One Broken Legacy

Chapter 17: The Witness in the Park

The steaming cup felt good in my hand, the coffee my third of the day. I was quickly regretting that I hadn't gone back to bed. Dinner with Kiri had gone off without a hitch, both of us managing to talk about normal, teenage problems and keep the case out of our conversation. But that might have been my drooping eyes that Kiri kept teasing me about. Usually, she would berate me when I tried to drink it in the evening, but she made an exception tonight.

We strolled through one of the nameless parks hand-in-hand, the sun setting a backdrop to the blissful evening. There were few times when my heart felt full, and now it felt like it might burst and nothing could go wrong.

Of course, that meant something had to go wrong.

"Are we going to look at the case file together?" Kiri asked.

I sighed as I found a bench just off the path. "Yeah, one second. I have to pull it up."

Kiri gripped my hand as though she was worried I would try to make a run for it. I would have thought about it, but I had made her a promise, and she would have caught me, no doubt about that.

Despite my layers of clothing, the bench felt cool beneath me. The air was turning colder. I smelled the incoming rain, my arms getting the familiar tingle of goosebumps as I pulled out my phone.

"The witness was an older woman. Her testimony was put online a few hours ago." I offered my phone to Kiri. "I haven't read it yet."

Her lips ticked to a half-smile as she accepted the phone. "Thanks. We can read it together." She held it above our thighs, her shoulder weighing on me. "Can you see?"

I wasn't paying attention to the phone, rather the closeness of the girl next to me, but my eyes jumped to it at her question. "I can see just fine."

The woman's name was absent from the report. Officer Reese may have trusted me enough to let me access the information, but he was smart enough to control the knowledge he was giving me.

I saw it come out of the woods.

The words wobbled in my head, the imaginary aged voice making it worse as the image of a sickly woman clutching an old-fashioned purse flashed in my retinas.

I don't think it saw me, but I knew it wasn't right. There was something wrong about it, like it was too perfect.

What did it look like?

A new voice filled my head, that of Officer Reese.

It was a man, black hair, maybe brown, and tall. He looked like he was wearing nicer clothes. I remember thinking it was strange to go for a walk because he would ruin them. These old eyes don't work well in the dark, but I can still pick out handmade clothing. I worked as a seamstress for a decade. Usually, I could give you a better description, but I only go out that late when Sadie needs to pee, you see. Well, I was walking, and I saw it come out of the bushes, walking behind Grace. I saw her at church a few times, so I know her. I don't go often, so we weren't close. She made baked goods for Easter. I liked her brownies.

I really didn't want the extra information. I didn't need to know the name of her friends, or what Grace baked. It made things too personal. Keep it at arm's length, I chastised myself.

What happened after the man came out of the bushes?

Well, Grace seemed to hear him because she turned around. That's when he hit her. No. He pushed her, I think.

What do you mean by that? Did he push or hit the victim?

It had to be push because Grace flew into the tree a few feet away. Mind you, Grace gained a little weight since her husband died. It was a bad time for her.