Кей Хупер - Whisper of Evil

A very minor success, he thought, but a good indication of control. A good beginning. Another tool he could no doubt find a use for. Yes, definitely.

He was going to have to think about this. Practice a bit more until his control over her improved.

Smiling, he left Nell to her disturbed dreams.

FRIDAY, MARCH 24

Ethan Cole closed the file folder and scowled across his desk at the small group assembled uncomfortably in several straight-backed visitor's chairs. "So what're you telling me?"

Justin Byers glanced at the other two CID detectives — strictly speaking, only the three of them made up the entire Criminal Investigation Division for the Lacombe Parish sheriff's department, though the uniformed deputies helped out when necessary — and realized glumly that he was still expected to be spokesman. Whether he liked it or not.

"We're telling you that we don't have much more this week than we had last week," he replied matter-of-factly. "We know all four of the victims received a phone call the night before they were killed, the calls placed from different pay phones around town. So far, we haven't been able to find any witnesses who noticed anyone placing the calls. Other than that, there's nothing new to report."

If anything, the sheriff's scowl deepened. "Any of George Caldwell's secrets come to light yet?"

Lying without a blink, Justin said, "Not so far."

"Shit. I hate waiting for that."

The lone female detective, Kelly Rankin, offered, "Like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Unnerving." She shook her head and absently pushed a wayward strand of pale hair off her face.

Ethan half nodded in agreement. "I'll say. Look, do we have any idea at all whether this bastard is finished with his little rampage?"

Justin said, "There's just no way to know that. Maybe he had only four names on his hit list, or maybe he's got a dozen. So far, we haven't found the common denominator — not a single person with any kind of a grudge that we can connect to all four men."

Kelly spoke up again, saying, "Granted, we haven't yet sifted through the victims' secret lives thoroughly enough to find everything there is to find; these guys kept their secret sins very well hidden. And those sins are all so… varied. I mean, we've got pornography, gambling, embezzlement — and God only knows what Caldwell's secret will be."

"All different," Ethan mused.

She nodded, her blue eyes intent. "Yeah. So maybe we're wasting time combing through the secrets looking for a common denominator, one enemy they all made."

Justin said, "Maybe the secrets are the common denominator."

The third CID detective, Matthew Thorton, agreed with a nod. He looked tired, which wasn't really surprising, his gray eyes bloodshot and graying dark hair somewhat rumpled. "That really is the only thing we're sure of so far — that at least the first three victims led some kind of a secret life. So maybe what we've got here is a killer whose only goal is to expose secrets. Maybe none of them did anything to him personally. Maybe he just plain doesn't like people pretending to be something they aren't."

"Which, if true, is not going to make our jobs any easier," Justin finished with a sigh. "Forget even trying to figure out who the next victim might be. And if this guy doesn't have a tangible connection to the victims, if there's no trail there for us to find, then we've got about zero chance of catching him, unless he makes a mistake."

The sheriff eyed him somewhat grimly. "That's a pretty defeatist attitude."

"Realistic. Serial killers with no connection to their victims get caught when they fuck up. Period." Catching himself belatedly, he added in a much more diffident tone, "At least everything I've read on the subject says so."

After a long moment, Ethan leaned his chair back until it creaked, and shook his head. "I'm still not convinced we've only got one killer here. For one thing, we've got four distinctly different causes of death: poison, drowning, electrocution, and gunshot. How often does a single killer vary his methods over that wide a range?"

"Not often," Justin admitted. "But it happens. Especially if one of his goals is to throw off the police."

"Maybe. But unless you people can uncover George Caldwell's secret life — assuming he had one — or discover some other connection to the first three victims, then I'm inclined to consider his murder as a single crime separate from the other three."

That surprised Justin somewhat. If Ethan Cole was indeed one of Caldwell's blackmail victims, would he be prodding his investigators to look for a motive specific only to that murder? Or was he convinced such a motive would both implicate someone else and surface before anyone could find evidence of Caldwell's secret vice?

Or was Justin totally wrong about the sheriff, seeing reluctance or interference in an investigation when none was actually there?

Kelly said, "He got a phone call from a pay phone just like the others the night before he was killed, that's certain." It wasn't quite an objection, merely a very careful reminder.

"People get calls from pay phones. It happens."

Justin exchanged glances with the other two, then said, "Well, we're bound to find the truth if we dig deep enough. In any case, there is one thing that sets Caldwell's murder apart from the others. He's the only one of the four who we can be reasonably sure saw his killer."

Obviously musing aloud, Kelly said, "I wonder if that means something. If the Caldwell murder is part of the series, then why was he killed so… directly? Face-to-face, I mean."

Justin said, "We're assuming that Luke Ferrier was either rendered unconscious by some drug while he was driving, and so accidentally drove into the water, or else was rendered unconscious beforehand, put into his car, and the car pointed at that bayou, right? That he probably had no opportunity to see his killer."

Kelly frowned at him. "Well, I'm assuming. There was no sign of a struggle, nothing to indicate that Ferrier put up any kind of a fight. So it only makes sense that either it was suicide or else he was out cold and couldn't struggle. And since he'd clearly been making plans to leave Silence, I'm not buying the suicide theory."

Justin nodded. "Okay. But if we assume the killer was there with Ferrier even if he wasn't seen, that he put the man in his car and pointed it at the bayou, then the only murder of the four that really sticks out in terms of how it was executed is the first one — the murder of Peter Lynch."

"The killer didn't see him die," Ethan realized. "If, that is, the poison was mixed in with his vitamins at some earlier point so there was no telling when he'd get to those particular pills."

"Not that we're certain it was." Justin sighed. "We're not certain of a hell of a lot."

Kelly shook her head. "Is anybody else getting the feeling this guy is just playing with us?"

"I've got that feeling," Matt said, dispirited.

"A direct challenge to us?" Justin considered, then shrugged. "Maybe. But it feels to me like he's got his game plan all laid out and means to stick to it, no matter what we do. Like each murder is designed as part of the victim's punishment. Peter Lynch, the health nut, is poisoned; Luke Ferrier, so proud of his college swimming trophies, is drowned; Randal Patterson, famous for his personal vanity, is electrocuted in his tub; and George Caldwell, who did community ads and school presentations on gun safety and owned an extensive collection of firearms, is shot in the head."

Kelly bunked at him. "Jesus, you're right. I never thought about it that way, but… it all fits."

Ethan was also eyeing him, and very thoughtfully.