“Because I need to know who these two women were, whether they were abusive to anybody else, and whether anybody else had a motive for killing them.”
“Well, you know the ex-husband, Barry, he was in that situation, and it was ugly,” Agnew noted. “I admit I saw it every once in a while. However, I also knew how my wife felt about it,so I just stayed out of it. No good could come from criticizing her best friend.”
“And did you and Barry ever talk about it?”
“No. We never discussed it. Barry never mentioned anything about it, but she could be quite…” Agnew hesitated and then added, “Jenna was a shrew.”
“So, she would humiliate him publicly as well, so most of his friends probably thought he needed to get the hell out of there too, correct?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t meet any of his friends, so I don’t know.”
She nodded. “Well, thank you for confirming his story on that.”
“God, I don’t even know why he told you. It just makes him look even guiltier.”
“Unless he is innocent and didn’t think it through in terms of the additional motive. Yet I find that, typically, honest men don’t have anything to hide, and they put it all out there for us to draw our own conclusions.” And, with that, she thanked him, then turned and headed down toward the car, where Simon still leaned against the vehicle.
He looked at her and asked, “Ready for a run?”
“Oh yeah,” she replied. “I really need a good run tonight.”
After the first mile, she realized just how much. She ran hard and fast, but he kept up the whole way. At times he pulled ahead; other times she did, laughing, joking, and screaming with joy. She ran her body to a fitness level she hadn’t been able to achieve lately. By the time they both came to a stop back at the parking lot, she was exhausted, exhilarated, and wired high with energy. She turned, looked at him, and grinned. “Now that was a lot of fun.”
He nodded, gasping for breath. “It really was. I forgot how competitive you are.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Am I?”
He just gave her a droll look.
She shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t think it’s bad. Is it?”
“I didn’t say that,” he replied, “but, as soon as I would gain on you, you’d be right there in front of me.”
She chuckled. “I was just putting you to the test.”
“Uh-huh, sure you were,” he teased, with a grand smile.
“Besides,” she added, “you did really well.”
“Oh, thank you,” he replied, rolling his eyes. He stopped and started to stretch out his legs and his shoulders.
She immediately followed suit. “I can see what a joy this place would have been for the two women. A place like this, so close to home, and a best friend to run with? I totally get it.”
Simon nodded, his arms stretching high above his head.
She nodded in return. “It could become something you look forward to each day, almost like a drug even, and then you start craving it.”
“Particularly if you’re a runner at heart,” he stated. “A lot of runners are out there, but this trail requires a definite type of runner.”
“Yes,” she murmured, as she looked around at the spot. “So does that mean our killer was a runner too? I would think so,” she answered her own question. “Not only a runner but somebody who loved the sport as well.”
“Ordid,” he reminded her. “It could very well have nothing to do with these particular women, but him finding anger in the fact that he can no longer run like he used to.”
“That’s possible. Jealousy and rage are a powerful combination.” She frowned, rolling the idea around in her head. “But that still doesn’t help us find the killer.”
Simon replied, “Unless you have a group of people who had accidents here or maybe some confrontations. Or maybe who just always used to run here.”
“Yeah, but it’s not as if we have to sign in to run here,” she noted. “These are free open areas, and part of the joy of them is the fact that you get to come and go as you want.”