The Darkness of Evil (Karen Vail #7)(22)
“Curtis and I are headed over there now. Want to tag along?”
Hurdle cursed under his breath, turned to a man behind him and issued some orders, then grabbed his coat and followed Vail out the door.
THEY ARRIVED TO FIND CRIME SCENE TAPE encircling the entire block where Jasmine lived. Police cruisers blocked the entrance to the street and personnel milled about, mouth vapor offering proof of the chilly temperature. A police helicopter buzzed by overhead.
Vail and Curtis pulled up seconds before a car driven by Hurdle. They got out and walked along the asphalt to the vacant police department sedan. Its door was open and a crime scene technician was kneeling, dusting for prints.
“I don’t see no blood,” Curtis said.
“That’s ’cause he wasn’t killed here,” the man said. “In a planter, up the block.”
“Karen!”
Vail turned and saw Leslie Johnson—her former partner from when they were rookies with the NYPD. What the—
“You lookin’ good. Robby been treating you well, looks like.” She advanced on Vail and threw her arms around her, dreadlocks swinging into Vail’s face.
“What are you doing here? How come you didn’t call me? We would’ve had you over for dinner.”
Johnson pulled back. “Lots has happened. Shit with the department went down. So I moved here, got a gig with the PD. Yesterday was my first day on the job. Took a big pay cut, busted down to a detective again, but all—”
“Wait,” Vail said. She glanced at Curtis, who was observing this with a modestly open mouth. “You’re Curtis’s new partner?”
“You two know each other?” Curtis asked.
“I knew they gave you that detective’s shield for a reason,” Vail said with a shake of her head. “Must’ve been the hug. Or when I asked why she didn’t call me.” She turned back to Johnson. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Johnson shrugged. “Things didn’t end good in New York. My mom’s out here in Silver Spring, so I put in some applications. Fairfax County had an opening. Only been here a few days. Wasn’t kidding, yesterday was my first day.”
“I wanna hear all about New York,” Vail said.
“Makes two of us. Including what went wrong.” Curtis lifted his brow. When Vail glowered at him, he added, “Hey, that was your idea half an hour ago.”
“Later,” Vail said. “We’ve got a murder that needs our attention. We’ll catch up. Dinner or lunch or something.”
Curtis gazed skyward at a police helicopter that was circling overhead. “So what’s the deal here?”
“What happened to Hurdle?” Vail rotated her neck, scanning the area for the marshal. She did not see him, so she faced Johnson.
Johnson pointed toward the house. “Woman who lives here, Jasmine Marcks, woke up this morning and looked out her window at 7:55 AM and saw the officer out there in his car.”
“Where is Jasmine?” Vail asked.
“Don’t know. Not here. I was able to reach her by phone. She refused to disclose her location. But she gave me an accounting of what happened. Got her number if you want it.”
“We have it.”
“We’re gonna need to meet with her,” Johnson said. “I told her—”
“Got it covered,” Curtis said. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Go on.”
Johnson frowned and shifted her feet. “Yeah. So she said she went about making her breakfast and getting showered and dressed and happened to glance back outside at around 11:35. New guy was there, so she figured they changed shifts. An hour later, he wasn’t in the car, so she thought he was walking around, checking the property. After lunch, about 1:00 PM, she looked again and again he wasn’t in the car.
“Ms. Marcks started to call Detective Curtis when she heard something outside. She hung up and went to the window, saw her neighbor running down the street. The woman was shrieking. Jasmine went out and discovered the officer’s body, saw he’d been murdered. She found his body in a well-concealed planter between two shrubs. Jasmine grabbed her purse and tore out of here.”
“The officer?”
Johnson pulled out her spiral notepad and thumbed to a couple of pages. “Arrived at eight, relieved the night watch officer. Gregory Greeling. Thirty-one years old, wife and son.” She shook her head. “Anyway, he’s got some strange markings on his body. ME’s still here, with the body. You wanna see for yourself?”
“Hell yes,” Vail said, and she and Curtis followed Johnson down the street.
Hurdle intercepted them midway and gave them a halfhearted salute. “I’m off.”
“Off?” Curtis said. “We’re going to look at the body.”
“Already done. Weird shit, not sure what it means. But it’s not important. Whoever did that’s got some problems.”
That might be the understatement of the year.
Hurdle backed away. “What matters is we got a bad dude out there on the run with a nice head start. On my way back to the command center. Gotta catch us a fugitive and every goddamn minute is precious. You find the daughter, let me know. I wanna make sure she knows to call us if she hears from her father. That’s about all I gotta do here. Be back at the motor home at five, ready to roll up your sleeves.”