“It doesn't look so far away.”
“It’s not much of a drive, but the trek through the woods might be long,” Megan agreed.
“I think we should go there and see for ourselves what it is,” Ellie said. Megan looked at her in surprise.
“Are you sure you want to go to a place associated with Spalding? We could just ask Sarah or Tyler what was there,” Megan said.
“And what if they won’t tell you?” Ellie countered.
“Well, then if you still wanted to I suppose we could go up there. I’d have to hide what we were doing from my mom though so no mention of this at all, got it?” Ellie nodded. “Okay,” Megan went on, “I’ll message both of them now and see what they say.”
Chapter 34
The letter was addressed to Sarah and she looked at it dumbly for a moment after reading the single line of text. Delgado came to his desk as she was staring and asked,
“What’s up?” He knew it wasn’t something good. Sarah glanced at him and then held the note out. Delgado took it still looking at Sarah’s face and then he too read the line.
THE TWO GUYS OFF THE HOOK HAVE IDENTICAL TWIN BROTHERS
“Is this some kind of joke,” Delgado asked, “Where’s the envelope?”
“There’s nothing on it,” Sarah said peering over her desk for it and then finding it handed it over. Delgado looked at it and Sarah could see his anger mounting.
“Someone looked into the family, surely?” he said.
“Local PD followed up with these things, family members were questioned and verified when we were looking for missing persons but someone must have not thought it relevant that two of them had identical twins.”
“At least two!” Delgado cried out, “Who knows about the rest of them!”
“We couldn’t have been expected to notice something like that without having seen them,” Sarah said.
“Bullshit!” Delgado shouted and Sarah was shocked, “This is just the kind of messed up shit that goes on in cases you’re involved in!” Sarah glanced at Bobrick and Daniel’s office doors, both of them closed and she didn’t think they were in there.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Sarah asked him in a lower tone glancing at the doors again for emphasis in case they were in there. Delgado looked down at his desk and shook his head as if to clear it.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, I’m not having a good morning, but that’s no excuse to take it out on you,” he said.
“What’s going on?” she asked but he only shook his head again. He looked distracted and his eyes bore the thinnest line of red around them. Had he perhaps been crying this morning? “Listen,” she said, “Go down to the carpool and get up a car. I’ll set this twins thing in motion and we can talk to them and their twins later this afternoon.”
“What do we need a car for now?” he asked looking at her.
“Just go get it,” she said nodding encouragingly, “I’ll explain on the way.”
Fifteen minutes later, Sarah joined him in the car. She was glad to see he had taken up the passenger seat and she slipped behind the wheel. She drove out of the academy and towards the freeway without a word.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Delgado asked after a five minute silence.
“We’re going to try to put a smile on your face, or at the very least try rub some of the scowl off,” she smiled at him.
“I’m fine now,” he said, “I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Bullshit,” Sarah said, she’d seen enough people lie in interview rooms to know it when she saw it. “You can tell me in the car on the way or else wait until we’re having waffles down by the sea, but either way we're talking this thing out, that’s what partners do.”
“That’s not what I did with any of my old partners before,” Delgado said, but he sounded better already.
“Well you’re playing with the big boys now,” Sarah said grinning at him, “So you play by our rules.” Delgado laughed at this and rolled down his window to let the cool air wash over him. The sun was shining and he could see the Potomac River glittering up ahead.
“I don’t even like waffles,” he muttered with a devious smile on his face.
“You do now,” Sarah said laughing.
They took a patio seat in ‘Rafael’s’ by the riverfront in Woodbridge. Their waitress delivered waffles with all the trimmings and a full pot of coffee to the table and left with a smile.
“So, what’s going on?” Sarah asked after they’d tasted the waffles. Delgado was looking out over the river and looked like he was enjoying taking in the fresh air.
“Angela left me this morning,” he said bitterly without looking at her. His mouth closed at once and Sarah imagined he was working hard to hold back tears. She searched quickly through her memory; she was sure he had mentioned someone at home but she couldn’t recall if it was a wife or girlfriend or how long they’d been together. She didn’t think there were kids involved, no, she was sure of it.
“That’s never a good day,” she said sympathetically. “I was in the same situation last year.” Now he did look at her,
“Yeah?” he asked. She nodded,
“What was it?” Sarah asked, “The job?”
“That’s the worst of it,” Delgado said, his voice croaking a little and now there was at least one tear welling in his eye. “She didn’t even say, she just walked out with a bag packed.”
“That is odd,” she said, “You didn’t have any clue it was coming?”
“None at all.”
“That’s rough,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee. At least she had known Marcus was unhappy before he had left, should probably have been able to see it coming better really. She didn’t know what else to say to Delgado about it; she was a little concerned at the seeming abruptness of the leaving, her mind hinting at Spalding somehow being involved, but surely that was just the paranoid core within her? The damaged part that could never be fixed? People left people all the time, it was part of life for almost everyone.
“Five years, gone just like that,” Delgado said looking out over the water again and shaking his head. “The only thing I can think is that there was someone else.”
“No, don’t go to thoughts like that,” Sarah said, gripping his arm gently, “Especially with no proof. You’ll drive yourself crazy.”
“I don’t know what else to think,” he replied.
“Think of eating those waffles, think of work, think of the case,” Sarah said, “It’s all we can do when someone leaves us.” Delgado looked down at this plate, moved a piece of waffle around with his fork.
“How long were you with your...;”
“Boyfriend,” Sarah helped him out. “Five years too,” she said. It felt like a lifetime ago now, however, and somehow it was like they were apart much longer than they had been together. It hadn’t always felt like this but at that moment it did. She still missed him and she realised she still harbored hope that when Dwight Spalding was gone perhaps she and Marcus could try again. But then there was Tyler...;
“Tell me it gets better,” Delgado said, “I know everyone says it, but I think I'd like to hear it.”
“It actually does,” Sarah said. Delgado sighed and looked at her,
“Thank God for this case I suppose,” he said, “I haven’t been able to think about anything else since it started anyway.”
“I guess this job is good for one thing, then” Sarah said lifting her cup up. Delgado lifted his own and they clinked them together.
“To the job,” Delgado said, a thin smile on his lips.
“The job,” Sarah replied.
Chapter 35
Tyler Ford lay in the large bathtub in his hotel room. The water was still warm and he felt relaxed and clean now, a tiredness over his body he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was good to feel this way again. The trip into Nevada had been long and hard and the transporting and burying of the body was very taxing on his body. It was the e
lation of the kill that got him through these things and now the woman lay buried three feet deep in a grave within sight of a kettle of hawks. It was a super human venture all in all and he was lucky to have carried out such intense physical training over the last two years. He was going to have to find another way to do this when he was older, that was becoming clear now. But, that was still a good few years away yet.
He closed his eyes and relived the moment of death over and over again. The exquisite pain and beauty of it, something that no matter how long he lived he was never going to be able to distill into words on a page. The savage remorse would come later, he knew that going into these things, but no matter how bad that was it never outlasted the euphoria and the sense of being fully himself and alive within whatever that was.
His phone vibrated from across the room where it lay by the sink on the marble countertop. He didn’t care who it was or what it was about even if it was only five in the morning. It could wait. Then a sliver of fear disrupted his mind and his eyes opened. What if it was Spalding? Surely there was no way he could know about this one already. Tyler was sure he would figure it out within a few days when missing reports started to come in and he could read the details in the local papers or online. But not yet, not unless he’d been following Tyler all night. Was that possible? With anyone else in the world, Tyler would say no right away, but Spalding seemed to have some great knack for not being seen, for a large man it seemed that no one saw him anywhere he went. Still, it would have been impossible to follow Tyler tonight he’d been so vigilant. Wasn’t it?
The curiosity got too much for him and Tyler lifted himself from the blissful water and crossed the room to look at it.
It was a message from Briggs- Make sure you have something for the paper when you get back.
“Asshole,” Tyler said, tossing the phone down on top of a towel. The thought of killing Briggs came to him again and as it did Tyler caught sight of himself in the mirror and met his own eyes. It was an odd moment in which he didn’t recognise himself. He looked down to the phone again and then a new idea came to him.
Tyler himself couldn’t kill Briggs but if he let it be known how much he hated the man, would Spalding step up and do it for him? Or perhaps have this ‘Gingerbread Man’ do it? Wouldn’t that be a great story for ‘The Baltimore Echo’! Tyler laughed out loud at the idea.
It was an idea worthy of more thought.
Having slept for a couple of hours, Tyler got dressed and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. He was one of the first down and with his skin care regime looked as fresh as anyone else who managed to get down so early.
As he crossed the lobby to get to the breakfast room, a young woman on the front deck called him,
“Mr Ford, there’s a letter for you.” Tyler walked over. He wasn’t expecting anything.
“Thanks. When did this arrive?” he asked the girl as he took the envelope from her.
“Just a few minutes ago,” she answered.
“Who left it?” Tyler said, looking around the lobby and out through the front doors quickly. He had a feeling it was from Spalding. Even if he didn’t know who Tyler had killed or where he’d done it, Spalding would have no doubt known it was going to be last night.
“A man, he didn’t leave his name.”
“What did he look like?” Tyler asked looking back at her now.
“About five ten, slim, looked like a lawyer’s clerk to be honest,” she said and then added, "He was wearing a suit and tie.” It wasn’t much to go on.
“Did he leave the hotel when he gave you the letter?”
“Yes, there was a car parked outside the door he just ran in, delivered the letter and then ran back out. Is everything alright, Mr Ford?” She looked concerned at him, perhaps worried she had somehow done something wrong.
“No,” Tyler said, “everything’s fine. Thanks.” He walked into the breakfast room and was shown to a table. After the waitress took his order, he opened the envelope. He removed three folded sheets of paper with handwriting he didn’t recognise on them. The first thing he noticed was that two of the pages were numbered one and two but the middle page was not numbered. He went to the last page and looked at the signature.
It was from Stewart Spekler. The man he’d watched die only hours before.
He read the letter and was both thrilled and amazed that Spekler spoke of the murders he’d committed but also admitted to two he was never charged with. This was gold for the paper and for his own book.
The middle page, however, the one with no numbering was different. In this he told Tyler he purposefully didn’t number this page so Tyler could keep it separate from the letter if he needed to. He assured Tyler the letter was sealed in front of him and would be delivered by his lawyers without anyone ever knowing what was inside it.
This was when the bombshell was dropped. Spalding had told Spekler through a series of letters and news article clippings who Tyler really was. Spekler said no one else ever knew as the letters were smuggled in to him and didn’t come through the mail room. He’d burned each one after reading them too, just be sure. Apparently Spalding didn’t share this information until after Tyler had conducted the interviews with Spekler, but the interviews had been Spalding’s idea. The last line was most galling of all to Tyler.
“When we spoke I felt you understood me and I couldn’t tell why. Now I know it is because you are me.”
Tyler’s blood boiled and he shoved the pages back into the envelope. Now he knew for sure he couldn’t let Spalding walk around knowing all that he did. He was going to have to get him and kill him. It was the only way. What was more, he was going to have to do it without Sarah finding out even though he would need her right up the point of nailing him. Or would he?
The plan with Briggs came to mind again. There was a way to get him here, Tyler felt it. He didn't know what it was but he was going to think about this until he did know. In the meantime there were other things he could do to try lure him out or trap him and those things would start as soon as Tyler got home.
Chapter 36
Pedro Delgado was at home after a long day. It had turned out that the two CCTV videos that had seemed to exonerate Staines and Belfoy were in fact their twin brothers. Thankfully none of the other suspects turned out to have twins and they checked photos of Eddy Hobbs’ missing brother just to be sure he didn’t look too similar to Eddy. It had been an infuriating roundabout day with questioning and fact checking throughout. Now as he sat at home with a cold beer in his hand and the muted TV in front of him it felt like they were back to square one in this case. All the suspects- bar the dead one- were back in the running.
His mood wasn’t helped by the fact that Angela was still gone. He’d harbored hopes in his heart she might have changed her mind and come back, but the place was empty when got in. He’d tried calling her but her phone went directly to voicemail without even ringing once. He sent her a message and hoped she would see it soon.
His mind had roved ceaselessly from Angela to the case since getting home so he needed something else to occupy his mind for a while. He got up and took his beer over the computer and turned it on. He looked around the room as the machine started up seeing painful memories in everything.
The screen lit up and Delgado entered his password and then what to do came to him. He started first by searching the internet for stories about Sarah.
A ton of results came up and he started flicking through the pages and reading some of the stories. Most of them were about ‘The John the Baptists’ and ‘The Agrarian’ cases, but there was a lot about the current case too and some more of cases Sarah had worked in the past.
As he read, Delgado started to notice that more and more he was seeing the same names on the by-lines of the articles he was reading and one name in particular stuck out. Tyler Ford. He’d been there through both cases with Sarah and had some inside knowledge each time. He’d found one of the bodys in the first case and he was the one w
ho unmasked Malick in the second. How did a journalist get so involved with a story he was working on? And why? Did Sarah have something to do with it? None of Ford’s stories were critical of her but everyone else seemed to have a whack at her reputation in almost every article.
Delgado had to admit, he didn’t see Sarah in the woman most of these stories depicted except for the ones that Ford wrote. Did they have some kind of closer relationship that Delgado didn’t know about? Was it possible they were romantically linked? If so, that wasn’t good for Sarah. That would open her up to all kinds of accusations of leaking stories or allowing greater access to evidence. He hoped this wasn’t the case, for her sake.
Delgado then started searching anything he could find about Tyler Ford. He had reported on stories from all over the USA but his main focus was on Maryland and bordering States. He’d won a lot of awards for his stories but for some reason had never left ‘The Baltimore Echo’ for one of the better newspapers. This seemed odd and Delgado wondered why Tyler might have done this. Perhaps it was a case of his liking being a big fish in a small pond, or he liked the idea that he was more important to the paper than it was to him?
He then searched for pictures of Tyler Ford and found there was quite a fan base among what seemed to be teenage girls. There were even some websites set up about how hot he was. Delgado smiled as he looked at these sites. They were mostly just images snapped on cell phones of Tyler at the beach or sitting somewhere having a coffee, and the girls would praise his looks and clothes with the odd mention of how great a journalist he was (though none of those stories or articles seemed to be anywhere on the sites). Delgado stated to look through the images at the people Tyler was with. The kids who ran these sites were not so concerned with showing images other than the subject and the faces of others around were not blurred or obscured in any way. Though he didn’t admit it to himself at the beginning, Delgado was searching out images of Sarah with Tyler. It would be the proof he was looking for that Sarah and Tyler were involved somehow. Perhaps Tyler was the reason Sarah’s relationship had broken down last year?
A Kettle of Hawks (The Birdwatcher Series Book 3) Page 14
