P. Parrish - An Unquiet Grave

Louis looked at him. He didn’t want to give anyone Claudia’s name, but he knew they had to check him out, and that would mean going back as far as they could. He had no idea what they’d find, or what might still be on record for him in Michigan.

“Claudia DeFoe.”

Bloom wrote it down. “Your address here and in Florida, your middle name, and your Social Security number, Kincaid.”

Louis gave him the information, his eyes drifting across the grounds. He saw a white police car in the distance and wondered if it was Dalum.

“Why were you in this building?” Bloom asked.

Louis kept his eyes on the parking lot. This was going to get messy real quick. “I was helping Chief Dalum investigate the murder of Rebecca Gruber and-”

“I thought you were looking for this DeFoe woman.”

“It started out that way, but then Chief Dalum asked me to assist him with-”

“I told Dalum to let us handle it.”

“It’s his town,” Louis said. “He’s protective of it. He was just trying to help.”

Two men from the county van came up the steps with a gurney and a body bag, and Louis and Bloom stepped aside to let them pass.

“We don’t need his help,” Bloom said. “Or yours. Did it occur to you that maybe by sneaking around out here, you set this guy off and you got that guard killed?”

Louis tightened his jaw, biting back his first reply. Bloom was partly right. But he hadn’t been the one to set the killer off. Louis believed it might have been Dr. Seraphin whom the killer was calling a bitch. And he knew he needed to tell Bloom that. But there was no way to say it and not lose Dr. Seraphin as an ally.

“You fucking amateurs,” Bloom said.

“Look,” Louis said, “when Rebecca Gruber was murdered, you guys made a big show out of coming out here and working the scene. But despite the fact that this place is enclosed by a fence, and the victim was an on-duty employee, and the killer likely lives out here somewhere, you left no one here for surveillance or to protect the remaining employees.”

“Now I got some private dick telling me how to run my investigation,” Bloom said.

“You didn’t even seal the tunnels back off,” Louis snapped.

“They’re all walled up, you dumb shit.”

“Well, you missed one. At least.”

“You been down there?”

“Yeah.”

“I oughta bust you for that.”

“Go ahead.”

The door banged open and three uniforms came out. Bloom grabbed Louis’s arm and pulled him off the steps and onto the grass. The snow was growing heavier and Louis jerked up the collar of his jacket.

“You carrying a gun, Kincaid?”

He was carrying a concealed weapon, and he knew Michigan was supposed to recognize his Florida permit. But Bloom seemed like the kind of guy who had his own way of doing things.

Bloom noticed Louis’s hesitation and thrust out his hand.

“Let me see it,” he said.

Louis reached under his jacket and withdrew the Glock, holding it out to Bloom by the trigger guard.

Bloom took it, then held out his other hand. “Now your Florida P.I. license and CCW permit.”

Louis dug them out his wallet and handed them to Bloom. Bloom eyed them both, then looked up.

“Okay, P.I.,” he said. “Tell me what you know about this case.”

Louis blew out a breath. “The chief and I think it’s an ex-patient, probably come home to make some kind of statement about the place closing.”

“What makes you think that?”

“All three victims were killed here and left here.”

“You’re so smart, why bury one and leave the other girl above ground where we can find her?”

“He didn’t bury Rebecca Gruber because he couldn’t,” Louis said. “The cemetery had security posted. He had to take her somewhere else.”

“Still could’ve buried her.”

“Maybe he didn’t have time,” Louis said. “Maybe the ground was too hard. Maybe he just didn’t care if we found her.”

“Why kill the guard at all?” Bloom asked. “You think the guard saw him?”

“No. No one sees this guy. He thinks he’s invisible. He killed him because he wanted attention.”

Bloom took a long look around the grounds. “And you think this guy lives out here somewhere?”

“Yeah, I do,” Louis said. “Look at the stuff he left in this building-a cigarette, a can of corn. He used the toilet. And I have one more thing for you. The warehouse.”

Louis pointed to the far southwest corner of the grounds. “That’s where he took the food from. It has two exits to tunnels. One of them is not bricked off and leads to the men’s ward.”

“And are the tunnels in the men’s ward bricked off?”

“Yeah,” Louis said. “But there are other tunnels that go completely under some of the buildings.”

“So, what’s your point?”

“That there has to be another entrance to the tunnels somewhere,” Louis said, “something that connects underneath and allows him to get to the warehouse unnoticed. We’re just not seeing it.”

“ You’re not seeing it,” Bloom said, “because it isn’t there. We searched every entrance. Maybe the man gets into the warehouse through a goddamn window, Kincaid.”

Louis’s thoughts were rushed and he couldn’t shut up. “Have you checked the basements? Maybe there’s a hidden entrance to the tunnels. Maybe that’s how he gets in and out.”

“We checked. When they added the tunnels, they ran them down off the first floors ’cause the basements were such a mess. Except for the mortuary, all the basements were closed off. Concrete walls and broken pipes. Nothing there.”

“Then where does he keep his supplies?” Louis asked. “Where’s the can opener? Where’s the rest of the cans he’s hoarded away? And where do you think he killed Rebecca Gruber?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he lives in a farmhouse on the other side of the trees,” Bloom snapped. “He’s not a mole.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Bloom snickered. “Well, I’ll tell you what, P.I. You wanna see surveillance out here, you’re going to see it. But he won’t. We’ll be hidden all over this place. If he even farts, we’ll hear him.”

“What about the employees?”

“They’re out of here. As of right now.”

“They have to finish closing up,” Louis said.

“After we catch this guy, they can finish,” Bloom said. “For now, everyone’s out of here. And that goes for you, too. You can pin that Ardmore badge on your forehead if you want but it’s not going to get you access in here. You got that?”

Louis drew in a tight breath, knowing Bloom was right. Pulling everyone out and sitting in the shadows waiting for the killer to make a move was the smartest thing to do. But Louis wondered what the killer would do when he saw the place deserted and he had no more potential victims around.

And there was still Dr. Seraphin.

She needed to know what had happened here today, what was written on the wall. And she needed to know that it was obvious this man was someone who had a special attachment to his former doctor. A violent one.

Once she knew all that, maybe she would be willing to approach the state police with the same information she had given him. He had to give her that chance before telling Bloom they had already been through the files.

Bloom called to a uniform standing nearby and the man came over, looking at them from under the snow-covered brim of a garrison cap.

“Officer, I’d like you to take Kincaid here back to the station in Adrian.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you arresting me?” Louis asked.

“Let’s just say we’re going to keep an eye on you while we check you out.”