As we walked down the hill, following the path that Amy and Justin had just taken, we talked about other ways to fill our Sunday afternoon and decided to go sit on the beach outside South Cove with a basket of Diamond Lille’s fried chicken and a six-pack of beer. We’d even bring Emma along to play in the surf. The day sounded wonderful. Or it would have, if I didn’t have to think about losing the best friend I’d ever had.
As I got undressed that night, I pulled Ginny’s note out of my pocket. Looking at the numbers, I realized that I’d seen them before, or something like them. I ran to my purse and found Justin’s handheld GPS coordinator. I keyed in the numbers and got a location. Twelve miles north and five miles east would put me right back into Los Padres National Forest. It made sense in a twisted way. Ginny had hidden her clue in a geocache, and I was supposed to use her clues to find the stash. I picked up my phone and called Greg.
“Hey, thinking about me?” His voice felt warm and inviting in my ear. I shook off the tingles he was giving me.
“Nope.” I cleared my throat and pushed away the mental image of him lying in his bed. “I was looking at the note Ginny gave me, and I think these are GPS coordinates.”
“Seriously? That’s what you called at ten thirty to talk about? I’ve got a meeting at eight in the morning to evaluate other possible murder suspects, and you want to talk about geocache stuff?” The warm tenor in his voice had disappeared. Now he just sounded mad.
“Hear me out.” I repeated my words. “So I just keyed them into the GPS thing Justin gave me, and it’s coming up as a place in the forest where we were today.”
“Jill, listen to me carefully. Ginny’s been hospitalized in the past for issues with mental illness. That’s even how Kacey met her, she was volunteering over at the state psych ward a few years ago and Ginny was in the facility because she was a danger to herself. The note is just her way of keeping herself involved in Kacey’s murder investigation. I’m pretty sure she’s going off the deep end again.” Greg’s words floored me.
“So Taylor was right, Ginny’s crazy?” My voice fell to almost a whisper.
Greg yawned. “Well, she was crazy. I don’t know what her mental stability is these days, but I’m sure losing Kacey had to have an effect.”
“So you think the note is just a wild goose chase.” My heart sank as I considered the entire scenario.
“Exactly. She isn’t playing with a full deck on the best days.” He chuckled. “I need to get some sleep if I’m going to have to listen to John try to drown out the rest of us as he makes a case to arrest Austin again.”
“I’ll let you.” I hung up, not feeling great about waking Greg for no good reason, according to him. But I also felt like if I didn’t at least try to figure out Ginny’s note, I’d be wondering forever. Just because someone had been in a mental institution didn’t mean they were totally bananas. There had to be some truth in there somewhere.
My phone rang at three that morning. “Hello?” I stared at the ceiling, trying to will my eyes to stay open.
“I’ve got to run to Bakerstown Critical Care.” Greg paused.
“Why are you calling?” I sat upright. “Aunt Jackie? Did something happen?”
“Calm down, Jill. It’s not Jackie.” He turned down the music in his car. “It’s Ginny. She was found out on the trails about nine last night. She took a nasty fall and has some head trauma. She asked to talk to you, but then they put her under to try to keep her brain from swelling.”
“Ginny? Why would she ask to talk to me?” I thought about the piece of paper. Maybe it did mean she knew something.
“My guess is she didn’t mean you, but your friend Jen McKarn was at the hospital, and she mentioned you were the only Jill she knew. Maybe Ginny has a sister or a friend named Jill.”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t as convinced as Greg.
I heard the beep come over his line. “I’ve got another call that I have to take. I’ll call when we know more about Ginny.”
“Let me know when I can visit. I didn’t know her well, but I don’t think she has a lot of friends.”
“Will do.” And then he clicked off to his next call.
I lay in bed for an hour, wondering if Ginny really had cracked Kacey’s investigation but the murderer had tried to stop her from talking. It happened.
I threw off the covers and got dressed in jeans and a light sweatshirt. Time to update my notebook.
When Toby showed up at five, I didn’t even question his being in my kitchen with donuts. “Did you hear about Ginny?”
He nodded as he poured a cup of coffee. “Tough luck she’s been having lately.”
“Could someone have pushed her?”
Toby frowned, thinking about the question. “I haven’t been on those trails in years, but I used to jog there. Sure, someone could have pushed her off a cliff, but that’s a long way to go off the trail. Maybe she was looking for a place to relieve herself and got disoriented.”
I shuddered, thinking about the lack of restrooms in the park. “Greg says she asked for me. Well, she asked for a Jill. We’re thinking it’s me.”
“Were you friends? I’ve never heard you talk about her.” Toby polished off an apple-cinnamon bear claw.