A Witness Above Read Online Free PDF Page A

was going to ask you about that.”
    “A lot of people, when they see them soaring, confuse them with hawks. But there's a big difference. Vultures feed on carrion. That's probably what this one was doing.”
    “Weird, huh? Ugly thing too. But I suppose it's a good thing we have ‘em around. What do you think killed it?”
    “Don't know. My guess would be disease. But if I were you, I'd have a vet or the folks from the wildlife hospital over in Waynesboro take a look at it.”
    “Thanks for the tip,” he said with a tinge of sarcasm.
    I waited for him to write down the information.
    “You know the owners of this land?” he asked.
    “I'm out here with permission. It's been in Cahill's family for a long time. Belongs to an uncle of his, an insurance agent up in Warrenton. I phoned him after I called you guys. He should be showing up soon.”
    “Good,” he said, handing me back my licenses. He pulled out a clipboard with a form attached, and started to write again. His partner in front, still rocking, clicked the keys on a laptop propped against the dash.
    I looked out the window again, thinking about Nicole. Had she been friends with this guy Turner? I had never heard her mention his name. Leonardston was still a small town. Jake or Cat or her mother might know.
    George Rhodes, Nicole's stepfather, had been killed in a tragic boating accident a couple of years ago. Say what you will, at least George had been there for Nicole when she needed a daddy. I was more like an alien, picking up my daughter for brief visits one weekend a month.
    Ferrier finished his notes. He said he had written up a summary of my statements, handed the paper to me, and asked me to read it. I did.
    “If you agreed with everything, sign at the bottom of the form,” he said. I signed with a pen he had given me and gave it back along with the notes.
    “So you've been out here hunting before?” Ferrier said.
    “Couple of times.”
    “When was the last time?”
    “Two, maybe three weeks ago.”
    “See anything suspicious at the time?”
    “Nothing I can remember.” I was glad he assumed I had been alone.
    “From the condition it's in, body's been out here at least a week,” he said absently. “That would put the murder sometime around the middle of the month.”
    He leaned over the seat to his partner. “Well I think that's all I've got for you right now, Pavlicek. How about you, Chad? You got any questions?”
    Agent Spain shook his head.
    “We've got your statement then,” Ferrier said. “But I'd like to get your work and home phone numbers in case something else comes up.”
    I pulled out a business card and he attached it to his clipboard. I gave him my home number, which he wrote on the back. Then he handed me a card of his own with his home number penciled in next to the state police line.
    “Since you're a colleague,” he said, “or at least a former one, you need anything, anything at all, just give me a call.”
    “Thanks. Do you mind if I ask you guys a question though?”
    “Sure, go ahead.”
    “How can you be certain this was a murder?” I was hoping that hole in the young man's side might somehow have been self-inflicted. Since there was no weapon that possibility was as remote as a snowstorm appearing. But I was still hoping.
    Ferrier shrugged. He glanced at his partner, who handed him the paper bag I had seen the trooper use earlier at the crime scene. “Corpse had a wallet with ID on him. Rare, but it happens. If everything else checks out with Forensics, which I'm pretty sure it will, no doubt we're gonna call this a kill. Already checked with the local sheriff's department where the boy's from too … Kid was a known drug dealer, name of Dewayne Turner. Reported missing a couple of weeks ago. Way things are now, between D.C., Richmond, and Norfolk, seems like we get a few like this every month.”
    A dealer. Did that mean Nicole was into drugs?
    “He could have driven out here to do himself in,” I