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6
WASHINGTON, D.C.
HOOVER BUILDING
CRIMINAL APPREHENSION UNIT (CAU)
THURSDAY, LATE AFTERNOON
Denny Roper from Security appeared in Savich’s office with a large box in his hands. “Good day, Savich. This box just came over from Facilities and Logistics, cleared for delivery to you. It looked more than a little interesting, as it’s addressed to you as ‘PERSONAL’ in big black letters, so I offered to bring it to you myself. You never know what some fruitcake might have sent you. I had to bring those two guys from Security with me. They want to see what’s inside, too.”
The four CAU agents working in the office today were just as interested in what had come in the package addressed to Savich personally, and followed Savich, Roper, and the men from Security into the conference room. Sherlock and Ruth weren’t due back from Norfolk until later. Savich set the plain brown paper–wrapped box on the conference room table, Denny at his elbow. He pointed. “You can see it was mailed here in Washington three days ago, got diverted to our Cheverly facility to be checked out, and then delivered here. Funny size, about a foot square.” He turned to Ollie Hamish, Savich’s second-in-command. “Any bets on what’s inside?”
“Maybe it’s a baby gift you ordered for me, Dillon,” Agent Lucy McKnight said. “A monitor to sing lullabies?”
There was laughter as Savich took the knife Denny handed him, slit through the tape, and peeled away the paper wrapper. They stared at a blood-red box inside. Blood-red? If someone wanted to make a statement, it was exactly the right shade of red. And addressed to him personally. He wondered if maybe the techs at Cheverly had missed something dangerous, but as far as he knew, nothing had ever gotten past them. He lifted the lid.
Matching red wrapping paper was folded around what was inside. Savich carefully lifted it all out and laid it on the table. The box didn’t weigh much and the contents were solid but thin, like cardboard. Shirley, the unit secretary, all-purpose confidante, and logistics expert, joined them and looked with interest at the red wrapping paper so neatly folded in front of them.
Agent Davis Sullivan said, “I was hoping for a severed finger or a kneecap, disguised to fool the X-ray.”
“Disguised how?” Shirley asked, an eyebrow arched. “You mean like dipped in French’s mustard?”
There was laughter again, but then everyone’s attention returned to the red wrapping paper. Denny rubbed his hands together. Savich didn’t think there were any people on earth more naturally curious—or nosy, depending on your point of view—than cops: federal, state, local, didn’t matter, it was a job requirement.
He opened the paper and saw an eight-by-eleven piece of thick blank cardboard, puzzle pieces scattered over it.
Savich started to fit the pieces together. With so many hands eager to help, the puzzle pieces soon formed the beginnings of a photograph—water lapping against pilings, a long, ancient wooden pier with spindly wooden legs sticking out of the water to hold its banged-up slats. There was a sidewalk, a rather narrow street, and the hint of buildings, some wood, some stone, some brick. There were no people, no signs, no animals, nothing to identify the location, no shadows to indicate the time of day. Savich moved the grouped pieces over to cover the bottom third or so of the cardboard.
Lucy McKnight elbowed herself closer without a problem. She was six months pregnant, though at first glance you’d guess maybe three months, so no one got in her way. “A town on the water. What town? What is that body of water? It gives the impression of being old, well-established. Look at that rickety pier. Does it look familiar to anyone?” She drew a big breath and stared at the assembled agents around the table. “It’s kind of hard to miss the line of dead seagulls on the pier, and aren’t those human bones on the sidewalk?”
Davis Sullivan said, “Maybe it’s some kind of warning, or threat. And the box was addressed directly to Savich, marked ‘personal.’?”
Denny said, “I don’t like this, Savich. A bunch of dead birds and bones. What do you think it means?”
Mr. Maitland’s deep voice sounded behind Lucy. “What’s this all about, Savich? Some goofball’s sending you a freaking puzzle? And it’s taking this whole roomful of brains to fit the pieces together?”
Savich nodded to Mr. Maitland, his boss, now standing beside Lucy, both of them bent over to see the puzzle better. Like with pregnant Lucy, no one got in his way, either. Not even when he cut the taco line in the cafeteria, claiming an urgent meeting, and no one believed him.
“Yes, they helped, and the ‘freaking puzzle’ shows the bottom third of a town. And dead birds and bones. Nothing obvious yet. No one knows what town it is.”
Savich shook out the red wrapping paper. It looked new, as did the red box. There was nothing else, no identifying marks on the box.
Mr. Maitland pointed. “I’ll bet people have fished off that old pier for more years than we’ve been on this earth. It looks like those dead gulls were carefully lined up along that pier and the human bones arranged just so on the sidewalk. And no one’s around. That’s odd, too.”
Savich said to the group, “A third of a puzzle, meant to be a teaser. We can shortly expect another red box with more puzzle pieces for us to fit together. I hope there aren’t any more human remains—”
“Or whole bodies,” Lucy said.
“Take photos and show them on our network. See if anyone in the building knows this waterside town. When the next box arrives—and it will come soon—Denny, would you please bring it to us yourself?”
“I’ll keep an eye out,” Denny said.
Mr. Maitland stepped back to let agents snap photos with their phones. He said to Savich, “Always something interesting going on in your unit, but this isn’t why I’m here. Come with me. There’s something we need to discuss.”
When he and Mr. Maitland were alone in his office, Savich said, “That red box, I expected something horrific right off the bat, but this has some subtlety to it.” He paused. “Well, subtle for now, anyway. I’ll bet you when Denny arrives with the second red box, he’ll have agents from all over the building with him.”
“You’d win that bet,” Maitland said. “Let’s hope it’s only a crazy and not a real threat to you.”
