A Clattering of Jackdaws (The Birdwatcher Series Book 2) by European P. Douglas

Author:European P. Douglas [P. Douglas, European]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ghost Creative
Published: 2020-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

SARAH WAS SITTING AT her desk when Malick came into the open plan office

"What has you here so late?" Sarah asked. He looked like he had a shower since she saw him in the shooting range, and his face bore no sign of the tears from then. She had honestly thought he would have slipped out of the building and went home by now.

"Still catching up on things," he replied, casual in manner but not himself. Only someone who knew him as well as she did would have been able to detect the difference. "What are you doing there?" He nodded to her computer.

Sarah looked at her screen. She had five different case files open and had been clicking from one to the other aimlessly in her distracted state. The hope was she would see something she hadn't noticed before but her mind was preoccupied with first Tyler going to see Lemond, and then by Malick. Sarah had been so rattled by that, she's forgotten she had come here to chew out the deciphering team.

"Hoping for a miracle," she replied.

The phone on her desk suddenly began to ring and Malick sat down at his desk as she answered.

Malick saw Sarah's eyes widen and then she started writing something down frantically.

"Okay, I'll scramble the team!" Sarah said and then slammed the phone down. Malick rose in sync with Sarah.

"What is it?"

"The miracle," Sarah answered as they left the office. "They finally broke his code, but it says there will be a murder tonight!"

"What? Is that all we know?" Malick sounded hopeless but Sarah wasn’t willing to join him.

"This is more information than we had about the others," she pointed out. He pursed his lips and nodded conceding the point.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"Police patrols in the three State's, and calls to possible victims." It wasn't much but it was something. Luck might be on their side for once.

The next half hour was spent in a frantic rush of phone calls and radio conversations coordinating the search. Sarah and Malick went to her car and drove towards rural Virginia, wanting to be part of the work in progress. Neither of them were very good and sitting and waiting for news.

The men who were felt to be at risk were called, but it was going to take a long time to get to them all. The only criteria they had to go on was recent census figures of those farmers who declared themselves as single. That didn’t necessarily mean they lived alone, but it was the only list they had available.

As Sarah and Malick drove around, Malick asked,

“What did the message say anyway?”

“It was today’s date spelled out in French, but it used the European way, as in day, month, year, not the month, day the way we use.”

“That doesn’t seem all that complicated,” Malick said,

“No, they should have figured it out a lot sooner than this,” Sarah agreed. This had annoyed her already when she thought about it and it felt bad to know the ‘expert’ teams behind her work were not up to scratch.

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