The Night Stalker

Eighty-Five

Hunter looked up from his computer screen. Garcia had his stare fixed on his PC monitor, his brow creased in a peculiar way.

‘What have you got?’

A couple more seconds before Garcia finally looked up. ‘A 20-year-old article.’

‘About what?’

‘A family murder/suicide. Husband found out that his wife was sleeping with someone else, lost his head, killed the someone else, his 10-year-old kid, his wife and then blew his head off with a shotgun.’

Hunter frowned. ‘Yes, and. .?’

‘Here’s where it gets interesting. It says that the husband stitched parts of his wife’s body shut before killing her.’

Hunter’s eyes widened.

‘But that’s all. It gives no further details as to which body parts.’

‘Did he shoot his wife?’

‘Again, it doesn’t say, and that’s what’s strange about it. It’s a potentially big story, but the article is quite brief.’

‘Where did this happen?’ Hunter got up and approached Garcia’s desk.

‘Northern California, Healdsburg in Sonoma County.’

Hunter took control of Garcia’s computer mouse and scrolled through the article. It was about five hundred words long. Garcia was right, it was too brief, mentioning what happened almost by passage. No specific details were given other than the ones involved. The victims had been Emily and Andrew Harper — mother and son, and Emily’s lover, Nathan Gardner. Emily’s husband, Ray Harper, had carried out all three executions before shooting himself in the couple’s bedroom. There were two pictures. The larger of the two showed a two-story white-fronted house with an impeccable lawn, completely surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape. Three police vehicles were parked on the street. The second picture showed a couple of county sheriff deputies bringing a dark polyethylene body bag out of the front door. The expression on their faces told its own story.

‘Is this the only article?’ he asked. ‘No follow-up?’

Garcia shook his head. ‘Nope, I’ve already checked. Nothing on the Harper case prior or after that date. Which again, I find hard to believe.’

Hunter scrolled up and checked the name of the newspaper — the Healdsburg Tribune. He checked the name of the reporter who covered the story — Stephen Anderson. After a quick search, he had the address and phone number for the newspaper headquarters.

The phone rang for thirty seconds before someone answered it on the other side. The person sounded young. He told Hunter that he’d never heard of a reporter called Stephen Anderson, but then again, he’d only been with the paper for six months. He was with the newspaper’s Sonoma University trainee program. After asking around, the kid returned to the phone and told Hunter that according to one of the most senior reporters, Mr. Anderson had retired nine years ago. He still lived in Healdsburg.

Hunter disconnected and got the operator for Sonoma County. Stephen Anderson’s name wasn’t listed. He clicked off again and called the Office of Operations. Less than five minutes later he had an address and phone number.