NaNoWriMo: Murder in Wilson Park, Chapter 15

This time when her phone lit up, she knew she had to answer it.

Matt wasn’t going to be put off with another text message reply. Knowing him, he’d get in the car and come down to the encampment and she did not want that. Oh, he’d be friendly enough. He never had anything against homeless people, but just having him show up would put everybody on edge, especially if he was still on duty and in all his gear. Ace and everybody would run for the hills and there was no reason for that.

“Hey, how’s it going?” She tried to sound bright and bouncy although she was still unsettled and looking over her shoulder every five minutes because of last night’s visitor. She believed the guys’ explanation that it was just Jerky tiptoeing around but even if it was ‘just Jerky,’ it was weird. What kind of person comes into a camp in the middle of the night and stands with their shoe on the edge of someone’s tent? She swallowed all this, not wanting Matt to hear her sounding nervous.

Matt chucked and answered, “Good. Good. It’s going good. Except you’re hanging out in a homeless camp. That seems a little sketchy.” He was trying very hard to sound mellow and unbothered by the situation. He was actually mellow in real life, thank God, so it wasn’t an enormous stretch. But mellow wasn’t what he was feeling at the moment.

“You know they released Charlie 8 today,” Matt continued. “He has an alibi. So, we’re still looking for who killed Jacob.”

“We? I thought the city police weren’t involved,” Amanda right away figured Matt would be nosing around in an official capacity now. He was a patrol officer but he and his partner, Javon, often did the leg work for detectives, sometimes expanding the definition of that role to do investigating on their own.

Matt explained that Deputy John had asked for the Omaha Police Department’s help. Deputy John said they needed more firepower, more eyes, and more technical expertise. He was modest that way which is why Matt liked him so much.

“We still think it was probably a homeless guy, you know, because of Jacob’s bad history with those folks. It’s a pretty good theory that one of them got mad enough to go after him, although using a shrimp knife is a little strange. It’s a lot of work to kill somebody with a little knife like that,” said Matt. Amanda always liked it when Matt talked about cases but this one seemed a little close to home.

“Well, I’m okay here. None of these guys did anything. I’m sure of it. I’m going stay another night and come home tomorrow. Listen, my phone’s out of bat, I have to go. Love you.” Her phone had only about a 50% charge, and she hadn’t thought to bring a portable charger, so she wasn’t really lying. She needed to go.

Matt scrambled to talk before she clicked off. “Listen, you need to be careful. You just met those guys. People aren’t always the way they seem. Call me if anything is dicey or if you want me to run down there. I can be there in twenty minutes.”

“I know. Bye.” She ended the call.

Sally and the guys stood around the dead campfire with their hands in their pockets. Last night had been October cold, not terrible, but cool enough to make a person worry about what’s next. They were waiting for her to hang up so they could go to the meal program for the breakfast/lunch they served. She’d heard about it – huge plates of food to hold people over until dinner. Right now, as hungry as she was, it sounded like a fabulous all-you-can-eat buffet to her, and she was dying to get going.

“Hey, guys, Charlie 8 got released this morning. He has an alibi.” Amanda hoisted her backpack over her shoulders. “They still think a homeless guy did it. Not sure why. I told Matt it wasn’t any of you guys.” She said this with a smile, wanting the guys to like her.

Sally followed suit with her ancient rucksack. “They’ll find who did it. I figured that landing on Charlie 8 was a little too easy. It’s screwed up, though, to automatically think it was a homeless guy. Jacob was a jerk to a lot of people.”

They started up the hill, a little caravan of six people, each carrying a backpack and looking down. Walking a long way was always easier looking down, that way you didn’t see how far you had to go.

They walked up the path, out of the woods and then down the long path to the bus stop, stopping at the gas station to go to the bathroom. Each person, in turn, used the unisex bathroom, the gas station owner nodding at them in an acknowledging but not entirely friendly way. It would help if they bought something, but they didn’t. They were good at sensing when buying something was necessary to get back in the station owner’s good graces. They weren’t at that point. He was still okay with them.

After the gas station, the group continued on up the hill to the main thoroughfare where they’d turn north to head to the meal program. Stopping to rest at the top of the hill, Amanda surveyed her new comrades.

“Where’s Clark?” she asked.

“He had something he had to take care of,” answered Johnson. “He’ll be back.”