Free A Plague Of Crows: The Second Detective Thomas Hutton Thriller by Douglas Lindsay Page B

doesn't leave things to chance,' says Taylor. 'Every angle covered. Spare bit of ground in the country, someone's out walking their dog.'
    Slight movement of the head. She doesn't completely agree. But we need to make some calls to narrow down the list. We need something.
    'All right…'
    'Do you have… is there some kind of reference work, easily referenced map, something like that, where we can look at it and say, right, it can be here or here or here? That's what we're getting at. If we did that, how many areas are we going to need to check out and how many are we likely to miss because we're looking at a map?'
    She glances at him, then turns and takes a quick look at me. Making sure I'm still there. Or that I'm not stealing anything.
    'Might as well start with Google Earth,' she says.
    'What?' Taylor looks annoyed. 'I already looked at Google Earth. I was looking for…. I don't know, something that…'
    'You were looking for something that showed all the wooded areas in Scotland, with an overview of the position of those woods in relation to urbanised areas?'
    'Yes.'
    'Well, let's look at Google Earth. To make you feel better, I'll do it with you, tell you what kinds of trees you're looking at and give you my opinion on whether or not any particular wood is a plausible place for your chap. Happy?'
    Taylor makes a throwaway gesture. It is, despite himself, exactly what he was looking for.
    'Will you scream if I say you're looking for a needle in a haystack?' she says.
    He doesn't scream, but doesn't reply. Takes a step away from the window, goes and looks at an ordnance survey map on the wall.
    'That's south Devon,' she says. 'Won't help you.'
    He shakes his head, glances round at me.
    'How many men have you got?' she asks. 'Are you going to be able to put officers out in every town and every area? How long are you going to be able to do that? If this guy is smart, he's probably planned for you to be looking out for him.'
    'There are two of us,' said Taylor.
    She stares at him, and then back at me. Back to Taylor. There's a beautiful silence in the air. With the hills in the background it's taking me back to the summer. A long quiet summer without any of this shit.
    'There are two of you on the whole investigation?' she says. 'You're kidding.'
    'There are two of us on this part,' says Taylor. Not giving her any more, despite the look she gives him. 'Look, this is shit. It's shit that the guy's done what he's done, it's shit… whatever, it's all shit. We just need your help to try and get ahead of the game. I want to walk out of here with a list. That's all. An ordered list. If the list has a hundred thousand individual small areas of woodland on it I don't care, as long as there's a top and a bottom, a note of what kinds of trees they are, a most likely and a not really much of a chance, a list that we can check out. If there are crows' nests and the wood is in any way secluded, it stays on the list. This guy has given us nothing. We need to get lucky, and all we're trying to do is make our own. Can you help?'
    It's obvious she likes the speech. She nods.
    'Well, Chief Inspector, it's not like I've nothing else to be doing today, but what the hell. Might as well give it a go. Let's get to work. You can use separate computers, split up the country, and I'll move between the two of you letting you know what I think.'
    She moves around her desk and logs onto a monitor that is yet to be activated today.
    'We've only got an hour,' says Taylor. 'Don't want to lose too much daylight.'
    'Dream on, sunshine,' she says, smiling and shaking her head.
    *
    Four-and-a-half hours later we're sitting in the car. We have a long list, hastily arranged into order of likelihood. Sadly the top of the list starts with pretty unlikely and then gets progressively more far-fetched.
    'We starting around here since we're in the area?' I ask.
    He shakes his head. We've been concentrating on the absurd task we've set ourselves, but I know he'll have