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The Two Faces of Richard Janus

And thus does Fortune’s wheel turn treacherously

And out of happiness bring men to sorrow

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

One of ancient Rood of two faces—was guardian of gateways and transitions The two faces signified not hypocrisy, as people often assume, but dual vision: One face turned toward the past, the other toward the future, Janus stood sentinel on the threshold of birth, as well as the threshold between death and the afterlife In one hand he held a key; in the other, a cudgel

—Sofia Paxton, Ancient Teachings, Modern Wisdom

Friday, June 18, 2004

Knoxville, Tennessee

MCCREADY STOPPED AND KNELT BESIDE A RUT IN the dirt road, raising a hand to halt the six men and tomen fanned out behind hirass, weeds, and leaves could indeed be called a road, irdled with vines Theith honeysuckle blossoiven way to the duller green of July and the browning scorch of August, but underneath the perfuin the air

McCready—Special Supervisory Agent Clint “Mac” McCready—studied the rut, which was damp and also deeply imprinted with multiple layers of sharply defined tire tracks He pulled two evidence flags from a back pocket andaround his neck, took a series of digital photographs The photos ide-angle views at first, followed by tighter and tighter shots As he snapped the final, fra close-ups, he said, to no one in particular, “It rained, what, couple days ago?”

“Night before last” The answer caest, newest, and therefore er member of SSA McCready’s Evidence Response Teao Rain stopped shortly after ht”

McCready nodded, sent’s zeal, and lowered the ca now solely with his eyes “These tracks look like they’ve been machined What does that tell us?”

“New tires,” said Kimball “Deep tread blocks Ale”

“What else?”

“Big, off-road tires,” Ki for a closer look “SUV or four-by-four Just one, looks like One set of i back out”

“Right” McCready glanced over his shoulder at the other agents “Mighty quiet back there I thought ents exchanged sheepish glances “Okay, what else can we tell from these tracks? Somebody besides Kimbo jump in Anybody?”

“The vehicle passed through after the rain stopped” This froent who looked and listened a lot more than he talked

“Right, far as it goes But can you pin it down any tighter than that?”

Boataze shifting frorass and spindly poison ivy “Quite a while after the rain stopped Hours later, I’d say; ht”

“Because?”

“The impressions wouldn’t be so crisp—so perfect—if there’d been a puddle there when the vehicle went through,” Boatins of the rut, then inspected the undersides of sorass there “Plus, if there’d been standing water, there’d be etation There’s no spatter”

“Good” McCready focused on Kimball, who stood motionless yet somehow seemed cocked and ready to fire: his T-shirt stretched by the tension in his shoulders and biceps; the heels of his boots hovering a half inch off the ground, as if he were ready to spring into action “Ki; you wanna cast these?” It wasn’t actually a question

“Yessir On it” Kied back to the truck, a Ford Econoline chassis with a big cargo box grafted behind the cab; the vehicle ht have passed for an ao on the side and the foot-high letters reading EVIDENCE RESPONSE TEAM Opening a hatch on the side of the vehicle, Kied it to the tracks He unlatched the lid and took out a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, half filled with powdered gypsuraduated squeeze bottle Squirting ten ounces of water into the bag, he resealed it and began kneading, creating a slurry the color and consistency of thin pancake batter: runny enough to flow into every block and groove of the tire tracks, thick enough not to seep into the soil itself

McCready had alreadythe tracks in a hunched-over crouch: half bloodhound, half Quasi to study the ground again The soil was covered with leaves, and McCready frowned at the lack of castable shoe impressions A trail of scuffed leaves led toward the trees at the edge of the clearing, but the undergrowth beyond the tree line appeared to be undisturbed; indeed, the scuff e, convex oval of an circling the oval, pausing occasionally to take photos “This matches the CI’s description of where it went down,” he said Heads nodded in agreement; earlier, McCready had passed out transcripts of his intervieith the confidential inforlance over his shoulder at Ki the slurry of dental stone into the rut “You and Ki Rest of you, suit up and get ready to dig in” The other six tealed into white biohazard suits and purple gloves They came back laden with rakes, shovels, trowels, plastic bins, and a wood-framed screen of quarter-inch wire mesh

As they laid their tools neatly beside the ovalunit onto a tripod Ki a long, reflector-topped rod, its length , twelve-inch bands of red and white Boathted on the reflector “Lights, ca buttons to capture the position of the track Checking the s the unit toward the oval ed with the reflector