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Hawke parked in the lot behind the courthouse to see if Ball’s vehicle was there. The man had access to a county vehicle and his own. Only the county vehicle was parked behind the building. He must have gone somewhere, unofficially.
Before exiting his vehicle, Hawke opened up his documents file on his computer and wrote up a warrant to search Thomas Ball’s home, office, and vehicles. He sent the document to Lange’s office.
Hawke entered the building from the back and saw the stairway down to the basement. He’d ask Terri to print out the warrant for Lange to sign and come back to the basement and take a look. See if Assistant D.A. Wallen had been down in the basement like she’d said.
He walked down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor. Mr. Wordell wasn’t sitting in the hallway. He hurried into the D.A’s Office. Terri wasn’t at her desk. Hawke strode by her desk and knocked on Lange’s door.
Nothing.
He opened the door and found the room empty. Where could they be? He walked over to Ms. Wallen’s door, knocked once, and opened it. She was also missing.
Back at the receptionist’s desk, he glanced at the calendar. They were all at a county meeting being held in the conference room on the first floor.
He texted Donner not to hurry. He wouldn’t be able to get a warrant for two more hours. That was how long the meeting was marked out on the calendar.
Retracing his steps, Hawke headed for the basement. He moved his hand along the wall at the top of the stairs until his fingers connected with a light switch. Descending the stairs, dust, the acrid odor of fuel oil, and the scent of musty paper clogged his nostrils. The light cover at the bottom of the stairs was so dusty the light barely reached the edges of the first room and the two doors on either side. The main room housed old desks stacked upside down on each other, old heavy wooden chairs hung from the rafters or floor beams depending on whether you were above or below them.
The door to his right had the words “Boiler Room” stenciled in black. The fuel smell seeped through the cracks around the door.
He looked to the left and found a door with the words “Court Records” stenciled in black. He walked to the door and discovered it was locked. It was the type of lock that required a skeleton key. Before he pulled out his pocket knife, he reached up and felt along the door sill. And there it was, a skeleton key. If that was all the county did to keep people out of the records, he didn’t see a reason why he couldn’t poke around and see what Ms. Wallen had been searching through.
Since the computer became common place in businesses and courthouses, the records were now stored digitally. What she was looking for had to date back to the 1980s or earlier. He found the light switch. Once again, the dust had accumulated on the light fixture, making it hard to focus his eyes. Not that he was having eye problems. Only when he had to read for long periods. His computer monitor was still far enough out that he could focus, but it was getting closer to him needing glasses.
Hawke pulled the flashlight off his duty belt, raking the beam over the interior to help him see. He scanned the area for signs someone had been in the room recently. He stepped to the right inside the door and slowly placed one foot in front of the other until he stood three feet into the room. Twisting at his waist, he looked at the floor behind him to see if anyone else had disturbed the dust on the floor.
There was a faint set of footprints with a scarce amount of dust in them. They appeared to be high-heeled shoes, the type he’d noticed the Assistant D.A. wearing every time he’d seen her.
Twisting back around, he scanned the floor to see where the tracks stopped.
In front of a file cabinet.
He walked over and opened the drawer. The screech of the metal track pierced his eardrums. People all the way to the second floor should have heard it. He lifted the heavy drawer to try and minimize the screech.
When the drawer was halfway out, he skimmed through the labels on the files. They appeared to be drunk driving violations. Why would she be looking into decades old drunk driving records? Did Judge Vickers really give her this assignment or was she looking through them for her own reasons? Time to do more digging on Ms. Wallen. To make sure there weren’t any other type of records in the cabinet, he pulled out each screechy drawer and looked. That’s when he noticed a paper sticking up a third of the way back in the third drawer down.
There was a good chance the file before or after this spot had been looked at or taken. He pulled the two files out and used his phone to take photos of the reports inside. He’d have a couple questions for Terri when he saw her.
Shoving all the drawers closed, he exited the room and relocked the door. At the top of the stairs, he turned to close the door and spotted Ball, walking up the steps to the back door.
Hawke quickly shut the door and strode down the hall. The meeting was breaking up. Employees of the county meandered out of the conference room.
Lange stepped out, and Hawke caught up to him.
“We need a search warrant,” Hawke said in a low voice.
“Follow me to my office.” Lange lengthened his stride.
Hawke glanced over his shoulder and spotted Ball and the Assistant D.A. visiting.
Terri’s husband sat on the bench outside the office. He nodded slightly as they walked by.
Hawke had to give the young man credit, he was doing a good job of keeping an eye on his wife and not acting as if it were a drudge.
“What do you need the warrant for?” Lange asked as soon as they were closed in his office.
“Thomas Ball’s office, home, and vehicles.”
Lange’s brow furrowed and his eyes widened. “My investigator?”
“His alibi for last night doesn’t check out. We need to search his premises for the gun.” Hawke could see the district attorney was torn between his job and his loyalty to an employee. It was commendable but if it wasn’t Ball, it could come back on Lange.
The attorney glanced at Hawke’s hands. “Where’s the warrant?”
“I sent it to your office via email.” Hawke nodded toward the computer on his desk.
Lange picked up the phone and punched a button. “Terri. Trooper Hawke sent a warrant to our office. It needs to be printed out and brought in for me to sign.” He replaced the phone and sat down.
Hawke lowered himself into the chair in front of the desk.
“Do you think you will discover my gun in Thomas’ possession?” Lange was shuffling papers on his desk.
“I’m hoping we find it. At the moment it is all we have that could reveal the murderer.” Hawke studied the man. He looked older, more tired than their first encounter when Hawke had accused him of selling his elk tag. “The motive for Brooks seems to be linked to the death of Sigler. Finding who killed Sigler should close two murder cases.”
A soft knock on the door, and Terri entered carrying papers. She placed them on Lange’s desk and left the room.
Lange read through the papers and signed. “Are you starting with his office?”
“Yes. As soon as Detective Donner gets here.” Hawke reached out, grasping the papers.
“I’ll wait out in my vehicle for Donner.” He stood and headed to the door. His phone buzzed. Outside the office he glanced at his phone. The detective was in the parking lot.
He texted back for the trooper to meet him at the D.A.’s office.
Hawke stepped out into the hallway and called the sheriff’s office, requesting a deputy to come to the courthouse.
Ball appeared at the top of the stairs. His gaze latched onto Hawke. “You waiting for the D.A.?”
“No.”
Donner appeared behind the investigator.
“Him.” Hawke walked over and handed Ball the warrant. “This is a warrant to search your office, vehicles, and residence.”
“What are you looking for?” he asked, skimming over the document. “A gun. Specifically, a Smith & Wesson 380. I don’t own one.” He tossed the paper at Hawke and started to walk out of the office.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Donner asked, grabbing Ball by the arm.
“You don’t need me to look around in my office.” Ball tried to pull out of the detective’s grasp.
“You’re staying right here in this chair.” Donner led the investigator over to a chair at the same time a deputy walked through the door. The office was getting full of people.
“Deputy Novak, keep an eye on Ball. If he takes his phone out of his pocket, confiscate that,” Hawke said as he and Donner entered the investigator’s office.
“He was being belligerent,” Donner said.
“That’s him all the time.” Hawke started at one side of the room and Donner took the other. They met behind the desk. “You take the file cabinet, and I’ll take the desk,” Hawke said, pulling out the top middle drawer.
“Do you really think this guy is dumb enough to hide a murder weapon in his office in the D.A.’s office?” Donner asked.
“It’s not a case of stupid. It’s a case of he thinks he’s smart. Where would be the last place you’d look for a murder weapon?” Hawke pulled out more drawers and looked for secret hiding places.
“The D.A.’s office.” Donner slammed the last drawer shut. “Nothing.”
“Here either. Let’s go have a look at his vehicles.” Hawke walked out of the investigator’s office as the Assistant D.A. walked in the D.A.’s office.
“What’s going on?” she asked when her gaze flicked from Ball to the deputy.
“We’re conducting a search,” Hawke said. “I suggest you stay in this office until we’re finished.”
“Why?” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “You haven’t handed me a warrant.”
“Because you and Thomas, here, are too chummy.” Hawke motioned for Ball to stand. “Let’s go take a look at your vehicles.”
The three policemen walked down to the parking lot with Ball. Deputy Novak kept the investigator away from his vehicles while Hawke searched his private car and Donner searched the county car.
They both came up empty.
“Bring him in your car,” Donner told Novak. “We’ll head to his residence now.”
«»«»«»
At Ball’s house, they found a stash of marijuana, magazines with nude women, and cases of empty beer bottles, but they didn’t find the gun.
“I told you I didn’t kill anyone. It would be bad for my job.” Ball said, when they walked out of his house.
Donner held up the bag of marijuana. “Keep it up and I’ll book you for having over the legal limit of marijuana.”
“What do you think Lange will say if we tell him what we found in your place?” Hawke added.
The man wasn’t so belligerent now.
“Where were you last night? I know you didn’t show up at the brewery until after eight and you were home by nine. What did you do from five to eight?” Hawke had the man backed up against the county car.
He narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t kill Brooks. I was helping a friend.”
“What friend?” Hawke could tell the man wasn’t going to budge. They couldn’t do anything about it. They didn’t have a motive or the weapon. “Take him back to the courthouse,” Hawke said to Novak.
He and Donner stood in front of Ball’s house discussing what they had so far. It amounted to nothing.
“Sigler had to be killed because he tried to blackmail whoever gave him the elk tag. It wasn’t Lange. Who had access to Lange’s credit card?” Hawke’s mind was tumbling around.
“Did they have access?” Donner asked.
“What do you mean?” Hawke studied the other trooper.
“As long as someone had all his information, they could have set up a credit card in his name. And had all the transactions go to an internet account they set up or their own.”
“We need to take a look at the credit card in Lange’s name that was used to pay for the tag. I have that information in my logbook. I’ll go through it tonight and send it to you.” Hawke shook hands with Donner. “Hopefully, by this time tomorrow we’ll have a suspect.”
“Send me the info and I’ll get some specialists on it.” Donner slid into his car.
Hawke climbed into his pickup. Just as he was about to call dispatch and tell them he was off duty, a call came in requesting backup at a drunk and disorderly in Winslow. Looked like he’d help with that and go to the office and add to his report on the murder cases.