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

“ ‘This Independence Cross was crafted by the French silversmith Gaston Mercier. It is one of ten Mercier created, which were issued to soldiers of the American Revolutionary War who showed special valor in the defense of freedom against the tyranny of the British crown. The cross, which was also known as the Congressional Cross due to its being issued by the Second Continental Congress’ ”—at that point, Crane shot Abbie a look—“ ‘was awarded to Ezekiel Cortlandt in 1775, and was issued with the other nine in 1785 after they were completed.’ Fascinating.”
    Costa was frowning. “Fascinating, how, exactly?”
    “Can’t say yet,” Abbie said quickly before Crane said something he shouldn’t. “It might be related to our case. It might not. We’ll keep you posted.”
    “Fine.” Costa didn’t seem happy with that answer, but she didn’t seem unhappy with it, either, which suited Abbie fine. She started leading the pair of them toward the door. “Let’s go. You’ve seen what you gotta see, now it’s time to go.”
    As they went through the other galleries, Abbie asked, “You get anything from the security footage?”
    “Nah, it was deleted. Whoever did this was a pro.” Costa snorted. “A professional
what
I ain’t sure, but they thought to erase the footage. Not just the cameras, the computers they feed to are
completely
wiped. Hopin’ our nerd squad can reconstruct some of it.”
    As soon as they got to the front door, Costa said, “
See
ya,” and turned back on her heel, allowing her coat to billow one last time.
    “That
is
impressive,” Crane said admiringly as she retreated back into the museum.
    Abbie rolled her eyes and ducked under the tape.
    As soon as she did, an older man approached her. She squinted at him, as he looked like he’d thrown the suit on in a hurry—but the suit in question cost more than Abbie made in a month.
    “Excuse me, are you the detective in charge? I need to know what the hell’s going on in there.”
    “And you are?”
    “My name is Daniel Kapsis, my wife and I are in charge of the Cortlandt Trust, and we
demand
to know what’s going on!”
    Abbie gave Kapsis her best screw-you smile, one perfected over years of dealing with abusive citizens who just loved getting into a cop’s face. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kapsis, I’m afraid I’m
not
the detective in charge. You want to talk to Detective Lisa-Anne Costa. She just went inside, but I’m sure you can grab her, just duck under that yellow tape.”
    “Excellent. Thank you.” Kapsis pushed right past her and ducked under the tape. Two uniforms saw that and chased after him as he went inside.
    Crane looked down at Abbie. “You enjoyed that.”
    “You’re damn right. C’mon, let’s try to get
some
sleep. I need a crowbar to keep my eyelids open right now. Don’t worry,” she added, holding up a hand, “I’m fine to drive. I need to be a lot more tired than this before I can’t operate a motor vehicle.”
    “There
are
livery services that can—”
    “I’ll get you home,” Abbie said tightly. “In the morning, I’ll give Jenny a call and we’ll dive into the research. We got three dead bodies, so this is a real thing now.”
    “Not just three corpses, Lieutenant.” Crane glanced back at the museum. “Three murders that were committed via supernatural means.”
    Abbie nodded. “Yeah, no way those bodies were killed by anybody—or anything—normal. The
good
news is that we’ve got another name for that medal of yours. Maybe we’ll get more hits on the Independence Cross than we did on the Congressional Cross.”
    “And perhaps we may learn what happened to my own cross.”
    “Yeah.” Abbie sighed. “Let’s hope so.”

SIX
S LEEPY H OLLOW , N EW Y ORK

    JANUARY 2014
    “COPS SUCK.”
    Jennifer Mills burst out with this interjection after searching through her third file cabinet trying to find the copy of
Tobin’s Spirit Guide
.
    Everyone else in the room—her sister