Page 14 of M for Murder

Hickok grinned at her. ‘We’ve got a hotel to check into, but there’s no rush.’

‘Shame,’ Rebecca muttered under her breath. Using the crowbar, she set about loosening the wheel bolts.

The Lincoln pulled up in front of the Jeep and Max Sutton poked his head out of the open window. ‘Ready to go, Joel?’

Yes, go, Joel.

Hickok glanced at his partner and then back at Rebecca. ‘You’re sure you can cope?’ he asked her, a half smile on his face.

‘Like I’ve already told you, I can manage perfectly fine,’ Rebecca said sweetly, fighting the urge to take her crowbar and stick it up his ass.

He raised his eyebrows disbelievingly. ‘Okay, then. We’ll see you in the morning.’

‘Unfortunately,’ Rebecca muttered under her breath, watching him climb into the passenger seat of the Lincoln.

She finished changing the wheel and was loading the jack and the crowbar into the back of the Jeep when she caught sight of Vic and a couple of his buddies, Hal Peterson and Wayne Hankins. Vic glanced across the parking lot and waved a hand in her direction.

‘Hey, Angell,’ he called in a mocking tone. ‘Have a good ride home.’

Rebecca watched his face crumple into a wide grin. Wayne Hankins slapped him on the back and the three of them started laughing as they headed across to Vic’s car. Furiously, she slammed the back door of the Jeep shut. She hadn’t considered that someone might have let the air out of her tyre on purpose, but it was just the kind of puerile thing Vic Boaz would do.

She tried to think what she had done to provoke him, and a dozen separate incidents immediately sprang to mind. The bottom line was that Vic was pissed at her because she had somehow managed to resist his irresistible charm and hadn’t jumped into bed with him.

Rebecca realised that she hadn’t helped herself either, by running off her mouth at him. She thought back to how she had rejected him in the sewer and how, for a moment, he had been pretty mad. That didn’t give him the excuse to let the air out of her tyre though and she fully intended to see to it that he didn’t get away with the act. She just wasn’t sure how. Swearing about her partner under her breath, she climbed into the driver’s seat of the Jeep and started the engine.

As she neared her apartment block, Rebecca caught sight of the sign for the Blue Moose Tavern just ahead and toyed with the idea of stopping off for a drink. She knew the place well and Ed the bartender was already familiar with her fondness for bourbon straight from the bottle – the one really bad habit she had picked up from Uncle Lou.

Deciding that her soak in the tub could wait, Rebecca signalled left and pulled off the road into the parking lot of the tavern. She had a feeling that tonight was going to be a double shots night.

5

WEDNESDAY 23RD APRIL 1997

M ax Sutton placed the receiver down on the telephone and glanced at Joel Hickok, confirming what he knew his younger partner was already thinking.

‘Looks like we may have our next victim.’

Joel accepted the news in his usual nonchalant manner. ‘Female?’ he asked impassively.

‘Emma Keeley, second-year English student. Her roommate says she hasn’t seen her since Thursday evening.’

‘Maybe she went home to visit her folks.’

Max shook his head.

‘No. Roommate says she would have called. Besides, she’s already checked it out and she’s not there.’

They were in one of the empty offices down the end of the corridor that had been cleared out for them and the call from Emma Keeley’s roommate over at Juniper College had been patched through five minutes earlier. As soon as they knew it was regarding a missing student, both agents were able to hazard a pretty good guess that their killer had struck again. Joel got up from his chair behind the desk. ‘Guess I’d better go find our cop friends.’

‘Why? It’s not going to take four of us to go over and interview the roomie.’

‘No, only two.’ Joel shook his head. ‘I was thinking you could head down to the sewer.’

‘The sewer?’

‘Missing student. Initial K. We have to check it out, Max.’ Joel gave him a sombre look, and Max knew they were both thinking the same thing. The fate of the students at Juniper College had become their responsibility. The number of casualties would depend on how well they did their job.

‘So how come I get to go down in the sewer?’ he challenged, eager to shake the thought.