Fear the Dark

Williams mopped at his face again. ‘An APB went out on Savran and his vehicle, so it’s only a matter of time before Teddy finds out and shows up here,’ he said. ‘My career’s already deep-sixed, so Teddy can’t hurt me. But if he finds out you two still have your fingers in his pie, I can guarantee he’ll lock you up to make sure you’re out of the way until Savran’s found and arrested. He’s never going to let you two get in the way of him and his glory; I’m sure he’s already got the reporters lined up.’

Coop said, ‘We get it, Ray. Lancaster’s a dickhead – the pied piper of assholes. But he’s strictly amateur league. He can’t compete with the pros Darby and I have played with in the MLD.’

‘MLD?’ Williams asked.

‘Major League Douchebaggery,’ Coop said. ‘The Bureau’s going to want answers for what happened to Hoder, Otto and Hayes, so I’m not about to sit on the sidelines. I don’t think you should either.’

‘I wasn’t pla

‘I agree with your thinking, Ray. To make the case against Savran stick, though, you’re going to need all the evidence you can get. The Bureau is currently ru

Then Coop moved to the bedroom door, shut it and returned. ‘Nicky Hubbard,’ he said in a low voice, as though someone were eavesdropping. ‘Her name ring any bells?’

‘The girl who was kidnapped back in the eighties?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘What about her?’

‘The corner of the bedroom the killer cleaned with bleach? We found her fingerprint there. On the skirting board.’

Williams stiffened.

‘I got the call this morning,’ Coop said. ‘Now I can’t tell you when she was inside the bedroom, but I can tell you she was in there at some point because the fingerprint is –’

‘Hold it, just hold it,’ Williams barked. His mask was soaked with sweat. ‘This is the first I’ve heard about a fingerprint.’

‘We didn’t think it had anything to do with the Downes case.’

‘You just said you found it inside the bedroom.’

‘Let me explain. This print was etched in the polyurethane. For that print to be there, she had to have touched the poly while it was in the process of drying. When it hardened, it preserved her print.’

‘So it can’t be wiped away?’

‘No. It’d be like taking a rag to something set in concrete. I don’t think the killer knew the print was there; we only found it using an alternative light source. I think he was concerned about wiping down that area to destroy any remaining blood – Hubbard ’s blood. I think he killed Hubbard there at some point and then, after he finished with the Downes family, he decided to wipe down that area again with bleach so we wouldn’t be able to link that blood back to Hubbard. Can you imagine what would happen if the news got out her blood had been found at the scene of a triple homicide more than three decades later?’

Williams stared at the snow-caked window glowing with a dull, grey light. ‘This place would turn into a zoo overnight,’ he said quietly.

‘It’d be a goddamn stampede. Hubbard’s case would be reopened; Red Hill would be all over the news cha

‘Jesus.’ Williams rubbed a gloved hand across the back of his head. ‘Jesus,’ he said again. ‘You’re sure about the print?’

‘Positive. If your guys find Savran first, will they call you or will they get on the horn to Lancaster?’

‘Most of ’em don’t have any love for Teddy.’ Williams’s voice had taken on a far-away, almost dreamy tone as he struggled to process the news.

A serial killer who had tortured and killed several families over the course of a year was taxing enough on a small law-enforcement agency. Add to that a fingerprint belonging to one of the greatest crime mysteries of the twentieth century – it was overwhelming.

‘Ray?’ Coop prompted.

‘Sorry. Yeah, I think they’d call me first. That being said, someone might call him thinking Teddy’ll give him a job in the sheriff’s office once the incorporation goes through. I guess we won’t know until it happens.’

‘Call me shallow for thinking this, but I don’t want a jerk-off like Lancaster to get any credit. A case like this comes around once in a lifetime, if at all.’

Williams’s eyes were bright with meaning. Darby saw some dread there – and some excitement too. Finding out what had happened to Hubbard would open up a whole new world of career prospects.

‘Small problem,’ Williams said. ‘Once Teddy finds out, he’ll –’

‘I can guarantee you he won’t. The lab know Hubbard is a hot button, which is why they called me directly instead of putting it out over IAFIS. The only three people who know about it are standing inside this room.’

Inside the bookcase Darby found a picture frame wedged between a pair of hardcover Star Wars books. As she removed it, Coop said, ‘We need to keep this quiet until you’ve got Savran in custody.’

‘Teddy is going to want his people to process this house,’ Williams said. ‘I can’t stop him from doing that.’

‘So let him. All we need to do is to find Savran.’

Darby assumed the picture inside the frame had been taken at a wedding, given the elaborate floral arrangement sitting on a white linen tablecloth set with china and crystal goblets. The table was empty; a tall man and the stern-looking woman Darby had seen in the hallway pictures stood to the left of it, staring into the camera.

Coop said to Williams, ‘You want to nail Savran to the wall, you’re going to need us to nail down the evidence. I’ve got to call the lab and tell them about the brand of duct tape, see if it matches what I FedExed them yesterday.’

‘You need to stay off Teddy’s radar screen.’

‘Which is why Darby and I will work out of the chief’s office. Once you’ve got Savran in custody, all I want is to have a run at him.’

‘Fair enough,’ Williams said.

‘We’ll keep in touch with these.’ Coop handed Williams a satphone. ‘I’ve got Hoder’s. I’ll write down our numbers.’

Darby looked at the picture. The tall man was bald and jowly and had an egg-shaped face, and he wore the brown suit that was hanging in the closet. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the petite woman who, Darby assumed, was his mother. They held their hands rigidly by their sides, their faces set with the hard and joyless expressions of two people who were about to be greeted by a firing squad.

Williams pointed at the woman and said, ‘That’s Thelma Savran. She died about two years back.’

‘You knew her?’

‘I’d bump into her from time to time at the grocery store over on Route Six. She was always one of those lonely women who just liked to talk to people, you know? She told me she had a son but that he couldn’t come home to see her because he lived in another state, Texas or Louisiana, I think.’

‘What about her husband? He still alive?’ Darby was wondering if Savran might be on his way to see his father, to seek refuge. She had been involved in cases where the parent went out of their way to protect their grown child.

‘I’ll get on it. I’m assuming that’s Eli in the photo. Face bears a strong resemblance to his driver’s licence photo.’

‘Did Rita Tuttle make her flight?’

‘No. She’s back in Brewster.’ Williams took the picture from Darby’s hand. ‘I’ll show this to her. If that’s Eli, or Timmy – and I sure as hell hope to God it is, since there isn’t a single picture of him inside the house – I’ll get the photo out to the news. I’ll nail down her statement while I’m there.’