Turk barked enthusiastically, and Faith finally managed to put the phone call with David out of her mind as they headed south to Stafford.
***
A small army of first responders was gathered along the bike path of Creekside Park, the public park adjacent to the Stafford Courthouse Dog Park where the assault had taken place.Jessica split off to talk to the killer’s intended victim, a woman in her late thirties who had been walking along the creek when she was accosted by the attacker.Meyers received a phone call from Stafford County Sheriff’s Office and stepped away to accept that, leaving Faith to talk to the caller.
She approached a handsome, athletic man around her age who stood a respectful distance from the paramedics tending to the victim and grinned at the deputies talking with him.His chest was puffed out and his shoulders back, not with arrogance but with excitement.Faith didn’t hold it against him.It wasn’t very often that ordinary people had the chance to be heroes.
She approached the man with a smile, and he turned his grin to her.Faith extended a hand.“Special Agent Faith Bold, FBI.”
The man accepted her handshake with a firm grip.“Brandon Harris.”
“Good to meet you, Brandon.”
Turk trotted across the creek and sniffed around a shallow depression on the opposite bank.Faith gestured that way.“I’m guessing that’s where the attack took place?”
Brandon nodded.“Yeah, I was running along the creek, and I heard a scream, then another.The second scream ended in kind of a…” he put both hands around his neck and made a gurgling sound.
“You heard the victim being strangled,” Faith said.
“Yeah.I freaked out because I know that guy was killed at the dog park two days ago, and I figured that the asshole who did it was hurting someone else.I ran that way, and I found the guy standing over her with his hand in his pocket like…” He realized he didn’t have a jacket pocket and made a finger gun in the air instead.
“He appeared to be pointing a concealed weapon at her,” Faith said.
Brandon nodded again.“In hindsight, it was kind of stupid for me to do anything.The guy could have just killed me, but I was kind of… Well, I was feeling guilty about not being here to stop him the other day.”He chuckled and ran a hand through his close-cropped brown hair.“I just kept thinking about that poor dog standing over its dead owner’s body while a bunch of other people and dogs were playing for hours.I don’t know.I guess I just wish people would be more… I don’t know.”
Faith thought of the pain in Luna’s eyes when she trotted out of the trees and led Turk to Iris’s body.“I know what you mean.It’s hard to think that killers like that lurk in the shadows and the rest of the world just ignores them.”
“Yeah,” Brandon said.“Exactly.”
Faith looked over at the depression where Turk continued to investigate.She tried to picture the scene.“You said the guy was standing over her?”
"Yeah.She was on her butt with her hands up like this."He brought his hands in front of his face in a cringe."She was begging him to leave her alone, and he said, 'Now!Do you want me to hurt you?"
Faith frowned.“She was uninjured?”
“No, he strangled her.I guess with her purse strap.She tried to tell me, but her throat closed up, and I couldn’t get all the details.From what it sounded like, he tried to steal her purse.She tried to stop him, and he wrapped the strap around her neck and choked her.She said she passed out for a second, and when she woke up, he was digging in her purse and swearing.I guess her wallet was in her pocket, so she didn’t have money in her purse.He pointed the gun at her and was asking her for the wallet.That’s when I showed up.”
Faith crossed her arms.This didn’t fit at all with the MO of the other murders.The killer hadn’t robbed his other victims.Hell, he’d left Iris with her purse, jewelry and wallet where it fell.She was beginning to think this might be an unrelated incident.“Did either of you actually see the weapon?”
Brandon shook his head.“He had it in his coat pocket.I don’t know if she saw it, but I didn’t.”He frowned.“Huh.I wonder if he didn’t have a gun after all.That might be why he ran away when I showed up.Do you think he left his gun at home this time?”
“I’m not sure,” Faith said.“Can you describe him to me?”
“Sure.He was tall, like six-three or six-four.Maybe two hundred twenty pounds.A lot bigger than me.”
“Hair color?”
“Brown.Like medium-brown.Short but not as short as mine.His eyes I think were hazel or a little lighter brown.He had a short beard that looked really rough and mostly gray.He kind of looked dirty.Like a homeless guy.”He quickly added, “Not that I’m trying to judge.Just… You know, like it had been a while since he showered.”
Faith took a deep breath and pushed it out through her nose.It was very unlikely that a homeless guy had access to ceramic bullets, and considering how composed their killer had been for the previous attacks, it seemed even less likely that he would have been involved in a clumsy robbery gone bad.
But it was too early to rule it out.It was possible that Brandon had misheard something the killer said, and it was also possible that their killerwasscared off when Brandon showed up.Killing two people was a very different animal than killing one.And he had to know that people were looking for him.He could have chosen to abort the murder and run back into hiding.
Meyers and Jessica joined them a moment later.“The victim is Fatima Bedouin.She couldn’t tell me much because her throat was swollen.Paramedics are taking her to the hospital.”
“Damn,” Brandon breathed.“Is she going to be okay?”
Jessica beamed at him.“She’ll be fine, thanks to you.”
