Will Hetfield’s face twisted in confusion and anger. He lowered his phone and it beeped. “They didn’t get any body this afternoon with the name, and no body that fits the age and gender. Are you saying he faked his death?”
“Possibly. That would be my guess.” Clayton replied. “How did you find out about Gerrard’s death?”
“I didn’t know about it until I talked to officer Bucholz. He was checking on Stevens, who was checking on his apartment. Tina, do you know anything else?”
Tina had been leaning on Steven’s squad car, but she started walking closer to the men. Once she was within a yard, she spoke softly. “The captain told us about it this afternoon.”
Will leaned in closer. “Tina, why are you almost whispering?”
“It was weird Will. The captain was in his office for about 20 minutes with two guys in black suits. Then he comes out and mentions that there was a death in Sioux Falls today, and he might need somebody to check on the man’s apartment later. He didn’t seem himself, and from what other officers told me, Stevens wasn’t even given the guy’s name before they sent him over here.”
Clayton’s left eyebrow perked up. “This Gerrard character is no stranger to manipulating computers, but even he wouldn’t have been audacious enough to have associates snow your Captain. Plus, as far as we know, he didn’t have associates.”
Will looked at Tina and then at Clayton. “Alright. FBI, if you want to help here, we could use you. After that, I say we work together to get to the bottom of this. I’ll see if the captain knows anything. Clayton, you can flash your badge and check into the morgue story. Tina, I need you to ask around and see what else you can find out about anything else odd about today.”
“I can think of one thing. The Captain has us looking for two men named Phillip and Robert. I have no idea why, but we have Jonas combing their car right now. It was found abandoned near Main Street.”
***
The rusty yellow Pacer came to a stop. “Okay boys, out of the car.”
Bob looked out the window. “Where in the world are we?”
“Never you mind. Just follow me.”
Bob started getting out of the car. Phil didn’t.
“C’mon Phil.”
“No way. I’m not going to wander into some trees with a creepy old man. This just seems like our worst idea of the night.”
“Fine. I’ll go by myself. If your paranoid delusion is correct, you let me go off to die alone.” Bob walked about five steps forward before he heard a car door slam and the sound of somebody walking quickly.
“Sometimes, I really, really, really don’t like you very much.”
Old Man B was up ahead, and he was on the other side of a chain link fence. He held up the fence. “C’mon. This hasn’t been fixed since my days of getting out of town in a hurry.” Bob crawled under the fence, and after a few glares from Old Man B, Phil followed suit.
“Where are we anyway?”
