“Easy. He waits for her and grabs her. He’s maybe in lousy shape, but he’s very strong.” Eleanor shivered. She remembered that rock-hard arm steering her across the floor at the party.

“Uh uh. How does he know where she runs, when she’s coming along, and that someone else isn’t going to be running by at just the moment she appears? It was sitting at the back of my mind, ever since I decided the rapist didn’t get her, that it had to be someone she went running with. And her husband had one hell of an unshakable alibi. And then Mrs. Wilcox talks about her husband coming in at breakfast time all sweaty from his run—although how she knew is beyond me, since she hasn’t been up before ten in years. When I woke up the next morning it clicked. Keswick’s apartment doesn’t even have a pair of sneakers or sweaty shorts in it—but Wilcox’s laundry smells like a locker room after a soccer game. He admitted it; I don’t know if he’ll keep on admitting it once he discusses it all with his lawyer, but I don’t think he’s the type that stands up well when he feels guilty.”

“What’s going to happen to the others? The ones who kidnapped Amanda?”

“Not all that much—it’s going to be almost impossible to make kidnapping stick under the circumstances, and all her injuries were caused by her falling over the edge of the ravine when she ran away. Gruber’s going on fast and furious about drug dealing to get himself out of the soup, so that’s what the Crown is going for. I’m sorry,” he said, looking at the expression on her face, “but really you don’t want to put Amanda through a court case as well. They’ll get a few years.”

“And what’s going to happen to the guy that killed all those girls? After all those months of being terrified of him, it seems impossible that he’s actually been caught. Where is he?”

“In the hospital. He’s suffering from a concussion and a few broken bones, I guess, but he’s babbling away about his mission, and failed tactics, and that sort of thing. He seems to think he’s in some sort of commando unit. He’ll never even see a courtroom. He’s really out of it.” Sanders picked up his glass. He had been profoundly shaken by those honest blue eyes and his earnest explanations. “They’ll put him away somewhere until he pulls out of it or is just too old to do any more damage.”

“Horrible,” said Eleanor. “Was he married?”

“Yes. And his wife is pregnant.” Sanders shook his head dubiously. “She doesn’t seem very unhappy, though, according to Dubinsky. Once she realized she would never have to see him again, that is. She has a good job, and she’s clever. Ed liked her. He figures maybe she already has someone else in mind—but he has a very suspicious mind. She said when we were through with the van we could give it back to the dealer or drive it off a cliff—as long as she never had to look at it again. She sounds like a gutsy sort of girl. But he said he never wants to look at anything as disgusting as that van again.”

“So all these people get off practically scot-free—with deals and pleas of insanity. I don’t like it.”

“Not really. Morrison will be locked away for years, and who are the others? A two-bit hood, a coked-up actor, and a stupid little cop. We got Wilcox, and I’ve got ten days off coming to me. Life looks pretty good really.” He stood up and pulled out her chair. “Come on, let’s start my vacation right now,” he said, dropping a kiss on her short, tangled curls.

About the Author

Medora Sale is the author of the acclaimed John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries mystery series, set in contemporary Toronto, and under the name Caroline Roe, of The Isaac Chronicles, a series of historical mysteries. Born in Windsor, Ontario, Sale’s interest in criminal justice was roused by her father, a lawyer and engineer involved in weaponry and criminal justice, who served as an official in the court system. Sale is a graduate of the Centre for Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto, is a past president of Sisters in Crime and Crime Writers of Canada, and won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel for Murder on the Run, the first title in the John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries mystery series.

Copyright

Murder on the Run © 1986 Medora Sale

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EPub Edition March 2015 ISBN: 9781443443746

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Originally published by Paperjacks in 1986. First published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in this ePub edition in 2015.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are use fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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