She shook her head at all of it because it was such a beautiful place to run, and obviously it was very popular. It was one of those things that she herself would do if there was that opportunity. Again she thought about it—opportunity. She could drive over here, but chances are most people were cominghere because they were local and lived nearby. Just as she would prefer to do. She had to wonder though, if the killer was local.
At that, she frowned and turned to look around. Not very much in the way of public spaces either. They were all part of the runs. And that brought up another thing. Maybe that was the problem—that someone had taken over the area for running paths. Was there another purpose to this area before? Was it like a bird-watching area or something of the kind?
Frowning, she went through her phone and found the number she was looking for.
When the professor answered the phone, she smiled and said, “It’s Kate Morgan. I have a couple questions, if you have a moment.”
“Only if I get to see you in person,” he noted in a jovial voice. “Previous students are always nice to see.”
She laughed. “All right, I’m about fifteen minutes out. Well, it depends where you are, though.”
“I’m down at Second Beach at the moment.”
“Oh, in that case, I’ll be right there.”
He laughed. “As long as you don’t mind if I’m tanning.”
“You go ahead and do you.” With that set, she drove down to the beach, laughing at the thought that this was where she’d really wanted to come in the first place. It didn’t take long to find him, although he definitely looked different in just bathing trunks. He raised a hand when he saw her.
She smiled, walked over, and admitted, “Not exactly where I see my favorite professor in my mind.”
“Why not though?” he asked.
She smiled. “So you’re part of a bird-watching group around here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, past president of it, actually,” he noted proudly.
“Not anymore?”
“Nah, too much politics.” He shook his head. “You get tired of that crap after a while.”
She nodded. “Makes sense to me. Any bird-watching areas around here?”
He stared at her. “Well, all of Vancouver is a huge bird-watching area—being coastal is one thing, warm weather is another. We have some very unique species here.”
“What about like right here?” She motioned toward the hills around her. “Specifically thinking about the Stanley Park area, with the running paths.”
He stopped and stared at her, as his gaze clouded. “You mean, related to the recent murders?”
She nodded slowly. “I’m trying to figure out what the draw is for the killer there.”
“You mean, outside of convenience?”
“Yes, exactly,” she noted. “Outside of convenience. Obviously, if you’re looking for random people to kill, where there are a lot of people, that would be anywhere. But why would you choose to kill runners? What would you have against them?” she asked.
He shook his head. “That’s one of the things I don’t do, the psychology of psychopaths,” he murmured.
“Well, I guess I’m wondering whether he’s holding a grudge against some of the runners or organizers, or maybe that he used to be a runner, or a bird-watcher, and his area was taken away.”
He laughed. “Well, bird-watching isn’t exactly something that they can take away,” he corrected. “An area might have become busier.” He frowned, as he thought about it, and then nodded. “Although that would make sense in a way, because becoming busier might have chased away his birds. But you know that I hate to even think we’d be dealing with something like that here.”
“But it’s possible?”
“Of course it’s definitely possible, and we see people doing the stupidest darn things here, all in the name of whatever it is that’s behind it for them,” he replied. “When people want to be assholes, they’ll be assholes, without needing too much of a reason.”
“So you don’t know of any particular bird-watching area around Stanley Park that would have been impacted by this becoming a very popular running area?”
He shook his head. “Not offhand, no.” He paused. “I can think about it for a bit, but you know that it’s not like that. I don’t know of any species specific to this particular area that’s protected. And besides, the birds would be mostly nesting higher up, unless you’ve got some of the ground nesters.” At that, he quieted, thinking thoughtfully. And then he shook his head. “No, I don’t see it.”