“Come one, get up,” she said, “You don’t want the uniforms to see you like this.” Malick looked around at the approaching cars and stumbled to his feet.
“Thanks Sarah,” he said, “I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’m sorry.”
“Save the sorry's,” Sarah replied, “But we need to talk about this again later.” As she was saying this the first of the squad cars pulled up and the two officers within sprang out with guns drawn like it was something from the old west.
“Freeze!” one of them shouted on seeing both of the people before him had drawn guns.
“FBI,” Sarah said wearily as she reached slowly for her ID. “Suspect is a male, early to mid-thirties, I didn’t get a good look at him but I think he got away on a motorcycle,” Sarah added and then turning to Malick said, “Did you get a good look at him?” This was the moment of truth and she did her best to let this roll off her tongue casually.
“I saw him but my description is not much better than yours. He was far away and its dark out, the jacket could be red but that might have been the street lights reflecting on it.”
“Was it leather?” one of the cops asked.
“Could have been,” Malick replied and he looked to Sarah who nodded,
“I think it was,” she said. “Call an ambulance too, I think it’s too late but someone is in there." She nodded to the building.
“We better go in and take a look,” Malick said. He seemed to be coming back to himself and if you didn’t know him he would seem fine, but Sarah could still see jitters deep within him. She couldn’t help but think this was the end of his career. She couldn’t let it slide anymore; it was too dangerous for everyone involved.
The putrid menace of blood odour was even more offensive on entering the warehouse a second time. If there had been any doubt of the person being dead before, this smell alone would confirm it. Only the two FBI agents had entered the building and they approached the body at the far end of the room cautiously. Their eyes rove all over, trying to ascertain that they were now the only people in here save the dead body. Blood had pooled around it in a large half-moon and splatters of blood were spread out on the floor in all directions.
“What the hell happened here?” Malick said. Sarah looked up to where she’d seen Tyler and noticed a pipe running across the centre of the roof, just above them and there was a dark stain on it that had to be blood. She flashed a light up there and nodded to Malick at the deep red.
“Looks like he fell from up there, but he was already dead by then, perhaps.”
"I’d say that’d be about right,” Malick said as he walked around the body in a wide arc to avoid the blood on the floor. “Let’s see if we can get a look at this guy’s face,” he said.
Sarah was walking around in a similar arc only on the opposite end of the body and they met in the middle on the far side. It was darker on this aide, less light filtering in through the high windows but Sarah knew at once who it was. She had looked at his file so many times over the last few days there was no way she could not recognise him.
“It's Carson Lemond,” she said and Malick leaned in to look closer.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Couldn't be surer,” Sarah said, this was a whole pile of shit she didn't want at her door.
Chapter 42
TYLER FELT THE GUNSHOT rip past him, far too close for comfort and he dived down from the side of the building into some bushes for cover. He was cut and scraped as he went through this but set to running at once on landing, his life was at stake now. In the back of his mind he knew it wasn’t Sarah who had shot at him, but it still felt like a betrayal that the FBI was shooting at him when they were all on the same side. His motorcycle was hidden around the back here, near the water and he jumped on and set off right away. He didn’t hear any more shots or even someone shouting after him, only the sirens on the way here. He looked to the water where Spalding had dived and searched out a boat or something he might be making his getaway on but there was no sign of anything in the still water.
Racing along the bank, keeping from the roads where he knew he would be spotted easily, Tyler looked for a spot enough distance away to dump the bike and get away on foot. Motorbikes were great for speed but they stood out more than cars because of how few there were in comparison on the roads. He pulled up and killed the engine and waited a moment listening. Then he rolled the bike into the river and made sure it was submerged fully before going on his way again.
He called a contact of his in Baltimore, Freddy Dengow, and arranged to be picked up at a street corner bar called ‘Searson’s’ not far from where Tyler currently stood. Freddy owed him a lot and Tyler knew he could trust him for a job like this.
While he waited at the bar with a scotch in his hand, Tyler wondered if the police would be looking for him. Did Sarah trust him or had she told them who she had seen. It didn’t look good his escaping the warehouse with Carson’s dead body on the floor, and his having not told her he
