Marnie had waited on the sofa, but now she turned and looked at her friend. “So tell me what happened.”
Johanna went through the story again, trying to leave nothing out. She stopped at the point where she’d indicated that the dead woman in the house had not been the woman she’d seen in the parking lot.
“How can you be so sure?” Marnie asked. “It’s hard to see someone clearly in a car, and she was laying down, if I understand the positions correctly.”
Johanna nodded. “They were entirely different. It’s not like I had to identify one of two women our age. The woman in the car was much younger; the woman in the house was probably my mother’s age. There was no comparison. The woman in the car was blonde and wore makeup. The other woman was a brunette with some purple strands in her hair. Her face looked far more natural than the other woman.”
“I can see that,” Marnie said. “So what we have here are multiple mysteries. First, who were the people in the car? That’s going to be tough because the only ID we had was the car, and that proved to be a dead-end—if you can call another body ‘a dead end.’”
“What do you mean we?” Johanna asked. She had heard the word, and while she was still sleepy, she recognized its implications.
“I just meant that we, you and I, really need to look into this. Frankly, it didn’t sound like the police totally believed your statement. So that might be the weak link that the detectives follow up.” Marnie’s eyes sparkled as she spoke, and Johanna wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She had witnessed a man kill one woman and quite possibly two; she didn’t want to be the third.
“What are the other mysteries?” Johanna asked, trying to take Marnie’s mind off of the potential investigation.
“Second, whose car is it? Does it belong to the woman in the car or the woman in the house—or someone else entirely? That’s something the police can do. There’s no way for us to run any kind of vehicle identification. They’d need the license or the VIN, and I’m guessing you didn’t get either one of those things.”
Johanna sipped at her coffee before responding. “I was a little busy trying not to be the third victim to get the plates off the car. What else?”
“Who is the woman in the house? Plus, I’m having a suspicion about the house itself.”
Johanna was amazed at how much Marnie seemed to have picked up from the TV news, not always the best resource for factual details. “I don’t follow.”
“The news made some mention of the woman being locked inside the house. I wondered if the police are baffled how she was killed—if the house was locked from the inside, etc.”
Johanna rolled her eyes. Marnie’s imagination had become too much for her. “Look, if you want to see the crime scene, you can. I was driven to the house for identification, and then they got a rookie officer to drive me home. My car is still at the crime scene.”
“Can we get in there?” Marnie asked. The thrill in her voice was palpable.
“I’m sure the other car has been towed by now, so there’s nothing there for them to investigate. My car had nothing to do with the murder.” Johanna stood up. She noted how her clothes still had dirt and a few twigs on them, and she decided to clean up before heading out to retrieve her car.
They pulled into the forest parking lot nearly an hour later. As expected, the other car had been moved out of the lot. Parts of the parking area had been cordoned off, but Johanna’s car was clear of that restricted area.
They pulled in on the other side of her car, and Marnie practically jumped out to investigate. Johanna took her time and followed her friend, not wanting to be left alone in this place.
“Why were you here?” Marnie asked. “This seems very isolated for a run.”
Johanna had an answer to the question, but it was not one she was willing to share. She had skated through the interrogation from the police on this matter. She would have to do the same with her friend.
She ignored the question and pointed. “This is where the other car was. As you can see, I had a pretty good view from here.”
Marnie looked over her shoulder and nodded. “It’s definitely pretty clean from this angle. So what happened next?”
“I ran.”
Marnie nodded again and looked around. “Let’s take a look, shall we?” She was doing her best impression of a television amateur detective now, but Johanna just let her continue.
“I went this way, I think,” Johanna said, pointing down one path. There had been five distinct paths to choose from, and she couldn’t remember why she’d chosen this one in the spur of the moment. Had something told her that this path would lead to safety?
They started down the path at a slow pace. Johanna wasn’t expecting to see any evidence that she’d been correct in her selection this morning. Johanna had on the same trainers she’d worn last night, but she wasn’t skilled enough to identify one set of tracks from all the others she noticed on the path. It hadn’t rained in more than a week, so the chances of a solid print were slim anyway. They would just be marks in the dust that disappeared quickly.
Marnie led, even though she had no idea where she was going. Even Johanna couldn’t remember when she’d turned off the path and headed into the woods. She’d been wearing dark clothes, earth tones, and she’d hoped that in the dusky light
