One thing I learned that afternoon, water all looks alike. The secret was on the shoreline, not in the water.

We passed a restaurant and bar on the way to the recovery site. The parking lot was enclosed on the water side by a low concrete block wall. It would not have been difficult for an average guy to lift an average sized woman over the wall. I had assumed that the woman was average size.

“The woman, they fished out of here, wasn’t especially large was she?” I asked.

“Pretty average I would say,” Jane replied.

“Thanks, I couldn’t for the live of me remember that part of the autopsy report.”

“They say the memory is the first to go,” she suggested.

“It isn’t.” I said with a laugh. “It’s the legs.”

I sat quietly until she said, “We should be right on top of where they found her floating. Some guys on their way fishing saw her.”

“So we are about a mile north of the restaurant,”

“Yes but there are plenty of houses with lake access around here as well.”

“I guess you are right. So where is the campground from here?”

“Two miles north west of here. Why?”

“Just trying to figure out where she might have gone in.”

“She didn’t go for a swim chief, she was strangled then dumped.”

“Well that’s true enough. She wasn’t just strangled it was with a ligature. That is the kind of killing that is planned at least a little. Spur of the moment it’s done with the hands. Okay I have seen enough. It’s a little chilly on the lake.”

“Chief, you are going to need long johns if you plan to go out on the lake,”

“I suppose I’ll have to put them on my list. At least the uniform coat is pretty warm.”

“Yes it is chief, but it is so damn green.”

“Not your best color?”

“I look terrible in green. Not to mention how my legs seem to dangle out the bottom of that heavy parka.” I had to admit she had a point she probably looked like a chicken in the heavy parka. “Which is why I wear two sets of thermals and the lightweight jacket in the winter. I just hate that parka.”

“I think the parka is going to be my best friend,” I suggested.

I got home around six that evening with the pizza in tow. I immediately put it into the frig’ since Jay jay liked it cold. I had time to watch Jay Jay on the evening news. She was a little long in the tooth compared to the national new anchors, but in my opinion she was better looking than a lot of them. She looked more approachable which would be better suited to the regional all news channel. There catch phrase was All the local news from around the state, when you need it.” Jay Jay was at the station all day recording news events. When she left at five, the just reran them until the next morning.

If I missed her show at six, bits and pieces of it would be running all evening and all night. Jay Jay was quite the local celebrity. The dump job at the reservoir was long past being news. It would remain in limbo until something new came up. That most likely would never happen, but I was enjoying the intellectual pursuit of the unknown mooch.

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