The hawk screamed in three hoarse cries. “He’s opening his door and starting across the street,” Gideon warned. “I’d send the officers and forensic team now. Get it out over the radio. Let everyone know they’re on the way.”
Gideon sent a large flock of gulls into the air straight at Carver. They were big birds with dark heads and long snouts with hooks at the ends of their bills. The shrieking cries came first and then ominous shadows blotting out light, casting patterns of moving wings, feathers and menacing macabre shapes darting down toward the street, blocking Carver from the junkyard.
The cop ducked down, covering his head with his hands, running back toward his vehicle to take shelter. The gulls landed on the roof of his car. The hood. The trunk. They pecked at the windows, trying to break the glass to get at him.
Looks a bit like a scene from a horror movie, Gideon. You might want to tone it down,Rhianna recommended. She had followed Carver in her car but kept at a distance.
I got the idea from a movie—well, the trailer,Gideon admitted.I never saw the movie. I didn’t want to have nightmares.
You’re such a baby,Rhianna said.Carver is starting up his car. Your gulls did the trick.
“Carver is leaving, Wilson. Your forensic people can check the car.”
“Thanks,” Wilson said.
“Let me know when one of your people has Carver in sight.” Not that Gideon’s team would break off. They were going to make absolutely certain that every one of the monsters who had committed these crimes was arrested.
Rory’s clothes and the hood had also been examined, all hair and fibers taken from them. The report she’d given about the notebook had been followed up on. Janice had shoved the tote bag in the lounge cupboard. The notebook had contained the damning evidence Detective Peter Ramsey had uncovered, including where he had hidden audiotapes he had recorded of Detectives Westlake and Carver and two retired detectives—Bill Morris and Jerome Michigan—conspiring to murder key members of a criminal organization and then murder Jarrod Flawson, Dustin Bartlet and Ret Barnes—three of the four heads of that organization. Next, they would frame Harvey Matters and kill him, then take over their organization.
Westlake had gone to the apartments with Ramsey that afternoon. Something must have made him suspicious, and he’d shot Ramsey. Once Westlake shot Ramsey, he knew he had to kill him and get any evidence he might have on him.
Gideon was certain it was Westlake who had been the one to really torture Rory. He was a sadistic man. He was certain Westlake had been the one to torture and kill Dustin Bartlet, as well as Ret Carnes and Jarrod Flawson. It was no wonder he’d been under investigation for so long. The other detectives had been careful, trying to find a way to make the charges stick.
Westlake was intelligent. What no one had realized at first was that he had partners. After they began to suspect Leo Carver might be in league with him, it hadn’t occurred to them that anyone else from the department might be involved. There was nothing to point in that direction. There was no way of knowing thatWestlake had managed to recruit two retired and disillusioned cops until they had Ramsey’s notebook.
The small flock of sparrows sat in the apple tree in the backyard of Bill Morris’s home, watching him with their beady eyes. Judging. Morris wanted to throw something at them. Take out his gun and shoot them, one by one, right out of the tree. He had the feeling they knew what he’d done. He hadn’t been able to sleep, and for the last two nights, he’d sat at the kitchen table with his service revolver in his lap.
The grill was hot, and he opened the lid. His wife, Deana, sat in a chair by the pool, talking to Jerome Michigan’s wife, Nikki.
Deana looked up and smiled at him. “Babe, you want a beer?”
She never failed to ask him if he wanted something. She’d always been that way throughout their marriage. The way she looked at him—that never failed to move him. He never wanted her to look at him any differently.
“I’m good, Deana.”
He could never give her children. He could never give her anything that she deserved. She’d always wanted to travel, but he’d always been working, and they really didn’t have the money. She didn’t shop or buy things. She gardened. She wasn’t someone who wanted jewels or fancy clothes. She didn’t care about cars. She didn’t complain. He’d told her when he retired that they could travel, but that hadn’t worked out the way he wanted. His investments had done poorly, and her multiple sclerosis had gotten a firm foothold. She didn’t say one word about how he’d invested their money. She just told him she loved their home and was happy being in it with him.
His phone vibrated over and over. He took it out and glanced down. Westlake. Always Westlake and his demands. Each requestwas worse than the last. It was bad enough that Westlake had insisted on kidnapping the Chappel woman, but he had tortured her. He wanted them all to torture her. When Morris had refused to participate in hitting her, Westlake had become so incensed, he took out a knife and began slicing her up. Morris had been sick after that. He knew once he left, he wouldn’t go back.
“You get the message from Westlake? He wants us to meet him at the apartments. We have to snatch another one of those women. One of them has the notebook.” Jerome came up behind him. “We don’t have any other choice. Ramsey had to have given it to one of them.”
Gideon was able to pick up the conversation through the number of birds facing the two men.
“That’s what he said about Chappel. He was positive she had it, and she had no idea what he was talking about. Did you see what he did to her? I couldn’t get him to stop. He went insane, Jerome. Was that okay with you? Is that who you are?”
“Better her dead than us.”
Morris shook his head. “I can’t even look Deana in the eye. You want to help him, you go, but I’m not going near him.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“Let him. I was dead the minute he started torturing that poor woman.”
Jerome swore at him. “We’ve been friends a hell of a long time, Bill. You’d better not throw me under the bus.” He turned toward the two women. “Nikki, I have to go into town. You stay right here with Deana and Bill until I get back.” He didn’t wait for his wife to reply; he just hurried around the house to his truck.
How the hell did they miss the notebook in the trunk of Rory’s car?Mack asked.
When Larrsen questioned her, Janice said the tote had been thrown into a corner of the parking garage after someone ripped it with a knife.They must have seen the junk mail and then thrown it. The mail fell everywhere when the tote was thrown, and the notebook landed in the corner in the dark,Gideon told Mack.
