The Affair_ A Reacher Novel - Lee Child [35]
“I might,” I said. “Depending on who I was with.”
“She had a home,” Merriam said. “With a bed in it. And a car, with a back seat. Any putative boyfriend would have a home and a car, too. And there’s a hotel here in town. And there are other towns, with other hotels. No one needs to conduct a tryst outdoors.”
“Especially not in March,” Deveraux said.
The small room went quiet, and it stayed quiet until Merriam asked, “Are we done here?”
“We’re done,” Deveraux said.
“Well, good luck, chief,” Merriam said. “I hope this one turns out better than the last two.”
Deveraux and I walked down the doctor’s driveway, past the mailbox, past the shingle, to the sidewalk, where we stood next to Deveraux’s car. I knew she was not going to give me a ride. This was not a democracy. Not yet. I said, “Did you ever see a rape victim with intact pantyhose?”
“You think that’s significant?”
“Of course it is. She was attacked on gravel. Her pantyhose should have been shredded.”
“Maybe she was forced to undress first. Slowly and carefully.”
“The gravel rash had edges. She was wearing something. Pulled up, pulled down, whatever, but she was partially clothed. And then she changed afterward. Which is possible. She had four hours.”
“Don’t go there,” Deveraux said.
“Go where?”
“You’re trying to plead the army down to rape only. You’re going to say she was killed by someone else, separately, later.”
I said nothing.
“And that dog won’t hunt,” Deveraux said. “You stumble into someone and get raped, and then within the next four hours you stumble into someone else completely different and get your throat cut? That’s a really bad day, isn’t it? That’s the worst day ever. It’s too coincidental. No, it was the same guy. But he had himself an all-day session. He took hours. He had plans and equipment. He had access to her clothes. He made her change. This was all highly premeditated.”
“Possible,” I said.
“They teach effective tactical planning in the army. So they claim, anyway.”
“True,” I said. “But they don’t give you all day off very often. Not in a training environment. Not usually.”
Deveraux said, “But Kelham is not just about training, is it? Not from what I’ve been able to piece together. There are a couple of rifle companies there. In and out on rotation. And they get leave when they come back. Days off. Plenty of them. All in a row. One after the other.”
I said nothing.
Deveraux said, “You should call your CO. Tell him it’s looking bad.”
I said, “He already knows. That’s why I’m here.”
She paused a long moment and said, “I want you to do me a favor.”
“Like what?”
“Go look at the car wreck again. See if you can find a license plate or identify the vehicle. Pellegrino got nowhere with it.”
“Why would you trust me?”
“Because you’re the son of a Marine. And because you know if you conceal or destroy evidence I’ll put you in jail.”
I asked, “What did Merriam mean, when he wished you better luck with this one than the other two?”
She didn’t answer.
I said, “The other two what?”
She paused a beat and her beautiful face fell a little and she said, “Two girls were killed last year. Same MO. Throats cut. I got nowhere with them. They’re cold cases now. Janice May Chapman is the third in nine months.”
Chapter
20
Elizabeth Deveraux said nothing more. She just climbed into her Caprice and drove away. She pulled a wide U-turn in front of me and headed north, back to town. I lost sight of her after the first curve. I stood still for a long moment and then set off walking. Ten minutes later I was through the last of the rural meanders and the road widened and straightened in front of me. Main Street, in fact as well as name. Some daytime activity was starting up. The stores were opening. I saw two cars and two pedestrians. But that was all. Carter Crossing was no kind of a bustling metropolis. That was for damn sure.
I walked on the right-hand sidewalk and passed the hardware store, and the pharmacy, and the hotel, and the diner, and the empty space next to it. Deveraux’s car was not parked