Chapter Twelve
When Kate got to the station the talk about her jogging incident had already spread through the building. Sean had heard about it even before he arrived at work. He walked over to greet Kate as soon as he arrived at the station.
Sean asked, “How are you, and more importantly how is the suspect?”
Kate replied, “I am fine and the squad car showed up and saved the guys bacon.”
Kate faced a number of well wishers as more people heard the news and she had to field calls from several reporters who wanted to speak directly to the victim. Her answer was a simple one, “No comment”.
Kate had a murder to solve and she didn’t have time to talk to reporters. She was working on the things she told her daughter about, collecting names from the contact list and checking to see what vehicle they drove. They had all of the GPS coordinates from the photos on her phone to see if any of those photos were taken in locations where the friends lived.
Kate was making a list of businesses that were close to the site where the body was dumped. The fact that their police station was only a couple blocks away didn’t go unnoticed. She listed the Himalayan Bistro first because it had a good angle and they had already visited with them. She wrote the list with notations beside each place.
Getty’s Service Station right next door. …They close early and probably can’t add anything.
Next to the service station a small strip office complex with small businesses opened during the day.
Across the street is a Restaurant “West on Centre” that has a back alley with a view of the dump scene.
Across the street next to the Bistro was an embroidery and shirt place,
A bagel and coffee shop and a cafe and pub, was next to the embroidery place. Most likely all were closed.
Just a block away was the Speedway fuel stop. It was open twenty-four hours and would be their most likely spot for a witness.
Kate said, “Let’s go to the “Speedway first, it has the best chance of someone seeing something.”
Sean didn’t reply, he bowed to Kate’s greater experience. It was just down the street anyway and there were plenty of places to grab lunch. Getting meals didn’t always happen, sometimes there is just not an opportunity. Most of the places to eat in the area were small establishments and there wasn’t a lot of seating capacity.
When Kate and Sean went out to her car to go to the “Speedway” fuel station, they were surrounded by reporters trying to talk to Kate while sticking a microphone in her face.
A reporter yelled out from the back of the crowded field, “Do you think you were ever in danger?”
Kate replied, “I would guess the suspect was in more danger than I was.”
Another reporter asked, “Is it true you served tours of duty in Afghanistan?”
Kate knew they already knew the answers to the questions they were asking. It always drove her a little nuts when they asked something they already knew the answer to. But then she thought that was the way police interrogation was.
Kate replied, “Yes, I proudly served in Afghanistan with a tour of duty.”
Another reporter asked, “Do you carry a weapon when you run?”
Kate was not happy about the barrage of questions but she continued to keep her cool and answer.
Kate responded with a smirk, :Yes I carry a Glock and very trained hands and feet. If he had actually attacked me, I would have handled it and then afterward gotten a short vacation pending an internal investigation.”
Sean sensed the mood shift in Kate and stepped in to rescue her. He pushed the crowd back and said, “Please stand back, we have an important investigation to do and anyone standing in the way will be charged with obstruction.”
Kate managed to get in the car and Sean joined her quickly after. The crowd split and moved aside while Kate backed the car back out of the parking lot and into the street for them to make their short journey to the Speedway fuel stop. They pulled up beside the building away from the gas pumps. A man walked out of the front door and over to their vehicle.
The man had a name badge on with the label that said manager. He asked Kate, “Is there anything I can help you with? Hey, aren’t you that police lady that was attacked this morning?”
Kate replied, “I wasn’t actually attacked, he was arrested before he could complete the attempt. We are actually here investigating the body found by the dumpsters over in the back of the Lords and Ladies Hair Salon.”
The manager replied, “I heard about that in the news, that was tragic.”
Kate asked, “Aren’t you guys open twenty four hours?”
The manager replied, “Yes we are and I have two guys working the overnight shift, it is just safer for them that way. We got hit a couple of years ago and the night guy was hurt badly. Since then no one works alone on that shift.”
Kate said, “That is very commendable. Any chance either guy may have seen anything about a week ago?”
The manager answered, “I really haven’t heard them say anything but I will ask them and see what they tell me.”
Kate handed the manager her card and he put it in his shirt pocket. She was convinced that it would wind up in the trash as soon as he went back inside his building. She was surprised when she got the call the next day from Chris the night guy. The rest of the day was spent dodging reporters and news crews. Every time they drove close to the station they could see news vehicles parked everywhere so they kept on going.
When Kate got home that night, Megan was already home.
Megan said, “I would ask you how your day was but I already saw it on television. You were the talk of the school.”
Kate replied, “I am sorry I thrust you in the limelight. I was just trying to run.”
Megan responded, “It’s okay, I know you didn’t go looking for trouble, but it always seems to find you.”
Kate detected the sarcastic tone and thought to herself, “The old daughter is back. I guess I knew it would happen.”
When Kate asked Megan what she wanted for dinner she got the usual “I’m not hungry” response and Megan went to her room.
Kate never knew what would trigger an episode with Megan, it was often just something small and there never seemed to be a correct way to handle it. She had a murder to solve and a chance to keep a sex predator off the street as well. Then she thought, “Okay, an alleged sex predator.” For the time being she had a contact list from Linda Miles’ phone. She had the research department do background checks and she was going through each name and making a list of people she wanted to talk to.
Kate was diligent in her research, checking the addresses and what kind of vehicle they drove. The friends that lived in other states were set aside. Kate didn’t have any reason to look at anyone that wasn’t local. Kate looked particularly hard at male friends because of the physical strength required to strangle a person to the extent Linda Miles was strangled.
Kate kept the list of female friends too if they lived in the area. Kate knew that often women would talk to other women about personal problems, martial issues and a lot of other personal things. The women were not very likely suspects but they could be very good witnesses to information that others didn’t have. Kate knew Linda would probably tell a woman friend details she wouldn’t share even with her husband.
Kate worked the list on a spreadsheet on her laptop. She had the criteria set and she separated the individuals by location and gender. Kate knew her first group to interview would be the men and especially the local ones who owned an SUV. She noted who she wanted to interview first. She read through the names and made a check mark by the ones that met the most criteria.
When she got to the end of the local males she ran across the name Walter Sims. The name seemed familiar somehow but she couldn’t place where she had seen it. She started going back through the names and trying to make sense of things when she heard the news broadcast on her television. They were talking about her near attack earlier that day and they ran the interview with her talking to the reporters.
The story ended with the news anchor saying, “The would-be attacker, Walter Sims, is scheduled to go before a judge in the morning for arraignment. When Kate heard the report, she temporarily froze. Megan had come back in the room to gripe about the interview when she heard Kate say, “Oh my God, Oh my God, it wasn’t random, he was coming after me.”