Springboard (2005) by Tom Clancy

Author:Tom Clancy [Clancy, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-03-17T20:24:13+00:00

Chapter 17.

Quantico, Virginia

Getting rid of a body was not nearly as worrisome as all the forensic television shows and movies made it out to be. The main trick was to make sure the corpse wasn't discovered before you were far enough away that the authorities couldn't possibly link it to you. And not to leave anything really obvious around that pointed in your direction--DNA, fingerprints, or your business card. . . .

All that stuff where they took a hair and put it into some medical machine that whirred and fifteen seconds later spit out a picture of the killer? Total fabrication.

Locke had wrapped the blackmailer up in the bed's top sheet, waited until dark, and taken the corpse to his rental car, where he put it into the trunk. He'd located the motel's cleaning woman, waited until she had gone into an empty room to clean it, and taken a clean sheet from the stack on the cart to replace the missing one.

The next morning--one did not want to skulk around late at night with a body in one's car trunk and risk being pulled over by a bored policeman--Locke drove to a nearby industrial district and scouted it. It took but half an hour for him to find what he was looking for. He found the number of a real estate agent on the sign in front of the building, made a call from a pay telephone, and determined the information he needed. Luck ran his way--the place was perfect.

From there, he drove to a local mall and bought supplies. From a hardware store, he purchased a hand-truck dolly, a battery-powered Skil Saw, a tree saw, and a hammer, along with a small machete, a painter's drop cloth, and a box of green plastic leaf bags. He also picked up a set of painter's coveralls, shoe covers, and rubber gloves, and several bottles of spray cleaner and paint thinner.

At an art supply store, he bought a large roll of plastic wrap and another of white butcher's paper, along with a black marking crayon.

He found a cyber cafe, bought an hour on a computer, and logged on to the Internet. There, he found an appliance store, and using a PayPal account into which he had deposited several thousand dollars under a phony name months before, bought a chest freezer and arranged to have it delivered immediately to the address he had found in the industrial district.

At a long-term parking lot near a new commuter airport, he stole a minivan, swapping the license plates on it with the car parked next to it. He wore a basic disguise when he did this--a hat, a pair of sunglasses, and a fake moustache--and paid the lot fee on the stolen car at an automated exit teller. He drove back to his rental car, parked in a lot next to a cinema complex, and transferred the body and supplies to the new vehicle.

He drove out into the Virginia countryside, found what looked like an

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