“Cut the macho bullshit,” Kate said. “If you want to have us down at the station, we are happy to go.”
“We are?” Janus asked.
“Sure,” Kate said. “But we want a meeting with Sheriff Brown.”
“It’s just past six in the morning…” Stu said.
“I’m sure he is in,” Kate said. “You just tell him we want to talk.”
“Lady, whoever you are, there is no way he will talk to you,” he said. “If you think you can trespass onto a crime scene and then win yourself an exclusive interview, you’ve been drinking from the same water as these two.”
“Just tell him we want to talk about the message found inside the house,” Kate said and pointed.
Stu looked at the cops around him. He paused for a moment and licked his lips.
“What message?” he asked. “We don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Did you think I would stay away forever?” she said.
Stu’s jaw practically came unhinged and he stood there for a moment with his mouth open. Janus grinned at Quinn.
Stu stood still, until finally he sent the other cops away.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said finally.
“Sure you don’t,” Kate said. “Now how about that meeting?”
Stu pushed his tongue out to his cheek and considered.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
Brown was waiting for them in his office.
“This is ridiculous,” he said, before any of them sat down. “I will not have members of the press interfering in police business.”
“And what, exactly, did we do?” Janus asked.
“You were trampling all over a crime scene,” he said. “You were attempting to enter a residence…”
“We attempted to look inside,” Quinn said. “There is a difference, you know.”
“Is there?” Brown said. Stu shut the door behind them. “I want you three to know I’m lodging a complaint with your editor.”
“Go ahead,” Quinn said.
He picked up his notebook and started writing in it.
“What are you writing down?” Brown demanded.
“This conversation,” Quinn replied. “I need to record it for my article.”
“You are not going to write an article about any of this,” Brown said.
“So you’re the editor now?” Janus asked.
“This is ridiculous,” Brown said.
“Call it whatever you like,” Kate said. “The return of Lord Halloween is big news.”
Brown appeared more flustered than ever.
“That is patently absurd,” he said.
“Is it?” Kate asked. “You lied to us about Mary Kilgore. Her husband was off with another woman at the time of her death. And he didn’t stick a knife through her chest with a note on it.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” he said.
“It ought to be pretty apparent I’m not, Sheriff,” she said. “I know a lot more than you think I do. We knew about Fanton, didn’t we? We know about the note on Kilgore’s body and I know about the note in the house today.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Brown demanded.
“You covered up Mary Kilgore’s murder and I bet he didn’t like that one bit, did he?” Kate continued as if she had not been interrupted. “So he’s going to make damn sure nobody misses the point now. The man likes his publicity…”
“He’s dead,” Brown said. “Holober’s dead.”
“Come on, Sheriff,” she said. “Do you think people will still believe that when news of Mary Louise Fanton’s death is released? Do you think you can just hide in denial, watch the bodies pile up and hope no one will notice?”
“There is nothing to deny,” he said.
“Do you really believe that?” she asked. She stared at him for a moment. “My God, you really do, don’t you? Then what? This guy is just a copycat?”
“It’s possible,” Brown said and then shut his mouth. “Never mind. The point is we don’t know Ms. Fanton has been murdered.”
“But I’m right about the note, aren’t I?” Kate asked. “It referenced the earlier one. We’ve done our research. What he wants is publicity. If you deny it to him, it makes him madder. And people will be walking around unprotected.”
“What you are suggesting would start a panic, mass hysteria,” Brown replied.
“Sheriff, people have the right to know,” Kate said. “If you tell the truth, panic may come, but at least people will have a fighting chance to defend themselves.”
“By locking themselves away again?” he asked. “By instilling a curfew? I’m not going to let this happen again.”
“If that is what it takes,” she said. “But you can’t just bury your head in the sand. It will only get worse.”
“How in the hell could it get worse?” Brown asked.
“Your family, Sheriff, how safe are they?”
“How dare you?” Brown yelled. “That sounds like a threat.”
“He’s killed cop’s families before-remember?” Kate said quietly.
Brown paused for a moment.
“My family is perfectly safe,” he said, but he paused for a moment. “This is absurd. Just go. Get out. If you print any of this, you’ll regret it. It would be irresponsible to cause this kind of panic.
“And I’m going to call your editor,” Brown added as an after-thought.
“Call away,” Kate said. “At the very least, we have a missing persons case. And how much longer is your story on Kilgore going to keep? How much longer before someone finds out that you faked documents?”
“You’re crazy, you know that,” he said. “You come in here with a lot of guesses and no facts. You make false accusations so you can get a headline. I don’t play that game. This is a police investigation. I have nothing more to say.”
“Did you think he would stay away forever, Sheriff Brown?” Kate said as she turned to leave.
“Get out. Now.”
And the three of them walked out.
When they got outside the building, Quinn and Janus both stared at Kate.
“That was amazing,” Janus said. “I thought I would be the one to piss him off, but good Christ…”
“Are you okay?” Quinn asked and started to touch her shoulder.
She shook her head.
“Far from it,” she said and stepped away from him. “Because of Brown, that bastard got away. And now he is living in some dream world while the body count is increasing. It’s just two now, but there will be more. There may already be more. Each second we waste…”
“I know,” Quinn said. “I know. But what if it isn’t the same guy? What if it is some kind of copycat?”
“It’s not,” Kate said. “I feel it. I just have an instinct about this.”
Quinn thought about telling her Dee’s story, but dropped it. He would sound crazy. They had a real demon to pursue. He couldn’t focus on phantoms. But Dee saw it…
Quinn pushed the thought away.
“I believe you,” he said.
“Good,” she said. “Let’s get in touch with Kyle and find out what he can get from the police. By Tuesday, Brown will be having a press conference.”
