Acoustic Shadows. Patrick Kendrick

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ as clearly as if she were still in the bedroom they shared years ago. Still standing in front of the window at her little fuck pad in Ormond Beach, pulling her then shoulder length hair up into a ponytail, the sweat of their exertions still glistening on her dark skin.

      ‘I talked to the ATF agents last night,’ she answered, a noticeable shrug in her voice. ‘There’s nothing for them here, so they’re popping smoke and gone. Like you said – all amateur stuff on the explosives – probably couldn’t get them to detonate without attaching a grenade. We’ve got Coody’s hard drives. We overnighted them to our lab rats. I’ve got some people chasing down the numbers on the Weisz gun. So far, nada. And I’m collating a list of guns that the shooters had on them, and in their vehicle, and I’ll run that through our database as soon as I can. My boss told me to stick around to represent our bureau and assist your department as needed. So, if you need forensic or lab work, or just old fashioned … leg work … ’

      Thiery again ignored her sexy punning.

      ‘So, how are you?’ Logan finally continued. ‘The boys doing well?’ she asked, straining to make personal conversation.

      ‘Grown and out of the house now. You still married?’

      She hesitated. ‘Afraid so.’

      He could have asked, ‘why so glum?’, or lent her a consoling ear, but he didn’t. He heard a click on his phone, glanced at the incoming call, but didn’t recognize the number.

      Logan asked, ‘Is that your phone missing a beat or mine?’

      ‘Mine,’ he said. ‘Let’s touch base later, okay?’

      ‘Sure,’ said Logan. ‘And hey, thanks for not being a dick to me.’

      Thiery clicked over to the second call without comment.

      It was Chief Dunham. ‘She’s gone,’ he said, dolefully.

      ‘Who?’ asked Thiery, wide awake now.

      ‘The wounded teacher: Erica Weisz.’

      ‘She died?’

      ‘No, sir. She’s just … gone. Left without checking out. I got a call from the Sheriff’s office this morning. The hospital called them late last night.’

      ‘Why did they wait so long to notify you?’

      ‘Not sure. They had a deputy watching her last night, but he’s a young guy and got distracted. Stepped away for a minute. They looked around the hospital for a couple hours, but couldn’t find her, so they just wrote it up as a missing witness wanted for questioning. She hasn’t been gone for twenty-four hours, and it wasn’t reported by a family member, so it’s not really an official missing person’s case yet. They think she just left.’

      ‘With a shotgun wound to the abdomen?’ Thiery questioned. ‘She’d have to be really scared of something. Maybe she’s afraid of the trouble she could be in over having a gun?’

      ‘Could be. Federally, schools are supposed to be part of the Gun Free Zone Act. Breaking that law, a person could buy themselves a whole lot of trouble, even if she probably saved dozens of lives.’

      ‘I hear you,’ said Thiery, his head beginning to ache from lack of sleep. He made a mental note to ask Logan about that when he had a chance. ‘I’m heading over to the hospital now,’ he said. ‘Should be able to review the security videos. Could you do me a favour? Call the local PDs, and put out an APB on her? And let’s do an Amber Alert, too.’

      ‘Already got it written up. Just waiting for your okay.’

      ‘Thanks, Chief. Know any place I can grab a quick bite?’

      ‘Uh, you may have noticed there isn’t much in Frosthaven, but there’s Dutch’s Diner in Avon Park on Main Street. That’s about halfway to Sebring, where I’m at, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes from where you are. I could meet you there, if you don’t mind company.’

      ‘Not at all. See you there.’

      Thiery arrived at the diner half an hour later. Dunham was already there, a cup of black coffee steaming in front of him. He smiled pleasantly, but he, too, could not hide the signs of fatigue. He stood and shook hands with Thiery.

      ‘Get any sleep last night?’ Thiery asked.

      ‘Probably about as much as you.’

      Thiery nodded. ‘What’s good here?’

      ‘Everything. I like the Mustang.’

      The place was fashioned with a retro look, like Mel’s Diner from the old TV show Happy Days: black and white chequered floors like flags at race tracks; the breakfast counter was made from the grille of an old car; neon lights that read ‘Ford’ and ‘Chevy’ decorated the walls; the breakfast plates on the menu were named after muscle cars; the Mustang was ‘a good chunk of corned beef hash grilled with two eggs’. Thiery was hungrier than that.

      The waitress had pink dyed hair, earrings in her nostrils, and her arms were tattooed up to her neck. What skin still showed was as white as bone. She was friendly and attractive in an ‘alt girl’ way and as incongruent as the Pope in a strip bar. Most people in the area leaned toward cowboy boots and hand-tooled belts as their fashion statement. Thiery said he was starving and she suggested the ‘Barracuda’: three eggs, three links of sausage, three pieces of bacon, with biscuits and gravy.

      The food came quickly, and Thiery went for it, eating as if he was still playing football in college, though he had to work out a lot harder to keep his weight down to what it was thirty years ago.

      Thiery and Dunham ate without talking, the sounds of forks striking ceramic plates serving as the bulk of conversation until they were both finished, their hunger abated.

      Sara Logan kept seeping back into Thiery’s head, specifically, the memory of their discussion about why they couldn’t continue to see each other. The anger. The hurt. One memory brought on another, until, inevitably, they turned to his wife’s disappearance and all the doubts and regrets that brought.

      ‘Why do you think she left?’ Dunham asked.

      ‘I don’t know,’ replied Thiery, momentarily thinking Dunham was referring to his wife. Refocusing, he pulled himself back to the present. ‘Maybe she has an abusive husband or boyfriend looking for her. Maybe she didn’t leave alone. Did you get a chance to talk to her at all yesterday before the ambulance took her away?’

      Dunham looked sheepish, casting his eyes down. ‘No. I’m sorry, I didn’t. We were so busy yesterday. I still can’t believe this happened here.’

      ‘Don’t beat yourself up. You had an emergency situation. Dozens of witnesses, wounded, and the dead to deal with. The parents of the children must have kept you hopping.’

      ‘Yep. At one point I was sure we had more cars arriving than people. We got swamped.’ He paused to reflect for a moment, and Thiery could see the sorrow in his eyes. ‘We’ve got to make a better plan. There’s been talk about all the departments in the county going under the Sheriff’s department. The Sheriff has asked the county to almost double his budget.’

      Thiery nodded, СКАЧАТЬ