Garden of Evil Read Free

pushed her back out again, so that she collided with the spotty red-haired boy who was right behind her.
    â€˜
Out
!’ he told them. His voice was much higher than he had meant it to be, almost a scream.
    â€˜What? We was told to come in and find our classrooms!’
    â€˜Out! Something’s happened. You can’t come in. Go back outside for a while and wait until I come to talk to you.’
    â€˜What’s happened? What?’
    â€˜I don’t know, to tell you the truth. I don’t have any idea.’
    He gave her arm a last push, firmly but gently, and then he closed the door, and locked it. He could see the lanky African-American boy peering in through the circular window, his nose flattened against the glass.
    â€˜I don’t know what’s happened,’ Jim repeated, under his breath, and then he dialed 911, and said, ‘Police?’

TWO
    â€˜L ieutenant Harris told me about you,’ said Detective Brennan, with a thumping sniff. ‘You remember Lieutenant Harris? Retired now. Runs the pro shop at Rancho Park Golf Course. Nine bucks for a bucket of balls.’
    â€˜How could I forget him?’
    â€˜You know what he told me? “If anything really weird ever happens at West Grove Community College, you can bet your ass that the first name that comes up will be Rook.” Those were his exact words.’
    â€˜I hope you’re not trying to suggest that I had anything at all to do with this.’
    Jim was sitting at a paper-cluttered table in the faculty room. Dr Ehrlichman’s secretary Rosa had brought him a mug of strong black coffee, but he still felt badly shaken. All he could think of was that dead girl’s alabaster face, with a skein of blood slowly sliding out of the corner of her mouth.
    The police had arrived within fifteen minutes of his calling them. Now the college parking lot was crowded with five black-and-white squad cars and two Humvees, as well as four assorted panel vans from the county CSI, the LA Coroner’s Office and the Department of Animal Care and Control; and TV trucks from KABC and Fox 11 News.
    All five hundred and sixty students and most of the faculty had been sent home, leaving Dr Ehrlichman pacing up and down the corridor in frustration, a diminutive king, like Lord Farquaad in
Shrek
.
    â€˜You didn’t happen to see nobody around who didn’t have no legitimate business being there?’ asked Detective Brennan. He was a big, sallow man, with skin like candle wax, who looked as if he never went out in daylight. He had an iron-gray widow’s peak and glittery near-together eyes, which made him appear to be permanently suspicious. He was wearing a crumpled khaki suit with pants that were two inches too short for him, and saggy beige socks. His belly hung over his belt.
    Jim put down his coffee mug and shook his head. ‘I didn’t see anybody at all, apart from Ms Colefax. And let’s face it, nobody could have nailed that girl up on to the ceiling on their own. Not to mention all of those cats. They would have needed two or three guys at least, and some kind of a platform.’
    â€˜Maybe it’ll help when we can identify her,’ said Detective Brennan. He took out a crumpled Kleenex and fastidiously began to unfold it.
    â€˜Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I certainly didn’t recognize her.’
    Detective Brennan blew his nose and then folded up his Kleenex again. ‘I hate this spooky shit. You don’t know how much. Couple of weeks ago we had a call from the Whispering Palms Hotel. The chambermaid went into one of the rooms to turn down the beds and found two heads lying on the pillows. Two heads, a man and a woman. We still don’t know who they are or where the rest of them’s at.’
    He paused, and made a gesture toward the ceiling. ‘But this . . . this is a hundred times more spookier. I really hate this shit.’
    Jim said nothing. To him, it was more