Part 5
The police arrived at the front door to the bus station just as the bus carrying Ace and Innocence pulled away from the departure gate. It was another half-hour before the cops figured out which bus the two suspects were on. By the time they had caught up to the bus after yet another half-hour, it had stopped several times, and Ace and Innocence had slipped off at one of the stops.
Ace and Innocence had found the King's body only a couple of minutes after his death, but there was no sign of Bob. They left without notifying the police. The King's guest, who had expected to have sex with Bob, found the body later, and—after thinking of a story to justify his own presence there—called the cops to report the corpse. The cops put out an APB on Innocence and Ace, known companions of the King, but they were as yet unaware of Bob.
Barbara took out her city map, which she had bought at the same time she bought the jackknife she used to kill the King, and found a large park on the north side of the city. She caught a city bus that seemed headed in the right direction, then transferred to another that led right to the main entrance to the park, which was near a small private college.
Barbara, with her pack on her back, looked like a student at the college—to anyone on the bus—and aroused no suspicion, even though copies of the pictures taken of her would soon circulate in the newspapers, along with photos of Innocence and Ace. Barbara hiked far into the park, finding a place to camp where she could observe anyone coming toward her, but where she would not be easily seen by anyone else.
Ace and Innocence, in their desire to escape, had stolen a large amount of money from the King, who kept several thousand dollars in cash in his pockets. The murder appeared to be robbery, but Ace and Innocence, paying attention to the news reports, kept a very low profile, forcing the police to focus their attentions more squarely on who they thought was a young man, perhaps a juvenile.
One evening, as Bob was leaving a small restaurant, a cop spotted him. Bob was wearing the hat and jeans that he had worn on the day of the murder. Some blood was still smeared near a side belt loop. Bob had been careless. The police officer—a woman—pursued Bob down a blind alley, but Bob tried to climb over the fence that closed it off. He was wearing tennis shoes, which enabled him to run faster, but the cop pulled one off while trying to grab Bob's leg. Bob kicked the cop in the face with his other foot and escaped.
Running on one sock and one shoe, Bob returned to his camp, and made a dramatic decision. He would no longer be a boy. He would go back to being Barbara.
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