An Absence of Light

He turned off and quickly caught sight of the cherry and sapphire blips of a patrol car a hundred yards or so out into the emptiness, level with and almost obscured by the tops of the tall grass. Apparently it had not rained enough to make the ruts impassable. Leaning forward over the steering wheel, he followed them as well as he could, listening to the rasping of the high weeds as they bent and swept against the undercarriage of the car.

The ruts fell slightly into a shallow, saucer-like depression, and then silhouettes of three or four cars popped up against the backdrop of the city lights far beyond the airfield. As he neared the cars, his headlights picked up bits of debris, ragged strips of plastic bags or wrappers caught in the weeds, a rusting chunk of something resembling a car fender, a glint of glass in the ruts, a sun-bleached crate, a flap of tin wedged into the dirt and weeds. The depression apparently was used as an illicit dumping ground, a catchall for the detritus that urban dwellers sloughed off continually like dead parts of themselves.

Graver’s car rocked gently in the ruts as he approached the scene and pulled up beside the nearest patrol car. There were only two of them in addition to the detectives’ unmarked car, a police crime scene van, and the coroner’s van. And of course there was the other car, which had to be Arthur Tisler’s, a small-model Chevrolet several years old, the driver’s side door standing open. The car was of an unidentifiable dark color, blue perhaps, or green, from which the sun had leached its richer pigment leaving a powdery, scaly finish. Though it was the center of attention, it was peculiarly inconspicuous, a black hole, swallowing light.

As he cut his headlights and got out of the car, two uniformed officers emerged from behind Tisler’s car un-spooling a yellow crime scene ribbon in a generous parameter. Pio Tordella, stocky and dark-haired, waded toward him through the tall, wet grass that was beginning to be tramped down around Tisler’s car. He walked in front of the lights of one of the patrol cars and came over to Graver.

“Captain,” Tordella said, approaching Graver’s car as Graver closed the door.

They shook hands, and in that first moment Graver observed Tordella’s soft eyes assessing him before they turned aside. Graver had spent six years in Homicide shortly after he came out of uniform, but for all of the fourteen years since then he had been in the Criminal Intelligence Division. Most of his career had been in intelligence work, chiefly as an analyst and, in the last four years, as the captain of the Division. He hadn’t been to a crime scene in nearly five years.

But that wasn’t what put the uneasy look in Tordella’s expression. Rather, that had to do with Graver’s work. Criminal Intelligence was a controversial division. It was sometimes disdained, sometimes resented, sometimes feared, but invariably it was regarded with a degree of deference. Graver had tried to develop a thick skin against these attitudes. He understood them and tolerated them. People who were known to collect secrets for a living could not expect to be treated with warm cordiality. Graver knew that the look of concern in the detective’s face reflected his understanding of what fate had set in his path. The death of one of the secret keepers was a death of import, in fact, it was unprecedented, and Tordella did not know what to expect. It was not a case he would have chosen to be assigned to if he had had the opportunity to make a choice.

“It’s a mess, Captain,” Tordella warned him tentatively. His voice was soft and modulated, his pronunciation precise. He had a thick mustache that threatened to become unruly, and he had a habit of nibbling at one corner of it with his lower teeth.

Graver looked around at the collection of glistening cars, their shiny surfaces beaded from the passing rain. The metally smell of hot car engines mixed with the odor of damp weeds. The headlights of the patrol cars, the angle of the vehicles, including his own, reminded him of a study in visual perspectives, all the elements in the composition situated to draw the viewer’s attention to the focal point of the canvas: the car with the open door, one of Tisler’s legs protruding stiffly across the sill.

“He had his ID with him?” Graver asked.

“Yeah,” Tordella said. “In his inside coat pocket.” He reached into his own coat and pulled out a plastic bag, with Tisler’s wallet and shield in it. The inside of the bag was smeared with blood.

Graver felt a momentary optimism. Then maybe it was suicide.

“By the way, you had some good luck,” Tordella said.

Graver pulled his eyes away from the bag and looked at the stubby detective. “What.”