“Interested would be closer to the word I’d use,” Tyler said.
“Well, you are the writer, so I will have to bow to you on that one,” the voice laughed, the sound evil with the disguising metallic tone.
“Did you call to tell me to be wary of Agent Brightwater again?” Tyler asked knowing the call would be brief and wanting to get to the meaty part of things quickly.
“No, no,” he answered, “I’ve called to tell you the game is back on. Carson Lemond will be in touch with you soon.”
“Carson Lemond was you?” Tyler said; the thought had crossed his mind that Spalding had been behind it but he’d dismissed it due the ongoing investigation into the missing people Spalding was thought to have taken (by Sarah and him at least).
The line went dead. Tyler listened a moment and then put the phone back down in the cradle. The game was back on. A devious smile played about his lips and grew. This was the best news he could have received and now it was certain that he would be able to draw Sarah in as far as he needed her to go.
Chapter 19
SARAH WAS AS FRUSTRATED with the wait for the cipher team to break the ‘Agrarian’s third code and she was beginning to believe that it was simply the number of items that was the answer. She wasn’t surprised in the least when her cell phone rang and the screen showed no number. It was Tyler, he’d waited as long as he could before getting back to her but the end of his patience had been reached.
“Hello?” Sarah answered, just in case she was wrong and it was not him.
“Sarah, it’s me,” Tyler’s voice spoke. He sounded excited and almost out of breath.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m just off a call and you’re not going to believe it,” he replied.
“Tell me?” Sarah didn’t even try to hold back how much she wanted to know what he was talking about.
Sarah listened in complete shock as Tyler told her about his talk with his source and Carson Lemond. Then he told her of his suspicion Spalding was involved, not letting slip that he'd spoken to him too.
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
“Not sure yet, but the Carson Lemond case is tied up in this now too. He’s another Des Roche or Karl Stanver; he didn’t do these murders but he’s part of Spalding’s game somehow, we have to figure out what the connection is.”
“We’ve gone over his whole life top to bottom and back to front,” Sarah said. “He’s a normal guy who had his head turned by the money in organised crime and wanted a piece for himself.”
“And it backfired spectacularly,” Tyler said.
“You can say that again,” Sarah said. “Do you know where he is?”
“No, but I think I might be able to arrange to meet him when he calls.” Sarah wondered if this was wise but then saw the opportunity.
“I’d have to be nearby, keeping an eye out,” she said.
“I don’t know,” Tyler said but Sarah quickly shot back
“If we’re working on this together we need to work as a team. My work prevents you from being some places but yours does not.”
“That’s not true,” Tyler calmly retorted, “I have to tell my contacts the truth about things. If word got out that I was working with the FBI, do you think anyone would talk to me?”
“Carson isn’t one of your sources,” she said, though she could concede the point he was making, “He’s a fugitive wanted by the FBI.”
Tyler didn’t answer right away and there was silence on the line for a moment. Sarah wondered how to broker this. As she thought, however, Tyler said,
“In this case, it’s best you don’t know about it until after it’s happened. It’s safer for you, for your career if you don’t know in advance.”
“So you plan to meet him and then let him go back into whatever hole he’s hiding in?” She knew her tone wasn’t caustic enough to sting him because she felt he was right, at least partially. When was she going to start trusting him?
“Fine,” she said softly, “I guess some of the way in this case we are going to have to go it alone.”
“That’s just the way it is,” he agreed. “Any news on the message in the ‘Agrarian’ case?” he asked.
“Not yet, I don’t know what they are at down there. They should have figured it out by now,” Sarah said.
“That’s assuming there is something to figure out,” Tyler answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve just thought of this now as we were speaking, but what if the message was only a ruse, something to tie everyone up with and distract from the case.” Sarah thought about this a moment and it instantly appealed to her, not in the sense that she wanted it to be the case but that she thought it made clear sense.
“The bastard!” she said angrily.
“You have to remember, this is all a game to these killers a lot of the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time the message says ‘ha ha, got you’ or something like that.”
“They still might find something,” Sarah said hoping it would somehow be a buffer against Tyler’s predicted outcome. She didn’t like the idea that there was going to be another murder at all, but adding an insult to them would be even worse.
“You better get off the phone in case Carson calls you tonight,” Sarah said.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Promise me you’ll tell me if he makes contact,” she asked.
“I’ll send a blank message when he does,” Tyler said and then added, “Good night.”
“Goodnight.”
After she hung up the phone Sarah thought about the pickle she was getting herself involved in again. There was no avoiding it; it was the only way she was going to get to work the case she really wanted.
The idea of telling Malick what was going on crossed her
