Legacy of the Wolf

Silver

Barnes was late. Again.

Not like he didn't have a good excuse. Even with all three of the bureau's detectives assigned to the "Acacia Killings," there was a massive load of work to be done.

Sam checked her watch. She had known that she would be running late for her meeting with Brewin and had called to let him know, but now it looked she would be even later than she had anticipated.

Sitting in a meeting room at the end of a table, Sam looked across at a mobile white board where Barnes had begun constructing a timeline of events in the Eclipse Killing. Starting off the timeline was a picture of the John Doe, the same photo Sam had looked at when Barnes asked if she knew him. Beneath it was a question mark, and the word "Eclipse," along with the date and time Sam had found the body and the estimated time of death.

There was a line connecting to Sam's sighting of the killer outside of Mama Kaiser's bakery, along with the date and time. And soon there would be a line leading to last night's murders at 22 Acacia Avenue and the Rest-In.

Last night, Sam had been hopeful that Raggedy Man might finally be tracked down when a K-9 unit had shown up and caught his scent... but the officer had reported later that when he thought they were getting close, the dogs had acted skittish and were unwilling to continue the pursuit. The policeman had never seen anything like it.

The on-scene investigation, with its two separate murder sites, had taken hours. After giving her report, Sam had stayed to help guard the perimeter at the Rest-In. When her shift was done, she had gone home, fed Mister Perkins and taken two sleeping pills. Even with the medication, Sam had fought for over an hour to purge from her mind the image of that man with the machete blade buried halfway down his skull.

Barnes had called just after noon and asked if she would come in to go over her statement with him and Sam had agreed, stopping by Taco Time and then Mama Kaiser's for coffee and cake to go. She had then come in early and gotten started on the colossal heap of paperwork she would have to slog through.

If there was a silver lining to any of this, it was that she had both tonight and tomorrow off. She had offered to come in anyway, but Captain Hoskins made it clear he wanted her to get some rest.

Finally the door opened and Barnes walked in, a half-eaten banana in his right hand, coat draped over his left arm. His hair was sticking out in multiple directions, his facial hair was approaching beard-status, and if he had been wearing a tie at some point, it was currently nowhere to be seen.

He stuffed the rest of the banana in his mouth, trashed the peel, and threw his jacket on a chair across the table, kitty corner to Sam.

After swallowing he said "You know that old stereotype about the burned out, alcoholic detective? There's a good reason for it."

"I was supposed to be a dentist like my dad," he continued, taking a marker from the table and approaching the timeline. "But no! Other people's mouths give me the willies. So instead, I get to deal with... this." He waved at the whiteboard. "Torn-out throats and split skulls. Much better. Oh hey, by the way I noticed some damage to the windshield of that kick-ass Mustang of yours. What happened?"

Sam felt her guts twist. "Rock got kicked up by a semi," she lied. Barnes turned, staring at her unwaveringly. She had to resist the compulsion to either look away or just blurt out the truth.

After a prolonged silence Barnes said "Sorry to hear that," and turned to the board. "Okay, so last night..."

He drew a line from "Eclipse Killer Sighting" off to one side and wrote "Acacia." He continued writing, noting dates and times as he spoke. "Officer Jackson gets a 911 call from 16 Acacia. He gets there and he's told by some crackhead that two armed men had stormed in looking for 'Smiley'—so called because of the smiley face sweater he wore—'Jitters,' and 'Blackout.'" There was a clear note of mockery in Barnes' voice as he recited the names.