He caught up with Allie as they reached the entrance to the crescent shaped campground.
“Something chasing you?” she laughed.
Brill slowed to match her pace as he searched for Deb or Sue or Des. Someone with a cell phone he could use to call Jo.
“I’d run faster if it was.”
“Did you see a bear?”
Her blue eyes were wide with mirth.
“I don’t have to be faster than a bear,” he said out of the side of his mouth.
“Just faster than me,” she finished his joke.
“Exactly.”
“Who are you looking for instead of looking at me?”
Brill finally did look at her. Might as well tell her, he thought. She was going to be interviewed again, especially once he told Jo he found her on the same trail as the body, doing yoga.
Something like that the Deputy needed to know.
Even he assumed the killer was a male. The rapes convinced him of it.
But there was nothing to say they weren’t looking at two sets of crimes. Rape and murder.
Maybe even conducted by two different individuals.
“I found another body.”
“Who?” the mirth fled, replaced by fear.
He watched the pulse in her neck ratchet up, a flush creep up her cheeks.
She was surprised and scared.
Or a damn good actress.
He knew someone else who had been a great actress. Ron. Veronica. Fooled him into trusting her.
He earned a bullet for that trust. A couple of them.
“I didn’t know him,” he answered.
Easy enough to say since he didn’t know any of them, not really. He met them all yesterday.
Four bodies in twenty-four hours, all killed just before or right as he got here.
He stumbled into something, like walking into a firefight between two rebel groups on patrol.
The easiest thing to do would be retreat.
But running put a target on his back.
The second easiest thing to do would be stay alive.
“That deputy said we should stay here,” Allie said. “But I don’t think it’s safe.”
She sped up toward her car.
“That’s because we’re all suspects.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” said Allie. “I’m a pacifist.”
She stopped at the back of her car, one of the Jeeps and motioned for Brill to turn around.
He complied and listened to her fish the keys out from the back bumper just under the door.
She didn’t want to reveal her hiding place to him.
Allie opened the back door and pulled out a small cooler. She grabbed two bottles of the six left and handed one to Brill.
He didn’t spy Deb, or Sue or Des. They had the campground to themselves for the moment.
“Do you have a phone.”
She pointed to the front of the car as she drained the bottle of water in noisy gulps, gasping between sips to catch her breath.
She was anxious.
Not for being caught, he thought, but for being in proximity to so many murders.
Most of the van life people were introverts by nature. They liked wide open spaces where animals outnumbered people four to one.
He couldn’t blame her though. It was nerve wracking.
He had been around more dead bodies in a few minutes than this small count in a few days, but the location bothered him.
He wondered if he did stumble into something or if there was an ulterior motive happening.
Was someone following him?
Was someone killing these people trying to pin it on him?
He didn’t think so.
But practicing paranoia meant he had to consider it.
“Do you get service out here?” he asked her.
She shook her head.
“Can you give me a ride to the road?”
Keep her close. Keep her on task, which would help with the anxiety.
She nodded and finished the water, carefully placing the empty back into the cooler.
“Almost time to go to town and stock up,” she told him. “I think I’ll move on to a new spot.”
Jo might have something to say about that, but Brill kept his mouth shut.
Instead he climbed into the Jeep with Allie, and took the phone she held out to him as they drove toward the park entrance again.