Chapter Nine

Melia stood beside her truck, which was off the road and in a snowbank. When Bo and Jim got there, she was wringing her cold, purple hands. Both officers got out of their vehicle as quickly as they could after they stopped.

“Melia, are you all right?” Bo asked with concern.

“Yeah, just scared,” she said.

“Joe’s on his way,” Bo said. “What happened? This is a straight stretch of road, and you aren’t far from your home.”

“A guy ran me off the road,” she said with a shaky voice.

“Intentionally?” Bo asked.

“Yes, he came up behind me real fast, and then he slowed down and drove right up behind me. Then his car bumped the back of Grandpa’s truck. I started to slide, and he backed off but then came up alongside me and swerved at me. He was laughing. I jerked to avoid having him hit me, and I ran off the road. He honked and sped off,” she said as tears filled her eyes and she shivered. “He scared me bad. He waved something at me. I’m pretty sure it was a gun.”

“What did he look like?” Bo asked as Joe parked behind his sheriff vehicle and hurried to join them.

“Are you okay?” Joe asked. “What happened?”

“Someone intentionally ran her off the road,” Bo said. “She was just about to tell us what he looked like.”

“Did you know him?” Joe asked.

“No. He was quite large, I think. He had large, dark glasses on. I guess that was sort of crazy because it’s overcast and not at all bright out here this morning. He was also wearing a black hoodie. So I couldn’t tell much, and anyway, I didn’t really have time to look at him other than a few glances,” she said, “mostly through my mirror.”

“What was he driving?” Bo asked.

“A big gray or silver SUV. I can’t tell you more than that,” she said.

“I don’t suppose you saw his license number,” Bo said.

“No,” she responded. “I was too scared and didn’t have time.”

“Okay. We’ll see if we can pull you out. I have a tow rope in the Explorer,” Bo said. “But first we need to call dispatch.”

Jim got on the radio and called in the description of the driver and the vehicle, but neither he nor Bo was very hopeful about the guy or his SUV being found.

Joe looked at Melia, and the fear in her eyes made him angry. He noticed how cold her hands were. “Do you have gloves in your truck?” he asked. When she nodded, he waded into the snowbank and reached in the open door of the truck as Bo hooked a tow rope to the back bumper. The gloves had fallen on the floor on the passenger side. He climbed into the cab and retrieved them, and then he climbed back out and onto the road. He handed them to Melia. “Here you go.”

Melia put her gloves on. “Thank you, Joe. I’m so scared I didn’t even think about my gloves.”

A few minutes later, Melia’s grandfather’s truck was back on the road. A close inspection showed a small scrape and dent on the rear bumper. It was not very obvious, but once they found it, there was no question about what had caused it.

Bo offered to follow her home after she’d begged Joe to come stay with her and her grandfather again that night. “I don’t feel safe now, and Grandpa isn’t well, as you know. I would feel so much safer if you were there.”

Her forlorn request melted his heart. For her, he would stay at Ron’s house. “Okay, but my dog is at home. I’ll need to go get him first.”

She thanked him, and then she turned to Bo. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Hey, don’t leave your house until we get there,” Bo called out to Joe. “We’ll just see that Melia gets home okay and then come. We need to finish what we were talking about when Melia called.”

“Okay, see you in a bit,” he said.

The officers pulled out behind Melia, and Joe turned and went the opposite direction.

Joe hurriedly packed a bag for another night or two at Ron’s place. He wanted to get back there as soon as he could for Melia’s sake. He was angry someone was dragging her into his mess. And who was it?

He carried his bag out to his truck and then walked around to his backyard to retrieve his dog. He was going to put Herc in the truck so that he could head to Ron’s as soon as he finished speaking with Bo and Jim.

There was no sign of Herc in the yard. He called his name, expecting to see him emerge from his doghouse. But he did not. Joe looked in it, and it was empty. He felt a stab of panic.

Joe’s heart beat fast as he hurriedly searched the yard, looking behind every bush and tree trunk while continuing to call for his collie. He even looked over the fence, although he knew it was too tall for Herc to jump over.

By the time Bo and Jim arrived, Joe had admitted to himself that Herc was gone. The latch on the gate was fastened, and he couldn’t find anywhere Herc may have made a hole and crawled through or under the fence. That could only mean one thing: someone had let him out of the yard.

“What’s the matter, Joe?” Bo asked as he came out the back door.

“Someone’s either turned my dog loose or taken him,” Joe said angrily.

Bo’s eyes narrowed, and Jim shook his head. They looked at each other in what Joe thought was suspicion. “Probably someone in a gray or silver SUV,” Deputy Grizzel suggested with a scowl.

“He was here when I let Two Face out of your yard to go with us to help Melia,” Bo said. “Where do you keep Herc’s leash?”

“On a hook on the back porch,” Joe said and led the way to the back. “It’s gone! Why would anyone take Herc?” Joe was so upset he felt like screaming and pounding on something with his fists, but he didn’t. He just stood with his fists clenched and his face red.

Before Bo or Jim could offer a guess, Bo got a call on his cell phone from the dispatcher. After the call was finished, he said to the others, “An SUV, a silver Chevy Suburban, has been abandoned on a county road about ten miles from where Melia was run off the road. This may not surprise either one of you, but it was stolen from the Walmart parking lot between an hour and two hours before it had been used to force Melia off the road.”

Joe listened while Bo gave orders to have the stolen car towed. He arranged over the phone for other officers to process the vehicle while they—Bo, Jim, and Joe—attempted to locate Joe’s missing dog.

“I have a feeling that the dognapping could be tied in with the murder, Joe, but I don’t think we’ll learn much from the car that hit Melia. I’ve ordered it dusted for fingerprints on the off chance that the guy had not been wearing gloves. I think, and Jim probably agrees, that the driver of the car is somehow tied to the problems that have been plaguing you.”

Jim did agree.

“The officers who located the car have no idea where the driver went after abandoning it.”

Joe was getting more upset by the minute. “Hey guys, I need to find Herc,” he said. Then in the next breath he said, “I sure hope Melia’s okay.” In a third breath, he asked, “What did I do to deserve so much trouble? Is it all because I was an idiot and smoked pot?”

“That may have been the start, but apparently whoever killed Emil thinks you know something that could lead us to him,” Bo explained.

“But I don’t,” Joe insisted. “I wish I did. Then I’d tell you.”

“Not that you know of anyway, and even if you don’t, the fact that he may think you do is dangerous to you and, frankly, to Melia and Ron as well. My guess is that the killer wants to make sure you go to prison for killing Emil instead of him. But that is not going to happen. Joe, extra precautions need to be taken. Be really careful and watch behind and around you at all times. Ron and Melia need to do that too.”

Joe shook his head. His most urgent concern at the moment was for his best friend, his dog. “Where do I start looking for Herc?” he asked the two officers helplessly.

Bo rubbed his chin for a moment. “I have an idea. Let’s see if Two Face can track him.”

Joe was all for that.

Bo got his big bulldog out of his vehicle and took him around to the backyard. Two Face sniffed around the fence, the doghouse, and the back porch. He was whining. “He misses Herc,” Bo said. “I’m going to put Two Face’s leash on him now and take him out through the gate to see what he can tell us.”

As he got near the gate, Two Face began to tug hard on the leash. Joe opened the gate, and the bulldog went through. He followed the fence clear to the east corner and then circled around to the back. He was tugging on Bo the entire time. At the corner where the fence turned and went along the back of the yard, he headed straight out into the empty, abandoned field behind it.

“I can see some tracks here in the snow,” Bo said. “And Two Face can smell his scent. We’re going the right way.”

The three men followed Bo’s dog, jogging to keep up. They ended up nearly a half mile away near another road, a seldom-used one. They crossed a long-ago tramped-down fence. There were some scruffy trees on the other side. Two Face sniffed around the trees for a minute, and then he simply stopped at the edge of the road. From there, he would not go any farther.

“What’s Two Face doing?” Joe asked anxiously.

“The scent ends here,” Bo said. “Herc must have been loaded in a vehicle and driven away.” He turned to Jim. “Let’s take a look at the impounded car and let Two Face check it out.”

“What good will that do?” Joe asked.

“Two Face may be able to tell us if your dog was ever in that car,” Bo said.

“Let’s go then.”

“Jim and I will handle it from here, Joe. Why don’t you go back out to the farm and work for the rest of the day if you feel well enough to this afternoon. Melia could use the help, I’m sure. She’s upset, and you may be able to calm her some.”

Joe reluctantly agreed. “Will you let me know what Two Face does?”

Bo grinned. “He’ll tell me if Herc has been in that SUV, and of course I’ll let you know.”

When they got back to Joe’s house, he locked the doors, for all the good that would do, then climbed in his truck and left. Bo and Jim left at the same time.

At the sheriff’s impound yard, the fingerprinting was still ongoing. Bo had the other officers step back, and then he told Two Face, “Find Herc.”

Two Face didn’t find Herc, but he left no doubt in Bo’s mind that Herc had been in that vehicle. Bo gave instructions to have it carefully vacuumed so he could later check for hair that matched Herc’s. “Jim, I wonder if Detective Merianos searched Emil’s house and car.”

“You mean Deputy Merianos. Let’s go to the office and look at his reports. That should tell us.”

It told them all right. Merianos had neglected to search the dead man’s car and his house. “Let’s get a search warrant to be on the safe side, although I don’t think we need one,” Bo said.

“Bo, I wonder if it might be best to contact the county animal control officer and let him know about Herc,” Jim suggested as they worked on the search warrant.

“That’s a good idea. Will you make the call while I finish up here?” Bo asked.

When Jim ended his call a couple minutes later, he related his findings to Bo. “He hasn’t seen anything about a dog that fits Herc’s description, but he’ll let us know if he does.”

A short while later, they arrived at the impound yard where Emil’s rusty Volkswagen was impounded. They found some suspected drugs, including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and meth tucked under the seats, both front and rear. “I can’t believe Merianos didn’t search his car. Emil must have been planning on making some sales somewhere other than at his home the night he went to Joe’s and ended up dead,” Bo told Jim.

They bagged the drugs and continued to search. Jim found one other thing of interest in the glove box on top of an owner’s manual, the registration, and an insurance card. It was a small black address book. It didn’t contain any names besides Emil’s, but it did have quite a number of initials and a few phone numbers in it. Each phone number corresponded to a set of initials.

“I think this could be important,” Jim said when he showed Bo the little book.

“Ah yes, those initials could refer to customers, and customers could be potential persons of interest in Emil’s murder,” Bo said.

They found nothing more of value in the car, so they proceeded to Emil’s house. Inside they found some items that interested them greatly. There were two stacks of items on Emil’s floor amidst a bunch of trash that had been pushed back to make room.

With gloved hands, the two deputies began to inventory the objects in each pile. Bo worked on one pile and Jim the other.

“Hey, Bo,” Jim said suddenly. “Look at this shotgun. It has Lucas Soto etched on it.”

“Interesting. This pistol has some etching too. It has the initials BB. Jim, these items probably belong to the Sotos and the Bayles, if my guess is correct. It will be interesting to see what the Bayles tell us when we interview them.”

They continued the inventory until every item had been noted. “Is the jewelry in your pile valuable, Jim? Can you tell?” Bo asked after putting the last item down.

“I’d say it’s mostly cheap stuff, but this ring looks like it might have a real diamond in it, and it’s not a small one,” Jim said, holding up the ring, which Bo took and examined. “I can’t imagine anyone just handing something like that over to Emil Eifler.”

“It will also be interesting to see what Lucas has to say about not knowing Emil,” Bo said with a chuckle.

Bo took pictures of all the items with a small camera and then prepared to take the items back to the office to be secured in the evidence room. When all those things were safely stored in their vehicle, Bo and Jim continued to search the house. They found a lot of drug paraphernalia, as well as a small number of illegal drugs.

“Too bad Emil is dead,” Jim joked. “We could have arrested him for intent to distribute all this stuff.”

“Or at least for possession,” Bo said. “Well, I think we are finished here. Let’s pay a visit to Bryan and Belle Bayle. They may be able to help us, especially when we ask them about the things that are probably theirs.” He paused thoughtfully for a moment. “Actually, let’s not tell them about the things we found until we see if they also deny knowing Emil. Then when we tell them what we have and where we found it, we might be able to get them to tell us more. Once they know we’ve made a connection between them and Emil, they might be more cooperative.”

Bo parked in front of the home where the Bayles lived, and the two of them, accompanied by Two Face, approached the front door. Before they could reach the door, it opened and Bryan Bayle came out, followed closely by his wife.

“What do you guys want?” the big man asked with a nasty snarl.

“We need to talk to you and your wife for a minute,” Bo said.

“We got nothing to talk to you cops about,” Bryan said. “We ain’t done anything illegal, so we don’t have to talk to you.”

Bo gave his dog a command, and Two Face circled around the Bayles. Bo stepped up to Bryan, who backpedaled, but the dog stayed right with him until he stopped.

“My dog just told me that he can smell drugs,” Bo said. Then he had the dog check Belle Bayle with a similar result. “It looks like we will need to search you two and your house.”

“I’m going back in,” Bryan said belligerently. “And you guys ain’t.”

“Neither of you is going back in. You are going to wait right here while I go to the computer in my car and prepare a search warrant.”

“You can’t do that,” Belle screeched. “We have rights. You pigs are on our property.”

Jim walked behind them so they had to go past him to enter the house.

“Deputy Grizzel and my police dog will keep an eye on you two while I prepare the warrant,” Bo said.

“It’s cold out here,” Belle whined.

“Yes, it is. I’ll tell you what; you may go inside if you allow Deputy Grizzel and Two Face to accompany you,” Bo offered.

“What did you come here for?” Bryan asked, some of his belligerence slipping.

“We came to talk to you about Emil Eifler,” Bo said.

“We don’t know anything about him. Don’t even know who he is,” Bryan said with shifting eyes. Bo noticed that Bryan did have a lisp, as Joe had told him.

“Don’t lie to us. That won’t help you any. We already know that’s not true. He sold you drugs, and if we find any on you or in the house, you will both be going to jail. If that happens, then we’ll talk to you there later.”

Belle and Bryan looked at each other. They both suddenly appeared to be very nervous, fidgeting and moving their eyes around rapidly.

“Look, I know you guys have drugs,” Bo said. “My dog doesn’t lie about these things. Do you want to go in and sit down, or do you want to stand out here in the cold? It may take a while to get the warrant. We’re not leaving until we have it and you, your house, and your car have been searched.” Bo stared hard at Bryan. He thought that if he didn’t threaten too much that maybe the couple would be more likely to open up about Emil. So he said, “Or you can make this easy by simply getting the drugs for us and then answering our questions. We’re not nearly as concerned about you and your drugs today as we are about finding out who killed Emil Eifler, your drug supplier. If you cooperate, we won’t need to take you to jail.” He hoped that would help loosen their lips.

“I tell you we don’t know him,” Belle said, but her rapidly shifting eyes told a different story.

Bryan finally gave in. “Okay. We’ll get you the stuff if you promise not to haul us to jail.”

“That works. I already told you I wouldn’t,” Bo said decisively. “Should we all go inside? We’ll watch you get your stuff and give it to us. Then we’ll talk.”

“Okay, but like I said, we don’t know anyone by the name of Emil,” Bryan said with averted eyes.