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24
Fred Voorhees had been working at Union Station for forty years. He was in charge of maintenance and had a large crew to supervise. In all that time, he’d never been involved in anything as weird as what was happening now. The police had shut down the station. They were looking for a body, and they were convinced it was here somewhere. Fred had offered to help them look, but they’d turned him down. Yet so far they hadn’t found anything. He doubted they would. If a dead body was anywhere in the station, he and his crew would have found it.
He was about to tell one of them they were wasting their time when he remembered something. He’d heard them say something about a bench, and a while back he’d put a broken bench in the storage room where they kept damaged equipment. He shuffled to the door that led to the room, but before he opened it, he stopped long enough to spit the tobacco he’d been chewing into a trash can and shove a fresh wad into his mouth. It was a bad habit, but his wife wasn’t here to lecture him about mouth and throat cancer. He didn’t chew around her. And when he retired, he’d stop. But for now, this was one pleasure he wasn’t willing to give up.
As he rounded a corner in the storage room, he saw the bench. It had something on it. At first he wasn’t sure what it was, but as he got closer, he picked up a strange odor. He’d fought in Vietnam. He knew that smell. He walked slowly toward the bench. As he pulled back the tarp that covered it, he already knew what he was going to find. When he saw it, he backed up, spit out his tobacco, and then threw up. When he was certain he was finished, he pulled out his phone.
As he punched in his boss’s number, he wondered if waiting two years to retire was about two years too long.
Most of the team believed they knew the identity of their target and that the fifth victim would be found at Union Station, but they still had to find Walker. As they all returned to their stations, Harrison ordered Logan, Monty, and Alex to stay at the CP in case they could help the team further.
Monty had left the room, and Logan was frustrated with their lack of progress as he and Alex sat at the large table, going over their assessment. They’d been running behind on finding the bodies from the beginning. So many trains, so many cars, and so much time when no one was around to see what was happening to trains waiting for their next run. So far, the Train Man had had plenty of time to prepare his sacrifices without being interrupted.
They needed to concentrate on what he would do next. If there was any way to find him before he killed his sixth victim, their time in Kansas City would be well spent. But there just wasn’t anything new as they pored over all the records dug up by the team. Mike had given them descriptions of people he remembered visiting Willow’s house, especially those he thought could have been there for Circle meetings. But except for Jimmy Gedrose and Marcus Pannell, they hadn’t been able to match his information to anyone specific.
Thankfully, authorities in Wichita had picked Jimmy up, and he would be here tomorrow. Logan was grateful he was safe, and that he would probably be put into WITSEC. If the Circle was as large as he’d intimated, that was the only way to keep him away from those who would see his cooperation with law enforcement as betrayal.
“Where was the family when Adam was between seven and twelve?” Alex asked suddenly. “I know we’re concentrating more on who he is and where he is now, but this bothers me, Logan. I think it’s important.”
“Why? Because of the missing mother?”
“That’s one reason. Where is she? Why can’t anyone find her?”
“You think she’s dead?”
Alex rubbed her forehead as if the action would release the answers they were looking for. “If she’s dead, where’s the death certificate?”
“If she was murdered...”
“It’s possible. We don’t know enough about the father to draw that conclusion. Of course, Adam’s world was so small that if his father did kill his mother, think how horrifying that would have been to him.”
“Maybe that’s what made Adam so twisted.”
“Maybe,” Alex said slowly. “But I think reading that awful nursery rhyme to him didn’t help. And bringing him up on that warped book.” She stopped and took a deep, quivering breath.
Logan was touched to realize she was feeling compassion for the boy Walker had been. He found it ironic that both Adam and Alex had been handed harsh circumstances as children. Alex had become an FBI agent, and Adam made plans to destroy. The angel and the destroyer.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever find answers to some of these questions,” Logan said. He studied Alex for a moment. “Do you think we’ve described him correctly?”
She sighed. “Yeah, I do. But I keep getting the feeling that we’re missing something.”
“If he plans to unleash the virus here, don’t you think he’ll move his family out of the area first? Maybe figuring that out will help us find him.”
“But we can’t stop every vehicle with a family inside. I wish we had some kind of description for the wife and kids.”
“I don’t see how we’ll get that if we can’t find anyone who’s met them.”
Two of the analysts had left to pick up pizza. They came in the back door carrying several large boxes, which they brought to the table where he and Alex were working. When working at a CP, pizza was a staple. Good thing he liked it. They’d ordered several different kinds, including vegetarian for those who wanted it.
They grabbed some paper plates, utensils, and napkins from a small cart in the corner, and everyone began to form a queue. Small talk broke out, interspersed with laughter as weary workers took a much-needed break.
Logan got up, leaned over, and grabbed two plates. He opened the boxes closest to him and found pepperoni pizza and supreme pizza. He slid one of each kind onto both plates, then sat back down and handed one plate to Alex. Although he had cut into the line, no one cared or got upset. They were a team, each one looking out for the others.
Logan prayed silently over his food and then lifted a piece of pepperoni pizza, guiding it to his mouth. He’d just taken a bite when Harrison walked up to the table.
“Eat quickly, everyone,” he said, his face tight and solemn. “We just found number five.”
