by Marc Timms
“What do you mean we?” Johanna asked. She had heard the word, and while she was still sleepy, she recognized its implications.
“I just meant that we, you and I, really need to look into this. Frankly, it didn’t sound like the police totally believed your statement. So that might be the weak link that the detectives follow up.” Marnie’s eyes sparkled as she spoke, and Johanna wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She had witnessed a man kill one woman and quite possibly two; she didn’t want to be the third.
“What are the other mysteries?” Johanna asked, trying to take Marnie’s mind off of the potential investigation.
“Second, whose car is it? Does it belong to the woman in the car or the woman in the house—or someone else entirely? That’s something the police can do. There’s no way for us to run any kind of vehicle identification. They’d need the license or the VIN, and I’m guessing you didn’t get either one of those things.”
Johanna sipped at her coffee before responding. “I was a little busy trying not to be the third victim to get the plates off the car. What else?”
“Who is the woman in the house? Plus, I’m having a suspicion about the house itself.”
Johanna was amazed at how much Marnie seemed to have picked up from the TV news, not always the best resource for factual details. “I don’t follow.”
“The news made some mention of the woman being locked inside the house. I wondered if the police are baffled how she was killed—if the house was locked from the inside, etc.”
Johanna rolled her eyes. Marnie’s imagination had become too much for her. “Look, if you want to see the crime scene, you can. I was driven to the house for identification, and then they got a rookie officer to drive me home. My car is still at the crime scene.”
“Can we get in there?” Marnie asked. The thrill in her voice was palpable.
“I’m sure the other car has been towed by now, so there’s nothing there for them to investigate. My car had nothing to do with the murder.” Johanna stood up. She noted how her clothes still had dirt and a few twigs on them, and she decided to clean up before heading out to retrieve her car.
They pulled into the forest parking lot nearly an hour later. As expected, the other car had been moved out of the lot. Parts of the parking area had been cordoned off, but Johanna’s car was clear of that restricted area.
They pulled in on the other side of her car, and Marnie practically jumped out to investigate. Johanna took her time and followed her friend, not wanting to be left alone in this place.
“Why were you here?” Marnie asked. “This seems very isolated for a run.”
Johanna had an answer to the question, but it was not one she was willing to share. She had skated through the interrogation from the police on this matter. She would have to do the same with her friend.
She ignored the question and pointed. “This is where the other car was. As you can see, I had a pretty good view from here.”
Marnie looked over her shoulder and nodded. “It’s definitely pretty clean from this angle. So what happened next?”
“I ran.”
Marnie nodded again and looked around. “Let’s take a look, shall we?” She was doing her best impression of a television amateur detective now, but Johanna just let her continue.
“I went this way, I think,” Johanna said, pointing down one path. There had been five distinct paths to choose from, and she couldn’t remember why she’d chosen this one in the spur of the moment. Had something told her that this path would lead to safety?
They started down the path at a slow pace. Johanna wasn’t expecting to see any evidence that she’d been correct in her selection this morning. Johanna had on the same trainers she’d worn last night, but she wasn’t skilled enough to identify one set of tracks from all the others she noticed on the path. It hadn’t rained in more than a week, so the chances of a solid print were slim anyway. They would just be marks in the dust that disappeared quickly.
Marnie led, even though she had no idea where she was going. Even Johanna couldn’t remember when she’d turned off the path and headed into the woods. She’d been wearing dark clothes, earth tones, and she’d hoped that in the dusky light that she could hide in the woods.
Johanna had to stop short as to not run into her friend. “What’s going on?” she asked, wanting to get this over with. Retracing your steps through the woods, where you’d been running from a killer, was not her idea of a fun afternoon.
“This,” Marnie said, as she lifted something from the dirt.
It was a key: a single key with no chain or fob. The shaft was dusty, and Johanna saw no identifying marks on it.
“So?” Johanna asked. “Are we picking up all the trash we see today?”
Marnie laughed. “No, but this could be a clue. Remember, it sounded like the house had been locked from the inside—what if this is a key to the house?”
“So you think that the two murders were related?” Johanna asked. She related them together in her mind; she had witnessed one and been asked to identify the body at the other. However, she had not thought of timelines, keys, or any other piece of possible evidence.
Johanna sighed. “I guess they are. The woman from the house left her car in the parking lot of the park. Someone else was murdered in the car. So I mean, that feels like a tie between the two deaths. But I don’t have any idea if they knew each other or not. Those are answers I don’t have.”
“I’m sure the police will know,” Marnie said, pocketing the key. She seemed to have no concept of fingerprints because she handled the key and didn’t mind shoving it into a cotton-lined pocket.
“I doubt that they’ll tell me anything,” Johanna said. She shivered a little as she thought of another interrogation by the police. She’d told them everything that she knew, and any further questionings would merely be repeats of earlier sessions.
Johanna expected to start walking again, but Marnie hadn’t moved. She looked in the direction of Marnie’s gaze and saw what had kept her motionless.
A man was walking towards them. At first, Johanna felt panic well up in her chest. She feared that this was the man she had seen strangling that poor woman in the car, but as he moved closer, she could see that it was not him.
This man had buzz-cut dark hair, deep brown eyes, and appeared much younger than the man in the car. Johanna was shocked to remember so much about the killer now, when she wasn’t being pushed to recall every detail. Perhaps the stress and lack of sleep had hindered her memory.
The man walked quick and sure, showing his confidence and lanky but muscled body. “What are you two doing out here?” he asked. “Did you get lost?”
Johanna pondered the question. They hadn’t left the pathway, and they had been walking in a reasonably straight direction. She wondered what this man saw that he would assume they were unable to find their way back.
Marnie smiled at him. “No, we’re just looking around. We’re fine.”
He smiled back. Now Johanna knew why Marnie had remained still. She was flirting with this man.
“Great. I’m just out for a fast walk before work.” He continued to step in place so that he would not lose his momentum.
“What type of work do you do?” Johanna asked, trying to get this over with. They’d gone from sleuths to schoolgirls in a minute, and she wanted to revert back. The sleuthing was far more interesting.
“Social work for the city,” he said.
Marnie explained that she had come out to pick up Johanna’s car at the lot, and they decided to walk through the forest in hopes of finding anything. Johanna gave her friend a jab in the back to let her know not to mention the key they’d found. This was not the man she’d seen last night. Still, there were far too many unanswered questions for Johanna to feel safe sharing any information about the deaths with strangers.
“You’re that woman they interviewed this morning,” [NLS1]the guy said, pointing at Johanna. “Are you back here looking around?”
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“We just came to pick up my car. The police drove me home this morning,” she said. Johanna hoped that the way she’d answered the man would give Marnie a hint to follow suit.
“Oh, gotcha. I’m sure you’re not really able to talk much about the crimes or anything. I’m sure that the police told you to be quiet about what you’ve seen.”
Johanna felt slightly uncomfortable now. She had not expected to be recognized by her appearance on the news, and she definitely didn’t want to be seen as someone hiding the truth from the public. That would make her a target, and she was far too wary of letting that happen.
“Not really,” Johanna said. “It was only a second, and I didn’t really see all that much. Just the wrong place at the wrong time sort of thing.”
Marnie looked disappointed. Apparently, she had exaggerated her place in the drama enough to pique the man’s interest.
The man nodded. “That’s how so many thrillers start—in the movies, that is. Do you go to see the movies?”
He and Marnie began to discuss shows and times, exchanging numbers partway through the conversation. Johanna was bored. This was not what she’d expected from the quick trip to the park for her car.
She walked a short way down the path, still able to see the pair talking and laughing. Marnie had put her hand on the man’s forearm, which was a standard move for her when she was interested. She turned away from them, looking over the landscape in hopes of recognizing something.
She did.
Johanna thought she recognized the sign from this morning—the wood sign giving directions. She took a few more steps closer to it, and she was sure. She recognized all the markers and the arrows that the sign displayed.
Johanna looked off into the distance, thinking she might see the route she’d taken back from her hiding spot, but since the way was not a well-worn path, she saw nothing. Johanna was surprised, though. She had thought that she was much farther from the parking area than she had been. She puzzled over this. The killer would not have needed to go very far to have found her: far less than she had thought. She would have been an easy target.
She wondered why a man who had killed once would be reticent to do it again. Johanna had been an easy target, out in the forest alone. No one would hear her cry for help. No other people would be close enough to save her. So what had stopped him?
She turned around to talk to Marnie and was surprised that the other woman was almost upon her. “What happened to the guy?” she asked.
“He had to get back to work. He was just on a lunch break and having a walk.” Marnie smiled as she spoke, which made Johanna sure that the other woman had a date.
They walked back to the parking lot and got in. Johanna was still lost in her thoughts about the killer—and why she was still alive.
Chapter 4
Johanna had only been home a few minutes when the doorbell rang. She ran to the door, thinking that Marnie had left something behind, but instead, she saw two men standing there. As if they could sense her on the other side of the metal door, one of them held up a shield that she recognized as a police badge.
She opened the door with the chain on it, pretending that she hadn’t been watching them. “Yes, how can I help you?”
The man held his badge up again, this time with a slight smirk on his lips, as if he knew she was playing him. “We have a few questions about last night. Can we come in?” He put his badge away before she could read it, but the second man’s badge read Detective Dempsey. He was the more interesting of the two, with dark wavy hair and soulful eyes. Johanna had to stop her mind and refocus on why they were here—another round of interrogation.
Johanna shut the door, removed the chain, and reopened the door. The pair walked into her apartment without asking permission. They stood in the living room area, waiting for an invitation to sit down, which Johanna made grudgingly. She decided not to offer them any drinks since they’d been so forward. She didn’t like it.
She sat down opposite them and waited for them to speak. She had nothing to say at this moment.
“We need to ask you some more questions about what you saw last night,” stated the man who had shown her the badge.
The other man cleared his throat and began, “Last night, you say that you saw a murder in the car. We’ve been over the area with a fine-tooth comb. One of the things that we’ve noticed is that there’s only one set of tracks for that car. We have to assume that it’s when it pulled into the parking spot.”
Johanna looked at them. “Okay.”
He continued. “That means that it never left. You can’t tell me that this guy threw the corpse over his shoulder and walked her somewhere? That’s not possible.”
Johanna sighed. “Look, as I said before, I wasn’t there anymore. He saw me, and I ran. I hid in the forest there. I didn’t come out until this morning, thinking that my chances of getting away would be far better in the daytime. I don’t know what he did with the body. I don’t know how he did it. Those are things for you to answer.”
The man nodded. “We put some wireless cameras in the area today, and we saw you and another woman at the scene of the crime. Can you explain yourself?”
“A police officer drove me home after you found that woman in the house. Is it true that she was locked in the house?” Johanna asked, thinking of the key in her friend’s pocket.
“No comment,” the man said.
“Well, I had to take someone with me to pick up the car. I wasn’t about to walk there,” she said, thinking of the detective’s comment.
“Do you think that someone else could have picked up the killer last night?” the other man asked. This was the first time he’d spoken since they’d sat down. Johanna wondered what his purpose was here.
“I was too far away to see the parking lot from where I hid. The lights wouldn’t have been visible.”
Detective Dempsey took over again. “We found the place where you hid last night. We were able to determine it from broken branches and some drone work.”
Johanna was freaked out a bit. She had assumed that her word would be taken at face value, and the police would focus on what had happened there. Instead, they appeared to be following her moves and trying to find ways that she might be responsible for the murders—or at the very least an unhinged witness.
“Then my story checks out,” she said. “I was where I said I was.”
Detective Dempsey continued to look at her. “You were there, but we don’t know when you went there—and when you left. You could have been at the parking area at the time of the murder, or you could have already been in the woods. It’s not much of an alibi.”
Johanna put a hand to her head. “What would be the purpose of that? Right now, it’s a perfect crime. A man strangled a woman and disposed of her body. No one knows who he is. No one knows who she is. No one else has reported a person missing. No one knows how they got there or how they left. I’m the only person who has stated that a crime took place. Why would I do that if everyone thinks nothing happened?”
The man looked puzzled. He apparently hadn’t thought this through, more than to feel that she was a nuisance.
The two men got up to leave. As they were walking out the door, the first man turned to look at her. Johanna almost winced, thinking that he was going to accuse her of lying as well, but instead, he said, “Just so you know, the house was locked up. She had these weird deadbolts that only worked from the inside. So once you were inside, you could lock the doors, but there was nothing visible on the outside. So if you know anything about this woman too, we’d appreciate it.”
Johanna wasn’t sure if the man was asking for a confession or help. In either case, she kept her answer to a nod and closed the door behind them.
Johanna was able to work at her studio for two days. She’d gotten behind on the graphic designs due to her clients, and she valued the quiet time to allow herself to be creative. It felt good to be away from the police, the thoughts of the murder, an
d those poor women she had seen.
Her nerves were still frayed from the experience, and the anxiety had taken a toll on her sleep. Johanna suffered in trying to focus on work at times, but she still felt more at peace than she had before.
On the third night, she awoke at 3:00 a.m. and knew she was awake for the duration—no going back to bed tonight.
She shuffled out to the living area and turned on the television. The news was running a line of text at the bottom of the screen, but she ignored it for the first few minutes. Finally, she focused on the words rushing past her on the screen and saw that they’d arrested someone for the murder of the woman in the park.
Johanna flipped over to the news channel and began watching. Of course, they were on the weather and spent far too much time going through the slim chances for rain next week. Johanna waited until she thought she would scream with impatience. Finally, the anchors flashed a picture of the park where she’d been.
She didn’t recognize the following image: a younger man with plenty of scruff on his face and a buzz-cut. Johanna listened as the anchor read how this man had been apprehended for the murder in the park and was currently in the county jail.
This was wrong, she thought. This man looked nothing like the man she had described to the police—the one she’d seen strangle the life out of that woman. She knew that the police sometimes got the wrong man. She knew that there was possible information that might have linked him to the crimes.
But the following line from the anchor’s mouth made her pause and replay the video she’d just watched. The anchor had said that the man had pled guilty.
After 3:00 a.m., in the dark of the night, Johanna had no one to call at this hour. She was confused and angry. She didn’t understand what was happening. This man looked nothing like the man she’d described. He definitely would not have been picked out of a lineup. She wondered why she’d not been called down to identify the man.
