“Oh, I thought that’s what they mentioned on the news?”
“No, only that she was killed on the running path.”
“Huh, I’ll have to—no, never mind. I won’t,” She had immediately interrupted her own train of thought. “I would say,I should listen to the news again, but I don’t want to know the details.”
“None of the confirmed details will be released by the authorities for a long time,” Kate explained, “because it does impact our investigation.”
“Of course it does. I understand. Anyway, Robin wasn’t the person to be afraid to go out in the dark. She ran early in the morning because that’s when her friend could run, and the twoof them absolutely loved it. She really looked forward to it and would go to bed early, so she could get up the next morning and run better and faster and farther. She was very fit, and her body was a machine,” Robin’s friend commented. “That’s another reason I’m so surprised somebody could overpower her.”
“Did she do martial arts or anything like that?”
“No, but, man, she could run. I mean, she could sprint like crazy. Probably faster than a cheetah. She often wanted to get tested to check her speed because she was so darn fast. And she just kept getting faster and faster. I know it was something she took a lot of pride in, and it breaks my heart to think of all the time and effort she put into it, only to be dead at such a young age.”
“So, nobody bothered her, like following her? She didn’t get strange phone calls? Nothing like that you are aware of?”
“No, not at all,” she said, bewildered. “Do you really not know who it was?”
“No, I really don’t,” Kate confirmed. “Do you?”
“No, I guess I just always assume that, on things like this, you detectives would probably already have a good idea.”
“Well, we certainly have some persons of interest, suspects if you will,” she explained, “but, as you know, in our world, you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
“Of course, of course,” she rushed to say.
“Did Robin have problems with anybody at work?”
“No, not that I know of.” She sighed. “She was well loved at work. Everybody was kind and generous to her. I know that she was really feeling sad over her friend, who was going through a divorce.”
“And yet she approved of her friend going forward with the divorce, did she not?”
“Yeah, she used to tell me that the guy was an absolute asshole and that her friend Jenna needed to get away from him.But just because you need to get away doesn’t mean you actually, you know, can getaway, away.”
“No, that’s quite true,” Kate stated. “And did Robin tell you anything about her own marriage relationship? Was she happily married? Did she ever talk about her husband at all?”
“Not about him so much, but she always talked about her kids. She was a really great mom,” she stated. “She absolutely adored her children. She never really spoke about her husband much—hmm—but I know they were happy. I find that most mothers don’t talk about their husbands anyway. They talk about their kids,” she added, with a smile in her voice.
“Isn’t that the truth.” Kate nodded. “And was there anybody at work who had a problem with her?”
“Nope, she worked part-time and planned to come back to do more hours come the new year, and she was looking forward to that. She was the type of person who always needed to be busy, always needed to be on the go with something to do,” she told Kate. “Which was great for us because, anytime there was any overload of work, she was right there to step up and to take it. Now, of course, it’ll be a whole different story.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate added. “Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this quickly.”
“I hope so too,” she agreed. “The longer it goes on, the more unnerving it is.”
“Do you ever run along that same path?”
“God no,” she quipped. “You couldn’t get me in a pair of sneakers. Not to mention the fact that I can barely bend down and touch my toes,” she added, with a jovial laugh.
“Well, if you think of anything else that might be helpful, then please give me a shout.” Kate gave her a telephone number to the department.
“Will do. I sure hope you get this guy fast. He shouldn’t be allowed to continue living after what he did to her.”
“You mean, killing her?”
“Yes.” Then she stopped and whispered, “She was raped, wasn’t she?”
“No, as far as we know, she wasn’t sexually assaulted. Where did you get that from?”