Broken Angels

97

Byrne and Vincent searched the grounds directly adjacent to the school- house, flashlights held over weapons, finding nothing. The tracks leading around the north side of the structure had been Josh Bontrager's. They dead-ended at the window.

They walked along the banks of the narrow canals that snaked through the trees, their Maglites cutting thin beams through the utter gloom of the night.

After the second turn of the canal they saw the footprints. And blood. Byrne caught Vincent's eye. They would search on separate sides of the six-foot-wide channel.

Vincent crossed the arching footbridge, Byrne stayed on the near side. They hunted through the turning tributaries of the canals. They came upon the decayed displays, all decorated with fading signs:

THE LITTLE MERMAID. THE FLYING TRUNK. THE STORY OF THE WIND. THE OLD STREETLAMP. Real skeletons sat on the displays. Rotting clothes swaddled the figures.

Minutes later, they came to the end of the canals. Damgaard was nowhere in sight. The trellis that spanned the main canal near the entrance was fifty feet away. Beyond that, the world. Damgaard was gone.

"Don't move," came a voice directly behind them.

Byrne heard the rack of a shotgun.

"Put the weapons down nice and slow."

"We're Philly PD," Vincent said.

"I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, young man. Put the weapons on the ground now."

Byrne understood. It was the Berks County sheriff 's department. He glanced to his right. Deputies moved through the trees, their flashlights slicing the darkness. Byrne wanted to protest-every second they delayed was one more second Marius Damgaard had to get away-but they had no choice. Byrne and Vincent complied. They put their weapons on the ground, then their hands on their heads, interlaced their fingers.

"One at a time," came the voice. "Slowly. Let's see some ID."

Byrne reached into his coat, produced his badge. Vincent followed suit.

"Okay," the man said.

Byrne and Vincent spun around, retrieved their weapons. Behind them stood Sheriff Jacob Toomey and a pair of younger deputies. Jake Toomey was a grizzled fifty, thick neck, country crew cut. His deputies were both 180 pounds of deep-fried adrenaline. Serial killers didn't come to this part of the world that often.

Moments later a county EMS crew ran past, heading to the school- house.

"This all has to do with the Damgaard boy?" Toomey asked.

Byrne laid out the evidence quickly and succinctly.

Toomey looked out over the theme park, then at the ground. "Shit."

"Sheriff Toomey." A call came from the other side of the canals, near the park's entrance. The group of men followed the voice, reaching the mouth of the canal. Then they saw it.

A body swung from the center bar of the trellis that spanned the entrance. Above the body, was the once festive legend:

S ORY OOK RIV R

Half a dozen flashlights illuminated Marius Damgaard's corpse. His hands were tied behind his back. His feet were just a few feet over the water. He was hanging by a blue and white rope. Byrne also saw a pair of footprints leading off into the forest. Sheriff Toomey dispatched a pair of deputies to follow. Shotguns in their hands, they disappeared into the woods.

Marius Damgaard was dead. When Byrne and the others trained their flashlights on the body, they also saw that he had not only been hanged, he had been gutted. A long gaping wound ran from throat to stomach. Entrails dangled, steaming in the frigid night air.

Minutes later, the two deputies returned empty-handed. They met their boss's stare, shook their heads. Whoever had been here, at the site of Marius Damgaard's execution, was gone.

Byrne looked at Vincent Balzano. Vincent turned on his heels and ran back to the schoolhouse.

It was over. Except for the steady dripping from Marius Damgaard's mutilated corpse.

The sound of blood becoming the river.