by Jeff Carson
Roll shook his head. “We don’t have the time or manpower for that. Let’s get back inside.”
Chapter 14
The room was electric, filled with the sounds of heavy breathing and sniffing as they all piled back in and took their seats. Wolf’s body vibrated with tension. Burton sat next to him, looking like the action had ignited his hangover. His skin was pasty and covered in a sheen of sweat.
They were all stunned, and Roll looked lost in contemplation as he paced at the front. “Jed Farmer’s right. We have to get going. We have to move on this.”
But the sheriff stopped pacing and stared at the carpet.
“The Farmers,” Burton said. “They seem like a nice bunch.”
Milo blew air from his lips. “Jed’s the father. Seymour’s the older kid, Gabriel’s the younger brother.”
Wolf raised his hand, which seemed a prudent gesture. “Going back to what we were talking about…I’m wondering: how did you go from finding Alexander Guild on his back-deck Saturday night, with only two men in town from California as persons of interest, to involving Jesse Burton and Kyle Farmer at all?”
Milo nodded. “That goes back to a few months ago. After Alexander Guild shot and killed Ray Winkle out there on the corner of his property, there was some serious local blowback. We’re talking pitchforks and torches kind of stuff. People were up in arms. Wondering how he was getting away with murdering Ray Winkle the way he did.”
“Serious local blowback is an understatement,” Roll said, looking up from the floor. “Rage. That’s the word. As we said, Hettie Winkle was Ray Winkle’s daughter. She’s the same age as Kyle and Jesse and she’s been dating Kyle for the last two years. Hettie was close to her father, and when Guild shot him, she was extremely, and understandably, upset.”
“And so was Kyle,” Burton said.
Roll nodded. “Right. And Jesse, too. And like we said, there was some serious blowback from that incident. Some rage. Whatever you want to call it. But Jesse and Kyle took it to a new level with a video they posted on their YouTube channel.”
“What video?” Burton asked. “I never heard of a video.”
“They have a YouTube channel called the Sons of Righteous Light,” Triplett said.
“Sons of Righteousness and Light,” Sobeck said.
“Yeah, whatever,” Triplett said. “Anyway, they put out a video of them ranting and raving about how the rich man put the government in place, paying for their campaigns and whatnot. And how now the rich man can lock out even the BLM employees, and the public. Which is all true, mind you.”
“Okay, Triplett,” Roll said.
Triplett ignored the interjection. “It was the same argument the rest of the town was making. I mean, this frickin’ guy up there on that hill, Alexander Guild, had a big party once a couple years ago with thirty or forty politicians, a bunch of bigwigs, and we had to shut down the roads around his house, pulling security duty like a bunch of rent-a-cops.”
“Okay, thanks, Triplett,” Roll said.
Triplett leaned back in his chair.
Deputy Sobeck cleared his throat. “In their video, Jesse and Kyle put a watermelon on top of a dummy. The dummy had the name Alexander Guild pinned to its chest. They shot the watermelon with a .50 caliber rifle. You don’t have to be Hercule Poirot to suspect Jesse and Kyle when we found Alexander Guild’s body.”
“Can we see this video?” Wolf nodded towards Special Agent Rushing’s laptop.
“Their video only made everything worse,” Roll said. “I had Sobeck and Triplett go up and talk to them. They agreed to take the video down.”
“We sweet talked ‘em,” Triplett said with a cluck of his tongue.
Wolf nodded. “Okay. Let’s go back to Saturday night. After you found Guild on his back porch, you immediately thought of Kyle and Jesse. How long did you wait to talk to them?”
“We went up to Kyle’s the next morning, Sunday morning at sunup,” Milo said. “What is it, Monday? Geez, yesterday morning we went to Kyle’s place. I need some sleep.”
“That seems like a long time to wait to me,” Wolf said. “Why not go up to Kyle’s Saturday night after you found Guild’s body?”
Milo looked down, and Roll raised his chin. “Like I said, chief detective,” Roll said, “we don’t see much of this kind of thing happening around here. We were up all Saturday night at Guild’s. It took us a while just to convene there, then to get up onto the deck itself. Sobeck had to climb up. The alarm went off when he finally got inside and opened the front door, we had a whole thing with the security company about that. That father and son from California were demanding answers, so we had to talk to them. We called in the CBI. We did an initial sweep in the woods, in the house, looking for anything.”
Roll shook his head, looking as if he wanted to forget the night altogether. “It was an easy realization about Kyle and Jesse. But it still took time with all that was going on.”
Wolf nodded. “I understand. Did you find anything out of the ordinary inside of Guild’s house?”
“Nothing. Place was locked tight, except the one open door on the deck Guild had used. As far as we could tell, he was watching ESPN, having a drink, and went outside to have a cigarette. There’s no sign of anyone else being there on any of the security footage.”
“Okay, and then you realized,” Wolf said, “remembered about Kyle and Jesse’s video and you guys went up that next morning to Kyle’s house. And what did you find?”
Milo exhaled. “A whole lot of dried blood on Kyle Farmer’s porch, for one.”
“A large area suggesting Kyle was shot on his front porch,” Roll said, “where he bled out. And was then moved. And boot prints tracking that blood all over the place when it had been still wet.”
Wolf looked at Special Agent Rushing. “But there was no body.”
“No,” Rushing said.
“What about Kyle’s cell phone? Did you track it?”
“We found it,” Rushing said. “It was sitting on the kitchen counter. We’re taking a look at it.”
Wolf nodded. “It rained last night here, didn’t it?”
“That’s right,” Rushing said. “But the porch was covered. It didn’t disturb any of the blood evidence."
Jesse Burton’s phone sat in a plastic bag on one of the tables.
“What have you learned from Jesse’s cell phone?” Wolf asked.
They all looked at Rushing. “Not much. Especially for Friday night. In fact, most of the night is completely missing from a data perspective.”
“Missing?” Roll asked.
Rushing nodded. “The only explanation I can come up with is he took out his battery. The last cell tower ping was 7:49 pm, which was initiated by a call he made to Kyle’s phone. We triangulated his location to the Soaring Eagle Bar. With the local tower ping cycle, the next ping would have happened an hour later, or when he initiated or received another call. But, an hour later, at 8:49 pm, there is no ping. And there are none until the next morning, Saturday, when it looks like he powers on his phone. At that point, the triangulation shows him at his house.”
“And what time is that on Saturday morning?” Roll asked.
Rushing looked at a note scribbled on a sheet of paper. “9:32 am.”
“And what about Hettie’s cell records?” Roll asked. “Did you get into those last night, too?”
Rushing kept his eyes on the paper. “Yes, sir. We analyzed the tower dump data from the cellular company. She makes a call to Jesse Burton at 9:15 pm, Friday night. She doesn’t connect the call, meaning they do not talk. We traced her to her mother’s house when she made that call.”
“She lives there,” Roll said.
Rushing nodded. “And then she makes another call ten minutes later, at 9:25 pm. This time it shows her location as Jesse Burton’s home.”
“Who does she call?” Roll asked.
“Jesse Burton again. The call does not connect.”
Roll scoffed.
“So, they don’t talk,” Milo said. “And our obvious question here is why? Why go to his house and call him?”
“Because she gets there and sees he’s not home,” Roll said. “That’s why.”
“Or he was taking a dump and couldn’t get to the door, so she called. Or he was taking a shower. Or they were angry at each other and he was ignoring her calls. There’s a million different reasons why she could have called Jesse when she arrived.”
Roll glared. “But there was no tower ping. He pulled his battery.”
Burton looked at Rushing. “Are you one hundred percent sure about that? That he pulled it and it wasn’t a malfunction?”
Rushing shook his head. “We’d have to get an electronics expert to look at it, but to me it seemed in perfect working order.”
“He had his battery pulled when you got down to Canyon of the Ancients and picked him up!” Roll’s face was red.
Burton said nothing and the room went silent.
“And can you track Hettie’s phone’s one-hour ping cycles, too?” Milo asked.
“Yes, and I did,” Rushing said. “And it appears she was at Jesse Burton’s house all night from that point on.”
“Does she make any more calls?” Roll asked.
“No, sir.”
“And what is Jesse telling you?” Wolf asked. “Did you interrogate him last night?”
Roll shook his head. “He wanted a lawyer. Said absolutely nothing the whole drive back, kept his mouth shut until we threw him in the cell up in Montrose.”
“What about this fight we keep hearing about?” Burton asked. “The black eye and split lip on Jesse?”
Roll gestured to Sobeck.
“I was there,” Sobeck said. “On Friday night, Kyle, Jesse, and Hettie were eating at the Soaring Eagle Bar in town here. At approximately eight-thirty, Jesse and Kyle started throwing punches at one another across the table. All hell broke loose, and they went outside. I followed and broke it up, made them get in their cars and drive their separate ways.”
“You were there,” Burton said. “You saw this.”
Sobeck nodded. “Everyone at the bar did. A crowd spilled outside. Kyle was yelling at Jesse about Hettie. It was clear at that moment that Jesse and Hettie had been having an affair behind Kyle’s back. Kyle was screaming at Hettie, who also came outside. Calling her a slut, Jesse a back-stabbing son of a bitch, that kind of stuff.
“Like I said, I split them up. Finally got Kyle off of Jesse, who was giving Jesse quite a beating. I told Kyle to get in his pickup and leave, and he did. Peeled off, all pissed. And then, when everything calmed down, I told Jesse and Hettie to leave. They left in Jesse’s Jeep.”
“Agent Rushing, how about the weapon?” Roll asked. “What did you guys find out last night?”
Agent Rushing gave Wolf and Burton a courtesy nod. “We found a Barrett M107A1 fifty-caliber rifle equipped with a suppressor and thermal imaging scope at Kyle’s house. It’s definitely the weapon that killed Alexander Guild. And, before you ask, no, we didn’t find any prints on it.”
“Add that to the other prints we’ve found anywhere, and that’s zero,” Roll said. “Okay, anything else?”
“We towed Jesse’s Jeep from Canyon of the Ancients up to Montrose last night. The vehicle is waiting to be examined by my team.”
“When are you going to get to that?” Roll asked.
Agent Rushing shrugged. “I could have one of my team get up there later today.”
“Good.”
“What else?”
“We’re waiting on the DNA match from the blood outside Kyle Farmer’s house to the DNA samples we took from inside the house.”
Roll nodded. “What else?”
“I’d like to get into Jesse Burton’s house and check his drains for blood,” Agent Rushing said.
“I know. We’re working on the warrant.” Roll’s cell phone chimed, and he put it to his ear. “Hello? Okay, we’re on our way up…twenty minutes.” He pocketed his cell. “That was Pete. He’s back from the walk between Kyle’s and Guild’s.”
The room erupted in movement as everyone stood.
“Who’s Pete?” Burton asked. “I still have some questions.”
“Sorry, Hal, we don’t have the time. Oh, and did I mention I received a call from Senator Chadwick this morning asking how the case is progressing? Join the growing line of people looking for answers.” Roll looked at his watch, then clapped his hands. “Okay, people. Let’s get back up to Guild’s place and see what Pete has for us.”
Everyone walked out of the room, but Roll hung back. The man looked freshly bullwhipped. “Sorry, Hal. You see what I’m up against here.”
“How about we tag along,” Burton said. “Just a little observation.”
“You’re getting a little heated about defending your nephew already, Hal. It’s personal with you.”
Hal held up his hands. “I’ll stay out of it.”
Roll looked too tired to fight. “Do what you want. I don’t care.” He, too, left the room.
Burton and Wolf followed, giving the receptionist Cassandra a nod on their way out.
She ignored him, too engrossed in a hushed conversation with Sheriff Roll to notice.
As they left out the door, Wolf looked back and caught a glimpse of Cassandra massaging the sheriff’s arm, speaking what looked like soothing words.
Chapter 15
“Never did get to use that leverage,” Burton said.
“And if you want to keep tagging along in this case, I’d recommend you keep that leverage to yourself.” Wolf pressed the gas, running a turn light that had gone red. They were the caboose in a train of vehicles now flowing north on 550 at high speed. The highway twisted and turned along the Uncompahgre River, up and down, through groves of tall oaks and pines.
Burton gazed out the window to the east. “What is that blocky-looking mountain?”
“I believe that’s called Courthouse Mountain,” Wolf said without looking.
“I remember driving with my father up and down this road, so many years ago. He used to say the San Juans made it look like the sky was jagged as broken glass.”
Wolf remembered the story about Burton’s past from the previous night. Did Burton? He was wrenched back to the present moment as they rounded a blind bend in the highway. Up ahead brake lights blossomed, and the train slowed before hanging a right.
After the turn they passed over the river on a steel bridge, through a flat plain where cattle fed on bright green grass, and up into rolling hills. The view of the San Juan mountains grew before them. Red rock streaks painted the slopes of the highest peaks, as if Burton’s father’s broken glass sky had made them bleed.
“That it?” Burton asked, leaning into the windshield.
The pavement ended and they entered a cloud of red dust rising from the road. Brake lights glowed again, and they slowed and hung a left and followed a long drive up a gentle rise. An upside-down U-shaped headgate stood a quarter-mile or so ahead. They passed underneath without slowing, and on the way through Wolf saw heavy iron gates that had been propped open with rocks. At the top of the rise stood a dark brown house, measured in the tens of thousands of square feet by the looks of it, covered in gleaming glass.
The rumbling in the cabin ceased as they rolled onto black asphalt and slowed to a halt next to the other vehicles. Wolf got out and stretched his limbs overhead, spotting another Colorado Bureau of Investigation logo on an already parked sedan.
The air was cool and as clean as it got.
Once the cacophony of slamming doors ceased, the utter silence of the place closed in. Ridgway sparkled on the bottom of the valley, at the foot of the towering mountains to the south. A herd of antelope sprang across the verdant slope they’d just driven up, leaping over a barbed wire fence like it was nothing.
“The famous fence.”
Wolf turned to see Detective Milo standing behind him.
“See there?” Milo stepped up next to Wolf and
pointed, then swung his hand to the left. “The parking lot?”
Wolf saw a dirt clearing in the field up the road from where they’d veered off onto the drive.
“There’s the trailhead right there, leads all the way up and around the land.” Milo kept swiveling, keeping his finger pointed until he stopped at what looked like a wreath hanging from the fence.
“Hettie comes and puts flowers.” Milo walked toward the house. “I personally think she does it to provoke the guy as much as commemorate her father. She is her father’s daughter after all.”
They continued on, stepping toward the side of the house.
“And he was a fighter, huh?” Wolf asked.
“Oh yeah. A lesser man, or a smarter man, would have taken Guild’s threat to stop trespassing and gone home. Not Ray. I don’t think Guild knew what he was doing threatening Ray. I grew up with him. He was a bit older than me. But I’d seen him get into some fights over the years, and I tell you that man never came out the loser.” Milo stopped at the top of the rise at the side of the house and made a point to look into the distance. “Until now, of course.”
Wolf followed his eyes and whistled softly.
The mountains stretched left to right as far as the eyes could see. Before them lay a continuation of the gentle pasture, and the dense wall of pines Wolf recognized as spot from where shooter pulled the trigger, ending Alexander Guild’s life.
People in uniform and white forensic suits were milling about in the distance near the trees’ edge.
Wolf looked to the back of the house and saw a wraparound deck that overlooked all of the majesty before them.
“Not a bad spread.” Burton’s breathing was already labored. “Not enough you have all this to look at, you have to cut off people using it, too, eh?”
Milo said nothing.
“What did this guy do for a living again?” Burton asked. “Made military guns?”
“Heavier than that,” Milo said. “Stuff dropped from jets. Shot from naval destroyers.”
Sheriff Roll, Deputies Sobeck and Triplett, Special Agent Rushing, along with two others had disappeared into an open garage door.