“George!” She craned her neck to see Andi behind George. His partner had gotten up, discreetly using George’s lower back to balance himself. Oh yeah, they needed to get out of here ASAP. “Andi! What have you found this time? Agent Gelman.” Evangeline greeted the IA man last, not because she was being impolite, but because she was already gearing up for what she knew would be bad.
“Hello, Dr. Melcourt. I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you, but the circumstances suggest it’s not. I’m going over to see if I can be of help.” Gelman nodded at George before making himself scarce. Evangeline lifted a brow.
“How bad is it?” George had gotten used to her suspecting something about Andi, perhaps even knowing, and never saying it out loud. Like Forard, the SWAT team leader Andi usually worked with, and Waters, the DA for Charleston, she just went with the flow, sometimes with a strange glint in her eyes. It was a complicated dance they did, never naming things, relying on body language and facial expressions. Behind him, Andi sighed.
“You’re gonna need more trailers.”
“Ta’i.” Her shoulders slumped. “I guess I better get down there. Anything else?”
George didn’t envy her. “Uh, the room’s crawling with arthropods.”
“Bad sign.” Evangeline turned toward the ATVs, starting to give her orders. She sent the two beat officers to rope off the clearing and directed two of her assistants to get the supports into the bunker. Once she reached her vehicle, she put on a protective suit that even covered the soles of her shoes before approaching the boulder without looking back at them. George saw this as their cue to finally leave. After a short wave to Gelman, who thankfully was busy helping Evangeline’s staff and therefore couldn’t leave with them, George kept his hand on Andi’s shoulder until they reached the car. Getting Andi inside and stuffing him with Tylenol was by now muscle memory. As was unconsciously checking him for signs of how bad things were. Andi’s skin color wasn’t gray yet, just paler than usual, which was saying something—the man gave the term “white” a whole new meaning, especially this time of year when the sun didn’t lend his skin at least a semblance of color. His breathing was steady and deep, indicating he was mostly present in his mind, only his glazed-over look suggesting he hadn’t muted all his channels to the arthropods.
George got behind the wheel and started the car, not bothering to make a detour to the chief’s house. He was fairly sure Tyler was fine, and they could do without her hostility. With some luck, the whole thing would have blown mostly over when they came back after their vacation. Once they were on the highway, George decided to try to talk to Andi. Sometimes it helped to distract him from the sensory input he was getting and also from the pain of his headaches.
“Did you get anything when we were down there?”
“You mean besides the overwhelming urge to mate and lay my eggs in the rotting flesh?”
Ah, sarcasm. Always a good sign in regard to mental stability. If Andi was able to snark, he had managed to distance himself from his creepy informants. “Yeah. Apart from that.”
They both chuckled. Then Andi got serious. “It was a lot, what with so many of them.” George wasn’t sure if Andi meant the arthropods or the corpses. Both would have had an impact. His partner went on. “What I can say for sure is it was a man, tall, bulky, a beekeeper.”
That got George’s attention. “A beekeeper? How would you know that? Did he smell of honey?”
Andi shook his head. “No. Smoke. Mixed with herbs. Beekeepers use smokers to calm the bees, and they often burn herbs to make it more pleasant. It’s very distinctive.”
“But?” George knew there was a “but.”
“But the smoke is so prominent it overlays everything else. I can’t say if the man is healthy, how old he is, if he’s taking drugs. I can’tidentifyhim.”
That was a problem. “Please tell me the smoke is unique.”
Andi just huffed. “The smoke is unique in the sense that every time somebody fires up a smoker, it produces a kind of smoke that can be distinguished from others. The key phrase here isevery time. The killer seems to be fond of basil and sage, but there were also hints of rosemary and thyme, and the mixture changes every time because the herbs are not all evenly dried, sometimes you get stronger ones, sometimes he might run out of one herb or decide he doesn’t want it in the mixture. Sometimes the wood he uses is wetter. Sometimes the air pressure doesn’t allow for a clean burning process. It’s impossible to link the smoke to one beekeeper in particular. What we can do is weed out those who don’t use wood in their smoker but oil. And those who don’t like herbs or who only ever use lavender or just a single herb. Which leaves a lot of people as suspects.”
“Good thing we’re on vacation.”
Andi didn’t react, which prompted George to look at him. “You don’t want that case, do you?”
Andi put a hand over his eyes, a sure sign he was stressed. “No.”
George waited. He was fluent enough in Andi-speak to know his partner was lining up his thoughts.
“Some of the corpses were veterans.”
“How do you know?” George wasn’t sure what some of the victims having been in the military had to do with anything, but he was always eager to learn about thegeschenk. It was all about knowing the enemy.
“Certain bone fractures that are more common among soldiers, a leg prothesis, tiny pieces of shrapnel in the earth around one body, certain chemicals I have learned to associate with the military, and of course, the dog tags.”
“Ah. You think the military is going to get involved?” Working with other departments of law enforcement could be either enriching or an absolute bitch, totally depending on who one was working with. Unfortunately, it was most often a clusterfuck.
“I’m sure about five of them. Could be more. One veteran they would probably entrust to us, helping us with the papers, claiming it could be coincidence. Three or more in a serial killer case? They’ll want to have somebody in. Or at the very least be kept in the loop, probably with daily reports. Not to mention the FBI, who will get involved no matter what. That’s a lot of people trudging around the precinct, all of them eager to give their input and make themselves look good.”
“Norris is going to love it.” George could already see the chief getting all worked up about sharing jurisdiction.
“Let’s just hope she forgets about us. I have absolutely no desire to work with another agency.”
George shuddered just thinking about it. Shielding Andi from the chief was bad enough. Having other people tag along during their investigation? The stuff of nightmares.
