You Can't Run by Hope Davis (pdf e book reader .TXT) 📕

sleep, badly. It would have to wait though, she glanced at her watch and noticed it was now almost six in the morning.

She stifled another yawn and taped together the halves of the map she had printed, circling both sites of the victims homes in yellow and the site where they had found Julia’s body in red. She grabbed a few more pieces of tape and hung it up next to where Atlas was working on the board. He paused to look at her project.

“Damn. This is weird.”

He didn’t have to explain, she knew. Killers usually worked in a single convenient and familiar area, and they would be able to get an idea of where the killer lived or worked based on their abduction and dump sites. But the three circles Naya had made on the map were scattered and had no correlation to one another.

“Well, I guess we know he has transportation.” She shrugged and turned to see what else they had accumulated on the table.

“Transportation. And he likes females who are in shape from running”

“Which is weird because the murder of Julia didn’t seem to be sexually driven.” Naya added while reading from the coroner’s report on Julia Charles. “Well I guess that could change with Shanice.”

He shook his head in agreement. “I don’t think he is a sexual predator at all. He doesn’t seem to keep them alive long enough for that I don’t think…” He trailed off as they both thought of what was left unsaid.

“He crossed racial barriers.” She interjected into the uncomfortable silence that had taken over, she said this while looking at the picture of the young and Caucasian Julia Charles next to Shanice Woods, who was a black woman and mother, and much older than Julia. She stood up and began to pace, they were so different. What could this man possibly be doing with these women? And with the blood? And how long did they have until Shanice showed up dead?

Atlas watched her pace as he sipped from his coffee. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Honestly, I’ve got nothing.” She admitted.

“Me neither.” He looked a bit dejected. “I’m considering running this by Brody and getting his take on it.”

“Couldn’t hurt.” She slid back into one of the chairs and took another gulp of her coffee.

She was feeling stuck, so she pulled out her phone and pulled up the website for wheelchairs, realizing she had no idea which one to pick. She scrolled through for a few moments before randomly selecting one. It would have to do. She quickly clicked to the checkout screen, then before she could put her card information in, she thought better of it and set her phone back down. When she looked up again Atlas was staring intently at the board.

“Anything?” She asked.

He shook his head. “Nada. Honestly, as pessimistic as it is, I’m trying to guess where and when we will find the body this time. I expect him to be more careful. I really don’t think he meant for us to find Julia so fast.”

“I agree –.” Her statement was cut off when she yawned again and this didn’t escape Atlas’ notice.

“You’ve been working long hours all week, why don’t you head home and sleep for a few hours and I’ll call you if we have and leads?”

“Are you sure?” Naya still felt guilty leaving in the middle of a case.

“Again, you do realize we have lots of detectives here, right? You don’t have to be here round-the-clock, you just have to be ready to go around the clock.” He smirked as he turned back to the whiteboard and began reading something there.

She stood and slid her phone in her pocket. He was right, she needed sleep.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?” He asked without turning around.

“You don’t even look tired, meanwhile I’m dead on my feet.”

He chuckled. “No wife, no kids, nothing to do but work and sleep.”

“And you’re assuming I have a wife and kids?” She gave him her most accusatory look.

“Nah.” He chuckled. “I think you’ve got two. And that your balancing both until it blows up in your face.” With that they both broke out in laugher as Naya left and shut the door to the conference room, headed for her car.

She awoke hours later in her bed with only a vague idea of how she got there. She had a fuzzy memory of driving home, walking up the stairs and crawling in bed. She did know she hadn’t seen Vance when she had come in, he must’ve gone back to sleep after she had left. Atlas was right though, she was letting herself become way too worn out for her own good, she’d have to work a little harder on taking care of herself if she wanted to make this work long term.

She sat up, suddenly realizing she hadn’t bothered to change when she had gotten home and had instead just slept in her work clothes. As much as she was determined to go right back to the case she knew she needed a shower. But first she decided it was time to try one of her more unusual case working methods.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she slipped into some running clothes and slid her work phone into her side pocket. She cued up her favorite playlist and slid a single ear bud in her left ear.

As she walked down the stairs, she could hear Vance in the living room talking, but she didn’t hear anyone answering so he was likely playing video games with his online friends. She smiled a little to herself as she realized how little he had changed.

She quietly made her was outside and shut the door, carefully locking it behind her and sliding the key into her pocket. Then she lightly jogged down