Death of A Raven Page 7

  Deevers had already begun looking for the weapon by the time Serengi returned. Mrs. George hadn't objected, saying that if it was still in the house she'd be glad to get rid of it.

  They came up empty-handed.

  Before leaving, Serengi asked one final question.

  "Do you happen to know Jim Petrowski, Mrs. George?"

  "Petrowski? Never heard of him. Does he live near here?"

  "I don't think so. I wondered if perhaps your husband might have mentioned him."

  "'Fraid not." She smiled as one would at a child.

  When they got back to the car, their hour was long past up. Deciding that the arrow was pointing more towards Mrs. George, they decided to release Ron and Virginia for now. Serengi asked to speak to either of the lawyers. He got Jones. When they'd found Raven, there'd been no car or door keys in his pockets. Serengi requested that one of the children check the Raven house for their father's keys and to let him know if they were missing.

  Disconnecting, he turned to Deevers. "If you had just killed someone, and you're eighty-something, what would you do with the weapon?"

  "Eat it?" Deevers replied, as if this were a normal question deserving an abnormal answer. "I'd take it back home and bury it or throw it out the car window into a river or a lake."

  "That's what I think, too. Only I don't think there are any roads between the Raven place and here that pass over water. You don't think she got out of her car and walked off the road with it, do you?"

  "She should have been rattled. First thing that came to mind. I don't think she'd want to draw attention. It was still light." Deevers pulled out a toothpick and began gnawing.

  A cigarette would have done Serengi well at this moment, but he didn't want to break his eight year abstinence. "I'd say out the window somewhere. She'd figure we might look on her property."

  "Dumpster." Deevers looked at Serengi and curled his lip.

  "Ah crap. It's, what, almost two weeks? Not a chance," Serengi said. "But let's see where she might have found one."

  If she hadn't gone out of her way, they settled on two small shopping areas she might have pulled behind and lightened her load. One area consisted of small businesses. There, the dumpster was emptied once a week. The same with the second area.

  It was late in the day by the time they got back to the office and placed calls to the contractors handling the waste disposal.

  Deevers went to get a new search warrant to allow collection of the fireplace debris from the George home. They acted on it immediately. Mrs. George laughed at them when they returned to tell her they wanted her ashes.

  "I'm not ready for you boys, yet, you know. You want my ashes, you're going to have to wait a while."

  "No, ma'am. Not your ashes, your fireplace ashes is what we're after," Deevers clarified for her.

  "You certainly are strange fellows. Go ahead. You've got the paper that says you can take it. Don't blame me if your wives get after you for coming home so dirty."

  "She doesn't seem at all worried," Deevers said as Serengi carefully scraped and manipulated the sooty debris into a collection bag.

  "I know. Maybe she doesn't think we'll find anything."

  "She's wrong there."

  They dropped the evidence off, signing it into lab custody, then went to the 42nd Street Oyster Bar to chow down.

  Serengi could still taste the onion rings the next morning. Two cups of strong coffee didn't help.

  Deevers came in looking as if not a thing bothered him. Sometimes Serengi couldn't stand the sight of his partner.

  But things got better. Everything fell into place. The lawyer from Raven's office called to say he'd found, in Raven's personal papers, a copy Raven had made of some of the George material. He thought Serengi should take a look at it. Before Serengi left, they'd gotten the names of the dump sites used by the two contractors and dispatched uniformed officers to begin a search of the sites.

  What the young lawyer had found was indeed a bombshell. Raven had copied two sheets of paper. One listed forty-two names, associated dates, and locations. The other was a copy of an unsigned letter with instructions that the inner envelope was to be mailed to the FBI, "upon my death." Other than a note in Raven's handwriting clipped to the paper that identified George as the source, there was nothing indicating where the list had originated. Raven's note further indicated that this was a copy of a list included in an envelope addressed to the FBI and containing various pieces of identification associated with each of the names. One location listed was in North Carolina.

  Serengi copied everything and returned to the office. He contacted the Oxford police and requested a search team be dispatched to the location listed on the paper. Both he and Deevers drove up to Oxford. They needed assistance finding the site, a wooded area four miles from the nearest restaurant and shopping center.

  Within an hour, a skull and part of a rib cage had been found.

  Serengi contacted the local FBI office and faxed them the list. He told them he thought the items definitively identifying where the listed boys or men came from had been destroyed though they were working on piecing together what they could.

  They had motive now. Mr. George was either a serial killer or knew a serial killer. Serengi and Deevers figured that given time and a check of records the FBI might be able to find out if Robert George had been anywhere near the locations listed. The dates covered a thirty year span.

  Was this what Raven wanted to see Mrs. George about? Had he shown her this material in his office? Serengi doubted that he would have given it to her. Had he been intending to mail it anonymously per the instructions in the note from Robert George?

  With the help of technology, and some very unhappy officers, by day's end the gun had been found. It didn't take long to match the markings made by the lands and grooves on a test bullet to those found on the bullet lodged in the victim.

  Mrs. George didn't answer the door.

  They found her sleeping the big sleep. She'd left a note for them. It was brief.

  Is one weakness to sum a life?

  Forgive him and let him rest in peace.

  Serengi shook his head and sighed looking at the peaceful face on the pillow. "Talk about family values!"