“What can you do for me?” Carson asked right away.
“I won’t know until I’ve heard the story from you, the full story with nothing left out.”
“Then what?”
“Well, if you are innocent there will be something in what you tell me that I can use. I’m extremely good at my job and if I want to find something I’ll find it.”
“What do you want to know?” Carson asked, sounding dubious.
“Everything, right from the start as you see it,” Tyler said. Carson nodded and then began to tell his tale.
For the next half hour Tyler mostly listened, only asking the odd question for clarification purposes. He wanted Carson to be at ease and say as much as possible in the first out letting. This was often where Tyler could gleam the most information when he interviewed someone as nervous as Carson was.
When the story ended Carson sat back looking physically exhausted and he stared at Tyler as though he were going to end all his troubles with his single verdict. After a short pause Tyler said to him,
“I don’t know what this will mean to you, but I believe you.”
Tears came to Carson’s eyes but he fought them back well.
“So where does that leave us?” he asked.
“In a hell of a lot better place than you were an hour ago,” Tyler said smiling at him. “Let’s get out here, we can talk on the way to my car.”
“Where are we going?” Carson asked, alarmed again and looking poised to set off running if Tyler said anything he didn’t want to hear.
“We don’t have to go anywhere,” Tyler said, “that’s up to you, but I think we need to move on from here. We’ve been here long enough now.”
“Okay,” Carson said, this was something he could definitely agree with.
Tyler paid at the counter for what they’d had while Carson waited in the alley across the street. Tyler was sure alleyways and derelict buildings were where he’d been spending most of his time lately. This thought made him think of the rickety shed on the building where he’d found Ferguson during the ‘John the Baptist’ case. A man who was a suspect at the time but was innocent and actually wound up a victim in the end.
“Thanks for getting the sandwich,” Carson said when Tyler came over to him.
“Think nothing of it,” Tyler said, and then he went straight back into journalist mode. “Tell me about the man who actually killed Jeff Suchet.”
“He was a big guy,” Carson said, “Well over six feet tall. Brown eyes, thick eyebrows...” At this Carson stopped and looked to be in thought.
“What is it?”
“Thinking about it, those eyebrows must have been fake,” he said, “I didn’t think so at the time but the image I have in my head is ridiculous.”
“You said earlier he was talking to you through a mirror, maybe the reflection was warped?”
“Maybe,” Carson replied and Tyler nodded for him to go on. “He had a beard but no hair and his voice was deep. That’s about it, I only saw him for a second, really.”
“Did you notice any tattoos or scars or anything like that?” Carson was shaking his head at this,
“No. I told you I only saw him for a second and then he shoved me from behind on top of Jeff.”
“What about the other two victims? Did you know them at all?”
“No, I never heard of either of them. Anything I know about them is from the newspapers.”
They reached Tyler’s car.
“Why don’t you come to my house?” Tyler suggested. “I live alone, way out in the sticks. There’s no one around for miles and it would be the last place anyone in the world would look for you.”
“I don’t know, man,” Carson said, though Tyler could see he was tempted.
“C’mon, you can get a decent sleep and some food into you while we work this thing out. I can ask you more questions along the way home and we can come up with a plan. What do you say?” Tyler finished his little speech with a playful punch to Caron’s upper arm., like they were old high school football buddies. It was enough to sway him.
“Alright,” Carson said, “I could certainly do with that night's sleep!”
“Excellent,” Tyler said. He was pleased with himself. It wasn’t often he had a star witness entirely to himself and he was looking forward to getting as much as he could out of Carson in the next day or so. They got into the car and the radio came on when Tyler fired up the engine. It was still tuned to one of the news stations but Carson thankfully was not the story.
“Do you mind if we just put some music on instead of the news?” Carson said, his hand already going to the dial, “I'm kind of sick of the news right now.”
“Put on whatever you want,” Tyler said smiling as he pulled the car out into the light traffic. There was a scramble of static as the radio searched for something new and then Bruce Springsteen came bursting on, crystal clear singing ‘The Rising.’
“I haven’t heard this song in years,” Carson said clearly pleased with himself as though he’d found some long lost artefact.
“You see,” Tyler said looking over at him, “Things are picking up already.”
Chapter 25
SARAH WAS SITTING AT her desk when Malick came into the open plan office
"What has you here so late?" Sarah asked. He looked like he had a shower since she saw him in the shooting range, and his face bore no sign of the tears from then. She had honestly thought he would have slipped out of the building and went home by now.
"Still catching up on things," he replied, casual in manner but not himself. Only someone who knew him as well as she did would have been able to detect the difference. "What are you doing there?" He nodded to her computer.
Sarah looked
