its pages slowly. Neither husband nor wife had left the house since the night before their bodies were discovered. The tapes of the external security cameras revealed nobody else had come to the house in the interim. The silent alarm was triggered only by a curious neighbor the next morning. At the back of the report was a transcript of an interview with this neighbor.
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT
P ROPERTY OF F LAGSTAFF P OLICE D EPARTMENT
Docket: AR-27
Case No.: 04B-2190
OIC: Det. Michael Guierrez
Int. Officer: Sgt. Theodore White
Subj: Bowman, Maureen A.
Date / Time: 9/17/04 14:22
=============================
EZ-Scrip Transcription Follows
=============================
IO Please make yourself comfortable. My name is Sergeant White, and I’ll be conducting the interview. If you would please state your name for the record.
S Maureen Bowman.
IO Your address, Ms. Bowman?
S I live at 409 Cooper Drive.
IO How long have you known Lewis and Lindsay Thorpe?
S Since they moved into the neighborhood. Not all that long, a year and a half, maybe.
IO Did you see much of them?
S Not really. They were very busy, what with the new baby and all.
IO Did they have many regular visitors?
S None that I noticed. There were some people from the lab that Lewis was friendly with. I think they came over for a couple of dinner parties. After the baby was born, the grandparents visited a couple of times. Things like that.
IO And how did the Thorpes seem?
S How do you mean?
IO As neighbors, as a couple. How did they seem?
S They were always very pleasant.
IO Did you ever observe any problems? Arguments, raised voices, anything of the sort?
S No, never.
IO Were they ever in any kind of difficulty that you were aware of? Money, for example?
S No, not that I know. We never really spent that much time together, as I said. They were always very pleasant, very happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier.
IO What, precisely, made you go over to the Thorpe residence this morning?
S The baby.
IO I’m sorry?
S The baby. She was crying, wouldn’t stop. The baby had never cried before. I thought maybe something was wrong.
IO Describe, for the tape, what you found, please.
S I—I went in the kitchen door. The baby was there.
IO In the kitchen?
S No, in the hallway. The hallway leading from the dining room.
IO Ms. Bowman, please describe everything you saw and heard. In detail, please.
S Okay. I could see the baby, ahead, past the kitchen. She was screaming, her face was red. There weren’t any lights on, but it was a bright morning, I could see everything clearly. There was some kind of opera playing.
IO Playing where?
S On the stereo. But the baby was crying so loudly. I could barely think. I moved ahead to comfort her. That’s when the living room came into view. That’s when I saw . . . oh, God . . .
[TRANSCRIPT PAUSES]
IO Take as long as you need, Ms. Bowman. You’ll find tissue to your right, on the table, there.
Lash put the transcript aside. He didn’t need to read any more: he knew exactly what it was Maureen Bowman saw.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier
. It was just about the same thing, word for word, Lindsay Thorpe’s father had told him, with those hollow, haunted eyes, at the restaurant in New London. The same thing everybody had told him since.
What had gone wrong with this couple? What had happened?
Lash’s experience with pathology had two very distinct periods: first as a forensic psychologist with the FBI, studying violence after the fact; and then later, as a specialist in private practice, working with people to make sure violence never became a necessary option. He had worked very hard to keep the two worlds separate. Yet here in this house he felt them drawing together.
He dropped his gaze to the other envelope: the one imprinted
Property of Eden Inc. Proprietary and Confidential
. He unwound the
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT
P ROPERTY OF F LAGSTAFF P OLICE D EPARTMENT
Docket: AR-27
Case No.: 04B-2190
OIC: Det. Michael Guierrez
Int. Officer: Sgt. Theodore White
Subj: Bowman, Maureen A.
Date / Time: 9/17/04 14:22
=============================
EZ-Scrip Transcription Follows
=============================
IO Please make yourself comfortable. My name is Sergeant White, and I’ll be conducting the interview. If you would please state your name for the record.
S Maureen Bowman.
IO Your address, Ms. Bowman?
S I live at 409 Cooper Drive.
IO How long have you known Lewis and Lindsay Thorpe?
S Since they moved into the neighborhood. Not all that long, a year and a half, maybe.
IO Did you see much of them?
S Not really. They were very busy, what with the new baby and all.
IO Did they have many regular visitors?
S None that I noticed. There were some people from the lab that Lewis was friendly with. I think they came over for a couple of dinner parties. After the baby was born, the grandparents visited a couple of times. Things like that.
IO And how did the Thorpes seem?
S How do you mean?
IO As neighbors, as a couple. How did they seem?
S They were always very pleasant.
IO Did you ever observe any problems? Arguments, raised voices, anything of the sort?
S No, never.
IO Were they ever in any kind of difficulty that you were aware of? Money, for example?
S No, not that I know. We never really spent that much time together, as I said. They were always very pleasant, very happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier.
IO What, precisely, made you go over to the Thorpe residence this morning?
S The baby.
IO I’m sorry?
S The baby. She was crying, wouldn’t stop. The baby had never cried before. I thought maybe something was wrong.
IO Describe, for the tape, what you found, please.
S I—I went in the kitchen door. The baby was there.
IO In the kitchen?
S No, in the hallway. The hallway leading from the dining room.
IO Ms. Bowman, please describe everything you saw and heard. In detail, please.
S Okay. I could see the baby, ahead, past the kitchen. She was screaming, her face was red. There weren’t any lights on, but it was a bright morning, I could see everything clearly. There was some kind of opera playing.
IO Playing where?
S On the stereo. But the baby was crying so loudly. I could barely think. I moved ahead to comfort her. That’s when the living room came into view. That’s when I saw . . . oh, God . . .
[TRANSCRIPT PAUSES]
IO Take as long as you need, Ms. Bowman. You’ll find tissue to your right, on the table, there.
Lash put the transcript aside. He didn’t need to read any more: he knew exactly what it was Maureen Bowman saw.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier
. It was just about the same thing, word for word, Lindsay Thorpe’s father had told him, with those hollow, haunted eyes, at the restaurant in New London. The same thing everybody had told him since.
What had gone wrong with this couple? What had happened?
Lash’s experience with pathology had two very distinct periods: first as a forensic psychologist with the FBI, studying violence after the fact; and then later, as a specialist in private practice, working with people to make sure violence never became a necessary option. He had worked very hard to keep the two worlds separate. Yet here in this house he felt them drawing together.
He dropped his gaze to the other envelope: the one imprinted
Property of Eden Inc. Proprietary and Confidential
. He unwound the
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