manager, or are you running this place single-handedly?” She did her best to intimidate the young woman.
It worked.
“Yes ma’am. Howie, uh… that is, Mr. Guthrie, is in back taking a break. I’ll get him right out here.” She disappeared through a door.
Keren said, “Dilated pupils.”
“I smelled weed.” Paul looked at the shipping address. It was the building where they’d found Caldwell’s paintings. “Pravus Spiritu.”
“You used both those words earlier when you told me what
“The guy is nothing if not honest.”
Howard Guthrie, early thirties, prematurely bald, wearing dress pants and a tie under his buttoned-up lab coat, looked a lot more like a scientist than Frodo did. Keren greeted him with a firm handshake and asked for his cooperation. He seemed to get the point instantly that his cooperation was only a formality. They were going through his files. Period.
Paul said, “We need a printout of his file—everything you’ve got.”
Frodo leaned her body fully against Howie to watch the monitor while he typed. “I’m the one who talked to him. He’s a pretty weird dude.”
Paul wondered if this kid was a good judge of
“Weird how?” Keren asked.
“Oh, just the way he fussed about the orders, like the bugs were gonna be house pets or something. And he was very specific about the address and the time of delivery. He made me read it back to him twice to make sure I’d gotten them right. I got the idea he was just obsessive in general, and it didn’t have that much to do with these shipments.”
“What’s going on?” Guthrie asked.
Paul arched an eyebrow at Keren. He’d let her decide how much to tell.
“Have you read the paper?” Keren asked. “About the serial killer and the plagues he’s acting out? Frogs, flies, gnats? None of this rings a bell?”
“I heard about it, yes.” Guthrie’s brows arched in alarm. “You mean those flies and gnats and frogs were ours? That’s what he used them for?”
“Yes, and the locusts are coming up.”
“Whoa, creepy,” the intern said.
Paul got the impression the punkette thought this was all real cool, and it took a wrestling match to keep his temper under control. He leaned toward Frodo. Keren stepped between him and the girl. She probably thought he was going to go ballistic. She was probably right.
“We’ll be sending someone around to talk with you. We’ll put a trace on your phone in case he calls back. You’ve talked to this guy. We have a profiler who will want to interrogate you.”
“Hey, I don’t know nothin’ about him.”
“You know he’s fussy. You’ve heard his voice. You’re one of the few people we’ve found who’s had actual contact with him who’s still alive.”
“I’m not talking to the police. You can’t make me.” Frodo crossed her arms.
“We
“Hey, I didn’t know anything about any murder.” She backed away until she could duck behind Guthrie.
“You do now.” Paul’s voice was cold, pure cop. “To withhold information that could lead to his arrest makes you an accessory—an accessory after the fact to murder. You could do serious jail time for that, understand?”
“I’ll see to it that I’m in charge of all phone orders until this is over,” Mr. Guthrie said. “And we’ll
“Howie, what’s the deal?” The intern slid her hand up Howie’s arm.
Mr. Guthrie patted the hand. “We’ll be fine.”
Keren and Paul exchanged a long look, then Keren nodded her head. “We’d appreciate it. He’s kidnapped another woman.”
“And she’s going to be found dead,” Paul added. “Killed by this maniac.”
“And covered with my locusts?” Mr. Guthrie swallowed hard.
“No, he’s not up to that yet. Right now he’s reenacting the plague of beasts,” Paul said brusquely.
The two “scientists” looked suitably sickened.
CHAPTER TWENTY
O’Shea was on the radio when they got back to the car. He sounded exhausted and about fifteen years older than he had before this case started. “We found the next vic. She’s in the same park where he dumped LaToya.”
Keren started driving. “How bad?”
There was a long silence. “Bad.”
She thought he wasn’t going to say anymore. “You have to see it for yourself. I’d say he brought a plague on the beasts.”
“Did he get in the petting zoo? We had extra security on it.”
“No, he isn’t interested in a frontal assault. He was more creative than that.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Use the siren. We’re not holding this site a second longer than we have to. The press is all over us and there’s a crowd gathering.”
“On my way.” Keren clapped the light on her roof and hit the siren.
“Wilma.” Paul buried his face in his hands. “God, I’m sorry for what I said. Forgive me.”
He lapsed into silence and Keren looked at him. When she saw his lips moving, she knew he was still praying, and she thanked God for that. It was exactly what he needed.
It was what she needed, too.
“Plague of beasts,” Paul said. “He managed it.”
“Well, he’s an artist after all. He’s bound to have a good imagination,” Keren said, resorting to a cop’s black humor.
Wilma lay on her back near the spot Caldwell had left LaToya. Keren couldn’t see her, though. She was covered with dead birds and squirrels and rabbits. Caldwell had sprinkled poison birdseed and pellets on her, and little animals had been feasting themselves to death all night. They had piled up on her and were scattered across the park in all directions.
The police had established a perimeter, and Keren had to gather her courage before she could duck under the yellow tape.
Paul laid his hand on her back, and she looked at him. She saw his vulnerability.
He couldn’t hold her gaze, so he looked away before he admitted, “I’ve got to get out of this, Keren. When you’re done with me here, I’m going back to the mission. I’ll help any way you need, but I’m not going to ride along with you, investigate with you anymore. I can’t bear this.”
Keren nodded. She agreed he needed to go back to his own life.
They walked toward Wilma. Some of the animals were still alive, fluttering and twitching from the poison. Keren said to O’Shea, who stood near the vic, “What killed them? Could we save the ones still alive?”
O’Shea shook his head. “It’s arsenic. We had a vet called to the scene immediately. He said the effects are irreversible once they’ve eaten the poison.” O’Shea pointed to the area, surrounded by cops. “We’re having a terrible time keeping some of the bolder animals, like squirrels, from running out here and grabbing the poison. We have to get the crime scene work finished so we can get it cleaned up.”
Keren tread carefully as she got near Wilma. The ground was so covered with dead animals that she had to
