“Already did, but I wanted to head back up there anyway.”
He looked towards the window and out into the night where it was now full dark. “I’ll meet you there.” He hung up and put his empty bottle down on the bar. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Trouble?” He didn’t bother answering Sam’s question as he headed out the door.
* * *
Detective Sparks lefther house at about the same time and headed for her old beat up truck that she’d bought off of old man Stevens. She didn’t need much more than that to get around since most places were within walking distance.
She could’ve taken the police issue vehicle but since it was late and she knew from this morning that her old beater could handle the terrain much better she decided to forego it.
Riley O’Rourke had been the one to call in to the station when he saw the strange light in the trees in the woods behind his place. The call came just in time to save her from herself since she’d just been sitting there making herself crazy with her thoughts.
She knew that time was running out for them, that the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours made all the difference in the world when it came to a murder case, but she just wasn’t getting it. And the fact that her mind kept coming back to Mr. O’Rourke wasn’t helping matters.
She hated to admit it, but he was looking more and more like the guilty party; something she knew was dangerous because there was no outward sign that he was. Maybe it was because she wanted so much for him not to be part of it that was making her even more suspicious.
She drove through the night and parked where she had this morning, right next to officer Bailey’s car. He’d beaten her there by five minutes and was waiting for her with his flashlight at the ready.
“Well, whoever was here has been long gone.” He greeted her with that statement as she walked over to him. They both stood at the bottom of the hill looking up at the entrance to the woods, with their flashlights pointed that way.
“Well, let’s go see shall we?” She headed up in the direction of the crime scene. The techs had already taken everything they needed but there was no harm in coming back here in case they’d missed something.
The place had a different feel to it at night, eerie, lonely. As she looked around the area she saw once again in her mind’s eye, the clown nailed to the tree. Her mind kept coming back to that too. The clown and the acid; two very deliberate additions.
There was a picture forming in her head but all of the pieces didn’t fit. If Riley O’Rourke had been Sonya Davis’ lover, why did he decide to kill her? And if he had, why had he done it in this way?
There were so many other ways, ways that wouldn’t have ended up with the victim practically at his backdoor. She’d heard the stories of women being doused with acid in other parts of the world because they’d rejected the advances of some suitor or other.
But this went much further than that; someone had died. And what about the clown? If as her husband said she was afraid of clowns then someone had purposely set out to scare her. She looked from the direction of the tree where the obscene thing had been found and back to the marked area where the puddle and the body had been.
Between these two places was the place where she’d found the wire that she was sure had been placed there to do exactly what it had done. But would a lover go to such lengths? It didn’t add up. There was something missing.
She just couldn’t see Riley O’Rourke doing the things that had been done here, and the question still remained, why? “I need to get a look at her room at home.” She started back down the hill with the light from officer Bailey’s flashlight leading the way.
She heard an engine approaching and stopped on her way to the truck. From the way her skin prickled as if from an electrical charge, she knew who it was before he exited the Land Rover.
“Mr. O’Rourke? What are you doing here?”
“I came to see who was up here. Did you find those kids?” He seemed more annoyed than was warranted when he slammed the door and walked over to tower over her.
“We’ve got it under control…”
“A woman died here, they shouldn’t be allowed to just come here and trample this place like that.”
“It was just morbid curiosity I’m sure Mr. O’Rourke. We’d already taken what we needed from here, no harm done.”
He didn’t seem too satisfied with her response and she found herself becoming annoyed. “Where is your wife Mr. O’Rourke? I still need to ask her some questions.”
“Not tonight.” Why is he so persistent that I not talk to his wife?
Riley turned and headed back to his truck without another word, slamming the vehicle into drive before driving back to the farm. He’d snuck out of the house because he didn’t want to disturb his wife who was having a rough time.
The pills he’d given her must’ve been more powerful than he thought because she’d been sleeping for hours, which was good all things considered. She’d lost her best friend of almost thirty years and he knew it had hit her hard.
He’d been standing at the back window gazing into the dark at nothing, his mind on Sonya and the day’s events when he saw the lights up in the woods and guessed correctly that it had to be kids roaming around out there. He hadn’t thought twice about picking up the phone and calling down to the station, but he still had to go see for himself that they’d been run off. Damn kids!
He idled the truck into its parking space and walked up the steps to his quiet house. Usually this time of night the TV would be going, and the soft cadence of conversation could be heard, but not tonight, tonight everything was deathly still.