Lopez’s cell phone activity consisted primarily of texts to customers about fishing trips, plus regular—though not exactly daily—communication with Jocelyn. To judge from the scarcity of actual calls, he wasn’t much of a talker. Three calls to a number Carter hadn’t been able to trace stood out. Chicago area code, and by all indications so far, a burner phone that was now disconnected. It could be confirmation of Lopez’s involvement in drug activity. In addition to the two anonymous tips the department received, the former police chief had contacted Carter this morning to tell him that Jocelyn’s father had reached out with concerns about Lopez. So was Jocelyn’s father right about Lopez? Or was he behind the anonymous tips?

The only other call that intrigued Carter was from Lopez’s cell to the main corporate number for LockeHome, placed two months earlier. Carter had certainly heard of the company, because who hadn’t? When Carter was a kid, the chain store’s long-running TV ads always featured the company’s folksy owner, imploring customers to “Locke in our low, low prices.” When big-box retailers came along with even cheaper offerings, LockeHome not only survived but grew to eclipse all the other chains. Widely credited for the surprising success story was the folksy owner’s daughter, who joined and eventually replaced her father as the face of the company. The stores’ ads featured women at all stages of a home improvement project—from planning and purchasing to painting and plastering. While the other big outfits largely hired men for the sales floor, relegating women to lower-paid cashier positions, LockeHome publicly committed to ensuring equal pay and representation at every level of employment. The stores grew to include not just hardware and building supplies but furniture and high-end kitchenware—one-stop shopping for the dream home.

As a result of the corporation’s evolution, Melanie Locke—maiden name retained, of course—was now a leading role model for working women, an unapologetically ambitious corporate executive who firmly believed that gender equity and profits went hand in hand. A committed philanthropist who raised her young daughter on her own after her husband was killed, she also had a compelling personal biography. And now that she was a candidate for the Senate, it was probably only a matter of time before she ran for president too.

Carter had no interest in either corporate business or politics. What mattered to him was Melanie Locke’s city of origin. The one where the folksy patriarch was born and raised and where the company’s headquarters still remained. The one to which Alex Lopez had made a phone call just two months before he died. That city? Wichita, Kansas.