East Meadow, Idaho, 2000 (In the Tunnels, Part II)
"Where is it?" Vettorello's voice contained an edge of calm, a tone belying a nearly untraceable note of thrill.
She said, "It's in a concrete tunnel under Sky Highway. It's just past Exit 9."
Vettorello shouted something across the office. "Stay on the phone," he told her. "Where are you right now?"
"In my car," Katherine told him. "I have a phone, but --"
"Did you move the body? Did you touch it at all?"
"No," she said. "I don't think so." Did she touch it? She couldn't remember.
"Good. Now I want you to tell me exactly how you found it." He was laughing a bit. "What the hell were you doing in the concrete tube beneath Sky Highway?"
"It's complicated," Katherine said. She looked at her hand. She had just torn a large piece of skin off her ring finger and a globule of blood was forming. She closed her eyes to the delicious feeling and placed her finger in her mouth a moment, it stinging suddenly.
"I'm listening."
"The other day I was out walking around in teh woods, in the woods where they found my patient, Pilot Airie, just because I -- well, because I was trying to get inside his experience, you know, and I met these girls, just kids from the junior high." SHe sat in her sapphire-blue VW Rabbit with the black car phone to her ear and watched a boy, ten or eleven years old, walking across the junior high football field into the woods. It could have been [Pilot] fifteen years ago. It could have been Eric, too. "And I asked them if they knew about Pilot, if they had seen him, and they had heard about a man raving out there and they also told me about the Tunnel Man."
"The Tunnel Man."
"I was curious," Katherine said, "so I went into the tunnel. And there was this man, an alcoholic, hopelessly deranged." She was exaggerating, she knew. "No," she said. "He wasn't so deranged, I guess. Just a drunk."
"OK."
"He said he knew Pilot, though. I think he might have helped him. I think they shared -- shared something, something probably meaningless, but something nevertheless --"
"Get to the part about him being dead," Vettorello said.
"He told me he knew where Pilot put the evidence."
"The shoe?"
"And the knife."
"Excellent. Go on."
"He told me to come back in three days, and that was--"
"Today, and you came back to find him, and --"
"And it looks like he drank too much and his head fell into the water," Katherine said. "And he drowned. That's what it --"
"We'll figure out that part," Vettorello said. He was smiling over the phone. She could hear him. "I'll come out there, too," he said now. "There's a team on its way to you."
"I'm in the parking lot at the junior high," Katherine said. "Should I return to the tunnel?"
"No, stay where you are," Vettorello said. "Stay right where you are."
Katherine was smiling, too. It was stupid that she was smiling about this, she thought, a dead man -- even terrible. But she couldn't help it. A man was dead and she was smiling, a doctor, a professional counseling psychologist, and she couldn't stop herself.
Again, text straight from canon. Yay Moore Smith.
She said, "It's in a concrete tunnel under Sky Highway. It's just past Exit 9."
Vettorello shouted something across the office. "Stay on the phone," he told her. "Where are you right now?"
"In my car," Katherine told him. "I have a phone, but --"
"Did you move the body? Did you touch it at all?"
"No," she said. "I don't think so." Did she touch it? She couldn't remember.
"Good. Now I want you to tell me exactly how you found it." He was laughing a bit. "What the hell were you doing in the concrete tube beneath Sky Highway?"
"It's complicated," Katherine said. She looked at her hand. She had just torn a large piece of skin off her ring finger and a globule of blood was forming. She closed her eyes to the delicious feeling and placed her finger in her mouth a moment, it stinging suddenly.
"I'm listening."
"The other day I was out walking around in teh woods, in the woods where they found my patient, Pilot Airie, just because I -- well, because I was trying to get inside his experience, you know, and I met these girls, just kids from the junior high." SHe sat in her sapphire-blue VW Rabbit with the black car phone to her ear and watched a boy, ten or eleven years old, walking across the junior high football field into the woods. It could have been [Pilot] fifteen years ago. It could have been Eric, too. "And I asked them if they knew about Pilot, if they had seen him, and they had heard about a man raving out there and they also told me about the Tunnel Man."
"The Tunnel Man."
"I was curious," Katherine said, "so I went into the tunnel. And there was this man, an alcoholic, hopelessly deranged." She was exaggerating, she knew. "No," she said. "He wasn't so deranged, I guess. Just a drunk."
"OK."
"He said he knew Pilot, though. I think he might have helped him. I think they shared -- shared something, something probably meaningless, but something nevertheless --"
"Get to the part about him being dead," Vettorello said.
"He told me he knew where Pilot put the evidence."
"The shoe?"
"And the knife."
"Excellent. Go on."
"He told me to come back in three days, and that was--"
"Today, and you came back to find him, and --"
"And it looks like he drank too much and his head fell into the water," Katherine said. "And he drowned. That's what it --"
"We'll figure out that part," Vettorello said. He was smiling over the phone. She could hear him. "I'll come out there, too," he said now. "There's a team on its way to you."
"I'm in the parking lot at the junior high," Katherine said. "Should I return to the tunnel?"
"No, stay where you are," Vettorello said. "Stay right where you are."
Katherine was smiling, too. It was stupid that she was smiling about this, she thought, a dead man -- even terrible. But she couldn't help it. A man was dead and she was smiling, a doctor, a professional counseling psychologist, and she couldn't stop herself.
Again, text straight from canon. Yay Moore Smith.