Rae was visibly nervous. She had reiterated what she’d told Silas about her grades and the letter he had received.
“So what you told Professor Thatchenhouse was the truth?”
“I swear it was. Carlos drove me crazy and could get violent at times. The night before my brother died, I left the house and told both my brother and Carlos that he had to go and I was going to take out a restraining order against him. Carlos got furious and came at me again but I managed to get out the house and leave before he could catch me.”
“Did Andrew often run the trails?”
“Oh Yes! Andrew had a mild heart murmur, something to do with the heart valve. Anyway, he’d run or jog the trails but always had a monitor with him to watch his heart rate. He’d call me on his cell and then relay the stats to me as he ran. Every ten minutes or so he’d tell me. That morning was no different, he called but I’d gotten no sleep the night before due to the argument with Carlos and I was scared Carlos would be there so I didn’t go to the trails. I plugged my phone into a recorder so I could listen later and went back to bed. He ran around 4 in morning a couple days a week. I have the recording if you don’t believe me. When I listened to the recording so I could add the data into my file of his runs, I noticed around 4:48 I heard him say, are you alright then he gasped but nothing after that. That was when he died wasn’t it?” I tried calling his cell phone but no answer. Later that day I heard of him being found on the trails and I panicked. I was too scared to contact police because of the argument. I was scared Carlos would say I had argued with my brother and not him to get back at me for threatening him with the restraining order..”
She looked intently into my eyes. “Please believe me,” she said. “My brother was a good kid. He made good grades and had wanted to go to college when he graduated. I was making plans to make that happen. I loved the Professor and wanted so much to take the dig trip. I would never harm him and neither would Andrew.”
Rae was informed she was under police protection for her own safety until we could clear up a few matters. She begged for us to allow her to stay at the motel and we agreed. I still had strong feelings a woman was one of the culprits and although I wanted to believe Rae had nothing to do with the deaths, I couldn’t be certain until I had more facts.
Not until the following week did I have assurance that my deductions were on track of being proven factual. I with Dan following walked the trail but was shocked when I reached the same section where Silas and the other two men were found to see John laying motionless on the ground. I ran toward him as I radioed Dan to have the Trails End send the cart and have EMT’s en route. John was moaning as I knelt beside him. “John help is on the way, hold on my friend.” He moaned again and tried speaking.
“Did you know your attacker?”
“Confused,” he whispered in a barely audible voice.
“John, was your attacker a woman?”
“I think so,” he groaned before becoming silent.
“John? John! Stay with me, don’t give up.” I looked up at Dan. “Where the hell is that transport cart! His pulse is weak.”
“Patience, Amos. They are coming, we’re a couple miles from Trail’s End so give them time.”
I took my small light out and shined it around John’s body. The ground disturbance was minimal and footprints unrecognizable; the ground was hard and compact, and rain had been all but nonexistent the past month. I did notice some disturbance of the grass near the woods and left John’s side to have a closer look. Dan moved to the opposite side of the trail and walked forward, also paying attention to the woods. I looked up when I heard him say, “I’m sorry miss but you can’t come any further, this is a crime scene.”
I carefully stepped back onto the trail road. “Shelly what are you doing here?”
“I was . . . running the trail; Is that John? Is he dead?”
Her eyes were large and rounded as she stared at John lying on the ground. “Were you running with John?” I ask.
“No, I came in the Trail’s End just to run a couple miles then back.” She stared down at him again. “Is he dead? He isn’t moving?” She tried to move in closer but Dan again stopped her progress.
“Miss,” Dan said, “the transport is here so you really need to go back to the Trail’s End. The police will speak with you there. We have work to do.”
Shelly looked over at me with her big eyes, “Police? But I don’t know anything.”
“Did you see anyone on the trail as you ran?” I ask.
“I was watching the woods and the squirrels playing and didn’t really pay attention.”
“But you’d have noticed someone running.”
“Come to think of it, there was man, with his head down. He had one of those hood things on, but I didn’t see his face.”
“Are you sure it was a man?”
“Well, I assumed it was. He was thin but muscular, wearing those tight runner type pants and that hood top. I didn’t see the face.”
“What color was his clothing?”
“Black pants but the hood was green, I think, a dark color of green.”
The officers riding the cart dropped out a couple police barriers and Dan set about helping them set up the crime scene. I stayed with the EMT as they worked on John and talked with Lt Greene when he arrived. I gave him a rundown of what I’d seen and what John and Shelly had told us then left on the cart with John. They were to transport him to Morris General. I contacted his parents and advised them of the situation and that I’d meet with them as soon as I could.
For the next 24 hours I fielded calls for John’s family from the media. No information was to be given out on his condition. And no visitors other than myself and his immediate family was allowed. After a week of fielding calls, I was tired and had John moved. I sent his family, my wife and son and Ruth with them. I needed to assure all their safety. The officer assigned to Rae told us that if Rae had left the night before she was unaware of it. She admitted that she’d had a glass of wine and watched movies with Rae at Rae’s suggestion. They had turned in around midnight but the wine must have relaxed her because she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow and she’d slept until 7 that morning. She had looked in when she woke and Rae was fast asleep. She also told us Rae had a small cut on her hand. Rae had said she’d gotten a glass of water and when she went to sit it in the bedside table it topple off edge and broke, cutting her. She had cleaned up the glass as best she could and threw a towel over the wet floor then bandaged her wound. All of this concerned me. Rae suddenly wanting to have wine and Marilyn’s inability to sleep lightly on the very night before another attack could be coincidence and Dave agreed. Still, we had a large but with it to consider.
Home 
Thanks for reading and encouragement.