot,’ he said. ‘Probably more often than in any other profession, but still, do you recall Ms. Barnard recently mentioning anything about someone whom she thought looked familiar?’

‘Hmm... ’ Tom frowned. ‘Actually, come to think of it, I do.’