That'd make the time pretty tight. He'd have to move as quickly as he could and still keep the noise to a minimum.
The man started forward, but then stopped suddenly and patted his pocket. He'd been in such a hurry to get to the house he couldn't remember if he'd taken what he wanted from the glove compartment. But yes, he had it with him.
Hunched over and picking his way carefully to avoid stepping on noisy branches, Gordon Wallace continued on toward the cabin where, he hoped, Detective Altman was lost in police work and would be utterly oblivious to his furtive approach.
The search of the house revealed virtually nothing that would indicate that Desmond had been here recently-or where the man might now be. Altman found some bills and canceled checks, but the address on them was Desmond's apartment in Warwick.
He decided to check the garage, thinking he might come across something helpful that the killer had tossed out of the car and forgotten about-directions or a map, maybe.
He found something far more interesting in the decrepit building, though. Howard Desmond himself.
That is to say, his corpse.
The moment Altman opened the old-fashioned double doors of the garage he detected the smell of decaying flesh. He knew where it had to be coming from: a large coal bin in the back. Steeling himself, he flipped up the lid.
Inside were the mostly skeletal remains of a man about six feet tall, lying on his back, fully clothed. He'd been dead about six months-just around the time Desmond disappeared, Altman recalled.
DNA would tell for certain if this was the killer, but Altman discovered the man's wallet in his hip pocket and, sure enough, the driver's license inside was Desmond's. There wasn't enough face left to be sure, but the thatch of hair on the corpse's skull and the man's height were the same as indicated on the license.
He looked briefly through the bin again and found nothing else that would identify the body or who'd killed him, though he did find the apparent murder weapon-a stained, old-fashioned military bayonet. Lifting it out with a Kleenex, he set the weapon on a workbench.
So what the hell was going on?
Somebody had murdered the strangler. Who? And why?
But then Altman did one of the things he did best-let his mind run free. Too many detectives get an idea into their heads and can't see past their initial conclusions. Altman, though, always fought against this tendency and he now asked himself: But what if Desmond wasn't the strangler?
They knew for certain that he was the one who'd underlined the passages in the library's copy of Two Deaths in a Small Town. But what if he'd done so after the killings? The letter Desmond had written to Carter was undated. Maybe-like Gordon Wallace- he'd read the book after the murders and been struck by the similarity. He'd started to investigate the crime himself and the strangler had found out and murdered him.
But then who was the killer?
Like Gordon Wallace…
Altman felt another little tap in his far-ranging mind, as fragments of facts lined up for him to consider-facts that all had to do with the reporter. For instance, Wallace was physically imposing, abrasive, temperamental. At times he could be threatening, scary. He was obsessed with crime, and he knew police and forensic procedures better than most cops, which also meant that he knew how to anticipate investigators' moves. (He'd sure blustered his way right into the middle of the reopened case just the other day, Altman reflected.) Wallace owned a Motorola police scanner and would've been able to listen in on calls about the victims. His apartment was a few blocks from the college where the first victim was killed.
The detective considered: Let's say that Desmond had read the passages, become suspicious, and circled them, then made a few phone calls to find out more about the case. He might've called Wallace, who, as the Tribune’s crime reporter, would be a logical source for more information.
Desmond had met with the reporter, who'd then killed him and hid the body here.
Impossible…
Why would he have brought the book to the police's attention, then? And why would he have killed the two women in the first place? What was his motive?
But Altman refused to dismiss the notion of Wallace's involvement so quickly. He bent down into the shabby, impromptu crypt again to search it more carefully, trying to unearth answers to those difficult questions.
Gordon Wallace caught a glimpse of Altman in the garage.
The reporter had crept up to a spot only thirty feet away and was hiding behind a bush. The detective wasn't paying any attention to who might be outside, apparently relying on Josh Randall to alert him to intruders. The young detective was at the head of the driveway, a good two hundred feet away, his back to the garage.
Breathing heavily in the heat, the reporter started through the grass in a crouch. He stopped beside the building and glanced quickly into the side window, noting that Altman was standing over a coal bin in the rear of the garage, squinting at something in his hand.
Perfect, Wallace thought, and, reaching into his pocket, eased to the open doorway, where his aim would be completely unobstructed.
The detective had found some papers in Desmond's pocket and was staring at one in particular, a business card, trying to figure it out, when he heard the snap of a twig behind him and, alarmed, turned.
A silhouette of a figure was standing in the doorway. He seemed to be holding his hands at chest level.
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. "Ioughta 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."