Koontz, Dean - Velocity by Koontz Dean

Author:Koontz, Dean [Koontz, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

At an electronics store in Napa, Billy bought a compact video camera

and recorder. The equipment could be used in the usual fashion or could be

set instead to compile a continuous series of snapshots taken at intervals of

a few seconds.

In its second mode, loaded with the proper custom disk, the system was

able to provide week-long recorded surveillance similar to that in the

average convenience store.

Considering that the Explorer’s broken window didn’t allow him to

lock any valuables in the vehicle, he paid for his purchases and arranged to

return for them in half an hour.

From the electronics store, he went in search of a newspaper-vending

machine. He found one in front of a pharmacy.

The lead story concerned Giselle Winslow. The schoolteacher had been

murdered in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but her body had not been

found until late Tuesday afternoon, less than twenty-four hours previously.

The picture of her in the newspaper was different from the one tucked

in the book on Lanny Olsen’s lap, but they were photos of the same

attractive woman.

Carrying the newspaper, Billy walked to the main branch of the county

library. He had a computer at home but no longer had Internet access; the

library offered both.

He was alone at the cluster of work stations. Other patrons were at

reading tables and prowling the stacks. Maybe the embrace of “book

alternatives” wasn’t turning out to be the future of libraries, after all.

When he’d been writing fiction, he had used the Worldwide Web for

research. Later, it had provided distraction, escape. In the past two years, he

hadn’t surfed the Web at all.

Meanwhile, things had changed. Access was faster. Searches were

faster, too, and easier.

Billy typed in a search string. When he got no hits, he modified the

string, then modified it again.

Drinking-age laws varied state by state. In many jurisdictions, Steve

Zillis hadn’t been old enough to tend bar until he was twenty-one, so Billy

dropped bartender from the search string.

Steve had been working at the tavern only five months. He and Billy

had never swapped biographies.

Billy vaguely recalled that Steve had gone to college. He could not

remember where. He added student to the string.

Perhaps the word murder was too limiting. He replaced it with foul

play.

He got one hit. From the Denver Post.

The story dated back five years and eight months. Although Billy

warned himself not to read into this discovery more than it actually

contained, the information struck him as relevant.

That November, at the University of Colorado at Denver, a coed named

Judith Sarah Kesselman, eighteen, had gone missing. Initially, at least, there

were no signs of foul play.

In what appeared to be the first newspaper piece about the missing

young woman, another UCD student, Steven Zillis, nineteen, was quoted as

saying that Judith was “a wonderful girl, compassionate and concerned, a

friend to everyone.” He worried because “Judi is too responsible to just go

off for a couple days without telling anyone her plans.”

Another search string related to Judith Sarah Kesselman produced

scores of hits. Billy steeled himself for the discovery that her dead body had

been found without a face.

He went through the articles, reading closely at first. As the material

became repetitive, he scanned.

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