Chapter 16
Eric checked his hair and brushed off the shoulders of his jacket before leaving the warm interior of the car. He strode to Jenny’s door and knocked twice. He watched the light in the peephole disappear for a moment before Jenny opened the door.
“Hi, Jenny.” He looked at the deep blue dress she wore under the heavy fleece jacket. “You look beautiful.”
The killer gazed at Eric in his charcoal blazer and matching tie. A lump in her throat formed from thin air as she contemplated that as unwise as dating a lawman was for a serial killer, there looked to be some great potential perks. And it had been a long time since she’d experienced any “perks.”
“You look pretty nice yourself, Eric.” She stammered.
Jenny stepped out into the chilly night and locked her apartment. Officer McGill offered his date his arm and walked her to the car. She grinned as he opened the door for her and shut it again, careful not to catch her coat.
“A true gentleman as I live and breathe.” She commented as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
“What else would suffice for a lovely lady?” He quipped as he turned the heat on and shifted most of the vents to face Jenny.
The pair made polite conversation on the way to the restaurant; Jenny let herself relax around the policeman. By the time the appetizers had arrived, the murderer almost forgot about the joy of slicing open another person. Almost.
***
The dinner date ended at Jenny’s door. As Eric walked her up to her door, she was annoyed it had gone so well; things would be easier if she didn’t like the cop. But she did. The date had been wonderful.
Eric had been a perfect gentleman. They’d discovered they liked a lot of the same books, films, and television shows. Jenny fought not to fall for a guy who could put her on death row. Trouble was it was already too late. Officer McGill had a good body, quick wit, and great personality. She secretly prayed he liked killing too so it could work.
“I had a great time tonight.” Jenny said as she unlocked her door. Butterflies batted around in her stomach and grew into hummingbirds. The murderess mentally scolded herself and thought of them more as dodo birds for all the sense it made for her to be so nervously excited.
“Me too. Maybe we could go out again?” Eric asked.
Jenny pretended not to notice that his hand kept rubbing the outside of his pants leg. Several responses popped into her head. Then one found her lips.
“That sounds nice. Goodnight, Eric.”
She fumbled with the doorknob; she was still facing her date. Eric took the small step to give her a light kiss. Jenny left the knob alone and let herself fall into the gentle embrace. After a minute, Eric broke away and nervously said good night. As she entered the apartment and listened to him walk away, the killer looked at her inquisitive cat and made only one comment.
“Well this is just very terribly not good.”
***
Officer McGill smiled all the way home. He’d never really noticed Jenny until the murder but now he was happy to have been able to spend the evening with her. Eric had rarely found anyone who enjoyed so many of the same things. She even liked cheesy 80s vampire films and teriyaki chicken with dill pickles.
He threw his jacket over the back of a chair as he entered his place. A stack of paperwork sat on the counter where it had followed him home from work earlier. For an instant Eric felt guilty.
“I can’t believe I was just happy for a murder because it helped my social life.” He scolded himself.
Officer McGill imagined if the victim had been Jenny instead and felt even worse. He loosed his tie and put a pot of coffee on. Eric opened the folder and sat on a leather barstool. Determined to make some headway in the case—and protect Jenny from having to be afraid for her safety—he began to read the numerous reports for the hundredth time.
***
BEEP-oh BEEP-oh BUZZ.
Eric hit the alarm on his phone. As he sat upright the muscles in his neck yelled at him and sent waves of electrical pain to stop him from moving so much. He rubbed the offended area of his neck and stretched. Officer McGill looked at the empty coffee mug on the counter beside him and groaned.
“It’s going to be a rough day. Waking up on a barstool slumped over a counter is never a good start.”
Eric peeled out of his wrinkled clothes and got into his exercise outfit. The sweats were faded but comfy. After ten minutes of stretching, he braved the cold weather to clear his mind on the jogging trail; Officer McGill was determined to catch this murderer.
As Eric trotted around the park, he made note of every single person he passed. He tried to remember if they’d been at the park during any of his previous million visits and whether or not they had been interviewed. All he came up with was that the park had half as many patrons this morning.
His calisthenics completed, Eric drove home, showered, and hurried to work. He had to assume it was the winter weather keeping everyone at bay, but part of him still thought the killer was one of those who’d stopped showing up. He ticked off a mental list of people he’d noticed absent lately as he signed in at the desk.
“Jenny, Mr. Flemings, Dr. Ambrose, the homeless guy who slept there, and that girl who was always walking four dogs.” He mumbled as he jotted the names and physical descriptions onto a yellow legal pad. “Is there anyone I’m forgetting?”
“Yeah, you forgot the drug dealing punk Jenkins and I busted last week.” Officer Lee chimed in.
Eric looked up at his colleague.
“The kid was locked up at the time of the murder. About the best alibi you can ask for.” McGill responded.
Lee shook his head.
“We’ve already run down this list. The dog walker was at her doctor’s office with a nasty stomach flu, Dr. Ambrose was home trying to get his newborn back to sleep while his wife was getting ready for work, and the homeless guy—Sergeant Korvich—was in the hospital. Mr. Flemings and your ‘friend’ Jenny both claim to have been jogging as usual.”
McGill leaned back in his worn desk chair.
“So we need to question Mr. Flemings again or consider that it is someone nobody ever saw.” He said.
“Or it was Jenny.” Jenkins added.
Both men stared at the rookie like she was wearing a unitard made of monkey feces and angry scorpions.
“It wasn’t Jenny. She was jogging, I saw her at the same spot and time I always did.” Eric scolded. “You have no idea how upset she was when she realized she probably ran right past that young girl as she was dying.”
Lee put a hand on his junior officer’s shoulder.
“Eric, she’s just listing possibilities; it’s what we trained her to do. We both know it wasn’t Jenny. And besides, in all likelihood no one saw the killer. The profile does say that they would be someone no one ever paid any attention to.” He offered.
“I wasn’t trying to imply your girlfriend did anything.” Jenkins said. “I was just thinking aloud. I think it was probably someone who already went unnoticed and then hid.”
Eric relented and relaxed a little.
“Could be that Mr. Flemings noticed someone.”
Officer Lee passed him a folder.
“We interviewed him three times already. He knows less than we do. Our suspect isn’t in these reports. We need to tell Detective Glass that we’ve got jack to go on.”
McGill and Lee locked gazes held out their hands and played paper-rock-scissors to determine who had to deliver the news to Glass. The rookie watched her seasoned colleagues and rolled her eyes. Lee and Jenkins walked dejectedly to the office to tell Detective Glass that they were out of leads. Eric rubbed the sleep from his eyes and started filling out arrest reports from other cases.