The Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais

Author:Robert Crais [Crais, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Mystery & Detective, General, Fiction, Crime
ISBN: 9781409123545
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2006-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

POLLARD WAS still trying to decide what this meant when Holman interrupted her. He seemed nervous.

"Listen, we shouldn't spend too much time down here. Those guys at the loading docks might call the police."

"How'd you know I would be here?"

"Didn't. I was up on the bridge when you came down the ramp. I saw you jump the fence."

"You just happened to be up there?"

"I've come here a dozen times since it happened. C'mon, let's go back up. I was going to call you--"

Pollard didn't want to go back to the gate; she wanted to figure out why the police had overlooked such an obvious flaw in their case, and was thinking about something Holman had said.

"Waitaminute, Holman. Have you been here at night?"

Holman stopped in the edge of the bridge's shadow, split in two by the light.

"Yeah. Two or three times."

"How's the light at that time of night?"

"They had a three-quarter moon with scattered clouds on the night they were killed. I checked the weather report. You could've read a newspaper down here."

He turned back toward the gate again.

"We better leave. You could get arrested, being down here."

"So could you."

"I've been arrested before. You won't like it."

"Holman, if you want to wait up at the gate, go on. I'm trying to figure out what happened down here."

Holman didn't leave, but it was obvious he wasn't happy about staying. Pollard circled the murder scene, trying to picture the cars and the officers on the night they were killed. She changed their positions like mannequins in a store window, turning each time to stare at the ramp. She rearranged the cars in her mind's eye, thinking maybe she had missed some obvious explanation.

Holman said, "What are you trying to figure out?"

"I'm trying to see if there was some way they wouldn't have seen him."

"They saw him. You just told me they saw him."

Pollard went to the edge of the channel and peered at the water. The channel was a rectangular trough about two feet deep with a sickly trickle along its bottom. The shooter could have hidden down here or maybe behind one of the columns, but only if he had known when and where to expect the four officers, and both possibilities were absurd. Pollard knew she was reaching. The primary rule of an investigation was that the simplest explanation was the most likely. It was no more likely the shooter had lain in wait than he had jumped down from the bridge like a ninja.

Holman said, "Did you hear me?"

"I'm thinking."

"You need to listen. I went to see Liz this morning to get the reports, but the police got to her first. They cleaned out Richie's desk. They took the reports."

Pollard turned away from the channel, surprised.

"How did they know she had the reports?"

"I don't know if they went for the reports, but they knew she's been helping me. They made it sound like they had to search his things because I had been there--like they wanted to see what I was up to.

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