Book of Shadows Alexandra Sokoloff

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.He stepped back and scanned the dirt road.It was crisscrossed with tire tracks, an amorphous mess, but he pulled a handful of colored flags from the pack and flagged the brown scorch marks in the grass, and the multiple tire marks in the sand of the road.On his way back toward the body, Garrett stopped a tech beside the parked crime-scene unit van and pointed out the flags he’d placed.“Get impressions of the treads in that area.And there are some burn marks in the grass—get some photos of those, too.”Landauer met him on the road, his big face flushed red with heat despite the chill, and sucking smoke from probably his fifteenth Camel of the day.“See no evil, speak no evil,” he grumbled, exhaling and jerking a thumb back down the road toward the office trailer.He lit a second cigarette from the one he had burning, carefully dropping the butt into a metal Band-Aid box he carried around at crime scenes for that precise purpose.“These bozos don’t record names or plates, only vehicle size and classification of load.‘Sanitation Truck, Pickup, Trailer, Truck, Dump Trailer.’ ‘Refuse, Stumps and Brush, Concrete, Rebar, Dirt/Asphalt, Brick.’ The attendant doesn’t even leave the trailer—just eyeballs the load through the window, weighs the truck on the in and out, and collects the cash.Next time I got a body to dump, I’m a comin’ here, too.”“How many customers today?”Landauer grimaced.“They average 2,250 a day.”Garrett’s heart sank.“So this morning.”“Over nine hundred by noon.Got a patrolman getting Closed Mouth Mary to write down every make, model, and color she can remember, but we’re not talking rocket scientist here.And yeah, she collected a few checks, but it’s mostly a cash business.I don’t think we’ll be pulling devil-boy’s name and coordinates off one of those stubs.”The big detective paused, puffed in smoke.“There is something, though.” He exhaled a noxious cloud and nodded up the trash mountain in the direction of the body.The sun was sinking in the sky, throwing long shadows over the hills.“That whole area was scheduled to be capped this morning—they bulldoze dumploads of dirt, cover it up, level it off.” He indicated a high heap of dirt on the flat road above the trash pit.“Thing is, this morning the front-loader broke down, threw the schedule off.” He pointed to the gigantic vehicle next to the pit.“So she would have been completely covered if there hadn’t been that glitch,” Garrett said slowly.She wasn’t meant to be found.And that meant carving the numbers and symbol was a private ritual, not meant for anyone else to see.“He’s familiar with the operation and schedule of this particular landfill, then,” he said aloud with cautious excitement.“A worker, or landscaper or contractor.”“That’s the best case,” Landauer said with a nod.“The catch is, a lot of these loads that get emptied are from Dumpsters that get picked up all over the city.Someone coulda just tossed her in the nearest one of those—it gets picked up—and she gets dumped out with the rest of the trash.The Dumpster trucks back up to the pit and are emptied hydraulically, so the driver wouldn’t even see what he was dumping.”Garrett fought a wave of disappointment.“What about the guy who found her?”“Worker who came up to repair the dozer.”Garrett’s eyes immediately traced the distance between the bulldozer and the body far below.A hundred yards, minimum.Landauer watched him calculating.“Guy’s got good eyes,” Garrett said slowly.“Says he saw seagulls fighting over something,” Landauer offered, his voice flat.Garrett glanced at his partner sharply.“You don’t believe him?” In fact, the gulls were still circling above, hoping to return to their interrupted meal.Landauer spat.His face was neutral.“Guy’s skittish, that’s all.”Garrett found the mechanic in the office trailer [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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