Блейк Пирс – Once Buried (страница 14)
No, this particular vagrant knew exactly what he was doing and saying.
Riley opened her wallet, took out a twenty-dollar bill, and offered it to him.
She said, “Maybe this will help sort things out with the cosmos.”
Tucker grinned ever so slightly.
“I don’t know,” he said. “The universe is getting pretty pricy these days.”
Riley felt like she was getting the hang of the man’s game, and also how she could play along.
She said, “It’s always expanding, huh?”
“Yeah, ever since the Big Bang,” Tucker said. He rubbed his fingers together and added, “And I hear it’s going through a new inflationary phase.”
Riley couldn’t help but admire the man’s shrewdness – and his creativity. She figured she’d better settle a deal with him before the conversation got too deep for her to make any sense out of.
She took another twenty-dollar bill out of her wallet.
Tucker snatched both twenties out of her hand.
“It’s yours,” he said. “Take good care of it. I’ve got a feeling there’s something really powerful about that thing.”
Riley found herself thinking that he was right about that – probably more right than he could know.
With a grin, Rags Tucker added, “I think you can handle it.”
Bill put on his gloves again and approached the timer to pick it up.
Riley told him, “Be careful, keep it as steady as you can. We don’t want to interfere with how fast it’s running.”
As Bill picked up the timer, Riley said to Tucker, “Thanks for your help. We might come back to ask more questions. I hope you’ll be available.”
Tucker shrugged and said, “I’ll be here.”
As they turned to go, Chief Belt asked Riley, “How much time do you think is left before all the sand runs into the bottom?”
Riley remembered that the ME had said both murders had taken place around six o’clock in the morning. Riley looked at her watch. It was now nearly eleven. She did a little math in her head.
Riley said to Belt, “The sand will run out in about nineteen hours.”
“What happens then?” Belt asked.
“Somebody dies,” Riley said.
Chapter Nine
Riley couldn’t get Rags Tucker’s words out of her mind.
She and her colleagues were making their way back along the beach toward the crime scene. Bill was carrying the sand timer, and Jenn and Chief Belt flanked him to help him keep the timer steady. They were trying to avoid affecting the flow of sand in the timer. And of course that falling sand was what Rags had been talking about.
Even as she shuddered at the thought, she realized that was exactly the effect the killer had in mind.
He wanted them to feel a tightening knot of inevitability about his upcoming murder.
It was his way of psyching them out.
Riley knew that they mustn’t let themselves get too rattled, but she worried that it wasn’t going to be easy.
As she trudged through the sand, she took out her cell phone and called Brent Meredith.
When he answered, she said, “Sir, we’ve got a serious situation on her hands.”
“What is it?” Meredith asked.
“Our killer is going to strike every twenty-four hours.”
“Jesus,” Meredith said. “How do you know?”
Riley was on the verge of explaining everything to him, but thought better of it. It would be better if he could actually see both of the timers.
“We’re on our way back to the SUV,” Riley said. “As soon as we’re there, I’ll call you for a video conference.”
Riley ended the call just as they got back to the crime scene. Belt’s cops were still scrounging through the marsh grass searching for clues. The cops’ mouths dropped open at the sight of Bill carrying the enormous timer.
“What the hell’s that?” one of the cops asked.
“Evidence,” Belt said.
It occurred to Riley that the last thing they wanted right now was for reporters to get a look at the timer. If that happened, rumors would really start flying, making the situation worse than it already was. And there would surely be reporters still lurking in the parking area. They already knew that two people had been buried alive. They weren’t going to give up on that story.
She turned to Chief Belt and asked, “Could I borrow your jacket?”
Belt took off his jacket and handed it to her. Riley carefully draped it over the sand timer, covering it completely.
“Come on,” Riley said to Bill and Jenn. “Let’s try to get this to our vehicle without attracting too much attention.”
However, when she and her two colleagues stepped outside the tape barrier, Riley saw that more reporters had arrived. They crowded around Bill, demanding to know what he was carrying.
Riley felt a jolt of alarm as they pressed against Bill, who was trying to keep the sand timer as steady as he could. The jostling alone might be enough to interfere with the sand flow. Worse still, someone might knock the timer out of Bill’s hands.
She said to Jenn, “We’ve got to keep them clear of Bill.”
She and Jenn pushed their way into the group, ordering them to back away.
The reporters obeyed surprisingly easily and stood around gawking.
Riley quickly realized…
After all, that possibility had occurred to her and her colleagues back in the woods when Bill had uncovered the first sand timer.
Riley cringed at the thought of the headlines that might soon appear, and the panic that might follow.
She said sharply to the reporters, “It’s not an explosive device. It’s just evidence. And it’s delicate.”
She was answered by a renewed chorus of voices asking what it was.
Riley shook her head and turned away from them. Bill had made his way to the SUV, so she and Jenn hurried to catch up with him. They got inside and carefully secured the new sand timer next to the other one, which was strapped in place and covered with a blanket.
The reporters quickly regrouped and surrounded the van, yelling questions again.
Riley let out a groan of frustration. They’d never get anything done with prying people all around them.
Riley got behind the wheel and slowly began to drive. An especially determined reporter tried to block her way, standing directly in front of the vehicle. She let out a blast of the vehicle’s siren, sending the startled guy scurrying off. Then she drove the SUV away, leaving the gaggle of reporters behind.
After driving about half a mile, Riley found a fairly secluded place where she could park the vehicle.
Then she told Jenn and Bill, “First things first. We need to dust the sand timers for fingerprints right away.”
Bill nodded and said, “There’s a kit in the glove compartment.”