4: I missed you.

Kris was rattled, like really rattled.  “Are you alright?” Detective Kennedy asked, “You look a bit unhinged.”

“A bit, yeah.”

“Why don’t you leave your car here and come with me?  We’ve caught a good break with this one, and I want to go knock on some doors.”

Kris was a bit surprised.  “You want me to go with you?  Like in your cruiser, doing official detective stuff and all that?”

“You said you wanted a front row seat.”

“Wow, yeah, I mean . . .  yeah.  Here we go, huh?  Let’s do this.”  The two headed towards Detective Kennedy’s car, leaving the circus of the crime scene behind.  Once outside the protective ring of yellow tape, the silence of the campus and the trees was, in contrast, quite serene.  The detective filled Kris in, “So all three of the victims have basically been from the Crest Hill area.  The first was from a different zip code, but right next door, so same general area.  Obviously all three are women, although the oldest was in her mid-thirties, and Miss Trammel there looks to be a teenager, maybe in her young twenties, but probably not.  Most of our predator-types usually operate in a narrower range.  And of course, there’s the other oddity as well - there was no sexual assault.”

“Really?” Kris scribbled on a handheld device recently released by Steve Jobs.

Detective Kennedy moved on, “So we have been having a hard time figuring what the common denominator is between these three women.  Both Miss Trammell and the Miss Cannon were dressed in baptismal gowns, but not the first victim.  Both gowns had the tags cut out.  But this last one, someone had written in permanent marker inside one of the hems:  ‘Property of Sacred Heart.’  Between you and me, this is our first real piece of conclusive evidence.

 “So you’re headed to the church, I assume?”

The morning had been a foggy one, and leaves were still laminated in wet layers against the pavement.  The couple cornered a building.  Kris was nearly knocked over as Detective Kennedy grabbed him into an unexpected and full-bodied embrace.  She held him as tightly as she could, her arms about his neck.  Kris thought she would squeeze the life right out of him as she breathed these words into his ear, “I missed you sooo much!”