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7

Thursday afternoon, April 7, 1988

I’d swung by Sutton’s place to pick him up on the way over to Raed into jeans, a red sweatshirt, and scuffed running shoes I counted fifteen houses on et a feel for the neighborhood Ra back on itself like a lasso The lots were hilly, largely given over to trees and scrub The natural contours of the land left little roo out the flats on which construction had gone up The houses dated back to the ’50s, all of them the work of one architect, whose modern style still looked fresh thirty years later I parked the Mustang on a grassy patch across the road froer seat and looked searchingly through the windshield

A swath of green lawn sloped upward toward the house, the long paved driveway forain The Kirkendalls’ former residence was a one-story structure in the shape of an inverted L, with the short arm extended toward the street The exterior of the house was red brick and darkly stained redith bold horizontal lines and generous expanses of glass The flat concrete roof for the front There were no flourishes, no embellishht," Sutton said

"Yes, it is In 1967, there was only one Kirkendall in town and this is where they lived"

"But where’s the second floor? Billie Kirkendall was sick He stayed upstairs and I stayed down"

"Oh, shit I’d forgotten that Wait here and I’ll see if the owner’s hoot out of the car and dog-trotted across the road The driveway didn’t appear steep, but I inded by the time I reached the top The place had an air of emptiness, a house enveloped in quiet The ere bare and there was no sign of a doormat or any of the homely touches that indicate soested that the sprinklers were still active, probably governed by the saulated indoor tehts off and on I went up a low step to the entrance, where a panoralass afforded me an unobstructed view of the interior

The architect had kept the non-load-bearing walls to a minimum and the blond hardwood floors seeht poured in from everywhere A stone fireplace was offset on the far wall and I could see a length of kitchen counter that had been stripped of s roo I walked to e bedroo doors, one partially open to reveal cavernous closet space

I returned to the front door and noticed for the first ti ARMED RESPONSE pasted to one corner of the glass The warning was probably more form than content It seemed unlikely that anyone would pay for security services when the house stood e the property was on the market, but there was no realtor’s lockbox and no stack of brochures detailing the floor plan, the square footage, or the nuns were prohibited by the home owners’ association For all I knew, every house in Horton Ravine was up for grabs I rang the bell with no expectation of a response

I left the porch, intending to circle the premises Sutton must have been clued in to the fact that the house was vacant because he e and crossed the road as I had I waited while he climbed the drive and then the two of us traced a path around the house to the rear Below, on a wide concrete apron, there was a swi pool and cabana surrounded on two sides by a plain concrete ith an outdoor fireplace and built-in barbecue pit Sutton turned and looked at the rear elevation Froe point, the two-story construction was evident The house had been tucked in against the steep hill and a series of s looked out on the view Beyond the patio, the property sloped down again sharply and thick railroad ties had been cut into the hillside to forhbors’ rooftops floated like rafts on a lake of dark green treetops

"Look faer"

"A lot of things look bigger when you’re six"

"There wasn’t a swi pool I’d have remembered it"

"I’ve done the research and this is where you were The pool and barbecue could have been added later," I said "Let’s take a walk down the hill If you wandered, that would have been your only choice"