Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries)

by Patrick F. McManus

  She responded with an exaggerated sigh.

  13

  FOR THIS TRIP TO THE top of the ridge, Janice hooked up a team of the younger dogs. The new team was enthusiastic, to say the least, and twice almost dumped the sled. Tully half expected to arrive at the top of the ridge sliding on his belly while clinging with outstretched arms to the back of the sled.

  “Whew!” he said, getting up. “I thought I was a goner there a few times.”

  “They’re a peppy bunch, all right,” Janice said. “But they’ll make a good team once I work them a little more often.”

  Tully dug out his cell phone and dialed. A woman answered. “Governor’s office.”

  “I’d like to speak to the governor,” Tully said. He knew she was thinking “Wouldn’t everyone?” but she said, “Who may I say is calling?”

  “Blight County Sheriff Bo Tully.”

  “One moment, please, I’ll see if he’s available.”

  “The governor!” Janice said. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  The governor boomed into the phone. “Bo, how are you!”

  Tully held the phone up so Janice could hear. “I’m great, Guv. How are you?”

  “Fair to middling, fair to middling. I’d be a lot better if I was up hunting quail with you.”

  “Me too,” Tully said. “But I’ve got a favor to ask.”

  He explained about the missing man and the avalanche and his need for Lurch. “So do you suppose you could have one of your National Guard helicopters haul him up to the West Branch Lodge?”

  “Good as done, Bo. He’ll be up there in an hour. The chopper can land in that meadow next to the lodge. I’ve landed there a few times myself. Give me a call when you get that mess straightened out.”

  “Will do, Guv. Thanks.” He pushed the off button.

  “Well!” Janice said. “I’ve never before known anyone who could pick up the phone and call the governor. And have him answer! Don’t tell me he owes you a political favor.”

  “Naw, politics don’t count for much around here. The guv’s a hunting buddy, and I know the best quail hunting in the state.”

  “That explains it!”

  Tully phoned the office. Daisy answered, “Sheriff’s Department.”

  “Hi, Daisy. What’s happening?”

  “Oh, Bo! It’s so good to hear from you so soon. When are you coming back?”

  Tully had long ago guessed that Daisy was madly in love with him, even though both of them tried not to let on, particularly now that she was in the middle of a divorce from Albert the Awful.

  “Yeah, I hate being stuck here, but we still haven’t found Mike Wilson dead or alive. Is Lurch around?”

  “Byron just got back from Horace Baker’s office. I’ll put him on.” Daisy never referred to Lurch by his nickname for fear of hurting his feelings. Tully couldn’t care less about his feelings, and Lurch seemed to appreciate it.

  “Hi, boss!”

  “You find any clues, Lurch?”

  “Not much. Only Mr. Baker’s prints on the whiskey glasses. Weapon was probably a .22 pistol. One shot to the back of the head. No exit wound. Looks like a professional hit. The bullet ricochets around inside the skull and does a lot of bad stuff to the brain.”

  “Old Man Baker would never let somebody he didn’t know get behind him,” Tully said. “I doubt he ever knew a hit man. The killer must be somebody he knew pretty well. Anyway, Lurch, I need you up here pronto. Along with your usual kit of potions and the like, bring something that will let you take impressions of boot prints in the snow.”

  “I thought the avalanche had closed the road.”

  “It has. A helicopter will pick you up at the Air National Guard station in about half an hour. Be there.”

  “But you know I’m terrified of flying!”

  “What’s your point, Lurch?”

  14

  JANICE DROPPED HIM OFF AT the maintenance shed, then took the rowdy pups back to their pen. Tully looked around the shed for Grady Brister and finally found him in an enclosed workshop at one end of the building. Grady had something in a vise and was pounding on it with a ball-peen hammer.

  “I didn’t know you also worked on delicate machinery, Grady.”

  The handyman blew out some sunflower-seed husks and gave the object a few more whacks. He turned around, frowning. “Oh, it’s you, Sheriff. What can I do for you?”

  “I’ve got my Crime Scene Investigations unit flying in by helicopter in a few moments. I’d like you to haul us out to the Pout House in the Sno-Cat.”

  “Yes sir, I could do that. But there’s not a lot of room in Bessie.”

  “There will only be you, me, and my CSI unit, three of us altogether.”

  “Your CSI unit is only one person?”

  “Yeah, we’re a small department without that many murders. I don’t count friendly killings as murders.”

  Grady and Tully rode the Sno-Cat out to the field next to the lodge and waited. Grady didn’t seem to be much of a conversationalist, so Tully drove his hands deep into his pockets and watched the sky in silence. He heard the helicopter before he saw it, sweeping in over the mountaintop. It landed a short distance away, sending up a blizzard of snow. A pale and shaky Lurch emerged from the door, dragging his aluminum forensic trunk after him. Tully ran up to help him. The chopper’s copilot came to the doorway and handed Tully a card. “The governor put us at your disposal, Sheriff. Give us a call if you need us. The number’s on the card.”

  Tully glanced at the card. Capt. Ron Stolz, Pilot, Air National Guard and a phone number.

  “Thanks,” Tully shouted over the roar of the engine. “I’ll do that.”

  He picked up one end of the trunk.

  “Well, Lurch, you look as if you survived the horrors of a brief helicopter ride!”

  “You’re right about the horrors!” Lurch shouted back.

  Tully picked up one end of the trunk, and he and Lurch carried it over to the Sno-Cat. He introduced Lurch and Grady.

  “So you’re the CSI unit,” Grady said. “I’ve never met one before.”

  “The much-abused CSI unit,” Lurch said. “Wow, this is some machine. Must be based on some kind of engineering magic.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Grady said. “But it gets us anywhere we want to go.”

  They climbed up into the cab. Lurch was even more impressed. Tully found any kind of technology to be basically boring. He glanced around, barely stifling a yawn. He pointed to two binocular cases hanging from a metal peg. “How come you need two sets of binoculars.”

  “Those are Mike’s. He does a lot of birdwatching, game animals, stuff like that. The one pair are Swarovskis. They cost a fortune, like twelve hundred dollars or more. The others are Bushnell night-vision glasses.”

  “What kind of birds does he watch at night?”

  “Beats me. He just bought them.”

  Ten minutes later they arrived at the Pout House. Grady remained in the Sno-Cat with the engine running, while Tully took Lurch around to the back of the cabin.

  “Those tracks on the left belong to Dave Perkins,” Tully told him. “Notice how they sink down deeper than the tracks on the right.”

  “Could be that Dave weighed more than the person who made the other tracks,” Lurch said. “On the other hand, maybe the temperature warmed up and softened the snow some when Dave made his tracks.”

  “Did I ask you to bring logic into this? Okay, I’ll try to find out if there’s been a change in the temperature. Can you make a cast of the tracks?”

  “Yeah, it’s tricky, but I can do it.”

  “That’s why the county pays you the big money.”

  Lurch laughed. He opened his trunk and began mixing a concoction. Once he was satisfied with the consistency, he poured it into one of the tracks.

  “There’s still good detail here,” he said. “Apparently, the temperature has gotten colder, if anything. Otherwise, we would have lost most of the detail. I assume yo
u’re thinking about matching it up with the boots of the person.”

  “Actually, Lurch, we don’t have the person and we don’t have his boots. Otherwise, we have everything we need.”

  “Like what?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I hope I didn’t fly up here in a helicopter for nothing.”

  “Easy come, easy go,” Tully said.

  As soon as the mixture in the track had set, Lurch pried it up, put it in a box, and they headed back to the lodge. “We’ll get you a room, at least for the night, Lurch. They have a heated pool here, fed by a hot spring. I recommend you give it a try.”

  “I might just do that. Maybe it will undo some of the knots I got in that chopper ride.”

  Tully imagined the other swimmers leaping out of the pool when they saw Lurch dive in. Hey, there were certain advantages to his degree of homely. You got a swimming pool all to yourself for one thing.

  15

  AS TULLY AND LURCH WALKED into the lobby, the CSI unit suddenly said, “Hey, what’s that?”

  “What’s what?”

  “In that room over there. If it’s what I think it is, I want to take a look at it.”

  They walked over to the room. It was filled almost to all four sides with a giant box about a foot high. Protruding up from the middle of the box was a pointed mound, painted blue-green and capped with white.

  “Wow,” Tully said. “I’ve seen these things before but none anywhere near this big.”

  “It’s a three-dimensional topographical map of the whole county!” Lurch exclaimed. “This thing must have cost a fortune!”

  “Not all that much,” a voice behind them said. They turned to see Blanche Wilson standing there. “Three geography majors from Eastern Washington University made it as part of their senior project. The lodge furnished only the supplies. And food and lodging. They were a great bunch of kids, unlike certain college rascals I could mention.” She nodded in the direction of the WSU frat boys playing cards in the lounge. “Those guys were going to scale the steep backside of Mount Blight, but I guess the weather got too much for them. They seem to prefer sitting in the lounge and arm-wrestling. And drinking. I’m going to cut off their drinking pretty soon. Their rudeness and roughhousing have pushed me to the limit. I wish you would think up something for them to do, Sheriff.”

  “I’ll see if I can come up with something,” Tully said. “I should think you would be way past your limit by now, Blanche.”

  She glanced around, apparently to make sure no one else was listening. Lurch seemed intent on the three-dimensional map. “I’m afraid, Sheriff Tully,” she said, “you will think me about the most insensitive person you’ve ever met. I have tried to appear concerned about Mike, but I’m not that good of an actress. The truth is, I would just as soon he stay gone, although I don’t wish him any harm. I lied to you when I told you I didn’t think there was another woman. I suppose there could be a dozen other women, for all I know. It’s just that I can hardly imagine another woman taking up with him. Mike is a thoroughly nasty man. Scarcely a day has gone by since we got married that he hasn’t been mean to me in some way. Not physically, mind you, but just things he would say, which can be worse than physical.”

  “I suppose,” Tully said. “By the way, do you know anything about his business arrangement with Horace Baker?”

  “Only what was printed in the Blight Bugle. Mike never told me anything about the development or any of his other endeavors. I do know that he was very upset when the planning department turned it down.”

  “Like what?”

  “He about went through the roof. He was practically a maniac that whole week. Then he settled down, or as much as Mike ever settles down.”

  Tully wondered how he should tell her. There seemed no good way, so he simply told her. “Horace Baker was murdered last night.”

  Blanche Wilson seemed stunned. She staggered as she stepped backward and sat down on a bench. Tully walked over and sat down next to her. “You okay?”

  “I can’t believe somebody would kill Horace.”

  “He wasn’t the most beloved person in town. But we have reason to believe his killer must have known him pretty well. Apparently, Horace had poured the person a glass of whiskey and even let the person walk behind him. He was shot in the back of the head.”

  Blanche stared off into space. “You think Mike might have done it?”

  “It’s possible, I suppose. If he somehow made it to town without a car. You told me no vehicles were missing.”

  “That’s right. Was he killed after Mike went missing?”

  “I believe so. I don’t know the exact time yet. Can you think of any reason your husband would want to kill Horace Baker?”

  Blanche shook her head. “Not really. There were a lot of problems that resulted from the turn-down of the new development, but killing Horace wouldn’t have solved any of them as far as I know.”

  Lurch turned and yelled over to him. “Hey, boss, come take a look at this. It’s fantastic. It has about every feature of the county in three dimensions, right down to tiny cars on the streets.”

  “Listen, Blanche—you mind if I call you Blanche?”

  She shook her head.

  “We’ll get this thing straightened out. I’ll keep you informed about whatever we turn up. There’s no point in you worrying any more than you have to.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “By the way, Blanche, does Mike have any guns?”

  She laughed. “Dozens of them! I have no idea how many.”

  “Do you happen to know if one of them is a .22-caliber pistol?”

  “I couldn’t even guess. If you want, you can come up to our living quarters and take a look for yourself. He has a couple of large cabinets crammed with guns.”

  “I may take you up on that.”

  Blanche got up and walked toward her office.

  Tully let Lurch tell him about the three-dimensional map, even though Tully could see the thing for himself.

  “Look, boss, they even put in the West Branch Lodge.”

  “Boy, that is surprising, considering that the West Branch Lodge paid for it.”

  Lurch obviously wasn’t listening. “See, there’s even a little ski lift between the Blight Mountain Lodge and the top of Blight Mountain.”

  “I hate skiing,” Tully said.

  “Me too,” said Lurch. “But you know something, Bo, we could really use one of these maps in the department. It’s got every road and trail on it. You can see the whole county in a glance.”

  “I suppose you’d like to make the thing yourself.”

  “I’d love to!”

  “I think maybe you’ve got too much time on your hands, Lurch. Maybe you need a girlfriend.”

  “I have a girlfriend. At least I used to have a girlfriend. You keep me so busy I haven’t seen Sarah in weeks.”

  “Maybe you need two girlfriends, Lurch. One here and the other in Boise.”

  “Maybe I’ll get a job in Boise.”

  “Not a chance. I’ve already told everyone there what a terrible CSI unit you are.”

  “I can almost believe that.”

  “You better believe it.”

  16

  TULLY HEADED ACROSS THE DINING room toward the table where Perkins and Pap were seated but passed Lindsay sitting alone at a table for two. “Mind if I join you?” he asked.

  “Please do, Sheriff. Say, is it all right if I call you Bo? After all, we’ve already been intimate.”

  Tully had started to spread the large linen napkin across his lap. His head jerked and he leaned across the table. “We have not been intimate, Lindsay!” he hissed.

  “Of course we’ve been intimate!”

  “Shhh! Not so loud! And we have not been intimate!”

  “You carried me naked up the side of a mountain! If that’s not intimate, Bo, I don’t know what is.”

  “You weren’t naked!” Tully hissed at her. “I had you wrapped up in my co
at!”

  “Yeah, well, my bare heinie was sticking out. It practically froze. I think it’s still blue from the cold. You want to see?”

  “No, I don’t want to see!”

  Lindsay grinned at him. “I’m joshing you, Bo.”

  “You better be! I hope you haven’t told this story to anybody else, that you and I have been intimate.”

  “Seven or eight people is all.” She laughed at his reaction. “No, only kidding.” Then she turned serious. “Listen, Bo, I know you risked your life to save me. You were wonderful! Thank you, thank you, thank you. If it had been up to Marcus, I’d be dead by now.”

  “You’re welcome. But I have to tell you, Lindsay, I would have done it for any beautiful young woman.”

  She laughed. “I bet you would.”

  The waitress came over and they ordered. Tully took the Home Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Lindsay the Rocky Mountain Seafood Platter.

  Tully said, “Listen, Lindsay, can you keep your mouth shut?”

  “Sure,” she said.

  “Okay, I believe you. We’re all kind of isolated here at the moment. And there seems to be some pretty odd stuff going on.”

  “Like what?”

  “For one thing, I’m pretty sure somebody tried to kill Pap and me with that avalanche.”

  Lindsay expressed her amazement with a whispered four-letter obscenity.

  Tully went on, keeping his voice low. “I’m telling you now, just in case something happens. It probably won’t, but if it does I want you to know, so you can tell Herb Eliot, my undersheriff. Right now I think Mike Wilson is the culprit, that he started the avalanche in an effort to kill me. I’m not sure why.”

  “Geez,” Lindsay said, her eyes tearing up. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Bo.”

  “Look, there’s not much chance of anything happening. But there’s this very weird stuff going on. Right now we’re pretty much cut off from any immediate help. If you notice anything unusual at the lodge, let me know, okay? And if something should happen to me…”