“I’m going to go back to the computer in the car and see what I can find out about the victim,” he said.
“Alright,” Sarah said and she flashed him a weak smile to show him there was no trouble between the two of them right now.
When she was alone, Sarah checked her phone and saw the call from Tyler. Knowing what he’d been doing this evening, she really wanted to call him back and find out what happened. There were too many ears here at the moment, however. She went outside and went around the side of the house to the back. Officers were searching a barn and some out buildings a little way off and she felt it was safe to talk here once she didn’t raise her voice.
Tyler answered on the second ring,
“It’s Sarah,” she said, “You were looking for me?” She checked that no one was getting close to her as she spoke.
“Where are you?” Tyler asked.
“At the Agrarian’s latest crime scene,” she said sadly.
“Is it in Falling Waters?” Tyler asked.
“Yes,” she said, assuming this news had spread far and wide already by now despite the lack of press at the scene so far.
“Carson Lemond knows who all the victims are, including this one tonight,” Tyler said, “He told me the Falling Waters address earlier, that’s when I tried to call you. I called in an anonymous tip about it when I couldn’t get you.”
“What?” Sarah couldn't believe this, “How does he know them?” she said, doing her very best to keep her voice low but feeling she was in danger of losing control of it.
“He doesn’t know their names, but he knows their faces from the photos I showed him. The victims were all men who let the mob use their land for storing cars and weapons and probably drugs. The mob was tipped off about raids on all of these farms so they were cleared out and left the victims open to the killer.”
Sarah’s mind was racing as she took this in. Was it possible this had been the mob cleaning house and making sure none of the farmers could talk about what they had been doing? That didn’t seem likely, these were not your typical mob murder methods and the famers would probably have known very little, if anything at all, about what was going on beyond their own yards.
“Does Carson know who the ‘Agrarian’ is?” she asked.
“No, he doesn’t know about anything and he’s more scared than ever now.”
“Where is he?” Sarah asked, more out of habit than thinking he would actually answer.
“Still where he was when I last spoke to him, I guess,” Tyler said.
“The press will be here soon,” Sarah said seeing the headlights of a car far away on the main road. “Are you coming or are you still away?”
“I’m on my way home, but I can turn off and head there right now if you think it would be worth my while?” Sarah knew what he was doing; he was teasing her with the information he had- there was more of it she was sure- but he was also testing her commitment to their pact at the same time.
“Come on over,” she said, “If you hang around, I’ll get you inside to the scene.”
Chapter 29
“YOU’RE LEAVING ME HERE on my own?” Carson asked in disbelief when Tyler told him he was going out.
“Yeah, why not?” Tyler asked as he pulled his jacket on.
“Well...”
“Listen,” Tyler could see the worry in Carson’s eyes, “No one knows you are here. You will be perfectly safe here. Just go to bed and get some sleep. I’ll be back in a few hours.” The idea of sleep seemed to perk Carson up for an instant. He nodded.
“Are you going to the crime scene?” Carson asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you think this farmer killer and the guy who set me up could be the same person?”
“I don’t think so, but I won’t be surprised to find that there is some link between the two of them.” Carson nodded at this, his face drawn and tired. “Get some sleep,” Tyler said, before leaving.
Tyler was running on adrenaline and a lot of coffee by the time he reached Koontz road a couple of hours later. He’d driven so much today he’d been in three different gas stations already. It was worth the tiredness, though to get access to the scene of the latest murder site.
Sarah had told him to call when he got there and do his best to avoid the rest of the press. For this purpose, he parked in with the police cars and donned a grey hoodie to walk to the edge of the property. He dialled Sarah as he surveyed the scene before him. It was so quiet out here, perfect for a murder really. There was no one for miles around that would hear anything going on.
“You here?” Sarah said answering the phone and at that moment, Tyler saw her coming out of the house.
“Yes, right in front of you, at the fence,” he said. He saw her look up and they made eye contact.
“Wait there,” she said and hung up.
Tyler looked round while he was waiting and saw that a young uniformed officer was approaching him silently, his hand on his gun though he’d not drawn it. Tyler looked at him in the face.
“Keep our hands where I can see them,” the officer said and Tyler could hear the nervousness in his voice.
“Okay, don’t worry, I’m here with Agent Brightwater of the FBI,” Tyler said, glancing past the officer hoping that none of the assembled press would see what was going on. If even one of them recognized him Tyler could kiss away any chance of getting into the crime scene tonight.
“What’s your name?” the officer asked. Tyler
