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Amber hoped not because there was a serial killer still out there, and Amber suspected that this would need both of them at their sharpest if they were going to catch him. They needed to work out why someone was killing these women on the town’s bridges, and they needed to stop him.
She continued to push the pace down the highway, hoping that soon, they would get their first glimpse of Verdice. They needed to get there quickly and hope that they could stop any more women from being killed.
CHAPTER FIVE
As Verdice lay ahead of them, Amber thought that she understood now why it had so many bridges.
The town wasn't just spread out across both sides of a wide river, which meandered its way down across the landscape; it also sprawled over two islands in the middle of that river, the whole connected together by a web of bridges carrying road and foot traffic. Amber counted seven large bridges, each of slightly different construction, ranging from ancient-looking stone to modern steel and cables.
The sight of it spread out there below Amber reminded her of something, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was right then or whether it would be relevant to what she and Simon were doing in the town. One thing about spending so much of her life cramming her head full of facts for puzzle competitions and quizzes was that any situation threatened to throw up a dozen connected snippets of information, most of which would only be relevant to a fellow quizzer. Amber wondered if she'd memorized something about the town's population statistics or some weird product that had been invented there. Both were common things that she'd spent a lot of time memorizing lists of. Maybe there was someone famous who came from the town, or maybe it had been used as a location in a movie. Amber had memorized lists of that, too.
Amber didn't do so much of that kind of memorization these days, though, because she had more important things to work on. There were killers out there in the world, waiting for Amber and Simon to catch them. Maybe that was the reason that she couldn’t remember; information tended to slip over time, even for her.
They drove down into the city, and as they got closer, Amber could see that it was a green, leafy place with trees on every street and public parks spread out through it. The architecture seemed almost deliberately old-fashioned as if harking back to some previous moment of greatness for the town. The river was clearly visible down the town’s main street, with the islands on it standing a little apart from one another, one larger, one smaller. Amber could see a massive campus of buildings that had to be the city's university, set on one of the islands in the middle of the river.
Since both Kelly and Mia had been students there, Amber suspected that they would need to visit it as a part of their investigation, if only to question the people who had known them. If the killer was targeting students, then it was possible that he knew them or that he was at least hanging out around the university, trying to identify possible victims.
For now, though, they should check in with the local PD, both to let them know that they’d arrived in town and to see if they'd made any progress on the case in the time it had taken Amber and Simon to get there. Maybe they would have some lead that Amber and Simon would be able to work to get closer to the killer.
Amber pulled the car up outside the local police station, a long, brick-built building that looked as if it had been grafted onto the much older buildings around it without much thought for how it looked. Police cars sat outside in neat ranks, but they still gave the impression of not really belonging in the leafy neighborhood that held the station. The whole place looked functional and utilitarian in a way that the rest of the area didn't.
Amber took a deep breath before getting out of the car. This was it. She had to focus now. They were here to work the case and find the killer. Whatever she felt about Joseph, or Simon, or the person who had broken in to steal her diary, she had to put any personal distractions aside and concentrate completely on the task at hand. Too many lives potentially depended on what they did here to risk being distracted. Amber suspected that would be easier said than done.
Amber and Simon headed inside. The walls of the police station were thick enough that the muffled sound of the outside barely reached beyond them. Instead, it was filled with the sounds of the police working hard on their cases. The conversation of the cops as they went about their day was a chaotic mix of voices, none of them loud enough to be clearly understood. The building was warm inside, and Amber could feel the vibrations of activity all around her. She had the impression of local cops rushing to try to keep up with everything that was going on in the case.
Almost the moment that Amber walked into the reception area of the police department, a man approached her and Simon. He was in his thirties, tall and tanned, with dark hair and an eager expression. He was wearing dark slacks, a white shirt, and a grey woolen jacket. Amber briefly thought that he might be a detective there, but she couldn’t see a badge, and in any case, he didn’t have the slightly hard edge that law enforcement seemed to give people. It was only as he held out a microphone to the two of them that Amber realized that he had to be a reporter.
"Gregor Mathews, Verdice Gazette. Are you with the FBI?" he asked without hesitation.
Amber nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral. Even as someone who had worked on a newspaper, she knew that the last thing they needed was a reporter getting in the way of their investigation.
"Yes, that’s right,” she said.
“You’re here to hunt for the serial killer who is stalking our town?” the reporter asked, obviously trying to get any kind of juicy quote he could from Amber. She kept her response deliberately bland.
“We’re here to assist the Verdice PD, at their request, with an investigation into two homicides,” Amber said.
"Can you tell me anything about the progress of the case?" Gregor asked, pressing the microphone closer to Amber's face.
"We can't comment on an ongoing investigation," Simon cut in smoothly, placing a hand on Amber's shoulder and leading her away from the reporter. "Sorry, we have to get to work."
They both headed away, but Gregor followed them, looking as though he was going to continue peppering them with questions, at least until a middle-aged man in a police uniform stepped into his path. The newcomer was short and stocky, with a dark beard and imposingly broad shoulders; he held up a hand to stop the reporter, a stern look on his face as he did it.
"What did I tell you, Gregor? I said that if you stayed here, I'd tell you when we found something, as long as you didn't cause trouble or harass anyone. Now you get to wait out on the streets and pick up your story where you can."
"But Chief Williams-" the reporter started to protest, obviously realizing that he’d overstepped the mark.
"Out!" the police officer said, pointing to the door. The reporter took the hint, slinking off with bad grace. Amber wondered what kind of story he would write about them because of that snub. Once the reporter was gone, the police officer turned to Amber and Simon. "So, you're the feds."
He sounded not exactly happy about it, but not hostile either. Maybe he felt that having the FBI there was an admission of defeat.
Amber took out her ID. "I'm Agent Young, this is Agent Phelps."
"Chief Williams. My detectives are all working on interviewing as many people who knew the two victims as possible, but I thought I should come greet you when you got here. We're happy to help in any way we can."
That was good to hear, although Amber doubted that the local police chief would want to get as involved as Detective Angelique had been in their last case. He would have to run things back here, dealing with whatever other crime there was in the town as well as with the murders.
"I guess you'll want to see the crime scenes?" Chief Williams said.
