Josie
was on the way home from the Lake Michigan beach when she heard the radio
announcer say something about “the Cornfield Killer.” She didn’t catch it all, but it sounded like
there had been another murder. Ignoring the sand in her hair and the sunburn on
her nose, she stopped by the office as soon as she reached Jordan. Hoss was the
only one there.
“Yeah, there’s a story on the wire,” he said.
Holding up his jeans with one hand, Hoss rose to the wall map and reached up to
point to the location.
“It’s really only about five miles from The
Banks, but it’s over the border into Cook County. And it wasn’t in a cornfield.
It was in one of those new apartment complexes that sort of abut the
cornfield. The AP story doesn’t say
anything about a connection to the Cade County murders.”
“Well, maybe, since it is so close,” Josie
said, shaking her head. “A murderer doesn’t know when he’s crossing the county
line. Did any of the reporters phone in? Who’s on call today?”
“I called Nick, it’s his day,” Hoss responded.
“We don’t usually cover Cook County, cases but I thought maybe on this one . .
. .”
“Hoss, you’re a lifesaver."
“And how’s this little Indian?” Hoss said,
ruffling Kevin’s hair.
“I’m not an Indian,” Kevin giggled.
“Why, you’ve got red skin!” Hoss replied.
Nick’s
story in Monday’s paper had all the basic details—a young married couple killed
in their bed, he with one gunshot to the head, she shot several times. Though
both were nude, Cook County police did not suspect a sex crime. It was a
marital bed, after all. Nor did they see any link to the Cade County crimes.
Cade County officials seemed to agree.
“Of course we are working with Cook County,”
Sheriff Coleman said in an official statement, “but there is no evidence at
this time to link this murder to any of the recent, unsolved murders in Cade
County.”
Off
the record, Coleman complained to Nick that Cook County was uncooperative and
unwilling to share any information about its
investigation. “The
killer could have left a note confessing to the Cade County crimes and they
wouldn’t tell us,” Coleman said with disgust.
But
the media—especially the Chicago television stations—had no trouble linking the
murders. “Cornfield Killer strikes again” was the top story on Monday’s five
p.m. and ten p.m. newscasts on all three stations. Instead of using the
reserved comments of the Cook County Sheriff’s department, they filled their
screens with panicked neighbors and pseudo-experts like Angela Deline.
Media
attention was focused on the latest victims, so the television vans were
circling in the little suburb of Park Forest. Jordan was forgotten as
yesterday’s news, which was fine with everyone living there. They liked their
lives getting back to normal.
