A Fall of Woodcocks (The Birdwatcher Series Book 5)

by European P. Douglas

  “I don’t know what I can tell you,” she said. Was there possible a way back to work though this?

  “Just tell me whatever’s on your mind,” Dan said.

  “You’ve found some traps?” she asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “There will be more, others you haven’t found yet. Are there camera’s?”

  “Yes, but only down by the gate to the cage as far as we can see.” Alarm bells rang out in Sarah’s head.

  “How close are you?” she asked, “You better get back as far as you can.”

  “The team and the family are at a safe distance,” Dan replied, “I’m closest but still a ways off.”

  “How many people are down there?” Sarah asked.

  “Twelve, and they want out.” Of course they do.

  “I think the only to do that is for me to be the one who blows the gate,” Sarah said almost holding her breath. There came no reply to this for what felt like a long time. Sarah decided to push a little further. “I can get there within in the hour if you send the chopper?”

  “That’s what I’ll do then,” he said finally but added sternly, “Just for this, Sarah. You are still on leave and will be until you have the clearance to come back.”

  “Understood,” she said. “Let me know where to meet the chopper when it’s ready and I’ll be there.”

  After getting off the phone, Sarah had a quick wash and got dressed. A message came that the helicopter would meet her at a small airport school about twenty minutes from her house. They would be waiting for her. On the drive over, she couldn’t help but feel excited despite the inherent danger. She was the only way to free these people now. If more Spalding places were discovered, they would have no choice but to call her in again. Though she wouldn’t be officially back at work, this was tantamount to the same thing. They needed her, and if they didn’t use her many more people, including FBI teams could die needlessly.

  The helicopter was waiting as promised and when Sarah got in the pilot handed her a file. She waited until they were in the air before opening it. There wasn’t all that much in it. Maps of the farm, photos from the drone and video stills from Dan Martin’s uniform camera of the cell the people were being held in. The maps showed the location of traps they had discovered, and a separate blueprint of the barn showed where the camera was and the guessed at shape and size of the cell below. She shook her head at this construction. The patience Spalding how shown in getting all of these places ready for his plan was astounding.

  It also rose the questions as to how many other farms where there like this? Up to now they’d been looking for Spalding on lonely vacated and remote properties and now they found he’d been using a working farm for his evil ends, holding the family hostage with responsibility for those down below. How sick could you be? If there was on family farm like this, Sarah felt, it stood to reason that there were more. Probably a lot more.

  The helicopter ride felt very fast the pilot only barely touched down long enough for Sarah to get out before lifting back up into the sky and away. Dan Martin came across the muddy field to meet her.

  “Go to the van and get kitted out,” he said without any pleasantries, “Did you read the file?”

  “Yes, it looks too simple. I’m sure there’s more to it,” she said as they walked side by side towards the Tactical Unit. Sarah looked towards the farm buildings about a quarter mile away. It looked like a rundown desolate place, but yet had a family feeling about it. Grown up kids, she thought, the happiness in this place long gone with childhood. She went into the van and kitted out as fast as she could. Every second was precious to those people down there.

  Dan Martin walked back towards the house with her.

  “This won’t happen again,” he said to her. He looked angry, like a man whose superior has made him do a job he doesn’t want to. She thought it better to say nothing in reply to this. “This is bullshit,” he went on. “We can’t have this.”

  “No one wants it this way except Spalding,” she said.

  “Why though?” Dan asked her, “Why you?”

  “I don’ know,” she admitted. It was something that had kept her up for more nights than she cared to recall.

  “There can’t be too many more place like this,” Sarah said trying to sound positive. “How many missing people do we have possibly linked to him?”

  “Three hundred, but you know we think it’s more likely a hundred fifty.”

  “Well, we must have found most of them by now,” Sarah said, not remarking that many of those people were dead before they were identified.

  “There’s more out there still,” he said sourly.

  “You better hand back from here,” Sarah said when they were still a hundred yards from the house. Dan stopped and looked around.

  “You have everything you need?” he asked Sarah. She checked her gear, nodding. “Best of luck. Keep your ears and eyes open. We’ll be seeing and hearing everything you do and keeping a look out for you. Be careful.”

  “I will,” she nodded and then started walking right away.

  As soon as Sarah was alone, she started to feel a little more apprehensive. Was she as safe as she’d thought she was? Wasn’t it possible that Spalding had used her rescue of Ellie and his message demanding her return to work to lure her into a false sense of security? Wouldn’t that be just like him?

  Right now she could be walking to her death. He could be watching her on a camera somewhere with his finger hovering over a button that would detonate a thousand pounds of explosives under her feet. She shook her head trying to dispel such thoughts. No, he wanted her for something. There was something she still didn’t know, and he wanted to her to find out before he was going to be done with her.

  The smell in the barn was terrible, but Sarah could tell at once it wasn’t the smell of animals. How long had these poor people been down here in this living hell. Had others died in their midst? Where the bodies of those still in the cage with the living? The idea was reprehensible to her and she gagged a little at the idea. She walked along the dim hall that led down underground, a narrow passage wide enough for only one person at a time. The smell grew worse and she regretted not taking a mask with her. The idea was that she wanted them to see a friendly face approach and not some scary mask like an executioner.

  “Sarah!” a booking voice came over a tannoy in the ceiling. It startled her and also those down in the cell. She looked up searching out the voice and seeing the speaker. “I wasn’t sure they would let you come, but I am delighted to see they did.”

  “I guess I have you to thank for that,” Sarah said, she turned her head to look at the camera. Her earpiece rattled as Dan Martin shouted for her to get out of there, but she ignored that noise.

  “You are very welcome,” Spalding said. “Now, I suppose you want to take my followers away from me?” he asked. Sarah felt suddenly uneasy about the people in the cell. Surely it wasn’t possible they were loyal to Spalding?

  “I hope to set them free,” she replied doing her best to hide the fear in her voice. “They deserve to live like normal people again.”

  “Well, I guess they are no use to me any more now that this place has been found,” Spalding said wistfully. “Tell me, how did it feel when you found out who Tyler really was?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed in anger.

  “Probably the same way you felt when he started letting the FBI know about all the hideouts you were using!” she shot back. She wondered if Spalding had known it was Tyler who found him.

  “Yes, and do you know how he tested his theory of where I was?” Spalding asked. Sarah shook her head. “He sent an anonymous tip to our dear friend Agent Delgado. He came to me looking into a case he’d worked in the past and I had no choice but to kill him.” Sarah recoiled at this. Not only had she now known Spalding was the one who’d killed Delgado, but to find out now that Tyler had been the cause of it! He was even worse than she thought he was. She didn’t question Spalding on this, she somehow
just knew he was telling the truth. She fought back tears, didn’t want to let them fall even if the camera wouldn’t be able to pick them up.

  “That must have been hard to hear,” Spalding said, “I’ll leave you to your thoughts and setting those people free.” The speaker cut out and there was no noise for a time. Sarah stood there numbed, Dan Martin in her ear again asking if she as okay.

  “I’m fine,” she said, “Get ready for these hostage coming out. I’m going to set them free now.”

  Chapter 10

  The night after Sarah and the FBI saved twelve people and in doing so released the Farnon family from their terrible burden, Sarah lay at home exhausted. The TV was on, but she wasn’t watching it, just something for background noise. She lay staring at the ceiling, wanting to sleep but knowing her mind was not going to let her.

  The faces of the twelve people kept coming to her. They all looked so haunted, beaten down, perhaps even deranged and she felt so sorry for them. This had been a terrible place to be held captive. Three more people had been in the cell and had died in there. They were buried by those still alive but the scars of such a thing were unlikely to ever heal. It got Sarah wondering as to why Spalding put his victims in such varying places. The place Megan Stanver and Ellie had escaped from was a glorious holiday camp compared to some of the others. Megan had also spoken of drafty basements where she’d been held on her own for long periods. Why make the distinction with people? Why didn’t he treat them all the same?

  Her phone buzzed from underneath her body and for a moment she thought about simply ignoring it, but she knew she shouldn’t. She archer her back, turning onto one hip and pulled it out. The screen showed no number, and this was enough to make her sit up and answer. Was it Spalding looking to finish their conversation from the barn?

  “Hello?” Sarah said. There was a moment of silence in which she was sure it was him.

  “Hi Sarah.” She froze at the sound of his voice. It wasn’t Spalding. Anger surged inside of Sarah and she gritted her teeth. Had Tyler been in front of her right now she would have lunged at him and clawed his eyes out.

  “How dare you call me!” she thundered.

  “I know I shouldn’t have but I just wanted to tell you that I’ve exhausted all my leads on Spalding, I don’t know where to find any more of his places,” Tyler said softly. Sarah wanted to hang up, in fact right then she wished she had old style receiver in her hand so she could slam it down. But she paused and took in a breath. She had to learn to treat Tyler like any other criminal in her sights now. She needed to keep him talking and try find out as much as she could.

  “Nice of you to let me know, now that it’s too late,” she said.

  “I didn’t have the information I have now when it would have been of any use to you,” he said.

  “How did you find out where he was?” she asked.

  “I don’t know where he is,” Tyler replied, “I never did. I knew some places he’d been and made the guess he’d return there at some point.”

  “You knew enough to send Agent Delgado up there to be murdered by him.” Tears were globbing up at the side of her eyes and she barely made it through this sentence without crying. For a long time, Tyler didn’t say anything to this. She hoped he was feeling shame, but she doubted it; she didn’t think he was capable of feeling anything at all.

  “I’m sorry,” he said finally. No excuses, no evading the responsibility.

  “You killed him,” she said, the tears falling now. “You killed him, and you didn’t care.”

  “Spalding killed him,” Tyler countered weakly, “and I’m going to kill him.”

  “How are you going to do that if you don’t know where he is?” she shouted down the phone.

  “I’ll find him again,” he said.

  “Did you ever tell me the truth about anything?” she asked him after they were both quiet for a time. She hated that she asked this, hated that she cared at all.

  “Almost everything I ever told you was the truth,” he said. “It was the things I didn’t tell you that were the problem.”

  “How many people have you killed?” she asked shaking her head at the surreality of this moment.

  “Twenty-one.”

  “Twenty-one,” Sarah repeated. “Were you planning on killing me?”

  “No,” he answered, faster and more forcefully than she expected and oddly she believed him. “I wanted to help you; I just couldn’t let you know about the other side of me.”

  “How did you think you’d get away with it?”

  “I’ve been living a double life since I was in college; it’s second nature to me at this point. But I do want you to know that I never had any ill intention towards you. Anything that happened between us was genuine.”

  “Fuck you!” she snapped at him. There was nothing genuine about sleeping with someone while hiding those awful secrets behind your back. It didn’t matter if he didn’t intent on killing her, he still intended on killing someone. What was he calling about anyway! “Do you think you can somehow smooth things over somehow?” she asked him.

  “We both know that’s not possible,” Tyler said sighing. “But we’ll both be working to the same end with Spalding. I know you’ll be working to that same end for me now too.”

  “You bet your ass I will. I won’t rest until both of you are in jail, or dead!” As these words left her mouth she didn’t feel any compunction to correct them.

  “I’m going to help you get him as much as I can,” Tyler said, “After that whatever you do is up to you.”

  “I just told you what I’m going to do. I don’t care which of you I get first, but know this Tyler, I’m going to get you both.”

  “I don’t doubt if for a second,” he replied.

  “Don’t patronize me!” Sarah scowled; she was fed up with this call. “Did you want something else?” she asked, doing her best to sound bored.

  “I wanted to say sorry and tell you where I was with Spalding, I’ve done that, so I’m done,” Tyler said. Sarah shook her head.

  “I don’t want to talk to you again Tyler until we are face to face, do you hear me?”

  “I hear you.”

  “Make sure you do. I don’t want any phone calls from you, I don’t want letters or messages from you either. You have something to tell me go through the FBI, okay?”

  “If that’s the way you want it...”

  “It is.” Sarah hung up then, feeling that if she didn’t he would take that power away from her too. She threw the phone to a chair on the other side of the room and then broke down crying on the sofa.

  Chapter 11

  Jed Freeman was leaving work one evening when he noticed a man standing by a car watching him leave the station. His first instinct was it was someone from the press, but as the man stopped leaning on his car Freeman was sure at once this was some kind of law officer. Was it someone coming to lay down disciplinary threats on him for leaking the Vicky Siren information?

  “Detective Freeman?” the man said.

  “Yeah, who are you?” Freeman asked.

  “I’m Special Agent Martin, FBI,” came the reply. Martin showed his badge and ID.

  “FBI, eh?” Freeman said, “What do you want with me?”

  “It’s not actually an official matter,” Martin said. “It’s about Sarah Brightwater. Are you free for a drink or something?” Freeman wondered why anyone from the FBI would want to talk to him about Sarah, especially in what looked like an unofficial capacity.

  “What about Sarah?” he asked.

  “Don’t worry,” Martin said, “I’m on her side. I just want to run something by you. I won’t take much of our time.” Freeman regarded him, trying to sense if this man could be trusted or not. He didn’t sense much from him and in the end thought, what the hell, he couldn’t do any more harm to Sarah. He might possibly find out something that would benefit her in the process.

  “There’s a bar across the street,” Freeman said as he started walkin
g towards it, “You’re buying.”

  The bar was dim but busy. A lot of cops who’d recently finished shifts stopped in her for a drink or two before going home. They took a small table near the back and the waitress brought them a couple of whiskeys.

  “What do you do in the FBI?” Freeman asked Martin.

  “Right now, I’m working a serial killer case. Sarah was working under me before she was put on leave.”

  “Oh,” Freeman tried to sound unimpressed and disinterested. He looked around the room and took a sip of his drink.

  “I’m going to cut to the chase here, Detective. Sarah is valuable to me and I’d like to get her back as soon as I can.”

  “Well, there’s nothing I can do to speed up that process,” Freeman said.

  “I know, but I also know you feel responsible for her. You were the one who reported her, and you’ve since gotten to know her better too.” Freeman was surprised this was known to the FBI; he felt it wise not to say anything for a moment.

  “I need her information,” Martin went on. “I can’t get her back and I can’t be seen to go to her directly, but I can come to you, a regular working homicide detective working cases we might have an interest in.”

  “I’m a little long in the tooth to be anyone’s messenger boy,” Freeman said.

  “This case is important,” Martin said, trying Freeman assumed to appeal to his ethics. “People will die if I don’t have the use of Sarah.”

  “Why don’t you make that case to your superiors in the FBI then.”

  “I already have, but they’re tied down with procedure and red tape.” He sounded angry at this.

  “Get a couple of unregistered cell phones, give her one and you can call her whenever you like,” Freeman suggested.

  “That’s not going to work for me,” he replied thought didn’t say why.

  “What’s in this for me?” Freeman asked.