“You didn’t mention that,” Kate noted, sitting back.
She shrugged. “Well, I do. I’ve seen him lots.”
“And yet you can’t identify him?”
“No, he is always in the trees. Originally I thought he was just there, you know, taking a leak. But now that I know somebody is killing people, I assumed it was him.”
“Maybe, so what time of day do you typically see him?”
“Morning. Early. Between 5:30 and say 7:00,” she stated.
“You could avoid running at that time.”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes, I can do that. But you really need to just go and pick him up.”
Kate pressed two fingers into her temples, as she studied the woman. “Have you ever spoken to him?”
“No, outside of raising a hand and carrying on.”
“And has he ever raised a hand back?”
She frowned, looked at her, and shook her head. “You know what? I’m not so sure whether he has or not.”
“Can you tell me about the rope?”
“It was yellow,” she stated. “Like one of those bright plastic-looking yellow ropes that everybody has. It’s pretty hard to hide.”
“Interesting that he has a yellow rope.”
“Sure,” she agreed, “but you know that not everybody thinks about things like that.”
Kate wondered because a killer would definitely think about things like that. “I guess I’ll be there tomorrow morning then, won’t I?”
The woman immediately stood. “Exactly,” she said. “You pick him up early. I’ll start my run around six, and we should be good.” And, with that, she tried to dash to the door.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kate said. “I need contact information for you.”
The woman turned to look at her in shock. “Why?”
“In case I need to contact you again about this.”
“I told you what I know. You have it on tape, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. And thank you for coming in, but, in case there’s a problem, I need to know how to contact you.” She stated it firmly and left no room for argument.
The woman sagged down. “I’m against people knowing where I live,” she explained, her voice shaky.
Kate looked at her. “Do you have a restraining order against somebody or something?”
“Not now,” she said, “but I did.”
“Maybe you should tell me a little bit more about that, so I understand your story.”
The woman immediately started shaking her head. “No, no, no. I really don’t want that.”
Kate sighed. “I need that,” she repeated firmly. “So sit back down again.”
And what tumbled out of the woman’s mouth over the next few minutes was a tale of abuse and then a suicide.