“Keep your eyes on me!” the officer said more forcefully now and Tyler heard the tell-tale swish of his gun being pulled from the holster.
“It’s alright, Officer, he’s with me,” Sarah’s welcome voice came as she approached the fence. The officer looked to her and Tyler sighed.
“Alright,” the officer said, “But you might want to look a little less incriminating if you’re at a murder scene.” He sounded very pissed off.
“Duly noted,” Tyler said as the officer put his gun back away.
“Thank you,” Sarah said and the officer nodded curtly to her and then turned away to go back to his sentry point.
“Here put this on,” Sarah said, passing a jacket to Tyler. He held it out and saw it said police on the back and he pulled it on quickly.
“This could come in handy. Can I keep this?” he joked.
“No,” Sarah said, she was all business on a crime scene. Tyler climbed the old rickety fence hearing it groan with age. They started walking towards the house. “Watch what the others are doing and copy them,” Sarah said, “Don’t ask anyone anything.”
“Blend in and stay quiet, got it,” Tyler said.
They walked towards the house and Tyler looked around at the other people going about their work. Flashlights roved everywhere in all the out buildings and across the surrounding fields and there was a general sense of urgency.
“Where’s your partner?” Tyler asked.
“He’s in the car making some calls. He will be leaving soon but right now only forensics are in the house so I’ll get you in for a few minutes.”
“Is there a message?”
“Only gloating that I was too late and should have done better,” Sarah said coldly. She held out her phone with the photo of the message and Tyler was surprised it was so clear and on paper.
“That’s gloating alright,” he agreed.
Inside the house, they stood at the door to the kitchen and Tyler looked in. It was a gruesome scene but not the worst Tyler had ever seen. Having looked at the body briefly, not thinking there would be anything found there, Tyler scanned the room looking for another message. He felt there would be one. This guy liked playing games and just simply gloating alone didn’t seem to fit. There was something here, he was sure of it. It was likely to be more obscure than before, this seemed to be the format the messages were taking, but what?
There was nothing on the floor and the room looked like it always looked this way, save the dismembered corpse of course. The large table was bare, the countertops had the usual stuff you’d expect on it in any house.
“The letter was on the fridge door,” Sarah said to him. Tyler looked at the door and saw a few magnets holding the odd bill or invoice. He doubted that was going to be a source of information that would lead to the killer.
Still Tyler’s eyes moved around the room, taking in all the walls and then running up. Above he saw thick wooden beams running at angles across the room. They were old fashioned supports and he wondered if there might be anything up there. He looked to Sarah and glanced up. She followed his eyes and nodded saying then to the forensics team,
“Can we make sure you have a real good look at the beams and ceiling of the room as well, please?”
It was difficult to get a proper look around standing in the doorway. Tyler would much prefer to come back later when the room was clear and he could walk around and get a feel for the place.
“You see anything?” Sarah asked him quietly.
“No,” he admitted and she nodded and then indicated for him to follow her outside.
Just as they were about to step outside, Sarah put a hand on his chest and pushed him back out of view of the door.
“Hey, I need to get going,” the voice of Malick came from close by. He must have been on his way in to tell Sarah this.
“You got a ride?” Sarah asked him.
“Yes, the field agent is going to drop me home, it’s on his way back to the office here.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning then.”
“Yeah, I guess so, but listen, Sarah, don’t let this personal letter bullshit get to you. It’s all a game to him, you know that.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sarah said and Tyler thought he saw vulnerability in her face for a moment before she added, “Don’t worry, I'm not losing sleep over the fact he can read a newspaper and knows my name.” Tyler wondered if this was true.
“Good,” Malick said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When he was gone, Tyler said,
“Are you sure that stuff doesn’t bother you?” Sarah shrugged,
“If you’re asking would I rather it didn't happen, then the answer is yes, but each time they do something there’s a possibility of a clue being left behind so it’s not all bad.”
Tyler didn’t know this had answered his question but he didn’t press her more on it.
When they were outside and no one was close enough to overhear, Sarah said to him,
“So, you had those pictures of the ‘Agrarians’ victims on you and showed them to Carson Lemond when you met him?” she asked, her tone as sceptical as it was possible to be.
“I know, I know, I shouldn't be carrying them around with me, but I thought I was going to be staying overnight and was going to look over them in my hotel room. I figured it wouldn’t do any harm to ask Carson if he knew anything about these murders while I was with him,” Tyler knew he’d messed up and it was eating at him inside. He felt he held it under wraps, however. Sarah looked at him questioningly. She most likely suspected Tyler had Carson in his home right now, but how could he be sure unless she said something?
“You’re definitely not going to tell me
