Free Run by Becky Johnson

times it was overwhelming. My choices had led me here, but I felt like he was circling ever closer like however close I got to him he crept that much closer to me.
    Closing in but not here yet.
    Focus Char … keep moving … keep working .
    Three deep breaths later and I star ted the car. I needed to find a place to work for the day with a wireless connection. I had work to do.
    _____
    After driving for a good hour, I settled into another suburban neighborhood. I made sure my car was pulled back and under trees where it was unlikely to be spotted by pedestrians or drivers passing by.
    I climbed into the back of my SUV and set up a mini office. I leaned the whiteboard against the back seat and pulled my files and pictures out. In half an hour I had everything out. Now I just needed to figure out what to do next. On TV it looks so easy. The protagonists were able to limit their suspect list easily and they always stumbled across some key piece of evidence that took them straight to the killer. I felt like I had done pretty well getting down to four suspects, but now I had no idea what to do next. I didn’t know how I could further limit the list. I didn’t know how I could get any further information. I suppose I could have waited to see what Jack would find, but that didn’t really sit well with me. This was personal. This was about him and me. Jack would help, had helped, but this was something that I needed to do. Something I needed to work out.
    I just needed to figure out another avenue to take ; another way to look at the case. Emily’s picture stared up at me. It probably sounds crazy, but it seemed like she was talking to me. All along I felt like she was leading me. Pushing me. Maybe that was my problem. I spent all this time looking at suspects, maybe I needed to look at the victims.
    ______
    With my girls laid out before me I tried to start myself back at zero. I looked at what was similar. I looked at what was different. I looked for something. I had read a book once by a profiler where he talked about getting inside the mind of the killer. He said killers were predators stalking their prey. He said they had ways to identify their victims. He said that looking at the victims told investigators something about the predator.
    By looking at my girls, at this killer ’s victims, I had already figured he was 45-55 years old, professional, employed in law enforcement, and travelled a lot. After reviewing each case for something different or unique, the only case that jumped out was the 1984 murders of Leslie French and Georgia Layeen. This was the only case when two girls were targeted and killed together. Taking two girls seemed like it would be much more difficult than one. What was it about these girls that led the killer to break his pattern and take two girls at the same time?
    I put all my other files away and focused on Leslie French and Georgia Layeen. I needed to find out more about these two girls. I needed to figure out what made them different.
    ______
    I took a break from my research for my call to Jack. I decided to call while driving. Not the safest choice, but harder to track, or at least I thought I would be harder to track if I was moving. I was mostly making decisions based on knowledge gained from television and movies, so I didn’t really know how accurate my information was. It was better than nothing though, and at least it helped me feel like I was doing something.
    The conversation with Jack was brief since he had not been able to do much on our case yesterday. He did have some inquiries out and said he would get back to me later today when he had some information. It sounded like things were pretty crazy for him. I let him know I was looking at the 1984 murders to see if I could figure out why they were different.
    We said our goodbyes and made plans to touch base later in the day.
    _______
    I found another unprotect ed Wi-Fi, this time at a corner coffee shop. For the first time, my