Diehl, William - Show of Evil Read Free Page A

Stenner, he shook his head and chuckled.
    'I don't believe it,' he said. 'You guys don't even have to be here.'
    'What the hell's going on?' Vail asked.
    'The dozer operator turned over the first one, so I decided we ought
to punch around a little and, bingo, now we got three.'
    'What killed them?'
    'Better ask Okimoto that, he's the expert. They're a mess. Been in
there awhile. Maggots have had Thanksgiving dinner on all of 'em.'
    Vail groaned at the image. 'So we don't know anything yet, that it?'
he asked.
    'Know we got three stiffos been cooking down in that gunk for God
knows how long.'
    'May be hard to determine when these happened,' Stenner offered.
'Location will be very important.'
    Johnson nodded. 'We're taking stills and video, doing measurements.
If the weather's okay later I've ordered a chopper flyover. We'll get
some pictures from up top.'
    'Good.'
    Johnson had once been Stenner's sergeant and had made lieutenant
when he quit. He was now captain of the night watch, a man beholden to
Stenner for years of education and for fostering in him a strong sense
of intuition. He was Stenner's pipeline to a very unfriendly police
department.
    'Eckling here yet?' Vail asked.
    'Oh yeah. He's down there in the thick of it, looking important for
Channel 7. They were the first ones to get a whiff of it.'
    'Nicely put,' said Vail.
    'Any ideas?' Stenner asked.
    'Not really. My guess is, these three here were dumped about the
same time, but we can't be sure. You couldn't hardly find the same spot
twice, the tractors keep moving this shit around so much.' He looked
off at the ragged landscape. 'Excuse me, I gotta check that bag just
came up. Besides, Eckling sees you.' He chuckled again. 'And I've had
enough fun for one night.' He left.
    'I'll wait in the car,' Stenner said. He had not spoken a word to
his
former boss since the day he quit.
    The chief of police huffed up the small hill with a camera crew and
a reporter trailing out behind him. He was waving his arms as he spoke
and his words came out in little bursts of steam.
    'I see the DA's man is here,' he sneered. 'Everybody loves a circus.'
    Eckling always referred to Vail as 'the DA's man,' putting an edge
to the words so that it sounded like an insult.
    The three-man crew, having got everything they could out of Eckling,
turned their camera on Vail. 'Any comment, Mr Vail?' asked the
reporter, a small, slender man in his twenties named Billy Pearce, who
peered out from the depths of a hooded parka.
    'I'm just an interested spectator,' he answered.
    'Care to speculate on what happened here?'
    'I don't care to speculate at all, Billy. Thanks.'
    Vail turned away from them and walked towards Eckling as the crew,
grateful for his brevity, fled towards their van. Eckling was a tall
man with the beginnings of a beer belly and eyes that glared from
behind tinted spectacles.
    'What's the matter, Martin, couldn't wait?' he snapped.
    'You know why I'm here, Eric, we've had that discussion too many
times.'
    'Can't even wait until the bodies're cold,' he growled.
    'That shouldn't take long in this weather.'
    'Just want to get your face on the six o'clock news,' he said
nastily.
    'Isn't that what got you out here?' Vail said cheerily.
    'Look, you can't butt in for seven days. How about leaving me and
mine alone and letting us do our job?'
    'I wish you could, Chief,' Vail said pleasantly.
    'Go to hell,' Eckling said, and stomped away.
    Vail returned to the car and shook off the cold as he got into the
warm interior.
    'Damn, it's bitter out there.'
    'You and Eckling have your usual cordial exchange?'
    'Yeah, things are improving. We didn't even bite each other.'

Two
    Stenner pulled around in a tight circle and headed back towards the
city.
    'Go to Butterfly's,' Vail said. 'I'm starving.'
    'Not open yet.'
    'Go to the back door.'
    Vail laid his head against the headrest and closed his eyes,
thinking about Stenner, so stingy with language. Soon after Stenner had
joined the bunch, he and Vail