"Mr and Mrs Trager?"
"Detective Breen." Nicole carefully detangled herself from Josh, trying not to wake him or the other children. "Why don't we talk in the hall?"
"I have a couple of questions. If you don't mind."
"Of course." Steven nodded.
"I understand the boy, Declan, is a friend of your children."
"Yes. He's dating Lori and he's in classes both with her and Kyle."
"Do you know where he was this evening?"
"He and Kyle both want to try out for the school basketball team. After class they went to the recreation center. Declan and another friend Charlie Tanner have been coaching Kyle on his defense playing."
"How late was that?"
"I guess Declan dropped Kyle off about six. His father works late a lot so we invited him to stay for dinner. The kids started watching some movie that came on tv. He left just after nine."
Breen nodded. "According to the dispatcher at Palisades Security, the alarm was turned off at nine. That would have been Mr McDonough. We found his body in the hallway off the kitchen. The television, stereo, computer were all missing from the den. The shelves were ransacked in that room and in the bedrooms. The medicine cabinets in the bathrooms were tossed. The burglars were likely looking for any prescription medications they could get high from. There were some broken bottles in the liquor cabinet, spots that looked like at least a couple of bottles were missing.
"There was no evidence of forced entry so my theory is that the burglar or burglars were casing houses, watching to see who was home and who wasn't. May have picked out the McDonough house as an easy target. Plans change when McDonough returned home, used a ruse to get in the house. With this rain storm, no one would suspect a guy claiming to have car trouble and needing to call Triple A. Smart move, no alarm triggered so they'd have more time to work. From the signs of struggle, when the ruse was blown, Mr McDonough fought back and was killed for his trouble."
"How terrible. " Nicole gasped.
"According to the security guard who was on patrol when the panic alarm went off, he found Declan wounded and unconscious in the kitchen. From the blood trail it looks like he was attacked as he entered the hallway, then crawled back to the door to trip the alarm." Breen consulted his notes for a moment. "The 911 call came in at 9:55. Declan probably surprised the burglars as they were leaving. His wallet was in the hallway, no cash or cards inside."
"They beat him up, stabbed him, robbed him and left him for dead."
Breen nodded. "This isn't the first robbery in that area, but typically it's smash and grab when the family is out for the day, on vacation. This is the first time anyone has been hurt."
"This seems like serious overkill, pardon the pun." Steven interjected. "I can understand if Declan's father put up a fight, someone panics, he gets stabbed and they run. He bleeds to death before he can get help. But attacking Declan like this. Why not just knock him out and run for it."
"I don't know, Mr Trager." Breen shook his head. "But if there were drugs involved, the attackers may have been so wacked out that they just went crazy."
"Thank you, Detective." Nicole nodded solemnly. "If you'll excuse me. I'm going to see if there's an update on Declan. The kids will be asking when they wake up."
Steven stood silent, pondering the horrible tale the Detective had told, praying the news his wife brought back would not be bad. He wasn't sure he could handle telling his children the worst had come true.