A Clattering of Jackdaws (The Birdwatcher Series Book 2) Read online

  “I hear your partner came back to work,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she answered but there was something in her voice that wasn’t right. It could be that she was simply exhausted but Tyler didn’t think so.

  “You’re not happy about it?” he asked, trying to sound surprised but not really feeling anything about it other than curiosity.

  “No, it’s not that,” she said sitting forward then as though to defend herself, “It’s just...” She wanted to talk about something but she didn’t know if she could trust him with it. How many times had he seen this before in people; a hazard of the job.

  “This is all off the record if that’s what you're worried about,” he smiled disarmingly at her. Sarah smiled wanly back; she was definitely tired, her eyes showing it more than any other feature of her body. She looked deep in thought another moment and then she looked at him very seriously.

  “If I tell you something, can you promise me you’ll never repeat it ever again?”

  “Of course,” he said. Tyler too sat forward now, mirroring Sarah to show how serious he was taking this—a trick he’d picked up interviewing people over the years.

  “Malick and I were on our way back to the Academy to finish up for the day when we chanced on a grocery store robbery in progress. It was a complete fluke; we pulled up just as it went down.”

  “Unlucky criminals,” Tyler said smiling, but Sarah went on in her serious manner.

  “There was a shot fired, not at anyone, but Malick went to pieces. He ducked down behind the car and he couldn't do anything. I’ve never seen him like that before,” she was looking to Tyler now with a child-like expression as though she felt he would be able to explain it to her.

  “This was his first day back after getting shot?” he asked, making it sound like he was making excuses for Malick. What Tyler actually thought was that Malick's career in the FBI was over, at least as a field officer. He might be fine pushing pencils around in a safe office somewhere but he was never going to be any use to Sarah in a gunfight or stand-off ever again. He had more tact than to say this to Sarah though.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Sarah said, sounding unconvinced. “It must be scary coming back from what he’s been through. Still, that wasn’t the worst of it.” She wasn’t looking at Tyler now and he allowed himself a brief look of surprise before coming and asking,

  “What then?”

  “I haven’t reported it, yet,” she said. There was a slight pause before she said ‘yet’ at the end of her sentence and Tyler knew she had no intention of reporting it either.

  “You couldn’t have,” he said backing her decision up. “A thing like that reported by a trusted partner could be the end of things for good.” This was vague enough but also menacing enough for her to make what she wanted out of it. It suited Tyler to have something over her at all times for when she inevitably got flaky on this case and wanted to distance from him like she had on the ‘John the Baptist’ case.

  “Sorry to unload,” she said, then looking to him, “I just had to tell someone about it.”

  “No need to apologise. Your secret is safe with me.”

  They were silent a moment and then Tyler said,

  “Maybe if Malick goes to desk work, I should sign up for the police academy and we wouldn’t have to do so much sneaking around in the future. I could be your partner someday!” He was trying to be light, to finish off the evening on a less sombre note. Sarah’s returned smile was weak, but it was something.

  Tyler stood up and stretched out his back. “There’s a bed in the spare room at the end of the hall there if you want it. I’m going to bed, I’m bushed. Fresh heads in the morning might see this message in a new light.” He saw her weigh up the idea of driving home on this dark night, especially tired and with a couple of drinks on her.

  “I’ll stay tonight, thanks,” she said.

  Chapter 14

  IT WAS LATE IN THE afternoon when Sarah arrived at her desk. Malick was sitting across from her and he gave her a shamefaced nod as she sat down. He looked worried and she knew he was wondering if she had reported him or not. She smiled as best she could and then said to him,

  “Come into the case room with me.” She went on ahead without him and he got up and followed her.

  Inside the room, Sarah shut the door and turned to the confused Malick and said,

  “I’ve had a small breakthrough in the Farmer’s Case.”

  “What is it?” he asked, a look of relief coming over his face as he came to understand that Sarah might be looking to just gloss over the whole event at the store.

  “There’s a message in the items he left at each scene,” she said pointing at the three images on the corkboard. “The first two say ‘There will be another’ but I haven't been able to figure out what the third one is yet to finish the message.”

  “What?” Malick said looking at the photos more keenly now, “Where did you get that from?” Sarah explained the process and then how it had not worked in any way for the last photo.

  “Wow,” he said, “That’s some work, were you up all night at this?”

  “Not all night, but it was a late one,” she said, teetering on the edge of telling him about Tyler’s input. She hesitated. She didn’t want to be keeping secrets from him, but then she supposed he owed her one. If she told him, he would have to keep quiet about it to repay her loyalty in not reporting him as unfit for a return to active field service.

  Then a firm ‘No’ hit her head hard. Now wasn’t the time to tell him. It would be better to see how things played out with him first.

  “Have you taken this to the cipher team?” he asked, breaking her thought stream.

  “Not, but am going to do that now. There’s a lead on Carson Lemond just in, a possible sighting in Washington I have to look into this afternoon.”

  “Are you going there?”

  “I’m not sure yet, I don’t want to be running all over the country based on sightings without anything else to back it up,” Sarah said, “But don’t worry, I won’t be taking you with me this late in the day. I know Tara would have a stroke if I did.” She was smiling and trying to be jocular but Malick’s eyes darkened a moment and no smile came to his face. She looked at him closely “You okay?” she asked.

  Malick turned back to face the photos and sighed.

  “I suppose we better talk about the store hold-up,” he said, “I’m assuming you didn’t report it or else I’d already be back home by now.”

  “No,” Sarah agreed, “I didn’t report it.” She wanted to know where his head was at now, but Sarah was worried about pushing too hard and getting backlash that wouldn't help anyone. He turned to look at her,

  “First thing I should say is I’m sorry.”

  “There’s no need for that,” Sarah said, “I just want to be sure you're okay.”

  “To work you mean?” There was sharpness in his tone, but he had done his best to manage it. Sarah was rankled by it nonetheless; she hadn’t done anything wrong for anyone to be getting snippy with her.

  “That’s actually not what I meant, but now that you bring it up, perhaps it is something we should talk about!” She snapped back at him. “This kind of thing can’t happen a second time, Malick, you know that as well as I do. The wrong situation and we could have both been dead the first time!”

  “I know, I know, I said I’m sorry,” he replied flushed. Sarah was about to wade in some more but somehow she managed to hold her tongue for the fraction of a second it took for her brain to get back in control of the conversation.

  “Look,” she said, “You almost died. No one would think any less of you if you needed more time to be sure you’re ready to be back here.”

  “I’m fine, Sarah,” Malick said, “I know I had a wobble, but I’m working through that and I promise you it was a one off.” His eyes were wide and his voice earnest but Sarah both saw and heard something in him that disturbed her. He had the wide eyed innocent look and cad
enced speech of a junkie promising they were done with drugs. They were going cold turkey and didn’t foresee any trouble in doing so. This wasn’t what Sarah wanted and she began to regret not reporting the incident. It looked from where she stood that it might have been the easier thing to do in the end. She shook her head and Malick’s earnest face turned to one of growing disgust.

  “What is it?” he asked and the tension in the room was thick once more.

  “I don’t think you’re as okay as you might think you are,” Sarah replied softly, “Maybe it would be worth you talking to Psychological Services about it?” she suggested.

  “If I do that,” he replied looking coldly into her eyes, “That would be the end of my career and you know it.”

  “No I don’t know it,” Sarah countered, though she couldn’t off the top of her head think of anyone who had gone to PS and came out to be a blazing success for the rest of their careers.

  “Bullshit,” Malick called her out, “And don’t forget, this isn’t just a job to be me. I’ve put my marriage on the line to come back to this place!”

  There was nothing Sarah could really answer to this. Malick’s job was his life and it had been for as long as she’d known him. Their marriage might survive the heartache Tara would be going through now that Malick was back at work, but it would never survive the melancholy he would fall into if he had to leave the Bureau.

  It tore her apart to think that whatever decision she made now, it would have a downside for him. If only Tara had been able to make him stay at home a little longer, then everything might have been fine. She nodded at what he had said to let him know she’d heard but she was torn between their friendship and her professional duty to him. An idea came to her then, it was one of those that for a microsecond seems to have solved everything but then the reality comes to you and see it for what it really is—a stopgap at best.

  “I didn’t report what happened because we’re friends, Malick,” Sarah said to him, “Perhaps I wasn’t doing you a service in that though.”

  “No, no, you did, you really did. Just let me prove it to you. I’ll make it up and you'll see you have nothing to worry about.”

  “This is what I propose,” Sarah said, doing her best not to be sucked in by his words too much. “Go down to the shooting range, right now, and get used to the sound of gunfire for the rest of the day at least. You'll have to go down there every day for the foreseeable to make sure you’re past this.” She could see he was not happy about this, but to his credit he swallowed his pride and nodded.

  “It’s the least I owe you,” he said.

  Chapter 15

  MEGAN STANVER HAD BEEN watching closely. More closely than ever before, but at the same time doing her best to make it look like all was as it had always been between the Monster and she. It was never a given as to when she was going to see him. Sometimes he would leave enough food and a fresh water dispenser that would last a few days, but only once had he been away from her any longer than two full days. Usually she would see him at least once every forty hours, but oftentimes more than that.

  Throughout her time in captivity, Megan had never become complacent or seemingly compliant. Whenever he came to her she would put her back to the wall facing him and watching his every move. It was her hope that this would irritate him, to show him she was not willing to just lay down and die. For his part, her captor didn’t seem to care one way or another what she did when he came in to feed her. Sometimes he would only barely glance in her direction and that would be it.

  In these last ten days, however, Megan had begun to see things she had not noticed before. First off, she had been concentrating on his body, trying to see beyond the heavy dark clothes he wore and she was able to determine large muscles on his back and shoulders. It was likely then, that he was well muscled all over and perhaps this was the very reason he wore these non-flattering clothes.

  Next, she began to study the clothes themselves. What had appeared to be the same outfit all the time, in fact appeared to be many versions of the same outfit. Each item, down to the shoes would be the exact same but it was clear that it was always a fresh pair. Was it possible he never wore the same clothes or shoes more than once? Did he have a never ending pile of black boots, pants and sweaters- not to mention balaclavas? No matter what the reason, it all told of his carefulness. He was obviously very highly skilled at what he was doing, leaving nothing at all to chance. How long had he been doing this? It scared her to think how many people might have come before her.

  The door to the cellar rattled as the monster unlocked the door. As ever, Megan backed to a corner quickly and faced the door. Though she knew there was nothing she could use as a weapon in the room, her desperate eyes scanned the floor all the same, always in the hope of some miracle of a beam that had broken off or something else just as unlikely. Then she realised there was something different than usual.

  The door had been unlocked but it had not been opened yet. In the past, he had always done these two things as almost one fluid motion but now there was only silence. The door was unlocked and he was not in the room with her. Was this some kind of test? Megan had no doubt that he was still up there, just outside, perhaps listening through the door. Did he expect her to try to escape? Surely not? Though part of her wanted to go up there and push open the door. Perhaps something had distracted him at the last second, or maybe he’d had a heart attack or something! Hope wanted this to be true. Escape was possible.

  Thankfully, Megan had been stronger than the hope inside of her.

  The Monster began to whistle from the doorway. It was a happy tune, and one that was familiar to her, that reminded her of Saturday morning cartoons when she was a kid. All she could associate it with was the old ‘Speedy Gonzales’ cartoons. The door opened.

  To Megan’s abject horror, she saw as he walked down the short stairs towards her, that he was not wearing a balaclava!

  This was it, he was finally coming to kill her. What else could it mean that he was going to allow her to see his face after all this time? Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she looked around once more, praying for those same miracles as before. She looked to the walls, the stairs and behind him the open door. Was there a way she could get around him and run through that open door?

  “Hello Megan,” he said when he reached the foot of the stairs. “I think it’s time we got to know one another.”

  Despite her fear, Megan was somewhat eased by the way he said this. His face was bright and cheery and there was no hint of malice in the eyes that gleamed in the low light. She was surprised to find that he was a handsome man. With chiselled features, the only detraction to his looks, in her mind at least, being that he was completely bald.

  “Who are you?” she asked, firstly out of curiosity of the person who had taken her from her life, and then suddenly a new thought came to her. Maybe this wasn’t him! Was this someone here to rescue her? But this thought faded as quickly as it had come.

  “My name is Dwight Spalding,” he said and it was a name Megan was sure she had heard before but she couldn’t put her finger on where.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked, eyeing the door at the top of the stairs momentarily.

  “All of your questions will be answered in due course,” he said and there was an air of sincerity in his tone that was unmistakable. “I’m going to make a deal with you first though, Megan,” he said, “I won’t lie to you, if you promise the same to me. Do we have a deal?” His eyes were more serious now but something in his voice told her he was being completely genuine.

  “What do I have to lie about?” she said almost spitting the words out, “I’ve been with you for five months or more!”

  “I don’t just mean now,” he replied with the patience of a father explaining something to a young child, “I mean from now on.” He looked at her a moment longer and repeated, “Do we have a deal?”

  Megan thought about it a moment, wondering if this was some kind of t
rap, but if it was she couldn't see it. What the hell, she thought, she didn’t have anything to lose.

  “You’ll answer everything I ask you truthfully?” she clarified.

  “I will,” he said, “Once the time is right for the particular answer.” Megan looked at him longer, so odd to be seeing his face for the first time. Where had she heard his name before?

  “Okay, we have a deal,” she said. Spalding stepped forward with a big grin on his face and extended an ungloved hand for her to shake. Megan flinched a moment as he stepped over and then looked down at the offered hand and then back to his face as she took it and with a single pump sealed their deal.

  Chapter 16

  AS IF WAITING FOR SARAH’S team at the FBI to decipher the last part of the ‘Agrarian’s’ message was not annoying enough, Tyler had just gotten off one of his secret cell phones to one of his informants. The new was grim and unexpected. Danny Kercheck had somehow managed to kill himself in prison, or wherever it was he was being held.

  This was very disappointing for many reasons, not least the death of a young man who’d been clearly manipulated by a much greater and evil mind. On a different path, Danny could have a great life. On a professional level (and he was sure for Sarah too) this was a great loss of information. The things Danny must have known that were now lost forever.

  There were other questions about Danny’s death, Tyler also knew would never be answered. How did he manage to kill himself in what must have a very secure place- he was being held on counter -terrorism charges after all, and those guys don’t mess around. The fleeting idea that Spalding could somehow have a way in, a willing participant or even unwilling one to do the deed for him. It was unlikely but not entirely out of the question. Look at what Karl Stanver and Des Roche had done while under Spalding’s control, albeit in a different way than Danny had been.