He had already run his course once, from the fountain to the train bridge and was on his second pass. He had promised himself that he was going to get back into shape, and running was going to be a part of the regimen.

Springtime was his favorite time of the year; the gardens in this city were incredible. After growing up in Arizona where only the richest houses could afford to be green all summer long, Portland was a wonder. It seemed that everyone in the city had a green thumb. From spring until late autumn, nearly all the yards had something blooming. It was green here all year round, especially during the rainy season. In another six weeks or so, the rhododendrons would all be in full bloom, the evergreen bushes were very common in the city.

His beeper went off and he groaned. He slowed to a walk and pulled it off his waistband. After looking at the number, he turned around and headed back to his car. His cell phone was locked in the glove compartment. He jogged up to the car and took out his key, opening the passenger side door. He unlocked the glove box and pulling out the phone, he dialed the number from his pager.

Dana was just pulling away from the Owens' house when her cell phone rang again. When she answered she was ecstatic to hear Detective Allen's voice on the other end. She tried to keep the emotion out of her voice as she explained the situation with Roxy to him. He could hear the concern over the phone anyway. He promised to go to the address she gave him and check it out. He didn't know if there was much he could do, he couldn't really get a warrant without any reasonable suspicion. He could get the manager to open it, maybe.

Dana asked if he would mind if she went with him, just in case Roxy needed someone familiar there. He didn't think it was a good idea, he told her, but he didn't mind. He gave her a time to meet him there, in a few hours. He wanted to go home and shower before going out. What a way to spend his day off. The message he had received sounded urgent, he wasn't sure what Dana had to do with it, but he felt a little guilty about not being able to help with Rachel�s case, so he decided to do it as a favor to her.

When she had hung up, she tossed her phone on the seat beside her. She found her way to Terwilliger and followed the winding road up to the top where the Oregon Health and Sciences University hospital perched high above the city on Marquam Hill. She parked in the garage closest to the big red letters of the emergency room.

Inside, she checked at the reception desk and was escorted to the partition where Donna was lying still on the exam table with her eyes closed and a robe wrapped tightly around her.

Dana touched her shoulder gently to let her know she was there. Donna's eyes opened slowly. She sat up on the table, almost like a zombie. Swinging her legs over the side of the table she took the clothes from Dana and stood up. The robe slid down to the floor. Then unexpectedly, Donna collapsed to the floor as well.

"What the..?" Dana said as she saw the woman fall to the ground, then pulling the curtains aside, she screamed for help. Several people came running, and she was shoved out of the way as they got her back up on the table. Stepping back away from the room, she watched as they scurried around like ants with a disturbed nest.

Nobody noticed as she walked away, heading back to the waiting room. She looked at the clock up on the wall. There were about two hours before she was supposed to meet Detective Allen downtown at Roxy's apartment. Dana sat down in one of the chairs to wait. Unless she got a page to show up at a crime scene, she wanted to find out how Donna was doing before she left, if it was possible.

There were several magazines on the tables at the ends of each row of chairs. A television set was bolted to the wall in the upper corner of the room, showing a soap opera that Dana had no interest in. She picked up one of the magazines; and flipped to a random page.

An hour and a half later, no one had come out to the waiting area to let her know what was going on, so she walked up to the reception desk and asked what going on with Donna. The girl sitting at the desk couldn't have been more than sixteen and was most likely a volunteer.

The girl left the desk and went back to the nurse's station to see if she could find anything out. When she came back a few minutes later, she told Dana that they had moved her upstairs into the surgery unit. "Why? What happened?" Dana asked anxiously. The girl held her hands up and shrugged. "I don't know, that's just what the nurse told me."

Dana walked over to the nurse's station herself. An older woman sat there typing on a computer keyboard. "Excuse me, I was just here with Donna Owens, to give her a ride home, could you tell me what's going on?" Dana asked, genuine concern in her voice.

The woman looked at her for a long moment, trying to decide if she should tell or not. Dana kept her gaze level, and told the nurse, "I'm with the Portland Police Department." As if this were the secret password, the woman started to tell her everything. "Her head wounds were more severe than it appeared when she first arrived. They rushed her up to do a CAT scan and they found some pretty bad hemorrhaging. The pressure caused her to collapse. They are doing an emergency procedure to relieve some of the pressure, then she will have a monitor implanted to measure the intercranial pressure," the nurse told her.

Damn it. She had seen Donna last night just for a second at the burning car scene. She seemed a bit tired, but other than that she looked fine. Dana knew how well people could hide things though. There were many secrets that she herself had, that nobody would ever find out. Her life was strictly compartmentalized.

"Thank you," Dana said when she finished. Leaving a business card with both her home and cell phone numbers on it, she asked the nurse to give it to Donna or put it in her room when or if she was able to call.

Leaving the hospital parking lot, Dana took a different route back through downtown. She arrived at the apartment before the detective and wandered the hallway waiting for him. Faded red carpet that was matted and worn down covered the floor, there were holes worn through it in many places. The cracked plaster on the walls was desperately in need of paint.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned toward them as Detective Allen came up to the apartment door. "Is this it?" he asked. Dana looked up at the numbers nailed above the door. At one point they could have been gold, but now the paint had peeled off, leaving a nondescript brownish color.

"Yes, this is where Candy told me she lived." Dana knocked on the door. There was no answer; it was completely silent inside. "Do you smell that?" she asked him. The slightest scent of decay was enough to make her heart start thudding against her chest.

Allen sniffed the air, his nose up like a hunting dog. He looked sharply at her. "I'm going to go get the manager, or the key," he said and took off down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Dana stayed by the door and waited.

Returning to the apartment with the manager close at his heels, Detective Allen put the key in the lock and turned it. They all held their respective breaths as the door was pushed open. The smell was just a little stronger than out in the hall.

"Roxy?" Dana called out, "It's Dana, are you in here?" Allen took the lead and walked farther into the room. There was a short hallway with two closed doors, and a small kitchen off the side of the main room.

He held his hand up, motioning for them to stay by the door as he went down the hall to the first door. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and turned the knob, pushing the door open. The bathroom was small, and empty.

Closing the door, he went on the next one. Using the same piece of material, he opened the second door. Dana watched as he staggered back a couple steps, then suddenly the smell hit her and she gagged.

She shoved the manager back out of the room and stood there waiting for Allen to come back out. He came toward her in a rush, he had already pulled his cell phone out and was dialing nine one one.

She covered her mouth as he pulled the door shut behind him. He shook his head at her, and then motioned toward the manager. She nodded and putting her arm around the short man's shoulders, led him back downstairs to await the arrival of the uniforms.

A few minutes later, the detective came downstairs. "Do you have your equipment with you?" he asked her. She gave him a funny look. "Yes, it's in my trunk." She pulled out her cell phone and called her boss as she walked out to her car.

"How did you end up being at a crime scene before it actually was a crime scene?" Jeff Bateman asked her when she explained what was happening. "Long story, I'll tell you later when I get back." She hung up the phone and started pulling out her camera bags. Double checking her film supply, she went back inside the building just as several police cars drove up. She headed upstairs, mentally detaching from the situation. It had gone from a welfare check to a crime scene in very short order.

She hadn't been inside the bedroom yet. She slipped the sterile booties on her shoes as Detective Allen talked with the other officers that had just arrived. He saw Dana come back in and grabbed her arm just before she walked into the bedroom. "Be strong," he told her and let her go. Odd, she thought. Then when she walked into the room, she understood why.

Roxy was pinned up to the wall just like Rachel had been.