An Unkindness of Ravens Read online

  “You look like you’re getting better,” she said, though this was the first time she’d seen him since that day.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t so bad to begin with.” Tyler smiled at her. Sarah smiled too, looked away and ran her fingers through her hair before looking back to him. “Congratulations on catching the killer,” he said to her.

  “You know that one belongs to both of us,” she said, clinking her bottle to his. He nodded, but she knew this was not how the world would know of what had happened. “You said you had something more to tell me?” she went on.

  “Yes,” Tyler said and he looked around to be sure they were quite alone, “I got another call from the killer.”

  “Spalding?” she asked, knowing it had to be.

  “I think so, but Sarah, we’ve no way of knowing that for sure.”

  “OK,” she said, not wanting to argue on this point; she knew it was him and that was enough for her. “What did he say?”

  “Not much,” Tyler said, “Only that it wouldn’t be so easy next time.”

  “That was all he said?” Tyler nodded. “He must be talking about all the cases the FBI are working on at the moment. He doesn’t even know about that yet.”

  “As far as you know,” Tyler cautioned her.

  “I think he’d gloat about it if he knew,” Sarah said.

  “Maybe,” Tyler said, but he didn’t sound convinced. Sarah smiled, “What are you so happy about?” he asked.

  “Spalding was silent for years and when they go silent like that you might never catch them. Now that he’s talking again, active again, and making contact, it’s only going to be a matter of time before we have him.” It made perfect sense to her and there was no need to say anything more on it to Tyler; she knew it was true and that was all that mattered.

  WHEN SARAH WAS ALLOWED to return to work - after what had been for her the longest week of her life - Daniels called her into his office. She didn’t like it from the off. It was too much like the last time. And she had been right not to like it.

  “We’re not putting you on the case linked to the ‘John the Baptist’ one,” Daniels said straight out to her.

  “What?” Sarah couldn't believe this. Had it not been promised to her if she took in the killer this would be her reward?

  “Listen,” Daniels said forcefully, “before you get your panties in a twist, there's a good reason.”

  “Which is what, Sir,” Sarah almost spat the last word out in disdain.

  “We have another one we want you to work on.”

  “What case?”

  “You won’t have heard of it yet,” he said, “Very few have.” This sounded intriguing, but it still wasn’t what she wanted.

  “Why can’t someone else do this, and I work on the current case like you promised?”

  “I didn’t promise you anything; those kind of promises can't be made in this line of work. This case here,” Daniels slapped down a pile of papers, “This is what we need you on now. You’re the best we have and this requires the best.”

  The complement caused her indignation to drop a little, so unexpected had it been. Sarah softened a little with pride but had to work not to show it. She drew a short breath.

  “If I’m the best, I need to be on the Stanver/Roche case,” she said. Daniels shook his head, gathered up the papers into a file and held them out to her. Sarah took the file unwillingly.

  “Read these and then come back to me for a briefing.”

  “SAIC Bobrick is in agreement with this?” Sarah asked as a last gambit.

  “He is,” Daniels said.

  Chapter 59

  Tyler took some time off before the trial of his old boss started. He went to the mountains to hike alone for a few days; doing his best to get away from the world for a while. The quiet of the woods was invigorating, and he hunted small game for his dinners over a small fire each night. He didn’t pass a single other human for four days and it was bliss. It was the kind of life he’d often thought about living full time, but he knew he’d never be able to give up the interactions with people, the thrill of the chase for a story and everything else that so enthralled him about life as a man in the twenty-first century.

  He thought about seeing Davis in prison later, of adding his story to the book Tyler was writing. Would Davis open up as Spekler had? At the moment it wasn’t looking likely. Davis hadn’t admitted to anything to the police and at the time of Tyler’s leaving the case was flimsy apart from the attempted murder of Sarah and why he’d felt the need to do that. Everything else was circumstantial and would be useless until they found the place where he killed, or linked him to any vehicles seen near any of the dumping sites, but so far none of this had happened.

  A loud racket of birds disturbed his thoughts, and Tyler looked up and saw in the branches of a nearby tree a mother Jackdaw returning to her chicks with food. The noise went on shattering the silence of the world, a clattering of Jackdaws.

  SOME WEEKS AFTER TYLER’S return, the FBI finally managed to tie Davis to a string of car rentals that indicated he’d been at least near all of the body drop sites on the dates the bodies were found. Coupled with the fact of his knowing all the victims from writing competitions many years ago, it was looking like a better case.

  Danny wasn’t in the news at all, and when Tyler asked about him anywhere he was met with a wall of silence. No one seemed to know for sure where he’d been sent to. Tyler felt sure his former intern had been taken by the FBI to Quantico or some holding facility where they were trying to get him to come clean about all he knew about the Monster. He wished Sarah had been given that case as it was the one he wanted to know most about too. Her new case was interesting, but it wasn’t the big deal that Dwight Spalding would be. It looked like their partnership was over for now. She had a new case, and it was only a matter of time before the killer was back in contact with Tyler to lead him on to something new.

  THE TRIAL WENT AHEAD, fast tracked by the State Governor of Virginia, and Tyler showed up every day to report on it. Not once did Davis look in his direction. Tyler gave his evidence - that which was already in the public domain at least - and he was quickly forgotten about by the trial. Danny was not mentioned at all, even though he should have been called as a witness as well.

  The verdict was guilty and Davis was sentenced to the chair. Not once did he admit to anything and, as such, there was no motive on record for his crimes. Tyler hoped he could find this out at a later date, even if it was only an off the record conversation in a prison interview room.

  It was a hollow ending for Tyler, but he knew there was more to the story. For now, however, just like everyone else, he would have to wait to find out.

  The only saving grace is that serial killers never truly rest; there is always something they have to do. The next one was surely right around the corner.

  Pick up the next book in the series here!

  The End.