Joe leaned forward, opened his laptop, and called up Hubbell’s mug shot. He was white. His hair was brown. He was five ten, which made him average height.
And as of May fifth five years ago, he was a free man.
CHAPTER 79
IT HADN’T TAKEN Joe long to locate Clement Hubbell, the man who’d been convicted of rape, had done twenty years in Chino, and had been released two weeks before the first of what Joe saw as five linked murders, one a year on the twelfth of May.
After lunch with Julie and her sitter, and under a sunny sky, Joe drove toward Edgehill Mountain and the home of Denise and Clement Hubbell.
Edgehill Mountain was an old, remote development with winding roads and small, widely spaced houses that had views of the Pacific and Ocean Beach. His car’s GPS told Joe that he was coming up on his destination, and then he saw it up ahead on his left, a tidy tan house with red doors, standing alone at the side of the road.
Joe slowed the car to get a look at the picket-fenced vegetable garden beside the house, where an older woman in red checkered pants and a pink cardigan was weeding the beds.
He checked the number on the mailbox, then pulled his Mercedes into the driveway next to a dinged-up Toyota wagon. He took his Glock out of the glove box and slipped it into his shoulder holster, then pulled on his leather bomber jacket and got out of the car.
Putting his hands in his jacket pockets, Joe walked over to the gate and peered into the garden. The woman who was working the soil had sweet, doll-like features and white hair; she looked to be in her midseventies. Probably Hubbell’s mother.
“Mrs. Hubbell?” Joe said.
The woman looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun. “Oh, hi, Jerry,” she said. “Where’s Clem?”
“No, ma’am. My name is Joe Molinari. We’ve never met. You’re Clem’s mom?”
“Yes, I’m Denise, but Clem isn’t home. I thought he was with you.” The woman laughed, got to her feet, and dusted off her knees. “Come on in,” she said. “I’ve got blueberry muffins in the oven and a jar I just cannot open by myself.”
Joe said, “Sure.” He opened the gate for Denise Hubbell, who chattered away as she led him to the house about planting different types of peppers. Joe weighed whether or not to go into the house before deciding What the hell? Clement Hubbell wasn’t home, and his mother might help him fill in some blanks.
Joe followed Mrs. Hubbell as she opened the back door, which led directly into the kitchen.
She said, “Have a seat.”
Joe sat down at the red Formica table, and Mrs. Hubbell handed him the screw-top jar of sliced peaches, then fussed around the kitchen.
Joe opened the jar and said, “It’s so beautiful out here, Denise. How’s Clem doing?”
“Oh, still crazy after all these years.” She laughed. “He spends most of his time in the hole.”
Denise Hubbell used oven mitts to take the muffin pan out of the oven and put it down heavily on the stovetop. Joe saw immediately that the batter was still unbaked, but she didn’t seem to realize it.
“Let’s let them cool for a minute, Jerry.”
“I’m sorry,” Joe said. “What do you mean, ‘the hole’?”
Denise removed her mitts, fluffed her hair, and said, “That’s what he calls his room. Any space too big or too bright makes him dizzy. To think how the two of you used to run around all the time to all hours. I had to bait Clem with dinner and once he was in, bolt the door.”
She laughed again. She had a very nice laugh.
“You think he’d mind if I saw his room?” Joe said. “I’ve got a note for him that I’ll leave on his dresser.”
“You go ahead,” said Clement Hubbell’s mom. “End of the hall. You know where it is. When you get back, we’ll have coffee and sweets.”
Joe said, “Good deal,” and walked through the kitchen and into a hallway. He passed the living room on his right, then a pink-floral-papered bedroom to the left. Beyond that was a door centered at the end of the hallway.
Joe turned the knob expecting to see Clem Hubbell’s “hole,” but rather than a bedroom at the back of the house, there was a flight of stairs heading down. Joe found a light switch and flicked it on. He saw that the wooden stairs led to a basement room, which was another way of saying “the hole.”
Joe left the hallway door open and started down.
CHAPTER 80