Night Mask by William W. Johnstone Page A

the man said the word slowly. “I remember the cases very well. Of the seven additional bodies found in this area, I can verify that four of them had their faces cut away.”
    â€œYou have spare photos we could borrow?” Leo asked.
    â€œOh, yes. You can have them. Where do you go from here?”
    â€œBuffalo.”
    * * *
    â€œYeah, we hated to let this one go,” the Buffalo detective said. “She was the daughter of a cop.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But after nineteen years ... ?”
    â€œAnd how many more bodies have been found since the first one?” Lani asked.
    â€œNine. Five of them with their faces cut away. That we can prove, that is.”
    â€œDo us a big favor?” Leo asked.
    â€œAnything. Name it.”
    â€œRun the name Longwood. See if you have anything.”
    â€œIt’ll take some time. But I’ll be glad to get it done. Come back in the morning?”
    â€œWe’ll be here.”
    * * *
    The detective was nervous. He motioned the California cops to follow him. They got in his car and drove away from the central station. “This is juvenile stuff,” he said. “You didn’t get it from me, and you can’t use it in a court of law.”
    â€œWe understand,” Lani said. “We don’t have to like it, but we understand. You ought to work in California.”
    â€œNo, thanks. New York State is bad enough. It’s absolutely unfair to the law-abiding public not to release the names of perverted little creeps.” He pulled over to the curb. “Jack and Jim Longwood, twin brothers, attended a private school just outside of town. It’s closed down now. Has been for years. They were both brought in for questioning after the disappearance of a boy from the school. The boy’s body has never been found. The school is—was—located on the Tonawanda River. The body was probably dumped in the river and ended up as fish bait in Erie. We had pictures of the little twin bastards, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, the pictures are gone from the file. You know their father was enormously wealthy?”
    The California cop nodded their heads.
    â€œWell, money can buy a lot of things. Including cops, I’m sorry to say.” He handed them the file on Jack and Jim Longwood. “Read it in my presence and give it back.”
    It did not take Leo and Lani long to memorize the pertinent facts and return the file to the Buffalo cop. “Thanks,” Lani said.
    â€œI hope you catch them. Where do you go from here?”
    â€œAkron.”
    â€œBusy little bastards, aren’t they?” the Buffalo cop said. “I just wonder how many they’ve killed over the years.”
    â€œYou sound convinced it’s them,” Leo said.
    He smiled. “I was uniform then. Yesterday when we spoke, it all came rushing back. I was the first to interview the twins. Arrogant, profane, snooty, little crapheads. Smug. Ten, eleven years old, and they knew all the dirty words in the book. And called me everyone of them.”
    â€œAre the school buildings still standing?” Leo asked.
    â€œOh, yeah. The complex has been tied up in the courts for years. If you’re thinking about going out there, I don’t want to know about it.” He smiled. “But there is a stand of thick timber behind the school. Be a dandy place to hide a car.”
    * * *
    There was no security at the old private school, and getting in was a piece of cake. There were boxes and crates stacked all over the halls, and someone had been kind enough to mark the contents on the outside of every box and crate.
    Luck was with them, and they found a crate marked: YEARBOOKS 1975. But in the space for Jim and Jack Longwood was printed: Photo Not Available.
    â€œShit!” Lani said.
    â€œNow we start looking for records.”
    It took them more than two hours, and when they finally found the records section, they