"Did you do what I suggested?"
"Yeah. And you were right. The next time she got in my way and started to get me mad, I sat down with her and we talked. I don't really remember ever doing that before, talking to her, you know? Anyway, I told her I was sorry I had been short with her, but that I was having a hard time living with a sister who was becoming such a pretty girl."
"What did she say to that?"
"She cried. She looked so unhappy that I put my arm around her and tried to tell her what you told me, that she was just confused by the changes she was going through and that it was OK and I understood, and all."
"What happened then?"
"She kissed me on the cheek and told me I was the best brother any girl could ever have. It was really sweet. I felt like I was ten feet tall. I didn't expect that. I didn't expect that having her like me was that important, you know? It changes things."
"So what now?"
"I dunno. I guess we keep talking. Now that I understand what the deal is, I feel like I should be taking care of her, you know? Until she gets past this part about changing and everything."
"And maybe even after that?"
"Yeah. Maybe even after that. Listen, I got to go now. She wants to show me some clothes Mom got her at the mall. I dunno why she thinks I know something about clothes, but if it makes her happy, that's cool. Thanks for explaining things and stuff. You're a real pal."
"Anytime, Joey. Bye now."
Neeka was smiling at me like she wanted to kiss me. "You ought to get an award for that," she said.
"I think I just did."
Neeka took it easy on the ride to Ponce de Leon Park and I was able to keep my eyes open some of the way. I saw that we got several heads turning when we drove by. I couldn't tell if it was us or the big motorcycle that was responsible.
She parked on the top level of the parking garage, both to keep the bike from drawing attention and to give Neeka a wide field of view of the park. If anything happened, she would be as close as the space between my ears, anyway.
Instead of the fighting suit, I wore a cute little jogging outfit that Bambi had picked out for me. I had on a pale blue jogging bra, a short pleated skirt that bounced up over my rear when I ran, and matching headband and socks. The blue had been chosen to go with my eyes. Everyone agreed that I looked irresistible. Maybe the kidnapper would see it that way too. Just in case, I also wore the fanny pack with my badge, my plastic cuffs, and all the rest of the equipment except for the climbing gear and the throwing stars. Besides being heavy, that stuff tended to clank. Not the sort of thing I wanted to be doing while jogging in the park.
Neeka wore a grey sweatsuit and had a pair of binoculars hung around her neck. On this trip she was supposed to stay inconspicuous and watch. I had made her promise not to do anything without my say-so. I vividly remembered what happened when Deputy Murphy had tried to come to my rescue during the grocery store holdup. I was determined that there would be no more near-fatalities because someone tried to intervene.
Neeka understood, and when I was sure that she did and that she wouldn't do anything without my consent, I left her on the roof of the garage and went for a jog around the park.
The weather was great. It was a wonderful spring day and flowers were out all over. Even so, there were only a few people in the park. The news reports hadn't emphasized the park's connection with the kidnappings, so that couldn't have been keeping them away. The place was crowded on weekdays, being so close to downtown. On Sunday all the stores and business were closed, and I guess people had better places to go walking that were closer to where they lived. It was good, anyway, because too many people would have meant the kidnapper would be more cautious. Maybe the small number of people who came here on weekends was what attracted him.
I jogged slowly along one of the paths that wound through the picnic area near the lake. Off on a separate path I saw another girl out jogging, too. There was something odd about her, so I stopped and pretended to adjust my shoelaces while I scoped her.
She wasn't a girl at all. In fact, she looked close to thirty. She was an athletic-looking brunette with a nice face and a classic profile. She looked very serious and she kept scanning left and right as she ran. The odd thing was that her outfit would have been suitable for a younger girl. It was very close to mine, but instead of a jogging bra she wore a crop-top that let her boobs bounce freely on her chest. That, too, was unusual. It looked damn sexy, but it must have been hurting her to have them loose like that. She wasn't someone for whom a bra was optional equipment.
I started running again, keeping track of the brunette out of the corner of my eye. She changed paths and started following me, which set off all kinds of alarms in my head. I had been thinking in terms of a male perpetrator, not female. Maybe there were two of them working as a team. Maybe I shouldn't let my imagination run away with me. This could be just someone looking for a running companion on a day when there were very few runners in the park.
I kept my undemanding pace and she caught up to me quickly. As she drew abreast I saw that she had a fanny-pack too. Hers seemed heavier than mine and I wondered what she could have in there that would make it slap her on the butt so hard when she ran.
She looked like she wanted to talk, so I stopped. She blew a couple of deep breaths and tugged at her top as though she were embarrassed for me to see how it looked on her. She said, "You may want to find another place to run. This park isn't real safe."
She reached back into her pack and I tensed. If her hand came out with anything more threatening than a comb, I was going to rip her arm off and beat her senseless with it.
The object she produced made me relax as soon as I saw it. Lumpy leather wallets get real familiar to those of us who carry them. She flipped it open and I read that she was Det. Sgt. Gail Adams of the city police force. Her shield bore the same design and much of the same lettering as mine. They had both probably been purchased by the same metropolitan purchasing office for both the city and county law enforcement agencies. She was, by courtesy and by fact, a sister officer.
I smiled and nodded when I was satisfied with her credentials. They also explained the heavy pack. She probably had a piece of heavy artillery in there. I would have bet that she was an expert marksman with it too, and probably skilled in unarmed combat as well. Suddenly, I wanted to get to know Gail Adams, and not just for the insight she could give me into local crime.
"Tell you what," I said. "I'll race you to the boat house on the other side of the lake. If you win, I'm out of here. Fair enough?"
She could have pressed the issue on the strength of her authority alone. Then I would have flashed my badge and asserted my right to be here and things might have escalated to higher command over a jurisdiction issue, which would have been unfortunate. She didn't though. She noticed my matter-of-fact acceptance at her introduction and decided to accept my challenge.
My idea of 'fair' wasn't very fair at all. I could have left her in a cloud of dust and laughed all the way to the boat house. I was going to win the race, but I wanted her to respect me for it, not hate me.
We started together and I let her get ahead at first so I could see what her speed was like. She was a good runner and in excellent shape. If she hadn't had her tits flying all over, she probably could have gone much faster. It was clear to me now that we were here on the same mission and that her outfit had been chosen with that in mind, but it had probably been selected by a man and not Sgt. Adams herself. I hoped whoever it was was having a great time watching her.