Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
I’m so in love with you. He was. He didn’t care who knew. He wanted her to know. That was what was important.
Carver is on the move, Rhianna reported.
Come back to the fold, Mack ordered.
Gideon directed the male red-tailed hawk into the air to follow Carver’s car. The male was younger than the female. His eye color hadn’t yet gone all the way from yellow to brown. Another year and he’d be there. He was very reliable and a strong flier. Smaller than the female, as males were, he was very fast and could maneuver through tree branches at a high rate of speed. In this case, he cut straight through the sky, while the car had to follow the road.
Gideon followed the car through the cries of the raptors and reported the road he was taking to Abbott. It appeared as if Carver was heading toward the wharf as well, but from a different direction than Westlake had come. Carver slowed his car and pulled over to the side of the road when he got near a junkyard. Jacob and Javier had tracked the car Rory had been pulled into by following the scent of her blood.
“Carver is parked across from the junkyard where they abandoned the car used to kidnap Rory. It was stolen and the license plate muddied so it was unreadable. Forensics isn’t there yet, are they?” he asked Wilson.
“No, but the description of the car is out. We sent out the photograph that was captured on the camera across the street from the bar. It was blurry. We received a call from the worker at the junkyard saying they think they have the car there. It’s possible Carver got wind of the call. If he gets out of his car, let me know. I’ll have officers there immediately to guard the car, and forensics will be all over it.”
Gideon wasn’t certain how Wilson thought he was supposed to keep Carver from getting to the vehicle in the junkyard while they waited for officers to show up to stop him from touching it.
The hawk screamed in three hoarse cries. “He’s opening his door and starting across the street,” Gideon warned. “I’d send the officers and forensic team now. Get it out over the radio. Let everyone know they’re on the way.”
Gideon sent a large flock of gulls into the air straight at Carver. They were big birds with dark heads and long snouts with hooks at the ends of their bills. The shrieking cries came first and then ominous shadows blotting out light, casting patterns of moving wings, feathers and menacing macabre shapes darting down toward the street, blocking Carver from the junkyard.
The cop ducked down, covering his head with his hands, running back toward his vehicle to take shelter. The gulls landed on the roof of his car. The hood. The trunk. They pecked at the windows, trying to break the glass to get at him.
Looks a bit like a scene from a horror movie, Gideon. You might want to tone it down, Rhianna recommended. She had followed Carver in her car but kept at a distance.
I got the idea from a movie—well, the trailer, Gideon admitted. I never saw the movie. I didn’t want to have nightmares.
You’re such a baby, Rhianna said. Carver is starting up his car. Your gulls did the trick.
“Carver is leaving, Wilson. Your forensic people can check the car.”
“Thanks,” Wilson said.
“Let me know when one of your people has Carver in sight.” Not that Gideon’s team would break off. They were going to make absolutely certain that every one of the monsters who had committed these crimes was arrested.
Rory’s clothes and the hood had also been examined, all hair and fibers taken from them. The report she’d given about the notebook had been followed up on. Janice had shoved the tote bag in the lounge cupboard. The notebook had contained the damning evidence Detective Peter Ramsey had uncovered, including where he had hidden audiotapes he had recorded of Detectives Westlake and Carver and two retired detectives—Bill Morris and Jerome Michigan—conspiring to murder key members of a criminal organization and then murder Jarrod Flawson, Dustin Bartlet and Ret Barnes—three of the four heads of that organization. Next, they would frame Harvey Matters and kill him, then take over their organization.
Westlake had gone to the apartments with Ramsey that afternoon. Something must have made him suspicious, and he’d shot Ramsey. Once Westlake shot Ramsey, he knew he had to kill him and get any evidence he might have on him.
Gideon was certain it was Westlake who had been the one to really torture Rory. He was a sadistic man. He was certain Westlake had been the one to torture and kill Dustin Bartlet, as well as Ret Carnes and Jarrod Flawson. It was no wonder he’d been under investigation for so long. The other detectives had been careful, trying to find a way to make the charges stick.