“All right. I’ll see you there,” Aidan said.
When they left the restaurant, Mo found that she was going to be driving out with Logan. It seemed to be a natural assumption. Phil, Ron and Grace had come to the station together.
Rollo sat in the back. As they turned onto the street, Logan asked her quietly, “How long have you been seeing the dead?”
She turned to him, surprised. He flashed her a smile. “I think you have a great dog—but I think you have a lot more. Aidan is new to us, but he has it, too. He doesn’t want to think he does. He prefers to believe that he doesn’t really belong with the Krewe.”
“He may feel differently now,” Mo said. “You all don’t...know each other very well?”
“He just transferred into our unit. Our director, Adam Harrison, is an elderly gentleman who never went through the academy. He was sought out. Adam just had a talent for hiring the right people. He lost a son who had real precognition and after that...well, he recognized it in others.
“He started with Jackson Crow, who’s basically commander in chief of our field agents. Adam has a way of watching people. He’d been watching Aidan for a while, and he liked what he saw. Adam can home in on particular and sometimes unusual skills, even when people don’t see it or admit it themselves. So, how long have you been seeing the dead?”
“Since I was a kid. I was lucky because I had a dog then, too. Rollo’s mom, Heidi. I just let everyone think the dog did it all— Oh, and trust me! Rollo is a great scent hound, although wolfhounds are supposed to be sight hounds. Anyway, it works for us.” Mo frowned. “You see the dead, too?”
He nodded, watching the traffic. “When they want to be seen—and can be seen. With everything we’ve done and everything I’ve seen, I’ve still never figured out why some just go on and others stay behind. However, it makes sense to me that a man like Richard Highsmith would linger. He’d want the truth—and he’d want justice.” He glanced at her. “Has he stayed on?”
“Yes, but it was just today that he managed to talk to us. And actually, what he told us, Aidan had already surmised.”
“Ah, but knowing that you’re not wasting time developing a theory that’s taking you in the wrong direction can be important!”
When they reached the Haunted Mausoleum they found an officer on duty overseeing the crime scene. Van Camp identified himself, and Ron hurried up to the porch and passed the massive columns, stopping in front of the crime scene tape at the door.
“Don’t worry,” Van Camp said with a wry grin. “We have more tape.”
Rollo hung obediently at Mo’s side.
The killer wasn’t here anymore, Mo thought. There was nothing for Rollo to find, and Rollo knew that, just as she did.
*
At the task force meeting, Gina Mason gave a frustrated report on the forensics findings. The blood discovered on the tools at the beheading sites belonged to the victims. The tools had been wiped clean of fingerprints at both locations.
“One thing we did get last night—tire tracks. By the cemetery. We’ve narrowed down the tires to a new make and model by a specialty company—Horsepower. They’ve become popular in this region, though, because they’re excellent on snow. But the make and model suggest that the vehicle we’re looking for is a medium-size SUV or van. So keep your eyes open and make traffic stops on those vehicles when you can. Remember, serial killer Ted Bundy was caught because of a broken taillight.”
Dr. Mortenson told them that, fortunately, the beheading appeared to have once again been postmortem.
What Aidan had to say took longer.
“Years ago—years and years ago—the Hudson Valley was a hotbed of activity for the Revolutionary War. As we all know, one of our most talented American generals defected to the British, and he did so with the assistance of a brilliant and charming British officer, Major John Andre,” he began. He realized that the officers, detectives and technicians in the room were looking at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“Bear with me,” he told them. “I believe it’s all related. Major Andre fell in love with a local girl, a patriot. He was hanged, and she went on to bear a child. An old suitor and several of his friends murdered her, either because they thought she’d betrayed the Americans, or possibly her suitor urged it on because he was enraged by what he saw as a personal betrayal. But the lady had expected something like that might happen. She’d given the little girl over to the care of a cousin, whose name was Bakker. The family had a mausoleum at the old graveyard by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. And the child is entombed there under what became her maiden name, Bakker—and the name she married into. Highsmith.”