The Body in the Woods (22 page)

Around them, people began to call out and point. “There they go!” a man shouted. The birds were starting to funnel into the chimney, a black tornado of tiny flying bodies.

Ruby's phone rang. She pulled it from her coat pocket. “Hello?” A few of the watchers turned to glare at her. She started moving to the edge of the crowd so she wouldn't disturb them.

“Ruby McClure?” a gruff voice asked.

“Yes.” She drew the word out hesitantly.

“You kids need to stay away from my case.” It was Detective Harriman.

And she was pretty sure he sounded angry.

CHAPTER 41

WEDNESDAY

SO-CALLED KILLER

“What's wrong?” Ruby asked.

“You got those other two riled up,” Detective Harriman said, “thinking they were supposed to be doing my job or something. Only you're not a detective, you're not a cop, you're not a superhero. So don't go acting like one. I don't need you guys messing things up again like you did last night.”

“What are you talking about?” Ruby had reached the now-empty sidewalk.

“That guy you told Alexis and Nick was the killer?” His voice rose. “The one they followed and assaulted?”

“Wait—isn't he?” Ruby braced herself against a telephone pole as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Even though she was standing still, she felt as if she were still moving. Or maybe the world was moving around her.

“Of course not. Your so-called killer is actually a dad. A dad who didn't want to let his teenage daughter go out partying. He wasn't holding her captive. She was grounded.” The detective took a ragged breath, let it out. “You keep seeing one and one and trying to add them up to eleven. So thanks to interference from you and your friends, I ended up dragging some innocent guy downtown for questioning, and I came out looking like an idiot. We'll be lucky if he doesn't sue us for false imprisonment.”

Ruby's stomach did a slow flip. “Then who killed those girls?”

“Don't you understand?” Harriman's voice was tight with anger. “Adams killed Miranda Wyatt, and we don't know yet who killed the other two. It's probably not even the same guy. There is nothing to link them. No DNA evidence. No fingerprints. The two don't even look anything alike.”

Ruby's dizziness was getting worse. She tried closing her eyes, then opening them. It didn't help. “Even though they didn't look alike, they still could have been killed by the same guy. I've been thinking about it.” It was getting harder to make one word follow another in a logical fashion. Harder to care about what she was saying, although some buried part of her knew she should. “What if they're all different because that's what he's looking for? Black, white, Asian? What if he wants one of each? What if he's collecting them? You need to find that homeless guy and question him.”

“Oh, good grief.” Detective Harriman exhaled heavily. “Stop. Just stop. That's enough. Don't try and say that because there's no pattern, it means there really
is
one. I'm telling you now, and I'm going to tell Nick and Alexis—you guys need to leave the police work to the police.” And with a click, he was gone.

Ruby shook her head and then was sorry she had. It felt like her brain was sloshing back and forth in her skull. Maybe watching all those whirling birds had given her vertigo.
Vertigo
. Like
The Birds
, it was the name of another Alfred Hitchcock movie. She found herself smiling, and then the smile faded away as she lost track of the thought.

“Everything okay?”

She turned. It was Becker, his face creased with concern.

“I feel kind of dizzy.”

“Here. Let's get away from the crowd.” He put one hand under her elbow and began to guide her. “Get you some fresh air.”

That seemed like a good idea. A great idea, in fact. “That might help.” Ruby let him lead her, grateful to put herself in someone else's care. It was taking all her concentration to put one foot in front of the other. Her body felt loose and tingly, but her face was on fire. She put her free hand to her forehead and pressed on it, trying to cool it off. Her face felt weird. She pinched her cheek. It was numb.

She and Becker were alone on the street, everyone still back at the school, staring up at the sky. “I'm so glad the swifts came back,” she said. Her voice seemed to echo along the empty row of houses. “Am I too loud? Am I talking too loud?”

“You're fine, Ruby.” He smiled down at her. “You're just perfect.”

Her head was a balloon, and her feet didn't belong to her. “That's nice of you to say that, but I know that people generally don't like me.” She gave voice to what she normally only thought. “I know I'm different. I can't help it. I don't even know what normal is. Just that I'm not.”

“Normal is overrated. Who wants to be normal, to be average?” He snorted and shook his head. “Wouldn't you rather be special?”

Could he be right? Something about his words resonated with her. She nodded in agreement, and then realized she needed to stop.

She looked around. “I should probably get back. I need to take Alexis and Nick to the sheriff's office.”

“Why don't we see if we can find that spotted owl first?” Becker suggested. “It's not very far from here. It should only take a moment. And then you'll have it for your life list, too.”

“Okay!” Ruby imagined the gray bird turning its pale face, shaped like an English walnut, toward them. Nature was amazing. The swifts, the rising moon, and now the promise of a spotted owl. Her thoughts were a jumble of images.

They started up the hill to Forest Park. There was no sidewalk here, just a stretch of muddy ground. Ruby fell into step behind Becker. They were leaving their footprints behind just as their shoes were picking up some of the mud. Locard's principle of exchange. Ruby was pleased that she remembered the name. Locard. She murmured it to herself, rolling the
r
. It was so musical.

“Did you say something?” Becker looked back over his shoulder.

“Not really.” She stretched out her arms for balance, smiling to herself, thinking
Locarda, Locardee, Locardi, Locardo
. Becker's boots were leaving a pattern of diamond and chevron shapes. A pattern Ruby had seen before, although she couldn't quite remember where. Blinking, she stopped and tried to focus. Why was it so familiar?

And then it came to her.

She had seen that same pattern in the shoe print left next to the body of Miranda Wyatt.

CHAPTER 42

WEDNESDAY

WITHOUT EVEN SAYING GOOD-BYE

Nick had watched as Alexis's face had gone white after she answered her phone. She had said only yes and no, and once a “no, sir.” He had been opening his mouth to ask what was wrong when his own phone rang. It was Detective Harriman, and when he was finished with Nick, he hung up without even saying good-bye. Nick guessed that if Harriman had been on a landline, he would have crashed it down. But since it was a cell phone, all it made was a quiet click.

Swearing, Nick took the phone away from his ear and hit the End button. Alexis shook her head. They were the only ones not staring at the spectacle in the sky.

“I assume you got the lecture, too?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Nick looked around. “Where's Ruby?”

“She left when her phone rang, and she hasn't come back yet.” Alexis stood on tiptoe, trying to see over the heads of the crowd. “If I feel bad about what we did, I can't imagine how she feels.”

Nick rubbed the bruise on his temple where his head had smacked into the man's nose. “I guess the whimpering I heard must have come from his dogs.”

A man with a bristly crew cut lowered his binoculars and put his finger to his lips. Nick ground his teeth together and resisted the urge to punch him.

“I'm going to go find Ruby,” he told Alexis. Part of him wanted to punch Ruby, too. It had been her crazy idea that the runner had been the killer. Her crazy idea that there was just one killer, a killer who was collecting homeless girls the way other people collected stamps.

Nick started pushing through the crowd, with Alexis following. He didn't care if he stepped on toes. He didn't care anymore about the black cloud of birds wheeling overhead. He didn't care about anything. He hadn't saved that tattooed girl from certain death. He hadn't saved her from anything except being kept home from partying. He wasn't a hero, the way he had always dreamed of being. He was just some stupid kid who had attacked an innocent man for no reason. It didn't matter that breaking that guy's nose had really been an accident. He had been happy enough to claim it when everyone had thought he had done it on purpose.

Now what would his dad really think of him? Not much, he guessed.

They had reached the fringes of the crowd, but Nick still hadn't spotted Ruby. He wondered how she felt. She was the one who had been convinced she had come up with the solution, had put all the pieces together. What was she thinking now that she knew how wrong she had been?

When he reached the corner, Nick stopped, and Alexis did too. Where was Ruby? He looked up and down the shadowed streets. Finally, he spotted a flash of copper-colored hair. There. Two blocks away, going up the steep hill that led to Forest Park. Was it Ruby? He squinted. He was pretty sure it was. But who was that guy with her?

And then he caught a glimpse of a white beard and thick white hair and realized it was Becker. The bird-watcher. Only why did he have his arm under Ruby's elbow?

Alexis turned to him. “Is that Ruby? Where's she going? Why is she leaving with that man?”

Nick's thoughts were running through his brain like water, too fast for him to grab on to any single one. Ruby had said she and Alexis had talked to Becker in Forest Park the day Miranda was killed. Then he and Ruby had seen Becker there again on Sunday. And tonight he was here at Chapman school. Why did Becker keep turning up? And why was Ruby walking off with him now, when she was supposed to be with them? When she was supposed to be giving him and Alexis a ride to the sheriff's office soon?

He gave voice to his thoughts. “If the runner isn't the killer, then someone else who was in the park that day has to be. And I'm not talking about the homeless guy.”

When he turned to Alexis, she was staring at him. Her mouth fell open. Then she grabbed his arm. “Oh, no. It must be Becker. And he has Ruby.” She shook his arm. “Nick, he has Ruby!”

The smartest thing was to stay put. To let the professionals handle it. Nick would call 9-1-1, and in five minutes, the police would be here.

But if Becker was planning on doing something bad, did Ruby even have five minutes? Nick thought of his dad. Outnumbered, outgunned, he had gone down fighting.

But his dad had had nothing to lose, a little voice said. It was one thing if you were going to die, no matter whether you fought back or not. Then why not go down swinging? Why not be a hero?

But if you had a choice, the way Nick did? Then the smart thing was to look after yourself first. To keep yourself safe. Not to do anything reckless.

Because if Becker was the killer, and Nick confronted him, if he tried to save Ruby, it was quite possible they would both end up dead at Becker's hands. There was no point in putting himself in danger.

In that split second, Nick made up his mind. And then he did the only thing he could do.

CHAPTER 43

WEDNESDAY

SEE FOR YOURSELF

There was no spotted owl, of course. There never had been. But in a few minutes, he would point excitedly up into the trees and tell Ruby he had caught a glimpse of it. Right there!

Then he would offer the binoculars, inviting her to see for herself.

He would loop the strap over her neck before he handed them to her. And when Ruby tilted her head back, exposing the long white column of her throat, he would grab the strap in his fists and pull up and back. Pull so hard he would lift her from the ground. Her feet dancing in midair. Her weight against him as she struggled. And then ceased to struggle.

Just as he had done with the other girls.

Ruby would see, all right.

CHAPTER 44

WEDNESDAY

THE FLESH AGAINST HER BONES

As she stared at the footprint, Ruby's whole body went cold. For a moment, her thoughts straightened themselves into something like coherence. Had Becker seen her notice the pattern of chevrons and diamonds? Did he know she had seen that footprint before, next to a dead girl's body?

She had to get away from him.

“You know what?” It was an effort to enunciate, to put her tongue in the right places within the vast cave of her mouth. “I need to go back to the school. Alexis and Nick will be wondering where I am.” Despite her concentration, her words still sounded smeared.

Before Ruby could turn back, Becker's hand was wrapped around her wrist, his grip so tight that even through her jacket, she could feel his fingers squeeze the flesh against her bones. He made a sound that was something like a laugh.

“Oh, it's fine, Ruby. We'll be back soon. And you don't want to miss your chance to see a real spotted owl. It's been years since one's been seen here. We just need to go a little farther in.”

He started moving forward, but she dug in her toes. “I changed my mind. I'll look at the owl some other time.”

Becker stopped and turned back to face her. He had not released her wrist. Even though he was standing still, his face seemed to be moving toward her and then away. Ruby blinked and tried to focus. His eyes looked like chips of sea ice, and his face was set and stern.

“Come on, Ruby, we've come this far. It's just a little bit farther. You'll see. It's truly magnificent. The sighting of a lifetime.”

“No. I don't think so.” Ruby worked to make her words come out in the right order. “I really don't want to go with you. I want to go back to my friends now.”