“Of which there are literally thousands on the road.”
She nodded. “I couldn’t see the driver, and the license plate was partially covered, so it was hard to identify as well.”
“On purpose then.”
“I assume.” She shrugged. “If I wanted to follow somebody, I wouldn’t want to be too easily identified.”
“Any idea what he was up to?”
“No,” she said, as she came up short as she thought about it. “No idea.”
“You’ve been rattling cages,” he reminded her.
“I have. That’s just, you know, part of what I do,” she noted, as if that was an explanation. When he sighed, she added, “It’s part of being a cop, you know?”
“How often do you get followed?”
She looked at him and frowned. “Not all that often, but enough that it’s not really a big surprise anymore. It’s not a problem.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Unless they’re trying to catch you at a time where they can run you over.”
“That’s a whole different story,” she stated, “and I did cross the road very carefully, looking both ways a couple times, to ensure that nobody was close enough to attempt an attack. But I never really know if someone will come after me, can’t be constantly on guard, and not a whole lot I can do about it.”
He stopped whatever he was doing and slowly turned to look at her, incredulous.
She replied impatiently, “You know that’s true. You can be as prepared as you want, but, if somebody is determined to come after you, what are you supposed to do about it? You can be vigilant and try hard to stay out of trouble, but trouble will find you if someone is after you.”
He slammed down the spoon but kept working, not saying anything.
She winced. “I guess you didn’t want to hear any of that,huh?”
He turned, stared at her. “Just tell me you’ll be careful,” he asked, his voice sounding hoarse.
“I’ll be careful,” she replied instantly.
He frowned.
“What? Too fast now?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It’s just a disconcerting thought to think that you’re a target.”
“Anybody in law enforcement is always a target,” she stated. “At any point in time we can be taken down by somebody who has got something against us, or not just us personally but against the whole division, against law enforcement as a whole. People often target those of us in the industry, even though they don’t have a beef against us.”
“It sucks,” he said, “It’s just upsetting to know you’re always potentially under attack.”
“Well, hopefully I’m notalwaysunder attack. Hopefully I’ll never actually be under attack. I consider the fact that this vehicle is driving around, watching to see whether it was me or not, is a very interesting turn of events,” she revealed. “I’m pretty glad he did that, actually.”
He stared at her.
“Somebody is getting nervous,” she explained, “and that makes me happy.”
“I can see that,” he noted. “But you have so many cases going all the time, you don’t know if this is connected to a new case, an old case, or a current case. Who the hell knows where this guy is coming from?”
“Nobody knows,” she admitted, “but, as you said, I have rattled a lot of cages lately, and I’ve done it on purpose, hoping that I could shake something loose. Even today I was back up there at the site, wondering about bird-watchers and photographers. It was pretty interesting to speak to one older guy, who told me that some of the bird-watching community can be incredibly competitive. Who knows where any of this will go?
“The fact of the matter is, I don’t have enough to go on in any direction right now. I like the look of a couple suspects, but I have nothing in the way of proof. The joggers’ case will sit until something else happens, until I get another lead, with something else to go on,” she shared. “It’s frustrating, and it’s making me angry. I didn’t even want to go back to the office because of it. And that’s stupid because that’s where I belong, but knowing that somebody is out there, waiting for me to catch them, and me not having the knowledge and the proof to actually go get them, is what drives me forward all the time.”
“Sure,” Simon said, “but it also drives you crazy.”