No Mercy. John Burley

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       Chapter 3

      An hour later, the three of them stood on the sidewalk, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Indian Creek High School bus. A block to the east, the sound of passing vehicles could be heard as they traveled along Canton Road on their way north toward Route 22. Beside him, Susan fidgeted restlessly. Ben shared the sentiment. A recorded message from the high school baseball coach, after all, could only go so far in placing a parent’s mind at ease.

      Ben glanced at his watch. It was seven o’clock. Shouldn’t the bus be here already? he wondered. Perhaps not, considering the traffic and events of the day. Rounding everyone up and making sure that all of the kids were accounted for would take longer than expected. Some of the parents would just now be arriving home from work, and there would be no one waiting to receive the kids at certain stops. It could be another hour, he realized.

      Dusk was already beginning to settle upon the neighborhood. In another forty minutes they’d be standing here in the dark. Under the circumstances, he reflected, it was probably not the best plan the school could have come up with; a bunch of families standing around outside in the dark waiting for their kids to be dropped off while somewhere out there a psychopath roamed the streets. He thought about returning home for the car, even though they lived only two blocks away. He didn’t want to leave Susan and Joel standing here alone, however, and he was afraid that if they all went back together the bus would arrive during the time they were gone. Instead, they waited, watching their shadows grow long and lean as the sun continued its rapid descent toward the horizon.

      Something the size of a large cicada moved against Ben’s upper leg with a soft buzzing sound, startling him. He nearly cried out, but in a moment it was gone. He shuddered involuntarily, imagining its crunchy, crackling exoskeleton flitting up against him.

      Suddenly, it came again, nestling up against his right thigh with a muffled burring noise. He leaped backward. ‘Shit! What was that?’

      Susan looked over at him inquisitively, eyebrows raised. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

      ‘A giant bug just hit me in the leg,’ Ben advised her. ‘Twice!’

      No sooner had he uttered these words than he realized two things. The first was that he had just cursed in front of his highly impressionable eight-year-old son, who would now most assuredly walk around his home, his school, and the local playground for the next week yelling ‘Shit!’ at the top of his lungs. The second was that the flying cicada creature that had struck him – twice! – in the right thigh was nothing more than his own cell phone, which he’d left on vibrate in his front pants pocket. Feeling now like a complete idiot, he reached into his pocket and brought out the phone.

      ‘Shit! That’s no giant bug, Dad. That’s your phone,’ Joel pointed out enthusiastically.

      ‘Thank you, Joel,’ he said, looking at the phone’s digital display, which simply read: ‘CO.’ It was his assistant calling from the Coroner’s Office, which meant that the body was either on its way to the CO, or it had already arrived and would soon be ready for autopsy. In a case such as this, they would expect him to perform the autopsy tonight. Answering this call would be the beginning of a long, unpleasant evening.

      ‘Go ahead,’ Susan said with a smile as he glanced in her direction. ‘You’d better answer your cicada.’

      Ben flipped the phone open, and took a few steps away from his wife and son. ‘Yes, hello,’ he said.

      ‘Dr S,’ the voice on the other end spoke excitedly. ‘It’s Nat.’

      ‘Hey. What’s up?’

      ‘You heard about that kid they found dead in the woods this afternoon, I guess. The one who was stabbed to death?’

      ‘Yeah. We heard.’

      ‘Well, the cops have finished with their crime scene investigation and they’re releasin’ the body to us. I’m about to head over there to pick him up right now.’

      ‘Okay. Just give me a call when you get back to the office and everything’s ready.’

      ‘Sure, Dr S. No problem. But, hey. There’s a lot of reporters settin’ up outside the CO with their camera crews ’n’ stuff, you know. Body’s not even here yet and they’re startin’ to gather round like they’re expecting an Elvis sighting or somethin’. I mean, this is a big case for us, don’t you think?’

      ‘Nat, listen to me.’ Ben kept his voice as calm and as clear as he could. He spoke slowly, hoping that by maintaining his own composure he could exert some positive influence on his overenthusiastic assistant. He doubted that it would do much good, but at least it was worth a try.

      ‘Yeah? What d’ya need me to do?’

      Take two Valium and call me in the morning, Ben thought to himself. Instead, he said, ‘You’re right about this being an important case.’

      ‘Sure ’nough,’ Nat exclaimed. ‘Murder like this – in cold blood and all – ain’t somethin’ you see round here every day. That’s for sure.’

      ‘That’s right,’ Ben replied. ‘It’s not something we see around here every day. It’s big news in a small town, and those reporters are going to want some footage and a nice ten-second sound bite for the eight o’clock news.’

      ‘Ain’t that the truth. Things are about to get a lot more interesting round here. It’s gonna be a regular three-ring circus.’

      ‘You’re probably right,’ Ben agreed. ‘But right now we have a job to do. It’s an important job. A boy was murdered today. He’s lying on the ground surrounded by yellow police tape. And somewhere out there is a family whose son СКАЧАТЬ