At the Stroke of Madness (17 page)

M
aggie slowed the rental car, wishing she had noticed the squeaky brakes before she left Bradley International Airport. She should have insisted on something other than the freshly washed white Ford Escort. She hated rental cars. They always looked good from the outside, but the insides couldn’t conceal the last occupants. The Escort’s last driver was a smoker with sweaty hands. Easy enough to fix by rolling the windows down, swiping a couple of wet napkins around and introducing some aromatic McDonald’s French fries. But squeaky brakes were a whole other matter, especially since it looked like she would need them.

The winding roads that took her up made her as nervous as on the plunges down. And there seemed to be an abundance of them. A small detail both Watermeier and Tully had forgotten to mention when giving her directions. Although Tully’s directions had sounded more like a lecture. She remembered thinking at the time that he really must miss his daughter, Emma, because he was treating her like a teenager on her first outing alone, certain that she would get lost without his step-by-step road assistance. She had stopped him once, saying she could pick up a map from the AAA. His scowl told her it would be wise to not interrupt him again.

Who would have guessed that, when it came to road-trip instructions, the same R. J. Tully who used scraps of paper—receipts, napkins, the back of a dry cleaning ticket—would become Mr. Anal Retentive? Actually, it made her smile. After two years of working together, he was finally feeling comfortable enough to take off the kid gloves and treat her like a true partner. She liked that.

She glanced at Tully’s homemade map stretched out on the passenger side of the Escort and tried to find the spot according to Watermeier’s instructions. Before she could find it on the map, however, she saw the water around the next turn. A sign identified it as McKenzie Reservoir, and immediately she saw the road, Whippoorwill Drive, that would take her over the water. It took two more climbs and one more plunge before she saw the commotion alongside the two-lane road. One of the lanes was clogged with black and whites, media vans, a mobile crime unit and several unmarked sedans.

A uniformed officer waved for her to continue on, and even as she pulled up and stopped beside him, he continued shaking his head.

“Keep moving, lady. Nothing to see and I’m not answering any of your questions.”

“I’m with the FBI, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell.” She handed her badge out the car window, but he stood with his hands on his gun belt, looking not the least impressed. She tried again. “I just talked to Sheriff Henry Watermeier a few minutes ago.”

The officer pulled a walkie-talkie from his shoulder and took her badge, holding it up to the light as if making sure it was authentic. “Yeah, this is Trotter. I’ve got a woman in a rental, says she’s FBI and that Sheriff Watermeier
just talked
to her.” He spit out the words, as if he didn’t quite believe them.

Through the static came a garbled question. Maggie couldn’t make a word out of it, but Officer Trotter seemed to have no problem interpreting static. Without hesitation, he held up the badge again and answered, “A Margaret O’Dell.”

There was a crackled response, and this time Maggie saw the transformation in Officer Trotter’s face. He handed her badge back through the car window and politely showed her where she could park the car. “You’ll need to walk to the scene,” he told her, pointing to an overgrown dirt road she may not have noticed otherwise. “Sheriff Watermeier will be waiting for you at the perimeter.” Then he was off to wave on the next passersby, tourists in a black Jeep Cherokee with Rhode Island license plates, checking out Connecticut’s latest wonder.

She would have recognized Watermeier even without the uniform. He reminded her of John Wayne—the trimmer version from his earlier movies—with a sheriff’s hat in place of the ten-gallon cowboy hat. No dusty kerchief at his neck. Instead, his collar was open and his necktie gone. His brown shirtsleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his hat was pulled low on his brow. When he saw her, he waited patiently, raising the crime-scene tape for her to crawl under. There was no smile, no introduction, no raised eyebrow at her appearance. He simply started in as though the two of them had been working together forever.

“We’re still scouring the scene, so we haven’t started opening any more barrels yet. We’ll need to move some rocks to get to some of them. I don’t want us jumping in and destroying evidence.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

“This missing person—” he shot her a look of suspicion “—she’s not someone that’s gonna cause all hell to break loose, is she?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I checked you out, O’Dell.” He waited as if expecting her to protest. When she didn’t, he continued, “My office isn’t exactly in the Stone Age. We can do that pretty quickly.”

“I’m sure you can, Sheriff Watermeier.”

“Well, point being that I know you’re out of Quantico. FBI’s looking for a missing person, and I’m thinking that missing person must be someone important, right?”

“Every missing person we look for is important to someone, Sheriff Watermeier.”

He stared at her and this time she thought she saw the beginning of a smile at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t press the issue.

“You ever have a case like this?” He started walking, slowing down when he realized his long strides were keeping her a step behind him. “I mean, there’s not some crazy bastard who’s been doing this in other states, too, is there?”

“I did check, but nothing registered on VICAP.”

“Dr. Stolz—” he pointed to a small-framed, balding man in a suit “—hasn’t gotten to the autopsy yet of the woman we found yesterday. You can join us for that later, if you’d like. She’s a mess, though. I’m not sure you’ll be able to do a visual ID.”

“I have some of her physical characteristics that might, at the very least, rule her out.”

“Right now, the M.E.’s having a hell of a time. We’re trying to figure out how the hell to contain the barrels that have cracked open. He’s thinking we may need to set up some kind of temporary morgue out here. On the other hand, if we just pull them out…hell, who knows. My quick reference check said you’d been with the bureau for about ten years. Have you come across anything like this before?”

“There was a case in Kansas. I believe 1998 or ’99, John Robinson.”

“I think I remember that one. The Internet wacko, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. He lured women via the Internet to his farm, killed them and stuffed their bodies into fifty-five-gallon drums.” Maggie watched her feet. Rocks protruded out of the ground and were hidden by knee-high grass. “I didn’t work that case, but if I remember correctly, I think the drums were found in a storage shed, so there wasn’t as much risk of jostling things around as you’re dealing with here. Do you have any idea how many barrels there are? And how many are filled with bodies?”

“Could be as many as a dozen barrels. Maybe more. Doesn’t mean they all have dead bodies. But we’ve seen inside several of them. Weird crap, really weird.” He tilted his hat back and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “In one, it looks like there’s just a pile of bones, but in the other one…” He shook his head and pointed to the barrel he wanted her to see first. “In the other one, the body looks pretty well preserved. From what we can see. Either way, we’ve got one sick son of a bitch on our hands.”

He stopped in his tracks and Maggie waited. They were about a hundred feet from the commotion. A group was hunched over a barrel that had been brought down from the rock pile. Close by, several crime-scene techs searched the area on their latexed hands and padded knees, working their grid over the rocky surface. Maggie was impressed with the sheriff’s careful handling of the scene. Too often small-town law enforcement officers allowed unnecessary civilians within the perimeter. They couldn’t see the harm in letting the mayor or a local city councilor take a look. What they considered a smart move politically—sheriffs were elected, after all—oftentimes ended up contaminating a crime scene.

Suddenly, Maggie realized Watermeier was waiting, as if weighing what he wanted to ask or tell her before they joined the others.

“I spent over thirty years with the NYPD, so I’m not a rookie to messes, okay?” He met her eyes and held them, waiting for acknowledgment—a brief nod from Maggie—before he went on. “My wife and I moved here about four years ago. She’s part owner in a nice little bookstore in downtown Wallingford. The locals elected me because they wanted somebody with some real experience. We like it here…a lot. This is where we wanna retire in a few years.”

He stopped to watch his men, looking around him as if to take count. Maggie crossed her arms and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. She knew he didn’t need a response from her. And more important, she knew he wasn’t finished. She waited.

Finally he looked at her, his eyes meeting hers again. There was something in them Maggie recognized. There was determination, frustration, a bit of anger, but what Maggie recognized was just enough panic—just a glimpse—to tell her that the experienced Sheriff Henry Watermeier was also scared.

“This is one fucking mess,” he said, pointing to the barrel the group was focused on. “Whoever did this may have been doing it for years. I’m not gonna bullshit you, O’Dell. Even if we don’t find your missing person, I could use your help. I’m going to need it to find this goddamn psycho. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d say he still lives around here. And if I don’t find him and haul his ass in, I can kiss my dream of retiring in this community goodbye.”

Watermeier waited for her response. But this time he avoided her eyes, looking, searching, assessing, all in an effort to downplay the enormous level of trust he had laid at Maggie’s feet. Trust and confidence he had invested in a woman he was meeting for the first time, a woman who had insinuated herself into his investigation. Whether out of desperation or simple strategy, Maggie could tell this was not something a tough, independent sheriff like Watermeier did easily.

She turned toward the group surrounding the barrel, and simply told him, “Then I guess we better get to work.”

Maggie didn’t glance back for his reaction, but soon he was beside her, restraining his long strides so that they walked side by side.

H
enry introduced Special Agent Maggie O’Dell to the rest of the group and watched the casual exchange and assessment. Of course, Bonzado got the longest look. Bonz looked like some California surfer dude instead of a professor in that goddamn Hawaiian shirt. But the kid was brilliant in a humble, nonarrogant way, and despite his getup, he was good at magically attributing an identity to a pile of bones. But Henry already knew what Dr. Stolz, the medical examiner, was thinking. He had shot Henry one of those famous “what the hell?” looks when he first saw Bonzado. And now, without saying a word, Henry could feel Stolz’s scowl saying, “The feds? You brought in the fucking feds already?”

Stolz was probably worried that it was a direct reflection on his own competence. Actually, Henry didn’t care what Stolz or any of the rest of them thought. He had learned a long time ago to live by one simple philosophy—CYOA—cover your own ass.

They had a body bag spread out under the lip of one of the barrels that had cracked open during Vargus’s shake-up. Henry would just as soon load it up and have the poor sucker join the woman from yesterday at the morgue. But this was Stolz’s call. He wanted to process the fractured barrels out here at the scene, worried that jostling around the fragile remains might compromise them. This process didn’t look any more efficient to Henry. But again, he reminded himself, it was Stolz’s call, Stolz’s risk to take. In other words, Stolz’s ass. He could only be concerned about one ass at a time, and right now it was his own.

All that could be seen of the corpse inside the barrel was the head and shoulders, a tuff of peppered gray hair and what looked like the lapels of a navy blue suit. Stolz and Bonzado, their hands covered in latex gloves, carefully groped inside, grabbing hold of anything solid that hopefully wouldn’t rip or tear or crack. At the other end of the barrel, two of Henry’s deputies held tight to a rope that had been secured around the cracked middle. They were ready to play a sort of macabre game of tug-of-war.

Henry handed Agent O’Dell a small jar of Vicks VapoRub. The smell would only get worse once they pulled the unlucky bastard out. But the agent declined with a polite “no thanks.” Something told him it had nothing to do with her pretending to be tough. No, she really didn’t need it. She was used to the stench of death, not that anyone could get used to that sour, pungent odor. There was something different about the smell of a human corpse, different from any other animal. He hated that smell. Had never gotten used to it and didn’t want to. Yet, without taking a swipe of Vicks for himself, Henry dropped the jar into his pocket. He knew better than to offer any to Stolz or Bonzado. And Bonzado’s students stayed back, probably at Bonzado’s instructions, his way of assuring Henry that they wouldn’t get in the way.

They started slowly easing the corpse out of the barrel and immediately there came a low, sickening noise, a sucking sound that made Henry cringe. This one was fresh. This one would be messy. Henry glanced at O’Dell. Maybe he hoped to see her cringe, show at least a twinge of discomfort. There was nothing like that. Anticipation, but certainly not discomfort. Hell, she had probably seen lots worse.

O’Dell stood maybe five five, had an athletic but slight frame and was a bit too attractive to fit Henry’s stereotype of an FBI agent. But her self-assured manner revealed an air of confidence that put him at ease. He had noticed it during their phone conversation, too. Confident, not cocky. Hell, he wouldn’t have confided what he had if she had come off with that government-issued cockiness that seemed to run rampant at the federal level.

Maybe he was crazy to be putting so much trust and faith in someone he hardly knew, but Special Agent Margaret O’Dell would come in useful if things went south. Bottom line—he wasn’t about to piss away a thirty-year career because of some psycho. O’Dell seemed nice enough, but if the governor came looking for answers, Henry needed to be ready. Hell, it wasn’t such a bad idea to have someone else he could blame if answers didn’t come quick enough.

“Hey, watch it,” Stolz yelled at Bonzado as the corpse came loose from the barrel with what almost sounded like a pop. The lower extremities swung free. The M.E. lost his grip and the corpse slid out of their control, falling onto the body bag, the torso slamming hard against the rocks. It fell flat on its face with a hollow thud. And, as it hit against the hard surface, the top of the head cracked open.

“God Almighty,” Stolz yelled again. “We’re gonna need a better way to do this. We may have just given this guy a new head injury. How am I supposed to figure out what the killer did and what we did?”

Henry practically bit his tongue to avoid saying, “This was your idea.” Only the second barrel and already Stolz’s incompetence showed in his blatant contradictions. This only reassured him about his decision to bring in Bonzado and O’Dell, two outsiders to witness and document any irregularities.

While the others backed away to regroup and rethink this archaic method, O’Dell came in for a closer look, kneeling on the rocks. Despite the fractured and now-open skull, the corpse appeared to have no other injuries, no mess. Even the navy blue suit had few wrinkles.

“This guy looks in good shape,” Henry said.

“Too good a shape. I don’t see any blood,” Bonzado pointed out. He moved aside for Carl, who came in closer with a camera.

Bonzado’s students now dared to come closer, the woman being the bravest of the group, looking over her professor’s shoulder. Both of the male students looked as though they might be sick. The older guy limply held a camera at his side and didn’t attempt to take a single picture. Maybe he was waiting for Carl to finish. Henry wondered if the two guys were having second thoughts about their choice of career.

“Nice suit,” Carl said, setting aside his camera and pulling out a forceps to retrieve a stray thread from the back of the corpse’s jacket.

“Doesn’t look like the body has begun to liquefy.” Stolz squatted on the opposite side of O’Dell.

“I think the skull’s been cut open,” she said, now on hands and knees.

“Probably sliced right open on these rocks,” Stolz said.

“No, I don’t think so. Take a look at this.” O’Dell moved aside for Stolz to get a better angle, looking up at Henry as she did. For the first time he thought he noticed something in her eyes. Maybe that bit of discomfort he had been searching for earlier. “It looks like someone may have used a saw. Maybe a bone saw or even a Stryker saw.”

“A Stryker saw?” Now Stolz seemed interested.

O’Dell got up and came around the rocks to peer inside the top of the skull. The flap that came loose hung over, like a lid or a dismantled toupee. O’Dell practically had her nose to the scalp when she said, “Whatever he used it’s left very fine marks. There’s no blade chattering.”

“Blade chattering?” Henry asked, and glanced around at the others, noticing Bonzado giving O’Dell a look of admiration.

“It’s sort of a technical term.” It was Bonzado who jumped in with an explanation. “It’s when a thin blade jumps slightly from side to side while you’re using it. You know, like a hacksaw, especially when you’re just starting to cut.” Ever the professor, Henry thought, though the kid had a genuine desire to provide information. There was no intention to upstage anyone or condescend to anyone, not like Stolz might do.

“From what I can see,” O’Dell continued, “I think the skull is empty.”

“A Stryker saw? Empty? What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying the brain is missing?” Stolz shot up, stepping over the corpse to get to O’Dell’s side.

Ordinarily, Henry would have laughed at the little man who rarely became animated or allowed an outburst of emotion. He usually confined his emotions to those famous facial expressions. He shouldn’t be focused on Stolz. But focusing on Stolz’s incompetence and his rising panic was a hell of a lot better than dealing with his own. This crap only got stranger by the minute.

“If you’ve got enough pictures, let’s try to flip him and get all of him on the body bag,” Stolz instructed.

Henry stood back. He hated to admit it, but he was starting to enjoy watching the little man get all worked up. Plus, Stolz had more than enough help with Bonzado and two of the students joining in. Even O’Dell had her jacket sleeves pushed up and was grabbing hold of a shoulder. This time the group wasn’t taking any chances on having the corpse slip out of their control. They barely had the body turned and Henry’s stomach took a plunge.

“Jesus Christ,” he said under his breath, and everyone stopped, looking up at him, and then back at the corpse. “It’s Steve Earlman.”

“You know this man?” O’Dell asked.

Henry found the nearest boulder to lean on before his knees buckled. “Not only do I know him, I was a goddamned pallbearer at his funeral last May.”