A Clamour of Rooks (The Birdwatcher Series Book 4)

by European P. Douglas

  “That’s them, I’m almost sure of it,” he said.

  “How sure?” Freeman asked.

  “Ninety percent,” Gerrard said, shrugging. Freeman seemed content with this and then he laid out the older picture of the three he had.

  “That’s them!” Gerrard exclaimed and this time he was very animated. “One hundred percent, that’s what they looked like at the time!” Sarah couldn't help but look down the hall fearing this enthusiasm was going to unpleasantly rouse the dying aunt. When she looked back, Freeman was smiling at her.

  “Would you be willing to testify to make a statement and testify to this in court, Mr Gerrard?” he asked.

  “You bet your ass I would, those people have had prison time coming to them for a long while now, they deserve it. I’m so glad you finally caught them.” Gerrard was shaking Freeman’s hand and he switched to Sarah’s then as he spoke. It seemed like this crime had been weighing on him for a long time and he was finally seeing the end of it, the day he could forget about it and get on with his life.

  Just then Sarah’s phone began to ring and she saw it was Megan’s number. She excused herself and went outside the house to answer.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “You did this!” a screeching Melissa Stanver came down the phone to her. Sarah’s stomach dropped; something awful had happened. Had Spalding taken Megan now?

  “Mrs Stanver, what’s happened?” she asked.

  “She’s been stabbed, blood everywhere!” Melissa was blubbering her words were no longer forming well.

  “Where are you Mrs Stanver?” Sarah called into the phone trying to regain her full attention.

  “You killed her!” Melissa wailed.

  Chapter 43

  Freeman’s impression of Sarah’s life was one of great and constant intensity. It was no wonder she’d been pushed to the edge a few nights ago. He had to wonder if that had been the first time? She was still young, and it was a lot to deal with. Most other agents at her level were a good ten years older than she was and that could make all the difference in the pressure a person could take.

  She’d rushed off after taking a phone call, leaving Freeman at Mr Gerrard's house to finish up his questions. He couldn’t convince her to wait a few minutes so he could drive her where she needed to go. She was frazzled but hiding it as best she could in front of the civilian. Freeman had followed her outside and she told him what happened and that a car was on the way for her and she would be fine.

  “Finish this case,” she said to him.

  And that was just what he intended to do.

  That afternoon, after some more legwork by himself, Freeman had the three suspects brought into the North Precinct once again. He was surprised to find that this time, none of them opted to have a lawyer present. Not that the lawyers they did have previously had done anything for them. He toyed with the idea of talking to them all at the same time, but he knew this wouldn’t go over well with his bosses and in the worst-case scenario could really scupper his case against them.

  He started with Tammy. He felt she was the weakest link in the three. If anyone was going to show him something, give him something to work with first, it was going to be her.

  “Thanks for coming in again, Tammy,” Freeman said in a friendly voice when he introduced himself and his fellow officer Frank Stretch, for the taped record.

  “Glad to be of any help,” she answered, sickly sweet. Freeman paused for a moment, just long enough to let some ideas run through her mind, reasons why she might be here again.

  “Have you ever been to 13142 Rochester Avenue?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so, where is it?” Tammy answered. Her voice and timing were very perfect, and her acting good but the sudden whitening of her face was the giveaway. She suddenly looked very ill indeed.

  “Are you sure,” Freeman asked as he placed a photograph of the house before her. Tammy glanced down but only for a second.

  “It doesn’t look familiar,” she answered.

  “That’s funny,” Freeman said. “I was only talking to someone this morning who is willing to testify in court that you have seen this house before.” Now he took out the artist's impressions from Gerrard’s descriptions and placed them before her. Tammy looked down,

  “What are these supposed to be?” she asked looking hotly at Freeman. She was getting defensive; this is what he’d been hoping for. Now he played his next card and laid out the old photographs of the three suspects above each of the sketches.

  “They all look very alike don’t they?” he said. Tammy shook her head and sat back in her chair away from the table.

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here,” she said, and he saw she wished she had a lawyer now.

  “We don’t ‘pull’ things here,” Freeman said, a tone of dislike in his voice and the first time he allowed her to see his distrust of her.

  “I’ve never been to...;” she looked back at the picture of the house and tossed a hand towards it, “Wherever you said this was.” Freeman nodded like he was taking her word for it. He put his hand in the file again and took out another picture and put it on the table. Tammy looked at it and now her face turned grey.

  “Have you ever seen this car before?” he asked. Her bottom lip trembled as Freeman was sure she was rushing through what they had done those years ago and how much of it the police had been able to unravel.

  “I...;” she started but then said no more.

  “It was rented in Pennsylvania a few days before a double murder was carried out in the house pictured here,” Freeman said. “Do you recognise the car?” His question was firmer this time. Tammy shook her head but seemed incapable of speaking any more. This was good, for when suspects got like this, what they did end up saying was usually gold.

  “The car was rented by Karl Hanover, but of course he didn’t use his real name.” Freeman said putting yet another photograph down on the table. This time it was a traffic camera still from a long time ago. Karl was very clear in the driver's seat and beside him was a young Casey Stone. In the back seat there was someone else, possibly female but it was hard to make out. Tammy looked at the photograph and a moment of relief seemed to come over her face.

  “That could be anyone in the back,” she said and then hastily added, “But it wasn’t me.” Freeman pursed his lips and shook his head in disappointment. Another photograph was placed down on the table. Tammy looked down and saw herself leaning out the window of the same car ordering takeout from a grimy looking drive through joint. There was no doubting it was her.

  “There will be more,” Freeman said, “But not as good as this. You guys made the mistake of eating at a burger joint that had a jumpy owner. He kept all the video tapes of his CCTV since he started using them. Being as isolated as it was, people had robbed it a couple of times and he got paranoid and kept every tape in case it came in handy. I don’t know if it ever did for him, but when I presented him with a date range, he was able to show me the tapes and there you are. There is a video as well as the stills.”

  Tammy broke.

  Tears rushed down her face and she practically collapsed onto the table.

  “I didn’t want to do any of it,” she wailed. Freeman didn’t believe this for a moment, but he didn’t say anything. Now it was her time to talk, so he waited.

  After sobbing for a time, Tammy looked up at the two policemen before her.

  “None of us wanted it,” she said and suddenly Freeman’s gut dropped in comprehension of the truth.

  “Who locked you into the house?” he asked her, speaking of the mansion where he’d first encountered Tammy.

  “I don’t know his name,” she said, and she looked to the door as though she expected someone might walk in just then. “He made us to it.”

  “How?”

  “He knew everything about us,” she said, “used it all against us.”

  “Bullshit,” Freeman said, though he wasn’t doubting the fact Spalding h
ad influenced them along the way. “You wanted to do this, and he showed you how.”

  “No,” Tammy said but it was weak, and she didn’t have anything to back it up with.

  “Rochester Avenue was you three alone,” Freeman surmised aloud. “He found out about it somehow and took you under his wing...;”

  “No, it wasn’t like that,” Tammy interrupted. “I didn’t want any of this,” she said crying again. Freeman took another picture from the file- this time it was of Dwight Spalding in the copy store.

  “Is this him?” he asked her. Tammy looked and the shock of recognition came over her face.

  “Yes,” she said, “You know him?” She seemed surprised at this.

  “His name is Dwight Spalding; he’s been on the wanted list for over twenty years.”

  “He’ll kill us all if he knows we said anything,” Tammy said and there was no doubting how serious she was.

  “We won’t let that happen,” Freeman said and then added his price, “If you fully cooperate with us now.” Tammy looked down at the array of pictures on the table. Some showing the lead up to her case for multiple murders and one showing the man who would want to murder her now. She nodded.

  “I don’t want to die,” she said. “Can you keep me safe?”

  “I can,” Freeman said nodding to her. “So, let's go back to the start. Tell me everything and don’t leave anything out.”

  Chapter 44

  Sarah stood at the door to the intensive care unit and tried to see in through the little window. Inside, somewhere was Megan Stanver, but Sarah wasn’t allowed in and she couldn’t see her from the door.

  There had already been an ugly scene with Melissa Stanver when Sarah arrived. She blamed Sarah for the touch and go condition of Megan. It was she after all who had saved Ellie. Though saved wasn’t the right word was it? Not now that Ellie lay dead in the morgue of the medical centre where she was supposed to have been protected and nurtured back to health. How the hell had this happened?

  When Sarah first heard that both Megan and Ellie had sustained injuries from a knife, she had assumed it was one of Spalding’s people who got to them. It wasn’t until she got to the hospital that Sarah understood what had really happened. Ellie had killed herself, just like Sarah had tried to only days before, and now it looked like Megan might be about to die too. It was all such a horrible mess.

  Had Ellie simply snapped, been pushed too far, or had this been part of Spalding’s plan all along? Their escape from Spalding’s farmhouse dungeon had always seemed a little too easy, and Sarah’s own rescuing of Ellie had gone off with much less difficulty than she expected. Was it all just a set piece designed and executed by him?

  Melissa appeared at the far end of the corridor. She looked dazed, her skin white and eyes red from crying. It was the closest thing to a zombie Sarah could imagine. Neither of them needed another scene so Sarah walked away in the opposite direction, sure Melissa had not seen her. She rounded a corner and leaned with her back to a wall. She was so tired.

  “When can I see my daughter?” Melissa’s voice asked, suddenly impossibly close. Sarah stayed still and listened.

  “Mrs Stanver, your daughter has gone to theatre for surgery. It will be a few hours before she will be back in ICU,” a sympathetic male voice told her.

  “What surgery?” Melissa asked.

  “There is a tear in the wall of her stomach that we need to get in and repair. It is a routine procedure, and she should make a full recovery afterwards.”

  Melissa was asking more questions, but Sarah was no longer listening. She walked away, tears forming in her eyes, so glad to hear that Megan was going to make it. That was all that mattered right now.

  Some hours later, Sarah sat in the hospital cafeteria drinking her fourth cup of coffee. She scrolled through some work emails on her phone and tried to focus on her current cases, but her mind kept coming back to Ellie and that rescue. Did Ellie already know at that time what she was going to do? Had she decided to die and take Megan with her. The poor girl had been taken to beyond breaking point over and over again, it just didn’t bear thinking about. Such a tragic life for a young person to have lived through.

  Sarah wanted to see Megan in recovery, but she didn’t think that was going to be an option. If Melissa had gone home, or even taken a room to sleep for a while it might have been possible, but there was no way Melissa was going to let Megan out of her sight now that the surgery was over. She stood up to leave, there was no point to her being here at all.

  The road home was long without her own car and it was very late when she finally got back to her apartment building. Freeman stood by his car across the street and for some reason she wasn’t surprised to see him.

  “Detective,” she greeted him.

  “We got the case closed up,” Freeman said, “Tammy has confessed to everything and is working with us. The others are still holding out but it's very weak. I think tomorrow will do it.”

  “Congratulations,” Sarah said.

  “It turns out you were right,” he said. “Spalding was involved but only in making them continue what they had already started by the looks of things.” Sarah nodded; this didn’t surprise her either. “You look tired,” he said.

  “I am,” she admitted.

  “More than tired from a long day.” Sarah’s heart sank at these words and she looked at him imploringly.

  “I’m fine,” she said but it sounded petulant.

  “I know it’s hard, but I don’t think it will do anyone any favors in the long run if I don’t report what happened the other night.” He looked genuinely sorry as he said this, and she had to begrudgingly respect him for coming to tell her to her face.

  “I’m so close,” she said, fighting the tears that were forming in the narrow of her eyes.

  “You’re too close to the edge,” he replied softly.

  “Just give me a few more days, please. Just a few more days,” she pleaded.

  “I can’t Sarah,” he said. “I don’t want to see another officer dead from the stresses of the job. This won’t be the end for you. You just need a rest is all, away from everything.”

  “If I lose track of Spalding now, I’ll never get this close to him again,” Sarah said. He looked at her and shook his head,

  “I’m sorry Sarah.”

  She felt numb. She walked away from him without another word and he said nothing more as he watched her. Sarah allowed the tears to start falling freely as she entered the lobby of her building. She checked her post slot out of habit and took up the small pile without looking at it.

  She took the stairs, the long way up and bitterly she hoped Freeman was worried about her. He obviously thought she was no longer suicidal or else he wouldn’t have come to her at night like this. But she wanted him to doubt himself, to think there was a chance what he was doing was the last straw for her. It was petty and vindictive, but she couldn't help it.

  Inside her apartment at last, Sarah flicked on the lights. She didn’t go to the window to see if he was still there by his car. Leave him wondering about everything that she was doing. She threw the mail down and it fanned out on the kitchen counter. She was turning away from it when something caught her eye. It was a letter with a handwritten address on it. Tyler’s handwriting.

  Sarah snatched up the letter and ripped it open. She was both furious and deeply curious at the same time. She read the short note. An apology and a promise that he was going to get Spalding for both of them. Sarah didn’t even notice her hand crushing up the note and then dropping it to the floor.

  “Fuck you, Tyler!” she hissed.

  She wasn’t going to stop until she had both of them in jail. Tomorrow Freeman would report her suicide attempt and she would be put on forced leave, but that didn’t mean she was going to stop going after Spalding and now Tyler. She just had to be clever about it. She remembered the secret phone she had to communicate with Tyler and that was going to be her first step into their world withou
t the FBI to back her up.

  She had to make a plan, that was all. Use these two killers against one another. That would be key. Tyler knew something, had known something for a while, that was how they had found out where Ellie was. Perhaps Tyler had found out where Spalding was holding up. She could use one to get the other and then take them both down. All she needed was a plan and tonight was when she was going to start it.

  The End

  Read the thrilling final book in the series ‘A Fall of Woodcocks’ here now!

  August 7th- October 15th 2020