A Clamour of Rooks (The Birdwatcher Series Book 4)

by European P. Douglas

  Having returned the rental car, Tyler sped along the interstate on his motorcycle. His mind moved from the man he’d seen in Tempus, Lou, and the thoughts of killing him. Where would he bury that body? He would have to think long and hard on that. Perhaps this time he wouldn’t make it so hard on himself.

  His mind moved to the growing case the FBI was building against him. They didn’t know it was against him, but that didn’t stop it feeling personal to Tyler. He knew there was no evidence at any of the scenes, but Spalding had found out about them, so that meant someone else could too, someone who thought like he did. Linking him to the crimes would be more difficult, but once they had him in their sights they would make sure to watch him until he made a mistake- which he knew he would sooner or later as the urge to kill grew beyond his ability to resist it any longer.

  An image of Sarah holding a gun on him flashed in his mind. That was a most likely outcome if he was found out. He saw her eyes scalding with tears, her hands shaking as the barrel pointed to his chest. What would she say? Tyler hadn’t wanted to be part of her misery, but he’d been in the right place at the right time to get the story. He had wanted to help her at first, but then Spalding had made it personal to him, to make sure his interest in the cases was more than casual or out of curiosity. Spalding wanted Tyler on his toes, and he wanted him to be at odds with Sarah at the same time they were supposed to be working together to catch him. It had worked so far.

  Just this morning Tyler had heard from his source at the FBI Academy that Sarah had been put on some top-secret case. The informant didn't know what it was, had never heard anything about it, but Tyler knew by how happy Sarah had been described that it was the Spalding case. He hadn’t heard from her in a while now, she hadn’t been returning calls or messages. Had she discarded him now that she got what she wanted? Or was she keeping him at a distance so as to not jeopardize her new task?

  What was the best thing for him to do now? Leave her alone? Get revenge on Spalding for both of them on his own? She wouldn’t like that option, but in the end they were going to have opposing goals. Sarah would want Spalding to stand trial and go to prison, whereas Tyler would need Spalding dead so he couldn’t tell anyone what Tyler had been up to for so many years.

  Only a few of Tyler’s victims’ graves had been unearthed but he imagined it was only a matter of time before they found them all. They had the bird nesting pattern and though that could mean thousands of sites in the country as possible graves, he was sure based on where the person went missing and the information from local bird watching outfits, they would get them all. It was just going to take a while.

  Tyler needed all the loose ends tied up before that happened.

  Chapter 4

  The door clanked shut behind Sarah and only now did she feel fully confident that the interview was going to go ahead. Malick sat behind a glass panel in front of her, air holes cut into it so they could talk without using phone receivers. His eyes betrayed no emotion as he watched her cross the room and sit down before him. Sarah did her best to act like she wasn’t breaking apart inside. Knowing now that one of the things she’d come for was the hope he would tell her he was sorry. It didn’t look like that was going to happen.

  “Malick,” she said nodding at him once she was seated. He stared at her and she gazed on the deformity that was now his face. His lower jaw had been reconstructed but to Sarah’s eyes it looked like a child could have put it back together in the state it was.

  “What’s left of me,” he said in a voice that was completely alien to her. What was unmistakable was the anger in it, however.

  “You only have yourself to blame for that,” Sarah shot back, cooling very quickly on this self-pitying piece of shit she saw before her. This creature bore no resemblance to the man who had once been her friend.

  “I see you’re still only interested in one thing,” he said with a scoff. “Cold as ever.”

  “You were going to kill me,” Sarah reminded him.

  “Well, things took an unexpected turn that night,” Malick shot back, no hint of remorse or regret in his new voice.

  “Things took a turn long before that night,” Sarah said. Malick looked at her but made no reply to this. “What happened to you?” Sarah went on, “How did he get to you?”

  “You know you can’t ask me any questions without my lawyer,” Malick grinned.

  “Why did you agree to meet me if you don’t want to talk?” Sarah asked, vexed at him and shaking her head.

  “I wanted you to see what I’ve become because of you!” he shouted, thrusting his deformed face towards the glass.

  “The ugliness inside you is much worse than what’s happened to your face.”

  “I wouldn’t have been involved in any of this if it wasn’t for you. If we weren't partners, I would have been fine!”

  “You should have come to me when he came to you!” Sarah shouted back, “What the hell did he have over you that was so bad anyway!” At this she saw his eyes look away and she felt it was shame that had made him do it. He looked down at the table and said nothing. Sarah couldn’t believe this.

  “He didn’t have anything on you, did he?” Still there was no answer and he didn't look at her. “He talked you into it!”

  “He’s going to kill you,” Malick said after a long silence, “There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

  “Is there anything you can do to stop it?”

  “No one can stop him. He’s been working on these things for years. The whole time we thought he was gone he was planning everything.”

  “How did he make contact with you?”

  “In person.”

  “Where?”

  “In my house.”

  “What?”

  “I came home one night when Tara was away and there, he was sitting in my dining room eating his dinner. He’d cooked for us both. He had a gun on me and made me sit down and eat while he talked to me.”

  “When was this?”

  “About five years ago.”

  “Five years!”

  “How long do you think it takes to talk someone into becoming a killer,” he said angrily, “It doesn’t happen overnight!”

  “Is that a defence of him or yourself?” Sarah asked. Malick shook his head contemptuously.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “I’ll tell you what I don’t understand,” Sarah said, “You knew Des Roche was going to shoot you? You could have been killed.” Malick opened his mouth but then hesitated.

  “I didn’t know all of his plans all of the time,” he said, and he looked as embarrassed as his mangled face would allow.

  “You didn’t know any of it, did you?” she asked.

  “What better cover for a serial killer than an FBI agent who is gun-shy and traumatised after being shot on the job,” Malick grinned, but she could tell there was no heart in it.

  “And if you had died?” Sarah asked, “What then? He moves on to the next one, Mike Duggan and starts on that one?”

  “He has a million plans for a million different scenarios,” Malick said and he sounded a little in awe now.

  “What’s his plan for you now?” Sarah asked wryly, “You think you’re going to survive him?”

  “What does it matter?” he said and for the first time she thought she saw some genuine emotion in him.

  “It matters to some,” she said. He looked miserable, pitiful. “Have you spoken to Tara at all?” Sarah asked. Her strongest memory of Malick’s wife was when she urged Sarah not to try to lure Malick back to the FBI if he survived being shot. They were in the hospital at the time, neither knowing if Malick would live through the night. How little they both knew of what truly influenced her husband. Malick shook his head.

  “I haven’t tried to contact her,” he said. She took that to mean Tara had not tried to contact him either. She was probably in hiding. What do people usually do when they find out the person they were closest to in the world was a serial killer
? Retreat, start over?

  “Leave this case, Sarah,” Malick said and when she looked back at him she saw he was looking directly in her eyes. “Let it go, leave the FBI and make a new life for yourself somewhere far away.”

  “What about my mother? What about all the people Spalding has killed and all the lives he’s ruined?”

  “None of that will change,” Malick said, “The only difference will be you will be added to the list of dead.”

  “Why did he come back for me?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Only he really knows what he’s thinking, I guess.”

  “Did he talk to you about me?”

  “He mentioned you, but only as part of the circus, nothing specific, nothing targeted.”

  “Tell me something Malick,” she pleaded, “Anything to help me.” He looked away.

  “I’ve told you how to help yourself, leave and never let him find out where you are gone, that’s the only way.”

  “You know I won’t do that, and I think he knows that too,” Sarah said. Malick nodded slowly with pursed lips. “Do you think he might come after you now?” she asked him.

  “What do you mean?” he asked looking up at her.

  “He can’t have been happy that you broke with the plan and wanted to kill me,” Sarah said.

  “I don’t know what else he could do to me that could be worse than this,” Malick said. As she watched him, she felt an edge of apprehension had come over him. He'd thought about Spalding coming after him before and he believed it could be done, even here in this heavily secured wing of the hospital.

  “What did he look like when you met him?” she asked.

  “Same as his mug shots.”

  “No disguise?” Sarah was surprised at this.

  “No, I think he wanted to be sure there could be no doubt that I believed it was him.”

  “Did he leave in a car?” Malick shook his head to this question,

  “He’d drugged me, and he left when I started feeling woozy. I couldn’t go after him or call it in that first time, and I didn’t hear a car start up anytime soon before I lost consciousness.”

  “You let him come between us based on what? A few drugged conversations?” Sarah asked, her voice jerking on the tears she found she was suddenly fighting back.

  “The wedge was already there, Sarah, he just widened it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your obsession with your mother’s death, your need for all the glory was grating and it was getting worse all the time. You pushed me away long before Spalding came along,” Malick said. Sarah looked at him not believing what she was hearing but feeling the cut of it in her heart. Had he really felt this way at the time or was this the poison Spalding had somehow put into his head? She looked into his eyes and saw that they were not hot with anger nor cold with spite but dull and elsewhere. She knew then that he didn’t know himself what he truly felt anymore. She wouldn’t be able to trust anything he said to her on any subject in the future. He probably couldn’t even trust himself anymore. She stood up feeling it best to leave things here.

  “Goodbye,” she said, and he stared blankly at her without a word. She knocked on the door and was let out. She didn’t think she was ever going to speak to him again.

  Chapter 5

  Delgado had thought it very odd indeed when Sarah told him she had been put on the Spalding case by AAIC Bobrick. He didn’t think she would ever get the job as she was far too personally involved and the fact that he was now her partner and had been assigned the case as well was weird. He worried about Sarah; they had become a little closer over the last few months as they worked in tandem on a few cases since the end of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ case. Delgado didn’t tell Sarah he was worried about her, he just asked if she thought it would be too much for her to be so close to such a personal case. She, of course, had said no, this was what she had wanted all along and she was determined to end the case.

  Delgado didn't know what to do. He wasn’t supposed to know about the case and Sarah wasn’t supposed to tell him she’d been assigned to it. If she was going to be on the case, he would rather be there with her to keep an eye on her and look out for her. He could see some dark places ahead for her trying to track down the man who killed her mother.

  Another nugget of worry was deep inside Delgado too. He’d seen how Spalding (not in the official version of course) had managed to get himself deep inside the police departments and FBI. First Malick and then Duggan, the thought crossed his mind that perhaps it was possible he’d gotten to Bobrick too. Why had he put Sarah on the case now after all the time he was saying it was too personal for her to be involved? Delgado didn’t buy what Sarah had told him about Bobrick thinking she was due. It didn’t add up for him.

  With this insidious idea in mind, he knew he couldn’t go to Bobrick and ask to be put on the case too. But he could go to who everyone assumed would be the next Special Agent in Charge, who was the current Assistant to that position, Daniels.

  One afternoon when Sarah left to follow up with some researchers in the tech unit, Delgado knocked on the ASAIC’s door which was widely ajar.

  “Come in!” Daniels called and Delgado stepped into the room and softly closed the door behind him.

  “Thanks for seeing me, Sir,” he said on turning to face Daniels.

  “Agent Delgado, what can I do for you?” Daniels asked, pressing back into his large high back, brown leather swivel chair.

  “Well, Sir, it’s a matter of practicality really...;” Delgado started, already he had lost the words he was going to use, and he cursed himself for it.

  “Sit down, and go on,” Daniels said, putting an inviting hand out towards the chair opposite his desk.

  “My partner, Agent Brightwater, has been assigned to another case. Though we are still working on a few others together, I think it would make sense for either her to be taken back off the new case, or for both of us to be put on the new one so we can continue working effectively on all our current caseload.”

  “What new case had she been assigned?” Daniels asked and Delgado was struck for a moment that he did not already know. Then he realised of course Daniels knew, but he wanted to see if Delgado knew.

  “I don’t know,” Delgado replied. “She said she’s not allowed to talk about it yet.”

  “But you have your suspicions,” Daniels said. Delgado didn’t feel it was a question and he saw the ASAIC examining his face. Delgado decided to take it as a way out of his dilemma.

  “Well, there’s only one top secret case I’ve heard even a rumor about.”

  “What case?”

  “Dwight Spalding,” Delgado said in almost a whisper.

  “So, whatever the case is, you want Agent Brightwater off it, or yourself on it, is that correct?” Daniels asked with a grin. He was hard to read sometimes, and this was one of those times.

  “In a nutshell, I suppose, yes,” Delgado replied. Daniels regarded him for a while without saying anything before going on,

  “Why would you want her off a case she wants to be on so badly?” he asked. Delgado suddenly felt under deeper scrutiny and wondered what Daniels was thinking.

  “I don’t necessarily,” he replied. “But I think if she is going to be on a case that has to be harrowing for her, it would be good for her to have her regular partner there with her, to help her through it.”

  “Her regular partner tried to kill her,” Daniels said flatly.

  “Her new regular partner,” Delgado clarified. He didn’t like making the comparison, however slight it might be. Delgado drew in a deep breath silently through his nose and let it out just as quietly through his mouth. His head cleared a little and he saw Daniels' point of view for a second.

  Who was to say Delgado was not someone Spalding had gotten to, someone now trying to work his way in on the case? Was he hoping to disrupt things from within or perhaps worse?

  Daniels hadn’t responded to Delgado
’s last statement and still he was silent looking at the agent with an unreadable expression.

  “You know Special Agent in Charge Bobrick is retiring soon?” Daniels said. Delgado nodded. “And though it hasn’t been confirmed yet, I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking up the role?”

  “Yes, that’s what everyone expects to happen, Sir.” Daniels nodded sagaciously at Delgado’s reply.

  “Where does your concern chiefly lie when it comes to Sarah Brightwater?” Daniels said, fixing Delgado with his piercing eyes. “Are you afraid she will get too close, or that she won’t get close enough?” Delgado noticed he’d used Sarah’s first name, trying to elicit some kind of involuntary emotional response.

  “I’m concerned about her objectivity,” he said calmly. “I feel a steadying hand, someone she doesn’t know is a steadying hand won’t do her any harm at all.” Daniels sat back again and smiled.

  “A steadying hand?” he said. Delgado nodded. “Steady sounds good to me,” Daniels went on. "Here’s the deal Agent Delgado, you get the case with Sarah, but you report separately to me, got it?”

  “Report on Agent Brightwater?” he asked.

  “Yes, everything you see, you make note of it.”

  “Is Agent Brightwater under suspicion of something?” Delgado asked.

  “When it comes to this case, everyone is under suspicion of something.”

  They talked a little more on exactly what Daniels wanted and when Delgado left the office and went back to his own desk, he no longer knew if he’d gotten what he wanted or not. He’d agreed to be a snitch on his own partner, but that was easily remedied. He was going to tell Sarah about it, and they would put together his weekly report for Daniels together. That would bring them even closer together and help him to gain more of her trust, something he'd been doing piece by piece and very little by little since he was assigned as her partner.