Page 53 of Rookie Days

“Yeah.”And I’ve got another one!Ellie glanced at Alders over her shoulder, who had yet to get any closer. She did not mind if he stayed where he was. “Does she look familiar to you?”

“No.” His eyes were grim as he eyed the woman, but his tone firm and certain. “I would remember a female runner if I’d seen her going into the park after dark. I’m sure I would have stopped her for a quick chat about safety.

Ellie ran in the dark often on winter mornings. Looking at this area of the park, thick with vegetation and older trees, she figured that she might give it a miss at night unless she carried her weapon.

“This spot would be hard to see from the running and bike path,” she stated. “She may have been dead for some time, you know.”

The ME confirmed it soon after. He was a tall and athletic guy with bright blue eyes in a weathered face, complete with a shock of snow-white hair. Dr Andrew Bannister, a keen rower and skier, was sixty-three but he looked more like fifty.

“According to ambient temperature and body rigidity, I can tell you pretty accurately that she’s been out here for six or seven hours. She was hit in the back of the head with a blunt object. Then he dragged her out of sight and did the rest.”

“Did she put up a fight?” Ellie asked. “There doesn’t appear to be significant defensive injuries on her at first glance.”

“That’s quite right.” He pointed to faint bruises around the victim’s wrists. “She was held down at some point, but it didn’t require a lot of force.”

“Was she hit hard enough to knock her out, then?”

“It’s possible. I’d say briefly, maybe. She would have been aware, but quite impaired, when he raped her.” He met her eyes and nodded without her needing to ask. “A spiked drink or a precise knock on the head would have much the same effect in this.”

“So, it’s the same guy, uh?”

“Similar MO, certainly.”

“Yeah, and what are the odds that two separate men are out there killing in the same way?” Ellie muttered under her breath, not expecting an answer to this one. “I didn’t bring any gloves; can you check the rest of her pockets for me please?”

“Sure thing.”

The ME lifted the victim and he unzipped a pocket on the back of her jacket. He pulled an old-style flip phone out of it, as well as a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and a laminated ID card.

“Oh, dear…” He sighed and showed it to her.

Ellie took one look and immediately felt all the blood drain from her face.

???

“Shit,” Quinn said flatly.

It was, Ellie decided, a fair first comment. She’d caught her lieutenant at her desk on her return to the station and filled her in on the latest developments before writing her official report. Ellie was jittery from lack of sleep, the excitement and adrenaline of a sudden useful break in her investigation, and the result of a stiff triple Espresso, courtesy of Quinn’s desktop machine.

“I hate the fact that another woman had to lose her life for this, but at least I have something more solid to go on now,” she stated. “Two victims: two nurses from the same hospital!”

Past her first instinctual reaction, Quinn now just looked at her impassively.

“Could be a coincidence.”

“What?” Ellie frowned in confusion. “But you don’t believe in—” Catching a telling smirk on Quinn’s lips, she realized that her CO was simply pushing her to elaborate.Just fucking relax, Ellie!She blew out a quick breath.“Okay. This second victim; Mary-Ann Jackson? She went running in Lincoln Park every other day at five p.m. Easy for her to do, you see, since the area is not far from the hospital.”

“Huh-huh.”

“She took slightly different routes each time but always ran five miles. She also always ended up on the same path where he took her at some point yesterday.”

“So?”

Quinn was making her work for it a little bit but it was fine. Laying it all out for her only confirmed Ellie’s theory in her own mind.

“I’ll bet you that he’s been watching her,” she went on. “He would have been aware of her running routine. I don’t think he picked her at random. I also no longer believe that O’Connell was just in the wrong place at the wrong time the other night. He wanted these two women specifically.”

Quinn glanced at the clock on the side wall, which currently read 06:40.

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