Page 76 of The Accomplice
I took a deep breath, let it out.
Right then, I wasn’t sure. I had a gut instinct I had to follow and that might help. There are some cases you just can’t win. Otto was right – we needed Carrie Miller.
My phone rang again, and I answered as I got out of the car and stepped onto the sidewalk. It was Bloch.
‘We’re at the warehouse listed as the address on the old lease for Daniel Miller. It’s empty apart from a freezer. Eddie, there’s a body bag inside.’
She spoke plainly. Like she always did, but the fear inside her rippled through her voice. My legs suddenly didn’t feel so steady. I closed my eyes, my mind reeling. I knew what I wanted to ask. What I had to ask, but I couldn’t fill the dead air with it. I stared straight ahead at the crowd of reporters, photographers and camera operators at the courthouse entrance and begged that they wouldn’t see me.
Harry came around the car, took one look at my face and reached out, grabbing my arm.
Right then, I wanted to lie down on the sidewalk, close my eyes and just wish for everything to go away. I wanted to fall asleep and wake up when this nightmare was over, and Kate was safe.
‘Eddie, Eddie, come on. What is it ?’ said Harry.
I stumbled, his grip tightened on my arm. I listened, and Bloch said nothing. I wanted her to tell me that Kate was okay. That’s all I wanted.
‘Eddie, take a breath,’ said Harry, and leaned in close, keeping me upright. I asked questions for a living. I was pretty good at it. There was a question I had to ask. There was no avoiding this. No wishing this away.
I had to face it. And take the pain.
‘What’s in the bag ?’ I asked.
‘There’s no way of telling. Not yet,’ she said. I’d never heard Bloch this emotional before. Her voice quivered with it, like the fear was physically shaking her.
‘It’s not Kate,’ I said. ‘Tell me it’s not Kate.’
Bloch said nothing. I heard her breath, working her way up to spitting out the words.
‘It’s completely encased in ice. Whoever dumped the body bag here must’ve poured gallons of water in after. Lake and I are digging it out, but it’s slow going.’
‘Bloch, you know who it is, don’t you ?’
‘I can’t tell. I-I c-can’t tell. The ice is three feet thick. Lake … Lake said it could be a first kill.’
Here was some hope, at last, and I was going to grab it.
‘What does he mean ?’
‘Some serial killers hide their first victims. They take care to dispose of the body or hide it so no one can find it. Usually because the victim has some kind of link to them.’
What Lake had told Bloch made sense, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind that Kate was in that freezer, and Bloch was there with a guy I didn’t fully trust, digging her best friend’s body out of a block of ice.
Bloch said nothing. I said nothing. She thought it was Kate too. I could tell. I watched the reporters outside the courtroom making their way toward me. I listened to the faint static on the line. For one of the first times in my life, I felt utterly hopeless.
I knew Bloch was hurting. I’d heard it in her voice. There was a dam in her throat, holding back her fear. I didn’t know what to say. She’d grown up with Kate. Bloch was closer to her than any other human being on the planet. If something happened to Kate, Bloch’s world would end. I didn’t know what to say. I pressed the phone to my ear. Really, there was nothing I could say to her. No comfort I could give.
Neither of us had any words.
Hope for Kate died in the silence of electrostatic.
The atmosphere in the courtroom had changed.
Judge Stoker looked like a man who’d had a tire blow out on the freeway during a rain storm, on the same day his wife left him and the stock market crashed. He looked punchy. Wary of a killer blow to come. The pale skin around his eyes from the sunbed goggles appeared even whiter than usual, making him look like a startled red panda.
The prosecutor, White, was on his feet, arranging papers on his desk and throwing a subtle side-eye at the jury. Or rather, the new juror. Clay Dryer was now ensconced on the jury stand in place of Ethel, who was on her way home with all that hate still in her heart, a hundred bucks in her purse, a good dinner, and no real idea what had happened that day.
‘I call Professor Cal Johnson to the stand,’ said White, standing up a little straighter.
