The next morning, Daisy followed Tully into his office. He flopped into his chair and put his boots up on the desk, his hands clasped behind his head. “I’m beginning to hate roughing it in the wilds,” he said. “So, what’s happening here?”
“Your friendly FBI agent wants you to call her. She’s at the bank and says they’re about to wrap up their investigation.”
“She give you her cell number? I had it, but probably threw it away.”
“I bet,” Daisy said. “But I’ll get it for you.”
“Send in Lurch, please.”
“Hey, Byron, the boss wants you!” she shouted across the briefing room to the Unit.
Tully sighed. “I could have shouted at him from here, Daisy.”
She came back and handed Tully a slip of paper with Angie’s number on it. “It’s just that I know you’re tired, Bo.”
Lurch stopped in the doorway. Daisy squeezed past him on her way out.
Tully smiled. “I guess that’s the highlight of your day, Lurch.”
“More like my month. Would you mind calling Daisy back in when I start to leave?”
“Afraid not. Two squeezes like that in one day could kill even a young fellow like you. So, what do we have on the murder of the old couple.”
Lurch pulled up a chair and sat down across the desk.
Tully stared at him over the pointed toes of his boots. “So, did you get around to checking the bullets that killed the old couple? I suppose you’ve already checked Beeker and Dance’s handguns.”
“Yeah, but there seems to be a gun missing. The guns found with Beekeer and Dance didn’t kill Alma and Harold. Still working on it, boss. I’ve been looking over a bunch of stuff my predecessor left in the storeroom. Pretty interesting, and . . .”
“Lurch, you’re supposed to be working, not entertaining yourself.”
“I am working, boss. My job is a whole lot more complicated than you think.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Part of it is somebody keeps piling work on me, not to mention any names.”
“Yes, I know, somebody gives you so much work you hardly have time for your computer games. I’ll have to speak to that person when I get a chance. You made casts of the tire tracks at the lookout, right?”
“Right. One set belongs to an old pickup belonging to one Shanks, as you suspected. It’s got a couple of hay bales in the bed, apparently to weigh down the rear end for traction. At least we can show the truck was at the scene of the shooting of Dance and Beeker. There were no other tracks there except from our vehicles and the Land Rover, which was registered to Beeker. ”
Tully said, “That should tie Shanks to the lookout about the time of the shooting of Beeker and Dance. He has already admitted to killing them, but it never hurts to have a little extra evidence. Still, he might get off on his claim of self defense.”
Lurch got up to leave. “If you run into the person causing me all this work, I hope you speak harshly to him.”
“Yeah, yeah, you can count on that, Lurch.” Tully spun around in his chair to look out his window at Lake Blight. Snow had already capped the high mountains on the far side. It was going to be another hard winter. There had been a time when he loved hard winters, but not anymore.
Tully spun back around. “Hey, Lurch, the bullet that killed Vergil. You get a match for it?”
Lurch stopped in the doorway. “Yeah, I thought I already told you. It matches a test bullet from Beeker’s rifle, at least a seven-millimeter rifle with his prints on it.”
“Great. I figured he was the one that shot Vergil, but I like to clean up any loose ends. We now know that Beeker was on Chimney Rock Mountain at least three hours before the shooting.”
Lurch blinked. “We do?”
“Yeah, the weather girl at the TV station checked the time of the snowfall for me.”
“She can do that?”
“Yeah, so we know the exact time the deer herd went through, the herd Beeker claims to have seen, because the tracks were half filled with fresh snow. So that puts him at the scene nearly four hours before the murder and three hours before he claims to have been there. He never saw the herd of elk come over the same trail, because by then he was up in the woods waiting for Vergil.”
Lurch waited in the doorway, apparently hoping for another squeeze from Daisy. He said, “Even if we show Shanks’s ATV was at the scene the time of Vergil Stone’s murder, that doesn’t prove Shanks was there.”
“Details, Lurch, details.”
Lurch rubbed his forehead. “Do I need a warrant to make casts of Shanks’s ATV tires?”
“No, because Shanks has given the department his ATV. So find a trailer, and you and Thorpe go pick it up.”
Tully took out his pocket notebook, wrote in it and tore out the page. “Here’s Shanks’s address. Just to be on the safe side, swing by Judge Patterson’s office and pick up a search warrant.”
Lurch stared at the slip of paper. “What’s going on, Bo? Patterson usually gives you a warrant after you find what you’re looking for.”
“Yeah, but this time we’d better go by the book.”
“Which book is that?”
“Beats the heck out of me. I haven’t seen it around here in years. But we’d better go by it, anyway. On your way out, send Daisy in here.”
“Right, boss.”
“No, Lurch! Not while you’re standing in the doorway. You’ve already had your squeeze for the day.”
Lurch went off muttering, and Daisy soon popped in the door, her stenographer’s book in hand.
“What’s wrong with Lurch, Bo?”
“The usual. Just being Lurch is a full-time job. I was wondering if you would like to join me for a celebration dinner at Crabbs this evening.
“What are we celebrating?”
“That remains to be seen.”
Daisy stared at him. “What else did you have in mind?”
“Eating. Unless you have a better suggestion.”
She smiled. “Eating sounds pretty good to me. Eating and drinking sounds even better.”
“The drinking goes without saying. It’s a date then. I’ll pick you up at your desk after work.”