The Angel of Knowlton Park Read Free Page B

on a three-alarmer—his knee screamed for what the docs called RICE, rest, ice, compression, and elevation—but this might get him through the morning. At least it was cool in the van. Maybe in a while they could take a break, sit in here, cool their brains down before someone passed out.
    He was zipping his pants when Rudy Carr came in. "Wrapping my knee," Burgess explained.
    Understanding wiped the clouds from Carr's face. "Long as it's not something kinky in my evidence van."
    "Thought it was my evidence van."
    "Yeah, and Vince thinks it's his evidence van." Carr jerked his head toward the door. "That's some ugly thing up there, Sarge." Carr picked up some stuff and headed for the door. "Sometimes, even though you know it can happen, it's still hard to believe."
    "We'll get him," Burgess said.
    "Him?"
    "I'm about 98% certain."
    "But how could anyone..."
    "Go take your pictures, Rudy," he sighed. "If I knew what made monsters or why they did stuff like this, I'd be retired on the royalties from my books."
    Truth was, he knew a lot about what made monsters. Their toxic families, or lack of families. The cruelty of other grownups and kids. And he knew what lay behind different types of killings. Crime scenes spoke volumes, if you took the time to listen. Sometimes they spoke in strange languages, or in sentence fragments, or in the spaces between the words. Sometimes they spoke in contradictions. Sometimes the words were garbled and took time to sort out. Sometimes they even lied. But they spoke.
    His job was to figure out what they were saying. His job. Stan Perry's job. Terry Kyle's job. Keep working at the message until they understood it. It helped to have different sets of experience interpreting things. They listened in individual ways and each heard different things, just like in everyday conversation.
    Except Kyle wasn't here. Kyle was Burgess's kind of cop—smart, fast, no nonsense, and tenacious as a pit bull. Plus, with his child support killing him, he needed the overtime. So Kyle's absence meant something was very wrong. If Burgess let it, it would worry him until he found Kyle and checked it out. But as with every other distraction, his concerns about Kyle had to wait.
    Reluctantly, he went back into the sauna of the day, the water dripping off his hair warm before he was halfway up the hill. Ahead of him, patrol officers were setting up screens. Melia and Perry were standing by the boy's feet, Perry talking and Melia nodding. Lee was listening, then nodded. "Looks like he was lying down when he was stabbed. We'll know tomorrow."
    Devlin lowered his camera, signaling that he was through. "Two minutes," Carr said.
    Two minutes felt like dozens with the sun scorching their heads. Finally, Carr stepped back and Lee moved in. "Let's roll him toward the left," he said.
    Burgess stepped around to the head and knelt down. Perry stood by the boy's feet. Together, they rolled the body so the boy lay on his stomach. Burgess stared at the vulnerable, naked, blood-splotched back, the skinny little spine and shoulder blades, at the blanket, spotted dark where it had touched the wounds. He realized he didn't know how old the boy was, just that he was small, painfully thin, and bruised. Old bruises and new.
    He looked at Lee. "He wasn't killed here."
    "No," Lee agreed. "And he wasn't lying on that blanket when he was killed. He was wrapped up afterward and brought here. And someone cleaned him up."
    "Short knife?"
    "We'll know better when we open him up, but it looks like a short knife. None of the thrusts went through."
    Burgess squeezed the back of the boy's thigh between a thumb and forefinger. There was no change in color. "How long you think he's been dead?"
    Lee grunted, studying the spot where the fingers had squeezed. "More than eight? Not so much to go on, kid bled so much. This heat affects things. See what his family's got to say about when he was last seen, what he last ate." He pushed back on his heels and