Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Eight

Outside the two houses where the murders occurred, two county police cars were parked side by side, facing in opposite directions.The officers in the car were chatting.Cole braked right behind Puller's Malibu, stepped out of the car door and walked towards the two police cars before it stopped. "You two just sit and talk nonsense all night, don't you? Have you done any work?" She asked sharply. Puller followed her and saw that the two cops were faces he hadn't seen yesterday.This is not surprising since they are on the night shift. Two policemen got out of the car and stood there in a posture that seemed to be standing at attention but not very much.According to Puller's deciphering, their body language shows not so much a respect for their superiors as an undisguised contempt.If this happened in the military, these two guys would have to pay for their disregard of military regulations on the spot, and then they would have to accept other punishments for several months.

Cole asked, "Is there anything to report?" Both shook their heads.One of them said: "Nothing was seen, nothing was heard. We patrolled frequently in the night, but at different intervals, in case anyone should discover our regularity." "Okay." Cole pointed to Puller. "This is John Puller from Army Criminal Investigations. He's with us on this case." The expressions of the two of them were no more friendly than those of the police yesterday. Puller was unimpressed.Anyway, he didn't come here to make friends with anyone.He nodded to the two policemen, but looked at Cole.The following play should be sung by her.

"Both of you were at the crime scene on Monday," Cole said. "Did any of you see a piece of mail? The postman probably left it in that house." She pointed to Hall. The home of the Watson couple. They shook their heads together. "Anything we found that could be used as evidence has been registered and sealed," said one of them. "I haven't seen any mail." Another said: "If it wasn't checked in, then we didn't see it. We weren't the only ones there though. If the mail did show up, Lan would have known about it." Cole yells angrily, "If there's a goddamn email, I should know."

"So, there might not be any mail at all, Sheriff," the first officer to speak, pointed out in a flat tone. Puller carefully observed the pair of policemen as if casually.He hadn't fully seen either of them.He wondered if there was something else hidden behind their apparent resistance to the woman's orders.Like, are they lying. "Well, I guess it might happen, maybe it never will," Puller said. Both policemen turned to look at him.Before any of them could speak, Puller continued, "So, nothing in particular happened last night? No cars coming, no one walking around? No kids out playing games?"

"There are cars," a policeman replied. "They all drove back to their homes, and they are still parked there." Another said: "Several children came out, but no one came near the two houses. No one came out at night. It was stuffy and hot, and the mosquitoes were bigger than you can imagine." Pooler looked towards the house where Trivel and Pitra died. "Do they have relatives to notify?" Cole said: "We are checking. There are several relatives in the Reynolds family besides the wife's parents. We are trying to contact them." "You can ask the troops to help you. They must have the colonel's kinship."

Cole nodded to her men. "Okay, your rotation time is eight o'clock, go back to work." The two policemen turned and walked away quickly. "Has that always been their attitude?" Puller asked. "Well, I used to berate them for screwing up cases or ignoring evidence, so I can understand their attitude sometimes, and I might be like them. I don't think I should lose my temper with them, but I'm angry that I didn't think of that email myself." She looked up at him, "I smoke two cigarettes, you don't object?" "I won't, but your lungs will protest."

"You think I haven't tried quitting it?" "My dad smoked for forty years, but he quit." "How did he do it?" "Hypnotherapy." "Are you kidding, really?" "I was also surprised. I didn't expect stubborn people to be hypnotized. However, they are obviously the most receptive to external cues and influences." "Are you saying I'm a stubborn person?" "I wish to call you an ex-smoker." "Thanks, Puller. Maybe I should work on that." "The next step is to check the physical evidence registration list. What else can we do?"

"Lan will be here this morning," she looked at her watch, "in about an hour." "What if the mail can't be found?" "I don't know, Puller. I really don't know what to do." "Reed said he could probably find out at the post office where it came from, and he wanted to check the registration slip. You might be able to get the post office to look it up a little bit more officially." "No problem, I'll do it. If only I could know what's in it. Maybe it's why I killed one of my officers." Puller stared back at the house and asked, "Were you the first to get here?"

"No, there were two other cops who came here first. One was Jenkins just now. And the other was Lou, whom you saw yesterday, who talked to that fake Triwell." "When did you get here?" "About ninety minutes after calling the police. I came from the other side of the county." "Was the dog still there when you came?" "Still. What's the point of asking that? Does a dog have anything to do with it? The dog doesn't bark, I told you." "Well, puppies scratch and they like to chew and swallow things they shouldn't eat."

Cole looked up at the house, his face hardening. "Let's go, Pooler." She ran.