Douglas Child - The Wheel of Darkness

Pendergast quickly searched the room and determined the Agozyen was gone.

He went back to the body. The clothes had been badly cut up in the brutal postmortem knife work, but several partially turned-out pockets indicated the killer had searched the body before going into a bloody frenzy. Careful to touch the corpse as little as possible, Pendergast slipped the man’s wallet out of his back pocket and looked through it. It was full of cash—Ambrose had not been robbed of his money. Rather, Pendergast guessed, the man had been searched to make sure he had not written anything down about the fateful appointment.

He slipped the wallet into his game bag. Then he stood back and examined the room again, taking in everything. He noted the bloodstains, the marks in the carpet and on the bed, splashed across the suitcase.

Ambrose was well dressed, in a suit and tie, as if expecting a visitor of some importance. The room was neat, the bed carefully made, the toiletries arranged in the bathroom. A new bottle of scotch and two nearly full glasses stood on a table. Pendergast examined the sweating on the sides of the glasses, dipped in a finger and tasted the liquor, estimating the amount of ice that had been present and had subsequently melted. Based on the dilution of the whisky and the temperature of the glasses, he estimated that the drinks had been poured four or five hours before. The glasses had been wiped clean—no fingerprints.

Once again he was struck by the bizarre dichotomy of the killer’s actions. He placed his bag on the bed, extracted some test tubes and tweezers, knelt, and took samples of blood, fibers, and hair. He did the same in the bathroom, on the off-chance the visitor had used it. But the visitor appeared to have been careful, and a cheap, perfunctorily cleaned hotel room was one of the worst places to conduct forensic evidence gathering. Nevertheless, he did a thorough job, dusting the doorknobs and other surfaces for prints—even underneath the Formica table—only to find that every surface had been meticulously wiped clean. A damp spot in the corner near the door indicated an individual had placed an umbrella there, which had dripped water, and then retrieved it.

The rain had started at nine and stopped by eleven.

Pendergast knelt again at the body, slipped his hand inside the suit, and felt the temperature of the skin. Based on body temperature, the evidence of the drinks, and the timing of the rain shower, death had taken place around ten o’clock.

Carefully, Pendergast rolled the body over. The carpet underneath was marked by cuts where the knife had gone clear through the body into the floor. Taking his own knife, he cut out a square of carpet, peeled it up, and examined the marks in the plywood subfloor, probing into them with the tip of his knife. They were remarkably deep.

Pendergast retreated to the door, then gave the room a final look over. There was nothing more to see. The general outlines of what had happened were now plain: the killer had arrived for an appointment around ten; he’d placed his wet umbrella in the corner and his wet raincoat over a chair; Ambrose had poured out two scotches from a bottle he had purchased for the occasion; the man had taken out a .22 Magnum, pressed it to Ambrose’s head, and fired a bullet into his brain. Next, he had searched the body and the room; then savagely and senselessly stabbed and cut up the corpse—and then, still apparently calm, had wiped down the room, taken the Agozyen, and left.

Behavior well outside the bell curve of most murderers.

The hotel wouldn’t discover the corpse until checkout time or later. Pendergast had plenty of time to get far away.

He turned off the light, exited the room, and took the elevator to the lobby. He went to the desk and gave the bell a pair of sharp rings. After a long wait, the clerk came slouching out of the back, his hair mashed even further.

“Problem?” he asked.

“I’m a friend of Jordan Ambrose, registered in room 714.”

The clerk scratched his skinny ribs through his shirt. “So?”

“He had a visitor about ten this evening. Do you recall him?”

“I’m not likely to forget

that

,” said the clerk. “Man came in around ten, said he had an appointment with the gentleman in 714.”

“What did he look like?”

“Had a bloody patch over one eye, along with some bandages. Wore a cap and raincoat, it was tiddling down outside. Didn’t get a closer look and didn’t want to.”

“Height?”

“Oh, about average.”

“Voice?”

The man shrugged. “American, I think. Kind of high. Soft-spoken. Didn’t say much.”

“When did he leave?”

“Didn’t see him go. Was in the back doing paperwork.”

“He didn’t ask you to call him a cab?”

“No.”

“Describe what he was wearing.”

“Raincoat, like yours. Didn’t see what he had on his feet.”

“Did he come by car or cab?”

The clerk shrugged and scratched again.

“Thank you,” Pendergast said. “I’ll be going out for a few hours. Call me a cab from your standard pool, please.”

The clerk made a call. “Just buzz when you return,” he said over his shoulder, as he went back to his “paperwork.”

Pendergast stood outside. In about five minutes, a cab came. He got in.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

Pendergast took out a hundred-pound note. “Nowhere yet. Can I ask you a few questions?”

“You a copper?”

“No. Private detective.”

“A regular Sherlock, eh?” The cabbie turned, his red, bloodshot face lighting up with excitement and pleasure. He took the note. “Thanks.”

“A man left here about a quarter past ten or half past ten this evening, most likely in one of your cabs. I need to locate the driver.”

“Right.” He plucked his radio off the dash, spoke into it. The exchange went on for a few minutes, and then he pressed a button and handed the mike back to Pendergast. “Got your bloke on the line.” Pendergast took the mike. “You’re the man who picked up a fare in front of the Buckinghamshire Gardens Hotel this evening about ten-twenty?”

“I’m your man,” came the raspy voice, in a heavy Cockney accent.

“Where are you? Can I meet you?”

“I’m driving back from Southampton on the M3.”

“I see. Can you describe your fare for me?”

“To tell the truth, guv, your man ’ad an eye that warn’t too lovely. A patch over it, oozing blood like, didn’t want to take too close a butcher’s, if you get my meaning.”

“Was he carrying anything?”

“A big, long cardboard box.”

“His accent?”

“American, southern or something.”

“Could he have been a woman in disguise?”

A raspy laugh followed. “With all the nancy boys around today, I suppose it’s possible.”

“Did he tell you his name or pay by credit card?”

“Paid in cash and never said a bleedin’ word the whole way—after telling me where he was going, that is.”

“Where did you take him?”

“Southampton. To the quay.”

“The quay?”

“Right, guv. To the

Britannia

.”

“North Star’s new ocean liner?”

“You got it.”

“Was he a passenger?”

“Think so. He had me drop him off at the customs building, and he had what looked like a ticket in his hand.”

“Could he have been crew?”

Another raspy laugh. “Not bloody likely. It were a two-’undred-pound cab ride.” “He had no luggage other than the box?”

“No, sir.”

“Was there anything else unusual about him?”

The driver thought for a moment. “He had a strange smell about him.”

“Smell?”

“Like he worked in a tobacconist, like.”