No Mark Upon Her

Why would someone do that to her?”
    “I was hoping you might tell me.”
    Shaking his head, Kieran said, “I can’t imagine. Becca was—she could be sharp with people, you know? She had to be tough, with her job, and rowers in general aren’t the most patient sort. But she’d never deliberately hurt someone.”
    “What about her competition? Would someone have wanted to put her out of the running that badly?”
    “Oh, no.” Kieran sounded horrified. “Not the girls at Leander. I know them—they’re great. I’ve worked on their boats. And besides, I don’t think anyone really knew how serious Becca was or how good she was. That’s one reason she rowed in the evenings, and on Saturdays she stayed downriver, away from the crew’s normal training course. She didn’t want people clocking her.”
    “Milo Jachym knew.”
    “You’ve talked to Milo?” Kieran looked surprised, then nodded, thinking about it. “Yeah, Milo knew. But he’d coached her, and they were friends. He’s a good guy.”
    Kincaid reserved judgment. Milo seemed like a nice bloke, and had appeared genuinely grieved about Becca’s death as well as concerned about Freddie. But how many more chances would Milo have to get one of his own female crew an Olympic slot? Not to mention that Becca would have trusted him if he’d called to her from the bank—and he would certainly have known how to capsize a rower.
    Tavie, who’d been sitting on the edge of her chair, making an obvious effort not to interrupt, stood up and went to her dining table. Shuffling through a stack of papers, she said, “Kieran, this place—you mean upstream from Temple Island, right?”
    “Yeah, it’s—”
    Tavie held up a sheet of paper. “I know exactly where it is. The team on that sector had a minor alert there. It’s in the log.”
    “What do you mean, a minor alert?” Kincaid asked.
    “The dogs showed some interest, but seemed confused and moved on. We log any alert—sometimes they’ll form a pattern that will help us locate a victim. But this was isolated.”
    Kincaid frowned. “Could the dogs have picked up Becca’s scent there, even though she was never on shore?”
    “It’s possible. And he—Kieran’s fisherman—may have had it on his clothes or gear.”
    “They picked up her scent from the Filippi,” Kieran said, “and it was in the water.”
    “Right.” Kincaid thought of the times he’d watched Geordie, their cocker spaniel, run in the park, ears flying, nose to the ground, and he’d envied the rich sensory world that was beyond his perception. “Can I make copies of your log and your maps? I’ll have someone return the originals to you as soon as possible.”
    When Tavie nodded, he turned back to Kieran. “You saw this fisherman from the opposite bank. Would you recognize him?”
    “It was almost dark both days, and he wore a hat that shadowed his face. The only thing I’d be willing to swear to was that it was a man.”
    “Not a tall woman?”
    Kieran thought for a moment. “No. The body shape was wrong. Too wide in the shoulders. And something about the way he stood—with his legs apart.”
    “Okay, we’ll go with that. But that leaves us with another big question. If we assume that the same person attacked you, how did he know who you were and where you lived? Could he have recognized you and been afraid you’d recognized him?”
    “I—I don’t know. I run almost every day, and I suppose people round here know who I am, but—there’s something more. This afternoon, when I found the hollow, I could have sworn someone was watching me. Eyes between the shoulder blades. You know the feeling.”
    “You think he saw you there?”
    “I thought I was imagining things. But I suppose it’s possible . . .” A slight shudder ran through Kieran’s body. Finn lifted his head and Kieran reached down to stroke the dog, as if comforting them both.
    “Could he have followed you today?” Kincaid asked.
    “I think I’d have seen someone crossing the meadow behind me, even in the dusk.” Kieran paused, thinking it through. “But he’d have known the footpath crosses the Marlow Road. If he got back to the road by a shorter way and picked up a car, he could have seen me as I came back into Henley . . .”
    “You and Finn are not exactly unnoticeable,” Kincaid agreed. “What about before the fire tonight? Did you hear anything, see anything?”
    Eyes wide, Kieran said, “I’d forgotten. There was a splash.