The Owlhoot

by J. T. Edson

  ‘Bring me a bag, Alice,’ Brad called from where he stood looking down at the wallet.

  Opening the glove compartment, Alice took out one of a stack of plastic bags. Made up for the S.I.B., the bags had a draw-string at the neck to which was attached a small cardboard tag. Joining her partner, she held the bag open. He lifted the wallet by inserting the end of a ball-point pen inside it, then dropped it into the bag. Closing the neck, Alice filled in details of the find on the tag.

  ‘Why did you do that?’ Ivy inquired as the deputies returned.

  ‘So that we won’t get our fingerprints on it,’ Alice answered. ‘There’s no more we can do here, Brad.’

  ‘Nope,’ the big blond agreed. ‘We’ll drop Mrs. Monoghan at Central Receiving and go back to the Office.’

  ‘Er—could you see me home, Bradford?’ Ivy suggested coyly. ‘I mean, the man might be watching us and decide to get me to stop me identifying him.’

  ‘You said that you couldn’t identify him,’ Alice reminded her.

  ‘He doesn’t know that!’ Ivy hissed, then became demure and appealing once more. ‘I would feel safer with you along, Bradford.’

  ‘It’s not likely that he’ll try anything,’ Alice said calmly. ‘But we’ll follow you home just to make sure.’

  Although that had not been Ivy’s idea when suggesting Brad acted as escort, she did not take the matter further. Throwing herself back against the upholstery of the rear seat, she pouted and scowled as the deputies climbed in at the front. Except for brief replies when spoken to, she kept quiet during the return journey. Watching her in the driving mirror, Alice could see that the blonde was thinking.

  ‘I suppose I was just being silly,’ Ivy remarked, sounding studiously casual, as she climbed from the Oldsmobile at the Central Receiving Hospital’s parking lot. ‘Of course he won’t be after me. So there’s no reason for you to waste any more time by following me home.’

  ‘Have it your way, Mrs. Monoghan,’ Alice smiled. ‘We have your telephone number if we need to contact you. Let’s go, Brad.’

  Despite their apparent acceptance, the deputies still intended to carry out Alice’s suggestion. Although they felt sure that Ivy had originally made the request as an excuse to be alone and start a flirtation with Brad, they realized she might also have had a more serious motive. Maybe she suspected that the robbery had been organized by her husband as a cover for an assault against Hoopler. In which case, she would want an escort home.

  Alice now figured that Ivy had no such suspicions. There could be a good reason why the blonde did not want the peace officers to follow her, one she had thought of during the ride back to the city. If she had been the one who inflicted the injury on Hoopler, she might want to visit some apartment or other rendezvous to remove evidence of her connection with him. That could not be done with a deputy car on her tail. So, while she had made the offer to Brad without considering the consequences, being given time to think had showed her the danger and she had taken steps to avoid it.

  Unlikely, perhaps, but peace officers engaged on detective duties became suspicious by nature. So they followed Ivy’s Cadillac through the streets without the blonde seeing them or suspecting their presence. She passed through Leander Division and began to ascend Upton Heights without making any detours or visits. At last she swung the car through a set of ornate wrought-iron gates and drove along the wide path to the front of the Monoghans’ magnificent pseudo Deep-South Mansion.

  ‘It looks like she only wanted your company, Brad,’ Alice remarked as they, sat in the Oldsmobile, looking through the gates to where the Cadillac disappeared into the mansion’s garage and its electronically-controlled doors closed.

  ‘Don’t they all, boss-lady?’ the big blond grinned. ‘And you-all went and spoiled my chances, for shame.’ Then he reached across with his right hand to gently squeeze her left thigh. ‘But I’m true to you through it all.’

  ‘Any time you’re not, you big galoot, I’ll fix your wagon but good,’ Alice warned. ‘Let’s go in and report, then you can buy me supper at the Badge.’

  ‘I bet Ivy’d’ve bought me supper,’ Brad drawled and started the car moving.

  ‘Maybe she would,’ Alice sniffed. ‘But let us not forget that I out-rank you and don’t need to pay my way.’

  ‘Do you reckon that she told the truth?’ Brad asked as they cruised through Upton Heights in the direction of the Business Division, which housed the Department of Public Safety Building.

  ‘I reckon she did, except about why she and Hoopler went along the turn-off,’ Alice replied. ‘Even if her husband did fix it, I don’t think she suspects him, or knew the feller that he used. And if it was just a stick-up, there’s no reason why she should know him.’

  ‘Do we treat it as a stick-up?’ Brad wanted to know, for Alice was the senior member of the team.

  ‘Sure. Have R. & I. [vi] see what they can dig up for us when we get in. If we’re lucky, Latent Prints will get us something from the wallet. [vii]

  ‘If we’re that lucky, I’ll take you to the Queen of Clubs every night for a week and sit with my eyes closed all the time Zippy Sharon’s on the floor.’

  ‘I’ll keep you to that,’ Alice threatened.

  After parking the Oldsmobile in its place on the official lot, Alice and Brad entered the D.P.S. Building and went up to the third floor. On entering, the office, they found Rafferty and Chu talking to McCall. The three deputies looked at the newcomers with more interest than their mere arrival warranted. ‘That owlhoot of yours, Alice, Brad,’ McCall greeted.

  ‘What about him?’ the girl asked.

  ‘He’s hit another two cars on the Longley turn-off from the State Auto Road,’ the First Deputy answered. ‘First call came in just after you’d left Central Receiving.’

  ‘Why didn’t you let us know?’ Alice demanded.

  ‘I’d two more teams here, just wearing the chairs out with their butt ends,’ McCall replied. ‘Figured they might’s well go earn their pay.’

  ‘Was anybody hurt?’ Brad inquired.

  ‘Nope. Which’s why I didn’t call you.’

  ‘He just made them empty their wallets and handbags into his hat,’ Rafferty continued when the First Deputy had finished speaking. ‘Just money, both times.’

  ‘Apart from being riled about losing their money, they all sounded more amused than scared,’ Chu went on. ‘One of the fellers said that being stuck up by a jasper dressed like that was almost a joke.’

  ‘They were lucky none of them tried to jump him,’ Alice said quietly. ‘Hoopler gave it a whirl. What happened to him wasn’t a joke.’

  Five

  At five minutes to four on Wednesday afternoon, Woman Deputy Alice Fayde removed the ‘Off Watch’ strip from her name on the Sheriff’s Office’s Duty Roster board. By her side, Deputy Sheriff Bradford Counter signed his name in the squad room’s log book ready to start the watch and resume the investigation into the activities of the owlhoot.

  Before logging off watch the previous night, Alice and Brad talked with the team which had handled the other two complaints against the owlhoot. Although they had picked up a few small items that might prove useful in identifying him, the sum total of their knowledge was not greatly increased. According to the second and third pairs of victims, the owlhoot was slightly under six feet in height, with a slender build. He had mousey-brown hair of medium length, taken straight back without a parting.

  One of the male victims had proved to be a gun enthusiast. While the other three victims had merely confirmed Ivy Monoghan’s description of the revolver, he had stated definitely that it was a Colt Cavalry Peacemaker. Also, he had studied the owlhoot’s gun rig and said that to the best of his knowledge it was a Berns-Martin ‘Speed’ holster on one of the same company’s standard two-and-a-half-inch-wide belts, hand-carved with a floral design. Brad felt inclined to think that the man had made a correct identification. If he was right about the type of holster, it explained how the owl
hoot could make a real fast draw with the seven-and-a-half-inch-barreled Peacemaker.

  When questioned on the matter by Deputies Rafferty and Chu, none of the victims could claim that they had heard the sound of an engine starting after the owlhoot had left them. The gun enthusiast said that he had delayed his departure for at least five minutes hoping to do so. Alice and Brad hoped that the S.I.B.’s search specialists might provide the answer to how the owlhoot traveled from crime to crime.

  All the first stages of the routine work had been completed before the deputies logged off watch. They had passed their information to the Records and Identification Bureau, with a request for the names of local criminals who were known to favor Western-style dress, have a similar method of operation, or use a Colt Cavalry Model Peacemaker in the commission of their crimes. Hoopler’s wallet had been turned over to the Latent Prints Detail of the S.I.B. to be dusted and checked for fingerprints. Alice had an uneasy feeling that little or nothing would come from the request to R. & I., but hoped Latent Prints might have more success. Why it should be, she could not say, but her instincts, fined and sharpened by almost eight years of peace officer’s work, warned her that they faced something new, different and dangerous.

  After leaving the Department of Public Safety Building, Alice and Brad had put aside their thoughts on the owlhoot case. They had known that the Business Office—which handled calls that came in after midnight for the departments working a two-watch rota—would inform them by telephone if anything further developed. As senior member of the team, Alice would be called first, which was fortunate. During the dangerous days when they had acted as decoys to draw the murderous Colismides’ gang out of hiding, [viii] Alice and Brad had become very close. Following their usual procedure since the end of the case, they had spent the night together at her apartment.

  Rising at around ten that morning, they had read the two local newspapers and found no mention of the owlhoot. That did not surprise them, for the Public Relations Bureau’s handout would have come too late for either paper to put the story into print. Alice and Brad knew that when the story broke, the Daily Lightning and Gusher City Mirror would play it up big. The human-interest aspects of a jet-age criminal dressing as an old West owlhoot ought to appeal to both newspapers. Listening to the newscast on the radio, the deputies were puzzled when it made no mention of the owlhoot.

  Leaving Alice to wash the dishes, Brad had called the Central Receiving Hospital and inquired about Hoopler. While he was not considered to be in danger of permanent damage from the blow, he was still resting and partially under sedation. However, the intern talking to Brad had said that the deputies could have a short interview later in the day. Arranging to make the visit at around five o’clock, Brad had hung up.

  With the appointment made, Alice and Brad had once more put thoughts of duty from their minds. While the big blond attended to some private business, Alice tidied up the apartment. After lunch they had visited the G.C.P.D. gymnasium for a work-out and by four o’clock arrived at the Sheriff’s Office ready to resume their investigations.

  Looking around, Alice saw that only members of the night watch were present. The ‘In’ tray on her desk held a number of papers and a R. & I. folder. Before she and Brad could go over and check on the tray’s contents, McCall appeared at the door of the Watch Commander’s office and asked them to join him. Going in, they found the day watch’s commander and the sheriff at the desk.

  Slightly over medium height, First Deputy Ricardo Alvarez looked like a handsome Hollywood Latin lover and moved with the controlled grace of a bull-fighter. As usual he wore uniform, with a Colt Commander .45 automatic riding the combat-bikini holster on his belt.

  Sheriff Jack Tragg, senior law-enforcement officer in Rockabye County, stood six foot one inch tall, had short-cropped black hair and a tanned, ruggedly-handsome cast of features. In some way he contrived to make his well-cut brown suit, white shirt and country club tie look as traditionally old-West as the clothes worn by the owlhoot.

  ‘Alice, Brad,’ Jack greeted, waving the newcomers into the empty chairs at the desk. ‘I see that you caught those 1408a’s last night.’

  ‘We’re lucky that way,’ Alice answered.

  As the first team called in, they had charge of the whole case despite Chu and Rafferty dealing with the second and third complaints. Alice and Brad glanced at each other, aware that the sheriff had not called them in merely to discuss a comparatively minor investigation.

  ‘There’s some stuff on your desk,’ McCall commented dourly. He never encouraged visitors to linger around the Watch Commander’s office by letting them sit down. ‘Nothing that helps much, though.’

  ‘Do you know about the case Joan and Sam are on?’ Jack inquired, looking from the girl to the big blond.

  ‘Why sure,’ Alice agreed and, as Brad nodded, went on, ‘They’re handling the Sandwich killing. That was the accountant with the Euro-Tex Clothing Company who murdered a security guard and disappeared across the Rio Grande with the Company’s payroll.’

  ‘He may not have crossed the river,’ Alvarez corrected. ‘Captain Garcia’s been nosing around for the past three days and heard nothing.’

  ‘Which I’d say means that Sandwich didn’t get into Mexico,’ Brad drawled, having seen examples of the Mexican police’s efficiency under the guidance of Captain Garcia. ‘That still leaves a whole heap of places he could have gone.’

  ‘Joan’s got a hunch that he’s not gone any place,’ Alvarez went on. ‘She reckons he’s hid out someplace close by. Either in Gusher City or the County.’

  Knowing Joan Hilton to be an extremely experienced and capable peace officer, all the occupants of the Watch Commander’s office figured that her hunch was worth consideration. So Alice and Brad waited to hear how their current investigation would be affected.

  ‘One of the things Joan learned, only it’s not been given out yet, is that Sandwich was going with a girl in the company,’ Alvarez continued. ‘They, Sandwich and the girl, her name’s Laurie Zingel, thought nobody knew about it and wanted it kept that way, him being a married man. It was only a vague rumor, but Joan followed it up. The Zingel gal’s living way over her income. And she’s told the super at her apartment building not to get worried if he didn’t see her around for a spell, she was going to visit her mother out in California.’

  ‘And she’s not going there,’ Alice guessed.

  ‘She’s an orphan,’ Alvarez replied.

  ‘Which means that she’s figuring on leaving, but doesn’t want the super calling the law when she’s not been seen around the building for a few days,’ Brad guessed. ‘Did she tell him when she would be going?’

  ‘No,’ answered Alvarez. ‘Just that she was waiting for word to go. We’ve had her under surveillance and a tap on her phone ever since Joan learned about her and Sandwich. So far she hasn’t contacted him or had any mail, so he’s not keeping in touch with her that way. We don’t know if she figures she’s being watched, or they’re just being real careful. So we aim to find out. From today, she’s going to be sure that we’re watching her.’

  ‘Psychological tailing,’ Alice said, echoing Brad’s thoughts.

  ‘That’s it,’ Jack confirmed. ‘I want you two outside her apartment building when she comes home tonight. Lars and Tony’ll cover the back. You’ll use D cars and one of you will be in uniform—’

  ‘I’d be best,’ Alice suggested.

  ‘You then, Alice,’ Jack assented. ‘There’ll be another team in an undercover car close by. Wherever she goes, I want her to know you’re after her. Give us luck and before the end of the week she’ll either contact Sandwich or lead us to him.’

  ‘How about our 1408a’s?’ Alice asked.

  ‘That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,’ Jack replied. ‘From what I read in the reports, he picked up around five hundred dollars last night. If he’s like most crooks, he’ll spend it before he makes more hits.’

  ‘He might be a nut
, doing it for kicks,’ Brad pointed out.

  ‘I don’t think he’d’ve stopped with just hitting Hoopler once, if he was a nut,’ Jack objected. ‘Anyways, the hospital says that Hoopler’s not seriously injured and nobody else got hurt.’

  ‘We can’t argue about that,’ Brad drawled.

  ‘Check your desk,’ Jack suggested. ‘If there’s any clear lead, follow it up. If not, get ready to start the tail on the Zingel girl. Joan’s case’s real important. Not just because of the money, but for how he killed the guard. He must’ve gone berserk, the way he damned near ripped that poor old bast—feller to doll-rags.’

  ‘I saw the scene-of-crime pictures,’ Alice admitted. ‘A feller who’d do that has to be stopped.’

  Having, as she had said, seen the photographs of Sandwich’s victim, Alice knew that arresting him rated a higher priority on the Office’s time than hunting down the owlhoot. Any man capable of repeatedly plunging a knife into human flesh, ripping and tearing at an almost lifeless body, must be caught as quickly as possible. Some senior law enforcement officials would have assigned their juniors to the more important case without explanation. That was not how Jack Tragg did things. The sheriff of Rockabye County never took a deputy team from a case unless he had told them the reason for doing so.

  ‘Apart from pistol-whipping that Hoopler jasper, the owlhoot’s not hurt anybody,’ McCall said. ‘Like Pat told us last night, the other victims thought he was more of a joke than anything.’

  ‘That’s what worries me,’ Alice declared soberly. ‘Hoopler likely thought the same thing, tried to jump him and wound up with a cracked head. The next one to try it might not be so lucky.’

  ‘We’ll go along with you on that, Alice,’ Jack replied. ‘If it wasn’t for the Sandwich killing, I’d say go all out to locate him, As it is, I’ve asked all the Division houses to handle any more hits he makes unless there’s violence involved. Not that I expect any tonight. He’ll be out someplace spending his loot.’ Knowing that the majority of criminals acted in such a manner had already led Alice to the same conclusion. She was equally aware that the sheriff and First Deputies realized the danger of another victim underestimating the owlhoot and trying to attack him. Yet they were compelled to take the calculated risk in the interests of catching a far greater peril to human lives.