‘He came prepared for a fight. Artie, what time did the 911 call come through?’
‘Ten twenty.’
‘And how long before the first responding officers arrived?’
‘Ten thirty-three. There was a unit in the area.’
‘Did the officers search the woods?’
Pine shook his head under the running water. ‘I was the only one who went back there.’
‘What time was that?’
He thought about it for a moment.
‘I’d say around quarter past eleven, give or take.’
‘So we’re talking almost an hour between the 911 call and the time you entered the woods,’ Darby said. ‘If those men had been back there watching the house, they would’ve had plenty of time to haul away the body.’
‘But you saw it.’
‘He had a lot of blood on his shirt. If this person got shot with one of the Magnum rounds, you’re talking a massive amount of blood loss in a short amount of time. He could have bled out while running through the woods.’
‘And somehow his buddies found him.’
‘Which leads me to believe he placed a call before he passed out,’ Darby said.
Pine dropped the hose. He shut off the tap and reached inside his pocket.
‘You thinking these guys arrived the same time you did?’ he asked, mopping his face with a handkerchief.
‘They were in the woods when we were talking by the back gate. I think they were waiting for us to leave before they started to haul the body. If they’d started moving around, they would have made too much noise. We would have heard them.’
‘When I went through the woods, I didn’t see a body back there. There was
‘Maybe the guy with the bloody shirt found a place to hide. I don’t think the others were there when you were. The guy with the night vision? He was carrying what I’m sure is a compact HK MP6. It definitely was a sub- machine gun. And I know I saw a scope. If he had been back there when you were, he could’ve taken you down with a single shot to the head. He planned to come out of hiding, find the phone and leave. Nobody would’ve heard a thing.’
‘You’re saying all of this was for a goddamn phone?’
‘It’s gone, isn’t it?’
Pine didn’t answer. His eyes were red and puffy, his face pale.
‘A phone is a key piece of evidence,’ Darby said. ‘You’ve got logs of incoming and outgoing calls, maybe even an address book full of contacts. Who knows what we would’ve found? Night-vision man certainly thought it was important enough for me not to get my hands on it. He came out of his hiding spot to treat me to a stun grenade. Then he covered the woods with HC smoke canisters and gunfire to keep everyone back.’
Pine looked at the evidence bag gripped in her hand. ‘What did you find?’
‘A blister pack for nicotine gum. The guy with the night vision is apparently concerned about his long-term health. You should be too. You’re looking a little unsteady on your feet.’
‘I haven’t run like that since… well, it’s been a long time.’
‘Let me help you to the ambulance.’
‘I can manage.’ Pine opened the gate to a carnival of blinking red, white and blue lights.
‘Artie, have the Feds come to see you?’
‘About what?’
‘About any ongoing case in Belham, surveillance, anything along those lines.’
‘No.’ Pine’s mouth parted and his brow crinkled with thought. ‘Wait, are you suggesting the Feds are involved with what happened here tonight?’
‘I’m saying it’s a possibility. The guys I saw hauling the body away? They wore suits. The guy with the night vision had a tactical vest with stun and smoke grenades, and he was carrying the kind of machine gun used by Hostage Rescue. He’s not a weekend warrior. He knew exactly what he was doing.’
‘That’s one hell of an assumption.’
‘Maybe. But he could easily have taken me down while I was back there – he had several opportunities before I reached the phone. And I think he deliberately shot at the tree above my head. He didn’t want to kill me, just wanted to pin me down until he got to the phone. You see the muddy footprints on the deck?’
Pine nodded, dabbing his eyes with the handkerchief. ‘I talked to the patrol guys. They didn’t leave ’em.’
‘They’re also on the living-room carpet in front of the sliding glass door. I think someone ran across the backyard, tracked mud up the steps and then shot their way
‘The person who killed and tortured that woman.’
‘One person can’t subdue two people and then ransack an entire house, especially one this size. We’re talking two people at the very least – and they sure as hell wouldn’t have shot their way in. They had to find a way to get inside quietly, without being detected. They needed time to subdue the mother and son, and they needed time to search the house. Shooting your way inside isn’t quiet or subtle. It’s more in line with a rescue attempt, don’t you think?’
Pine thought it over, rubbing his tongue along his bottom teeth.
‘All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t put it past the Feds,’ Darby said. ‘We should look at every possible angle.’
‘I’ll dig around.’
8
Darby used one of the clean towels she kept in the back of the crime scene vehicle to wipe the mud from her face, arms and hands. The muggy night air smelled of car exhaust and her clothes reeked of cordite.
Everywhere she looked she saw faces lit up by revolving emergency lights. Faces behind TV cameras, faces behind cameras exploding with bright flashes. Voices spoke behind the crackle of police radios and the rapid machine-gun click of camera shutters snapping. The sounds grated on her already scorched nerves. Too close. Too much commotion, too much goddamn noise and too many people crowding the streets. She wanted to send everyone away. She wanted a cold shower and a stiff drink. She wanted some time alone to quiet her mind before heading back inside the house.
That wasn’t going to happen. It was time to make a careful study of the house.
Darby wiped the last of the mud from her boots. She threw the towel on the front floor of the Explorer and changed into a clean bunny suit. From the hatchback she grabbed the new Canon digital SLR camera, which created a digital negative – a raw file that couldn’t be doctored in any way. She walked across the front lawn tucking her wet hair underneath her hood. Thunder rumbled in the distance. She hoped the Wonder Twins arrived before the rain. She’d have to send them directly into the woods. She couldn’t wait.
She put on a pair of latex gloves, stepped inside the foyer and studied the walls. No bullet holes. She checked the dining room and kitchen. No bullet holes.
Coop looked up from his clipboard.
‘I’ll be upstairs,’ she said.
He nodded and went back to making notes. He made no attempt to follow. They had worked together for so long he knew she preferred to go through a crime scene alone first so she could think. She couldn’t do that with someone looking over her shoulder, taking notes and constantly asking questions.
Darby stood alone on the first-floor landing. Cool air rushed down on her from an overhead vent. Her damp clothes clung to her skin. She couldn’t stop sweating.
