Chapter 4

Officer McGill was on the jogging trail as usual the next day. Jenny tried to act normal when she saw him standing near the scene of her epiphany. It was the first time she had ever seen him at the park early or in uniform.

“Excuse me, miss. Might I speak with you for a moment please?” He stopped her mid stride.

Jenny halted but acted nervous on purpose.

“Sure, officer. No one else was hurt, were they?”

She made a brief show of glancing around and fidgeting with the small canister of mace in her right hand. She’d left her knife in the car. Officer McGill noticed and reached out to comfort Jenny with a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“No, ma’am. I just have some questions I’m asking all of the folks who come here regularly.” He replied and pointed to the aluminum container she held. “I am happy to see you are taking precautions, though.”

“Well, I love my daily exercise, but I don’t want to get killed to do it, sort of spoils the point. How can I help you, Officer?”

Eric pulled a notepad and pen from his coat pocket before speaking.

“Well, let’s start with your name.”

“Jenny. Jenny Grand.”

“Nice to meet you Miss Grand. I’m Officer McGill, but you can call me Eric if you’d prefer.”

Jenny put her mace into the pouch around her waist and haltingly offered her hand. Eric shook it before moving on.

“Thanks. Nice to meet you, Eric.”

“You said you run here every day, is that right?”

“Yeah, unless the weather is terrible or I’m ill of course. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you several times.”

He chuckled.

“You have. We always pass a little further down the path. Did you happen to see anything unusual yesterday morning? Someone you hadn’t seen before, maybe?”

Jenny feigned thinking and looked upward and to the side. The chill was starting to sink in now that she’d stopped moving.

“No. I don’t think so. It was just the sound of feet hitting pavement and the wind blowing. All I saw was you on my way out.”

“No one before?” He prodded. “No one who should’ve been here and wasn’t or was here and shouldn’t have been?”

Jenny widened her eyes and rubbed her arms.

“I didn’t think about it; I didn’t see that girl. I pass her every single day and yesterday I didn’t think anything when she wasn’t on the trail.” Jenny touched her fingers to her mouth for a moment to add effect and turned towards the place she’d left the corpse. “You don’t think I was going past her while she was dying, do you?”

Jenny forced herself to think of every sad thing she could to call up some tears. Kittens dead on the side of the road. Old people being abused. Her favorite book character dying. She felt her eyes watering as the policeman put his coat around her and guided her to look away from the bushes.

“I’m sorry, Miss Grand. I didn’t think before I asked you that. And I stopped you out here in the cold. Please, let me walk you to the parking lot. I don’t have any more questions for you.” He said. “I’ll just get your information and follow up with you later if we need to.”

Together they strolled to the gravel lot: murderer and cop. He scribbled down her phone number and address as they walked. Jenny handed McGill back his jacket and pulled a sweater from her car. She wiped at the edges of her eyes and sniffled.

“Officer McGill, do you think I could’ve saved that poor girl? I mean, if I did run past while she was hurt, could I have helped her?” She asked, toying with the policeman.

“No. I think it’s probably best not to think like that. Natasha Jones was dead almost instantly from her wounds. There is nothing you could have done. But if you do think of anything, anything at all, please call me.”

Eric offered Jenny his card. She pursed her lips and nodded while she took the rectangle of cardstock. With a wave, the killer dropped down into her car and drove away with her hunter’s business card and sympathy.

Two blocks away, Jenny stopped at a school crossing and looked at the card.

“You’re wrong, Eric. I could have saved her at any time just by choosing someone else. You do look good in uniform, though.”

She slipped the card into her handbag.

“Maybe I’ll call you sometime after all.”

Jenny waved at the grade school kids as they streamed across the road to their classes. One of the children returned the gesture with a smile as he adjusted the Transformers bag on his back.