Wisdom of the Bones by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788636254
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2019-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

‘She’s a victim, not the killer,’ said Ron Odum, sitting in his kitchen. ‘All these what-if’s you’ve got don’t matter.’ He shrugged. ‘Whether she took a bus or not makes no never mind.’ There were no bottles of Jax on the table between them this time, only coffee. Real, not like the instant Ray made for himself. The rich smell of it wafting up from the percolator sitting on the stove filled the room.

R. T. unfolded himself from his chair and went to fill his cup again. He came back, sat down and lit a cigarette. ‘I’m surprised you’re still at it.’

‘Because of the President?’

‘Kind of overwhelming, don’t you think?’ Ray’s ex-partner took a sip of coffee, looking across the table, smiling faintly. ‘Not your everyday run-of-the-mill Big D homicide.’

Ray shook his head. ‘People are going to make a big thing about it but it could have been anywhere.’

‘Could have been,’ said Odum. ‘But it wasn’t. Just like your little girl and the bus. It happened here. It happened for a reason.’

‘And if this Martha Caddo turns out to be the girl I saw at Parkland today is there a reason for that?’

‘Sure,’ said Odum easily. ‘She’s a little black kid. According to what you found out your killer likes chopping up young girls, especially black girls. The man who killed Kennedy wanted to kill the president of the United States. The president of the United States happened to be in Dallas today.’

‘Then he was stupid,’ said Ray.

‘How so?’

‘It was supposed to be raining today. If it’d been raining they would have had that bubble-top thing on the limousine. I saw them putting it back on at Parkland. Not much at forward planning, this assassin.’

‘Well, there you go,’ Odum answered. ‘You’re probably right, which tells you something about your man, doesn’t it?’

‘Such as?’

‘He’s not stupid. By your count he’s killed eleven people and so far, at least until my old good friend Horatio Duval comes around, he’s got away with it. Smart.’

‘Lucky?’

‘Smart. No one has good luck that long.’ Odum tipped ash into his saucer. ‘We’re back to what-ifs and coulda-beens again. If you hadn’t gone home for your daddy’s birthday you wouldn’t have found out about those other cases, now would you? Like I said, his luck ran out.’

‘Like the cop who got killed today.’

‘Officer J. D. Tippit.’

‘You know him?’

‘Twelve hundred cops on the DPD? No.’ He took a last drag on the cigarette and butted it. ‘But you can bet your ass the guy they picked up gets charged with the President as well.’

‘Why?’

‘Probably don’t know yet. Just before you got here. They were shuffling the guy up to the cells and some reporter asked – turns out the guy worked at the School Book Depository. Half hour after the assassination he kills a cop in Oak Cliff who maybe just got his description from dispatch. Too much for coincidence.’

‘The guy I saw didn’t look like he could kill a roach with a size-twelve boot,’ said Ray.

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