'Eckling here yet?' Vail asked.
'Oh yeah. He's down there in the thick of it, looking important for Channel 7. They were the first ones to get a whiff of it.'
'Nicely put,' said Vail.
'Any ideas?' Stenner asked.
'Not really. My guess is, these three here were dumped about the same time, but we can't be sure. You couldn't hardly find the same spot twice, the tractors keep moving this shit around so much.' He looked off at the ragged landscape. 'Excuse me, I gotta check that bag just came up. Besides, Eckling sees you.' He chuckled again. 'And I've had enough fun for one night.' He left.
'I'll wait in the car,' Stenner said. He had not spoken a word to his former boss since the day he quit.
The chief of police huffed up the small hill with a camera crew and a reporter trailing out behind him. He was waving his arms as he spoke and his words came out in little bursts of steam.
'I see the DA's man is here,' he sneered. 'Everybody loves a circus.'
Eckling always referred to Vail as 'the DA's man,' putting an edge to the words so that it sounded like an insult.
The three-man crew, having got everything they could out of Eckling, turned their camera on Vail. 'Any comment, Mr Vail?' asked the reporter, a small, slender man in his twenties named Billy Pearce, who peered out from the depths of a hooded parka.
'I'm just an interested spectator,' he answered.
'Care to speculate on what happened here?'
'I don't care to speculate at all, Billy. Thanks.'
Vail turned away from them and walked towards Eckling as the crew, grateful for his brevity, fled towards their van. Eckling was a tall man with the beginnings of a beer belly and eyes that glared from behind tinted spectacles.
'What's the matter, Martin, couldn't wait?' he snapped.
'You know why I'm here, Eric, we've had that discussion too many times.'
'Can't even wait until the bodies're cold,' he growled.
'That shouldn't take long in this weather.'
'Just want to get your face on the six o'clock news,' he said nastily.
'Isn't that what got you out here?' Vail said cheerily.
'Look, you can't butt in for seven days. How about leaving me and mine alone and letting us do our job?'
'I wish you could, Chief,' Vail said pleasantly.
'Go to hell,' Eckling said, and stomped away.
Vail returned to the car and shook off the cold as he got into the warm interior.
'Damn, it's bitter out there.'
'You and Eckling have your usual cordial exchange?'
'Yeah, things are improving. We didn't even bite each other.'
Stenner pulled around in a tight circle and headed back towards the city.
'Go to Butterfly's,' Vail said. 'I'm starving.'
'Not open yet.'
'Go to the back door.'
Vail laid his head against the headrest and closed his eyes, thinking about Stenner, so stingy with language. Soon after Stenner had joined the bunch, he and Vail had driven to a small town to take a deposition. An hour and a half up and an hour and a half back. As he had got out, Vail had leaned back through the car window and said, 'Abel, we just drove for three hours and you said exactly twelve words, two of which were 'hello' and 'goodbye',' to which Stenner had replied, 'I'm sorry. Next time I'll be more succinct.' He had said it without a smile or a trace of humour. Later, Vail had realized he was serious.
They drove for fifteen minutes in silence, then: 'We're going to end
