David Wolf series Box Set 2

by Jeff Carson

  “Not really. We still need to go back and take a closer look at the footage. I haven’t even seen it yet.”

  “Let me talk to Patterson.”

  There was a rustling and then Patterson came on. “Yes, sir?”

  “What did you see in this footage?”

  “I saw a man wearing a big cowboy hat, which covered his face. He purchased a candy bar, a gas can, and then took a book of matches off the counter. But I didn’t realize about the matches until later. Then we had a hunch and checked near the Brushing fire, and found the truck. There’re the same shoeprints here as at Ryan Frost’s.”

  “Definitely a man in the footage?” Wolf asked.

  “Yes … I’m almost positive.”

  “What about height? Weight?”

  “I can’t say for sure. I’d need to look at the recording again.”

  “Get back to the station ASAP and do that, please. And call me back.”

  “Okay,” she said, “but what’s going on up there in Windfield? What did you just tell Rachette?”

  “I’ll let Rachette relay it to you. Check the video footage and call me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He hung up and pocketed his phone. Climbing in behind the wheel, he glanced in the rear-view, knowing now they were being lied to by all three of them.

  Steven was looking at him.

  Wolf ignored him and shifted into drive. Then they were rumbling down the road back to Windfield.

  Chapter 25

  “You think she’s gonna crack?” Shumway asked.

  Wolf swallowed the half-cheeseburger in his mouth and sucked down a third of the grown-adult-head-sized Coke and exhaled. “I don’t know.”

  Shumway dug into the greasy bag and produced a box of French fries and pushed them in front of Wolf.

  “Thanks.”

  Shumway shook his head. “These Kennedys are tough. I don’t see any budging in them. But Mo Waters? I was watching her in the truck on the way down here. Felicia was trying to give her steely looks, like ‘we can do this,’ and Mo was ignoring her.”

  Wolf finished chewing a handful of salty fries. “That’s good, I guess.”

  Shumway eyed the clock on the wall. “Lawyers are coming from Ogden. Three o’clock now … that’ll put them here at six or seven. So, we have some time, but not much. Maybe one of the women will talk.”

  Wolf shoved the second half of the first cheeseburger in his mouth.

  The sound of Jet chomping on a bowl of kibble echoed from the front of the station all the way into Shumway’s office.

  “I think the location of the UrMover truck points to Steven and these other two,” Shumway said. “Ditched on the side of the road heading north from Rocky Points on the route to Windfield? What a bunch of dumbasses. I would’ve left it south, or east, or west, or just left it sitting there at the crime scene. Anything would have been a smarter move.”

  “It was burned out under a bridge on a remote road,” Wolf said.

  “Yeah, whatever. To the north. On the way here. And burning it? What if someone saw the flames? They would’ve been caught.”

  Wolf chewed some fries. “I think it means they had to burn it. They had no choice.”

  “Why?”

  “To hide something.”

  “Like what?”

  Wolf took another sip. “Like forensic evidence that would prove who’d been in the truck. Which begs the question, why take so much precaution with the forensic evidence and be so flagrant with the shoeprints?”

  “Yeah. And now we can’t find his shoes. He’s ditched them. So we have nothing.”

  “Or he’s telling the truth about his shoe-stealing coyote,” Wolf said.

  “You’re saying someone stole his shoes and committed the two murders with them on?”

  Wolf chewed another handful of fries.

  “Could have been the two women.” Shumway glared at his desk and went silent.

  “You gonna tell me what the hell happened up at that camp with you and Steven Kennedy?”

  Shumway concentrated on eating his fries. “You have a kid.”

  “Yep.”

  “Teenager, right?”

  Wolf nodded.

  “Yeah, but you have a boy. Girls are … they just …” Shumway shook his head. “They’re so damned hard sometimes. I don’t know what to do. She’s promiscuous. Do you know what a nightmare that is?”

  Wolf said nothing.

  “It’s tough raising a kid alone, right?”

  Wolf unwrapped his second cheeseburger. “Yeah, but you’re still not answering my question.”

  Shumway slapped his cup onto the desk. “I sure as hell am. Don’t you get it? She was screwing that guy we have in the holding cell. A married man. There. You happy?” He grabbed a handful of fries and shoved them into his mouth.

  Wolf ate the second burger in silence, then said, “You yelled, ‘It was you,’ and then you tackled him.”

  “So what?”

  “It was an interesting choice of words. So you knew someone was sleeping with her, and you’d been searching?”

  Shumway leaned back. “Bingo. Now can we be done with this topic?”

  “I’m just trying to understand the full situation I’ve walked into here.”

  “You think my daughter and Steven Kennedy being with one another has anything to do with this?”

  “Why is Steven Kennedy still at that camp? After that? Most men getting caught doing that would have tucked their tails and run. And he’d obviously been caught. That’s why he’s sleeping up the wash. Then there’s the DUI he got last year.”

  “So what?”

  “So that’s two very big strikes against him, and yet he’s still part of this university-sponsored dig. It’s like he’s … I don’t know.”

  “Untouchable,” Shumway said, gritting his teeth.

  “Yeah. Or something.”

  Shumway dropped his cheeseburger in the wrapper and lifted the trashcan off the floor, and then raked the rest of his meal into it. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

  Wiping his hands on his already dirty pants, he stood and walked past Wolf and out of the office.

  Wolf finished his third cheeseburger and fries, and then dug Shumway’s unsullied fries out of the trash and finished those.

  He’d once known a field surgeon in the army who would slap him on the back and repeat the surgeon’s maxim, Eat when you can, sleep when you can, and don’t fuck with the pancreas.

  Chapter 26

  Molly “Mo” Waters sat like a rock in the interrogation chair, arms resting in her lap and rarely blinking.

  Wolf pulled the wobbly plastic-and-metal chair back and took a seat. “We found size-sixteen shoe prints at our murder scene. We have our crime-scene techs looking to match those bullets we found in your camp to those that murdered two people.”

  Molly frowned but said nothing.

  “We just found Green’s body in the moving truck he rented on Saturday. The truck your two dig-team members took him to rent.”

  Her chest rose and fell faster now. Her eyes darted.

  “The truck was burned to a crisp with his body inside. It looks like he was shot, point blank with a .38 revolver, much like the one missing from your camp. We also found size-sixteen shoe prints. Converse All Stars. Steven’s size. He has these shoes, doesn’t he?”

  She said nothing.

  “And if we find him guilty, and you keep acting the way you are, you’re going to be charged as an accessory. What other choice do we have?”

  She closed her eyes and her mouth dropped open.

  “He …”

  “He what?” Shumway asked loud.

  Wolf gave him a sharp glance.

  “I’m pretty sure Steven left that night,” Molly said, looking like she’d betrayed her own mother.

  Wolf looked at Shumway again. “Okay. Just so we’re clear, which night are we talking about?”

  “Saturday night.”

  “Thank you. Can you p
lease elaborate? He left?”

  “When he and Felicia got back, he went to his camp. Later that night I was outside and saw his headlights. He was driving into his camp.”

  “Coming in the way we drove out of camp today?” Wolf asked. “The shortcut that leads to the wash, rather than going up and over the plateau.”

  She nodded. “I could see his lights as he drove in. Couldn’t see his truck, just the lights. I was outside, going to the bathroom. But it sounded like his truck.”

  Wolf nodded. “And what time did Steven and Felicia get back from giving Professor Green a ride to the truck-rental place?”

  “I guess four or five?”

  Wolf tapped a finger on the wooden table separating them. “And what time did you see Steven returning that night?”

  She shrugged. “Must have been midnight, I guess.”

  Wolf nodded. “Are you sure about that time?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  “Was Felicia with you all night Saturday?”

  Molly frowned and looked up at him. “Yes.”

  “Did you know where Professor Green was going with that rental truck?”

  Molly said nothing and lowered her eyes.

  “Was he going to pick up the second skeleton?”

  She narrowed her eyes for a moment but said nothing.

  “He was found dead with a full Allosaurus skeleton in the back of the truck, Molly. And Felicia said that she and Steven came back right after dropping Professor Green off at the rental-truck business. But we know from your testimony right now that they came back four or five hours later. What were they doing?”

  She said nothing.

  “Were they helping load up this second skeleton into that truck?”

  She closed her eyes and swallowed.

  “Where? Where did this second skeleton come from? Are there more people we need to be worried about? There could be more dead people, do you get that? Or they could be out there, the ones getting away with murder.”

  She shook her head a little, then a lot. “No.”

  “No, what? Tell me. We’re confused here. You don’t have to go along with Felicia and Steven’s lies anymore, Molly. They’re not here. Tell us. It’s the only way out of this.”

  She screwed her eyes shut and shook her head.

  Wolf softened his voice. “Do you think Steven did this, Molly?”

  She opened her eyes. “No. It doesn’t make any sense. He’d never even fired that gun before. He’s a wimp with it. Felicia and I have fired it, but he never has. And he’s telling the truth about those shoes. I haven’t seen him wear those things for over a month.”

  Wolf nodded. “Okay. So where do you think he was that night?”

  She looked at Shumway, then back at Wolf. “I don’t know.”

  Wolf stared hard into her eyes until she looked down.

  “We’re going to figure all this out,” Wolf said, “and it’s not going to go well for you if you’re hiding knowledge of who did this.”

  “I told you what I know. I’m done talking. I have to talk with my lawyer first.”

  Wolf checked his watch: 6:14 p.m. They’d gotten nowhere, and the lawyers were going to be there any minute to consult with their clients. Apparently, the legal team had made it clear to all three of them to not speak, because Molly was the only one who’d said a word all afternoon. Felicia and Steven had said nothing.

  Legally, they had another sixty-nine hours to hold these three, but they had nothing beyond circumstantial at the moment.

  Wolf tapped a finger.

  Molly Waters bounced her leg and her shoe squeaked.

  He thought of Cassidy’s tiny shoe prints next to her dead father and the heat rose in his face. He wanted to reach across the table and grab Molly by the neck, but instead he stood and walked out of the room.

  Shumway followed on his heels.

  As they reached the hallway they almost ran into Deputy Etzel, who held a wireless phone toward Shumway. “Sir, you have a call.”

  Shumway took it. “Shumway … yes. Hi Bradley.” Shumway looked at Wolf with narrowed eyes. “We’ll meet you at the gate in a few minutes.” He hung up and handed the phone back to Etzel. “That was Boydell. Levi Joseph still hasn’t come back to his camp.”

  Chapter 27

  Patterson reached her desk and pulled open the laptop. It whirred and clicked, laboring through a full minute of startup. As she typed in her access password she felt a presence at her back and recognized Munford’s perfume.

  “You told Rachette about the pregnancy test, huh?” Patterson said.

  Munford said nothing, so Patterson swiveled in her chair and looked up at her.

  “He … told you about that?” Munford’s mouth dropped open.

  “That’s your boyfriend for ya.” Patterson poked the power button on her desktop, beginning the warm-up process for her second computer. “In case you haven’t learned by now, Tom Rachette has the secret-holding ability of a five-year-old.”

  “I’m sorry.” Munford stepped into her peripheral vision. “I wasn’t being vindictive or anything. I was concerned for you. You looked very upset, and that’s what I was talking to Tom about.”

  “Whatever.” Patterson concentrated on pulling up the footage of the man in the huge cowboy hat.

  “What’s going on?” Munford asked.

  “Just doing some work.” She paused for effect. “What are you doing?”

  Munford narrowed her eyes for a second. “What’s your problem with me, Heather? What have I done to you?”

  Patterson’s face flushed and she tapped on her keyboard. A few seconds later she opened the recording. As she drew the video-player slider to the right, the interior footage flickered in ultra-fast motion, until she found the spot and pressed play.

  Cowboy Hat walked in and did his thing again—grabbed a candy bar, a gas can, paid cash, grabbed some matches, and went out. It was impossible to gauge a height because the man stooped as he left past the height strip, which stood inside every convenience store doorway for such an occasion.

  Smart bastard.

  Munford stepped behind Patterson and mouth-breathed over her shoulder. “Where’s Tom?” she asked.

  Patterson rolled her eyes and opened the exterior footage on her desktop. “With Barker and Hernandez up at the gas station. Trying to get some prints. It’s gonna be futile.”

  “Ah.”

  She pulled the video-player slider to the appropriate spot on the exterior footage and pressed play.

  Cowboy Hat walked out and went to a far gas terminal and ducked down behind it.

  “What’s he doing?” Munford asked.

  “Filling up ten bucks worth of prepaid gas.”

  She rewound to a point where the man was shown walking and leaned into the screen. His shoes were barely visible underneath the wide leg of his jeans, but they were unmistakable—Converse All-Stars. She took a screen shot of the man in mid-stride and saved it to her desktop.

  “He’s wearing the shoes.”

  Patterson flinched. Munford’s breath was on her neck.

  “Jesus, can you back up a bit?”

  “Sorry. I just heard about the case from Barker.”

  Patterson took a deep breath and continued with the video, taking note how carefully the man shielded his face with his hat.

  After filling his gas can, the man stood and walked away, out of the video footage forever.

  “Did you see that?” Munford asked.

  “What?”

  Munford came up next to her and sat on the edge of the desk. “If I tell you, you have to tell me what your problem is with me.”

  Patterson stared at Munford for a second and shook her head. “I don’t have any problem with you.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “What did you see on that footage?”

  Munford reached onto the side of Patterson’s monitor and fiddled with the dials. The screen went almost completely dark.

  “I saw shit footage. The con
trast is way too high. Rewind it and look again.”

  Patterson was intrigued because, now, the video recording was much darker and held more detail. Whited-out areas popped with shadow while gray areas darkened to black. The scene was sharper.

  Patterson rewound, and was astonished to see an off-white rectangle appear in the upper-right-hand corner. She picked up a picture of the truck they’d gotten from Windfield Moving Company and held it to the monitor. “The truck. The white side of it was washed out in the footage.”

  Munford showed serious gum as she smiled wide.

  “Okay.” Patterson felt like an idiot. She’d have probably gotten to messing with the contrast a few minutes later, but there was no ignoring the sheer joy radiating from Munford’s face. “Nice work,” she said.

  Munford leaned into the screen. “I saw the truck already. I want to look at the guy’s shoes. Rewind a little bit more.”

  Patterson pulled the slider back until it showed the man in mid-stride.

  “Check those shoes out,” Munford said.

  Patterson frowned. “I already said I saw the shoes. They’re Converse.”

  Munford looked at Patterson, as if waiting for her.

  Patterson shook her head and looked closer. The white fronts of the shoes had been almost completely invisible in the initial overexposed footage. Now they were light gray against an almost black background. And their true size became clearer.

  “This guy’s feet are huge,” Patterson said.

  Munford nodded, her eyes alight. “Too huge.”

  Patterson pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed Wolf’s number. It went straight to voicemail. “Sir, call me as soon as possible.”

  She relayed their discovery, taking care to mention Munford’s help, much to her delight.

  She hung up, then stood and paced. “Damn it. There’s shit cell service up there.”

  Munford sat quietly, then looked away and stood. “Okay. Well, have a good one.”

  “Wait.”

  Munford stopped and turned. “Yeah?”

  “I really don’t have a problem with you. I just … have a problem with what you … I really have a problem with myself.”