Heather cleared space on a plaid recliner for Cindy to sit. There were holes worn in the arms, with white fluff poking out from the fabric like drift from a cottonwood. Heather herself flopped down in a rocking chair and bounced back and forth. She wore shorts and a loose green tank top. Her sandy blond hair was shoulder-length, and her pale, freckled skin had no makeup. She was almost thirty, which sounded young to Cindy now. Once upon a time, it had felt old.

‘Where’s Lissa?’ Cindy asked.

Heather rolled her eyes and grinned. ‘My parents took her on vacation with them. Disney World. She’s going to come back with princess dresses and Mickey Mouse earrings. I’m not sure how I managed to raise a girly girl. That must be her father’s DNA coming through. He was always pretty impressed with how he looked.’

‘How’s the photo business?’ Cindy asked.

‘Not bad. Summer is wedding season. Brides are hell, but their daddies pay good money.’

‘And your back? It’s okay?’

‘Yeah, thanks. All the PT really helped. I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with the exercises, and yoga keeps me limber, too.’

‘Good.’

‘What’s going on with you?’ Heather asked. ‘You need some portraits done? Glamour shots for the hubby?’

Cindy laughed. ‘I think that would make Jonny blush. Actually, I have an odd favor to ask. I talked to Kon at Lake Superior Magazine, and she said you took a ton of photos at Grandma’s Marathon this year.’

‘Oh, yeah. Lots.’

‘Do you have many crowd shots?’

‘Sure. Crowd shots. Runners. I staked out several spots along the route, and I got onto the roof above the Canal Park shops so that I could get pics as people hit the finish line.’

‘I’d like to see them,’ Cindy said. ‘Are they all digital?’

‘Yeah, but you’re talking about hundreds of photos. What are you looking for?’

She started to give Heather a brief explanation about the man in Jay Ferris’s photographs, but the explanation got longer when she realized that Heather knew nothing about the murder or the trial. Heather didn’t get the newspaper, and her awareness of current events didn’t extend beyond an occasional report on the MPR classical music station. Cindy gave her the background of the case and then explained about the man she’d followed in the mall who’d eluded the police efforts to find him.

‘One of Jonny’s sergeants thinks he saw this guy in the marathon crowds,’ Cindy went on.

‘And you thought maybe I snapped him?’ Heather asked.

‘Exactly.’

‘That’s one needle in a pretty big haystack. Thousands of people cram the marathon route.’

‘I know.’

Heather shrugged. She went to a rolltop desk in the corner of the living room and dug inside several cubbyhole drawers. Finally, she withdrew a USB flash drive, which she deposited in Cindy’s hand.