“What did you find?” he asked Janus.
“There’s a lot of activity,” Janus said. “They chased me away in a goddamned hurry.”
“Figures,” Quinn said.
“Wait a second,” Kate began. “What’s going on?”
“Can we trust her?” Janus asked, and Quinn could tell he wasn’t kidding. For all of Janus’ swearing and sometimes obnoxious behavior, there was no one else you wanted on your team. On stories like this, he was the most professional photographer you could ever want.
Quinn caught his breath and opened his mouth to speak.
“What do you think?” Kate asked, and looked at both of them slowly. Her gaze seemed to pierce right through Quinn. “On Saturday, you guys were all joking and now Janus is looking as serious as I’ve ever seen him. You can trust me. Now please tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I think we can,” Quinn said and looked back at Janus. He nodded.
“All right,” he said.
Quinn kept his voice low as he related to Kate his conversation with Gary that morning, although he did not tell them his source.
“So who were you on the phone with the rest of the morning?” Kate asked Quinn.
“Right now just making the rounds on the stalker,” he said. “I’m trying to find out why they canceled the press conference.”
“But you know that…”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that I know,” he said. “I wanted to find out what the cops have told some of the heads of the citizen patrols.”
“I doubt very much they told them there was a dead body in the woods,” she said.
“Nope,” Quinn replied. “But they were stupid enough to tell them different stories. Bill Browson, who heads up the Leesburg Family Council, was told that Sheriff Brown had to testify in court unexpectedly. But Rev. Athearn was told that there was simply no new information. They both might be true, but I doubt it.”
“Sloppy,” Kate said.
“Yeah, because they had to do it fast,” Janus said.
“Why are you wasting time on this?” she asked. “Why not just confront the police?”
“I could,” he said. “But what would that do? The story needs time to simmer. The cops think they can keep a lid on this, but there is no way this doesn’t start to leak out. Sooner or later, something always does. The more people that know, the easier getting confirmation will be. If I ask too many questions too soon, the right people are going to get scared and clam up. I want to see how many times I get the same story.”
“But if you just asked…”
“This isn’t Ohio, Kate,” Janus said. “These cops don’t like or trust us very much. They’re secretive down to their core. A lot happens in this town they don’t like to talk about. The first time Lord Halloween struck, a lot of people lost faith in the police and they never got it back. It’s created a siege mentality at the police force.”
“But you could force them to talk, just by asking a lot of questions,” she said.
“If I do that today, they could find my source,” he said. “And that won’t help me. Let them see me asking everyone in town-they will hear about it. They’ll get nervous and when I call them tomorrow they won’t ask who gave me the story. They’ll figure I pieced it together.”
“But what more do you know?” Kate asked.
Quinn gestured at Janus.
“He’s been my eyes in the sky,” he replied. “I’m waiting for his report.”
“Quinn called me this morning and had me head out to the site,” he explained to Kate.
“Where the body supposedly is?” she asked.
“We didn’t know exactly where, but…” Quinn said.
“We know where now,” Janus said.
“What did you find?” she asked.
“The cops are swarming around the woods along a side road between Leesburg and Waterford. They’ve roped off a whole chunk of it. It isn’t very well traveled, but…”
“Not exactly subtle,” she said.
“They never are,” Quinn replied. “Secretive, but not subtle.”
“I got there and parked far enough away,” Janus said. “I started taking photos pretty far back. I have a good telescope lens, so I could see quite a few uniforms combing the woods.”
“Did they see you?”
“Not at first,” he said. “I got pretty close before anyone came over to me. When they did, though, you would have thought I killed the lady.”
“What happened?”
“A whole bunch of cops-like five or six-started coming toward me and shouting and shit,” he said. “I switched the film because I figured they might try and hurt the camera, but they weren’t that dumb. Instead they just started trying to intimidate me.”
“What did you do?” Kate asked.
“I told them they could go fuck themselves,” Janus said and grinned.
“This is his usual response to most inquiries,” Quinn said.
“Really?” she asked.
“Oh yeah,” Quinn said, holding up his hands. “Honest to God.”
“So I imagine they took that well,” she said.
“Well, I also showed them my press badge,” Janus added. “That made them calm down, but one of them went running back and brought out Stu.”
“Who’s Stu?”
“Brown’s deputy,” Quinn said.
“What did he say?” Kate asked.
“He didn’t say jack,” Janus replied. “I asked him what the hell was going on. I said I got calls from some locals about the police out here, so I came to take some pictures and I get the fucking Nazis coming down on me.”
“Good, good,” Quinn said.
“No locals called, I assume,” she said.
“Not a bloody one,” Janus replied. “So Stu just glares at me and you can see the hamster wheel running in his head. Then he said something about how it was dangerous and there was a chemical spill in the woods and how I needed to keep away from the area.”
“If it was a chemical spill, where were the masks and suits?” Quinn asked.
“Bingo, man,” Janus said. “Exactly the question I asked him. He just told me to leave.”
“Is that about it?” Quinn asked.
“Well, I got enough art for you,” Janus said. “But I will tell you this. Those kids-the other cops-they were scared. You could just feel it coming off them. I don’t know if they were told the chemical bullshit or not, but I doubt it. Whatever body is back there, I think it’s pretty messed up.”
“Or they didn’t just find a body,” Kate said.
“Meaning?” Quinn asked.
“They found something else,” she said. “Something that is worrying them.”
“Like?”
“A note,” she said. “Lord Halloween’s calling card.”
“Wait a minute,” Quinn said. “We don’t know that yet. I agree it’s a possibility-maybe even a good one, but…”
“How many murders happen in October, for God’s sake?” Kate asked.
“I know,” he replied evenly. “But it is far too early to tell yet. We have to find out more.”
There was a silence between the three of them.
“I might be able to help,” she said finally.
The two men looked at her.
“How?” Quinn asked her.
“Do you trust me?” she asked him and the two of them stared at each other.
“I said I did,” Quinn replied.
“Then let me worry about it,” she said. “I have some experience with police procedure. And I may have a source.”
“Whoa, hang on, we can’t let this get out,” Quinn replied.
“You have to trust me, Quinn,” she said. “I’m not going to burn you. But if this story is what we think it is, this source will know. And he won’t lie to me about it.”
“How is that possible? You just came to this town,” Janus said.
Kate didn’t answer him.
“You’ve been here before,” Quinn said. “Haven’t you?”
Kate looked at both of them, but said nothing. She looked at her watch.
“I have to run guys,” she said. “But I promise I’ll keep this quiet for you. If he comes through, I’ll let you know.”
She stood up and started to walk away. Suddenly, she came back to the table.
“Quinn?” she said.
“Yeah?” he asked uncertainly.
“Thanks for trusting me. You won’t regret it.”