Blinded by the glare, Altman gasped, "Who're -?"
A huge flash filled the room.
The detective stumbled backward, groping for his pistol.
"Damn," came a voice he recognized.
Altman squinted against the backlighting. "Wallace! You goddamn son of a bitch. What the hell're you doing here?"
The reporter scowled and held up the camera in his hand, looking just as unhappy as Altman. "I was trying to get a candid of you on the job, but you turned around. You ruined it."
"I ruined it? You've got no business being here. I told you not to get in the way. You can't -"
"I'm not in the way," the man snapped. "I'm nowhere near you. How can I be in the way?"
"This's a crime scene."
"Well, that's why I want the pictures," he said petulantly. Then he frowned. "What's that smell?" The camera sagged and the reporter started to breathe in shallow gasps. He looked queasy.
"It's Desmond. Somebody murdered him. He's in the coal bin."
"Murdered him? So he's not the killer?"
Altman lifted his radio and barked to Randall, "We've got visitors back here."
"What?"
"We're in the garage."
The young officer showed up a moment later, trotting fast. A disdainful look at Wallace. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"How'd you let him get past?" Altman snapped.
"Not his fault," the reporter said, shivering at the smell. "I parked up the road. How 'bout we get some fresh air?"
Angry, Altman took perverse pleasure in the reporter's discomfort. "I oughta throw you in jail."
Wallace held his breath and started for the coal bin, raising the camera.
"Don't even think about it," Altman growled, and pulled the reporter away.
"Who did it?" Randall asked, nodding at the body.
Altman didn't share that for a moment he'd actually suspected Wallace himself. Just before the photo-op incident he'd found a stunning clue as to who Desmond's – and the two women's – killer actually was. He held up a business card. "I found this on the body."
On the card was written, "Detective Sergeant Robert Fletcher, Greenville Police Department."
"Bob?" Randall whispered in shock.
"I don't want to believe it," Altman muttered slowly, "but back at the office he didn't let on he even knew about Desmond, let alone that they'd met at some point."
"True, he didn't say a word."
"And," he continued, nodding at the bayonet, "doesn't that look like one of his?"
"Does, yeah," Randall said.
Bob Fletcher collected World War II memorabilia and weapons. The wicked-looking blade was similar to several in his collection.
Altman's heart pounded furiously at the betrayal. He now understood what had happened. Fletcher bobbled the case intentionally – because he was the killer – probably destroying any evidence that led to him. A loner, a history of short, difficult relationships, obsessed with the military and hunting… He'd lied to them about not reading Two Deaths and had used it as a model to kill those women. Then – after the killings – Desmond happened to read the book, too, underlined the passages, and, being a good citizen, contacted case officer Fletcher, who was none other than the killer himself. The sergeant murdered him, dumped the body here, and then destroyed the library's computer and never made any effort to pursue the vandalism investigation.
Altman then had another thought. He turned suddenly to the reporter. "Where was Fletcher when you left the office? Did you see him at the station?" The detective's hand strayed to his pistol as he looked around the tall grass, wondering if the sergeant now intended to kill them as well.
"He was in the conference room with Andy Carter."
No! Altman realized that they weren't the only ones at risk; the author was a witness, too – and a potential victim of Fletcher's. Altman grabbed his cell phone and called the central dispatcher. He asked for Carter.
"He's not here, sir," the woman said.
"What?"
"It was getting late so he decided to get a hotel room for the night."
"Which one's he staying at?"
"I think it's the Sutton Inn."
"You have the number?"
"I do, sure. But he's not there right now."
"Where is he?"
"He went out to dinner. I don't know where, but if you need to get in touch with him you can call Bob Fletcher's phone. They were going together."
Twenty minutes from town, driving at ninety.
Altman tried again to call Fletcher but the sergeant wasn't answering. There wasn't much Altman could do except try to reason with the sergeant, have him give himself up, plead with him not to kill Carter, too. He prayed that the cop hadn't already done so.
Another try. Still no answer.
He skidded the squad car through the intersection at Route 202, nearly sideswiping one of the ubiquitous dairy tankers in these parts.
"Okay, that was exciting," Randall whispered, removing his sweaty palm from the dashboard as the truck's horn brayed in angry protest behind them.
Altman was about to call Fletcher's phone again when a voice clattered over the car's radio. "All units. Reports of shots fired on Route One-twenty-eight just west of Ralph's Grocery. Repeat, shots fired. All units respond."
"You think that's them?"
"We're three minutes away. We're about to find out." Altman pushed the accelerator to the floor and they broke into three-digit speed.
After a brief, harrowing ride, the squad car crested a hill. Randall called breathlessly, "Look!"
Altman could see Bob Fletcher's police interceptor half on, half off the road. He skidded to a stop nearby and the two officers jumped out. Wallace's car – which had been hitching an illegal ride on their light bar and siren – braked to a stop fifty feet behind them and the reporter, too, jumped out, ignoring the detective's shout to stay down.
Altman felt Randall grip his arm. The young officer was pointing at the shoulder about fifty feet away. In the dim light, they could just make out the form of Andrew Carter lying facedown in the dust.
Oh no! They weren't in time; the sergeant had added the author to the list of his victims.
"Look out for Fletcher," he whispered to a spooked Josh Randall. "He's around here someplace and we know he's armed."
Altman ran toward the author's body. As he did, he happened to glance to his left and gasped. There was Bob Fletcher on the ground, holding a shotgun.
He shouted to Randall, "Look out!" and dropped flat. But as he swung the gun toward Fletcher he noted that the sergeant wasn't moving. The detective hit the man with his flashlight beam. Fletcher's eyes were glazed over and there were two bullet holes in his chest.
Wallace was crouching over Carter. The reporter called, "He's alive!"
The detective rose, pulled the scattergun out of Fletcher's lifeless hands, and trotted over to the author. The man's face was bloody and streaked with dirt, his clothes torn. Lying on the ground nearby was a black revolver, the sort that Fletcher had carried.
"Are you shot?"
Carter winced and blinked.
"Andy? Are you shot?"
In response, the author shook his head. "No. But I think I broke my arm. I can't feel anything in my fingers."
"There's an ambulance on its way. Just stay where you are. Don't try to get up."
"My leg… man, it hurts."
"Just stay still, Andy. Don't move Tell me what happened."
Gasping, Carter said, "Fletcher said let's go to dinner. We took his car. He said if I didn't mind he had to make a stop on the way to the restaurant and he turned down this road. Then he was talking and he said it was funny, this road reminded him of that scene in my book where the hunter's waiting for one of the victims."
"Ah."
"Right," Carter continued. "He said he hadn't read it. He lied to us. That meant he had to be the strangler. And he was taking me someplace to kill me." Carter coughed and laid his head back on the ground. A moment later he continued, "When he slowed down to turn into that side road I grabbed his pistol and jumped out of the car. I thought I could run into the forest and hide. But I hurt myself landing and couldn't get up. Fletcher stopped and got the shotgun out of the trunk. He came after me and I fired a couple of times and then passed out". He looked at the body up the road. He whispered, "I didn't want to kill him. I didn't have any choice."