Read Online Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido - Free Book Online

that sarcasm was around in the eighteenth century, too.”
    Costa caught sight of Abbie and immediately made a beeline for her, her trench coat billowing behind her as she walked through the cold night air.
    “The hell
you
doing here, Mills? This is a Tarrytown case.”
    “I called her, ma’am,” came a voice from Abbie’s left. She turned to see a short Asian man in uniform. This had to be Officer Wang. “We were told during roll call, if we had any crazy stuff, to call these two.”
    She pointed an angry finger at Wang. “Your sergeant and I are having
words
.” Then Costa turned to Abbie. “Ain’t nothin’ for you here, Sleepy Hollow. This is a Tarrytown case, and I got this. Go home, get some sleep, you can read about it in the
Journal News
tomorrow, got me?”
    Abbie started to reply, but Crane spoke up before she could. She considered talking over him, but she had had enough run-ins with Costa to know that responding would only start a shouting match. Abbie was in a bad enough mood that she might actually enjoy going six rounds with Costa, but that wouldn’t do much good for finding out what was going on in the museum. Maybe Crane’s Old World charm would succeed where Abbie’s New World bitchiness failed.
    “Detective Costa, if you would be so kind to at least inform us of what occurred here tonight.Based on Officer Wang’s communication with Lieutenant Mills, it’s quite possible that this relates to our own ongoing inquiries that began with the decapitation of Sheriff Corbin, Mr. Ogelvie, and Reverend Knapp. We have no interest in usurping your rightful place in command of
this
investigation, but we do wish to know if it coincides in any way with ours.”
    Costa just stared at Crane for several seconds, her mouth open and forming an oval.
    Finally, she turned to Abbie. “Where’d you dig this one up, Mills?”
    Abbie came within a hairsbreadth of saying, “In a cave outside town,” but managed to restrain herself.
    “All right, look, I wasn’t gonna say anything till you reminded me of that triple beheading. ’Cause we got us another one. C’mon in.” She turned, her trench coat again billowing.
    Crane and Abbie both followed, the former asking the latter, “How does she enable her topcoat to—to
flow
in such a manner?”
    Abbie just chuckled.
    They ducked under the yellow crime-scene tape across the museum entrance, and then Abbie saw the first of the three bodies—all five parts of it. His head had rolled into a corner, and was staring upward, with the right arm and left leg on top of the security desk. The other limbs were in the oppositecorner from the head, with the torso lying right in the middle of the floor.
    “There’s not enough blood.” Abbie said the words before she even realized why she spoke them aloud.
    “Good work, Detective,” Costa said snarkily. “This was Kyle Means, one of the three security guards that the Cortlandt Trust had on the payroll. And you’re right, you slice up a body like this, there should be a helluva lot more blood. And the ME confirmed that the wounds were
not
cauterized, so I got no damn clue.”
    She then led Abbie and Crane through two gallery rooms before they reached a room containing two similar sets of body parts. One torso was female, the other male, and Abbie saw the heads of an African-American woman and a Latino man. There was the same lack of blood.
    Crane said, “I observe, Detective, that there are no noticeable gaps in the displays. It does not appear that any of the treasures in this museum were removed.”
    “Almost.” Costa pointed at one display case, which was open.
    Peering into it, Abbie saw that the red felt of the display case had a cross-shaped spot that was lighter than the rest of the visible felt, plus there was a placard under it.
    Then she read the placard. “Sonofabitch.”
    “What is it, Lieutenant?” Crane asked.
    In response, Abbie just pointed at the placard.
    Crane bent over to read it aloud.