Empty Promises

turned as it was driven away. They could see blood inside the car too, on the gearshift lever, on the seat, and on a woman’s white sweater that lay on the seat. From all appearances, the evening before had begun in a totally normal fashion for the victims. Kris Haugen’s tiny tennis shoes and a bag of groceries were still inside the sports car.
    Fowler and Melton canvassed the building where the victims lived to see if perhaps the argument had begun in Kathi’s apartment, but no one had seen or heard anything the night before. So that much of Lehn’s story was probably true: He had encountered his former girlfriend outside her condo as she drove up after picking Kris up from his baby-sitter and shopping for groceries. She must have been upset because the lug nuts on her wheels were loosened and she was probably anxious to get home safely.
    A call came in to Homicide from a man who lived in the north end of the county. He said he had been dating Kathi Jones sporadically for several years, and when he learned about the attack on her and Kris, he became afraid for his own safety. He said that Kathi had broken up with Pat Lehn two or three months earlier, but Lehn wasn’t letting go gracefully.
    “She still saw him occasionally because he had some diamonds that belonged to her,” the caller explained. “She thought she had a better chance of getting them back if she kept in touch with him. Pat had those stones set into a ring for himself, but she still hoped to get them back.”
    The caller said that he had told Kathi all the diamonds in the world weren’t worth it. He warned her to avoid Lehn completely, but she believed she could handle him.

    Kathi Jones survived surgery, but her condition deteriorated throughout the day until it was listed as “very grave.” Her life was being maintained only by artificial means, with machines breathing for her; the damage to her brain was profound. Brain scans showed that she had suffered such massive trauma that she was clinically brain dead. So with her family’s permission, her respirator was disconnected. She breathed on her own for a very short time and then died.
    Patrick Lehn was now charged with a double homicide.

    A check of records in Lynnwood, Washington, showed that Lehn’s rage toward women was not something new. He was already on probation following a series of threats and instances of malicious mischief against another woman in that city. Lehn reportedly had been living with the woman in Lynnwood at the time of those charges and was physically abusive with her. She left him after he beat her, but then he encountered her in a local club and became enraged to see her sitting with two men.
    When she went to the parking lot later, Lehn’s ex-girlfriend found that three tires on her car had been flattened. Someone had methodically gone through her car, disabling it. The spark plug cables had been cut, and so had the fan belt, the alternator wires, and the pressure gauge wires. An attempt had been made to cut the fuel line, the brake line, and the transmission vacuum line. She told the Lynnwood police that she was sure the vandal was her former lover, Pat Lehn.
    Two weeks later the woman was terrorized with anonymous phone calls, where either no one spoke at all or the voice was clearly disguised. Fed up, she’d finally screamed into the phone, “I know it’s you, Pat!” She told police he’d admitted it was him. He had also admitted to vandalizing her car and promised to pay to have it fixed if she would move back in with him. She refused.
    Lehn had been right when he told Tando and Boatman that Kathi Jones’s father didn’t like him. The older man, actually Kathi’s stepfather, confirmed this. Kathi had started a relationship with the suspect the previous fall, and things seemed fine at the beginning. It wasn’t easy for a single mother who worked long hours, but Kathi was happy—at least for a while—when the tall, good-looking construction foreman came along. He gave her a diamond ring to show his good intentions. “It wasn’t long before she told me that she felt stifled,” her stepfather recalled. “The guy was extremely possessive.”
    Lehn started to haunt the French restaurant where Kathi worked, watching to see if any men came on to her. The man who at first seemed so perfect had become a nightmare to deal with. Kathi was afraid she would lose her job because of Pat’s lurking around the restaurant. He would stare at her and listen