Winter Prey

by John Sandford

  "Everybody in town would know about it in ten minutes ," Weather said.

  "They know my car, they know your schedule... if there were lights in your place when you're supposed to be working, they'd be calling the cops."

  "Yeah."

  "I'm okay here as long as you guys are around," Weather said, looking from one of them to the other.

  When Climpt had gone, Weather took Lucas by the collar, kissed him, and said, "Show me the picture."

  He got his coat and handed it to her.

  "Quite the display," she said, peering at it. She shook her head.

  "I've probably got thirty patients who look more or less like that-the belly and the fat butt. How do you identify them from that?" She shook her head.

  "You won't get any help from me."

  "Bums me out," Lucas said, running a hand up through IM his hair.

  "We've got to find some way to crank up the pressure. I thought there'd be something in the picture. If it didn't ID the guy, there'd be something."

  "I'll tell you one thing," she said, poking the photograph at him. "If Jim Harper was involved in a sex ring, I can't believe that Russ wasn't aware of it. If blackmail ever occurred to anybody, it'd be Russ."

  Lucas took the photo back, stared through it, thinking.

  Then: "You're right. We've gotta squeeze him. Squeeze him for public consumption. Maybe our asshole will come after him, or maybe Harper can put the finger on him."

  He wandered around the living room, touching her things: the photos of her parents, a Hummel doll, thinking. "If we play these Schoeneckers off against Harper... Huh..

  He carefully folded the photograph, took his billfold out of his pocket, and stuck the photo in the fold, where he'd see it every time he paid for something. "How're you doing?"' She shrugged. "I'm tired but I can't sleep. I guess I'm a little scared."

  "You should get out. Visit some friends in the Cities."

  She shook her head. "Nope. He's not going to get on top of me."

  "That's a little dumb."

  "That's the way it is, though," she said. "How about you.

  Tired?"

  "Stiff from the drive," Lucas said. He yawned and stretched.

  "When I bought this place, the only big change I made was to fix up my bathroom. I've got a big whirlpool tub back there. Why don't you go in and lay in some hot water?

  I'll put together a snack."

  "Terrific," he said.

  The tub looked like it might be black marble, and was easily six feet long. He half-filled it, fooled with a control panel until he got the whirlpool jets working, then eased himself into it. He found he could rest his head on a back ledge and float free in the hot water. The heat smoothed him out, took him out of the truck.

  The photograph had to be the key, and now he had the photograph. Why couldn't he see it? What was it?

  The door opened and Weather walked in, wearing a robe, carrying a bottle of wine. Lucas, embarrassed, sat up, but she pulled off the robe.

  Naked, she tested the water with her foot. She had small, solid breasts, a smooth, supple back, and long legs.

  "Hot," she said, stepping into the far end of the tub.

  She might have been blushing or it might have been the hot water.

  "What about the snack?" Lucas asked.

  "You're looking at it, honey," she said.

  Fourth full day of the investigation: he felt like he'd been in Ojibway County forever. Felt like he'd known Weather forever.

  Lucas made it into the sheriff's office a few minutes after eight. The day was warmer, above zero, with damp spots in the streets where iceremover chemicals had cut through the snow. The sky was an impenetrable gray. Despite the clouds hanging overhead, Lucas felt...

  light.

  Different. He could still smell Weather, although he wasn't sure if the smell was real or just something he'd memorized and was holding on to.

  There was nothing light about Carr. He'd been heavy and pink, even at the LaCourt killing. Now he was gray-faced, drawn. He looked not hungry or starving, but desiccated, 41 as though he were dying of thirst.

  "Get it?" he asked when Lucas walked in.

  Lucas handed him a copy of the porno magazine, folded open to the page with Jim Harper on it. "Is this it?" Carr asked, studying the photo.

  "That's it. That's what the LaCourts had, anyway," Lucas said.

  Carr held it to the window for extra light. Henry Lacey ambled in, nodded to Lucas, and Carr handed him the photo. "Who is it, Henry?

  Who's the fat guy?"

  Lacey looked at it, then at Lucas. "I don't see anything.

  Am I missing something?"

  ....... mom "I don't think so," Lucas said. Carr put his thumb to his mouth, began nibbling his cuticles, then quickly put his hand back on his desk, his movements jerky, out of sync.

  Strung-out. "When was the last time you had any sleep?"

  Lucas asked.

  "Can't remember," Carr said vaguely. "Somebody tell me what to do."

  Lucas said, "How tight are you with the editor of the Register? And the radio station."

  "Same thing," Carr said. He spun in his chair and looked out his window toward the city garage. "The answer is, pretty tight. Danny Jones is the brother to Bob Jones."

  "The junior high principal?"

  "Yup. We played poker most Wednesday nights. Before this happenedanyway," Carr said.

  "If you just flat told him what you wanted in the paper, or on the radio, and explained that you needed it done to break this case, would he buy it?"

  Carr, still staring out the window, thought it over, then said, "In this case-probably."

  Lucas outlined his proposal: that they go to the county attorney with the photographs they'd found of Jim Harper and get an arrest warrant for Russ Harper. They would charge Harper with promoting child pornography, drop him in jail.

  "He'll bail out in twenty minutes," Lacey objected.

  "Not if we work it right," Lucas said. "We'll pick him up this afternoon, question him, charge him tonight. We won't have to take him to court until Monday. We tell the Register that he's been arrested in connection with a pornography ring that we uncovered during the investigation of the LaCourt murders. We also leak the word that Harper's dealing-that he's trying to make an immunity deal if he turns in other members of the ring. And we tell Harper that we'll give him immunity unless the Schoeneckers come in first. Anything about the Schoeneckers, by the way?"

  "Nothing yet," Carr said, shaking his head. "What you're saying about Russ Harper is... we set him up. I mean, the charges wouldn't hold water."

  "We're not setting him up. We're using him to make something happen," Lucas said. "And who knows? Maybe he has some ideas about the killer."

  "If he doesn't, he'll sue our butts. He'll probably sue our butts anyway," Carr said.

  "A good attorney would get him in court and stick those pictures of Jim right-up his ass," Lucas said. Lucas leaned across the deck.

  "I'll tell you, Shelly, there's a possibility that the LaCourt murders and the Mueller kid and Jim Harper have nothing to do with this sex ring.

  Possible, but I don't believe it. There's a connection. We just haven't found it.

  And Weather said last night she can't believe a guy like Harper didn't have some idea of what his kid was up to."

  "We've got to do it, Shelly," Lacey said somberly. "We've got nothing else going for us. Not a frigging thing."

  "Let's do it then," Carr said. He looked up at Lucas, exhaustion in his eyes. "And you and me, we've got to go talk to Phil Bergen again."

  Bergen was waiting for them. Like Carr, he'd changed. But Bergen looked rested, clear-faced. Sober.

  "I know what you're here for," he said when he let them in to the rectory. "Bob Dell called me. I didn't know he was homosexual until he called."

  "You've never..." Lucas began.

  "Never." Bergen turned to Carr. "Shelly, I never would have believed that'd you'd think..."

&nbs
p; "He didn't believe it," Lucas said. "I brought it up. I looked at a plat map of the lake road, saw Dell's house, made some inquiries, and maybe jumped to the wrong conclusion."

  "You did."

  Lucas shrugged. "I was trying to figure out why you might claim that you were at the LaCourts' when you weren't, and why you couldn't tell us."

  They were standing in the entry, coats, gloves, and hats still on.

  Bergen faced them on his feet, didn't invite them to sit.

  "I was at the LaCourts'. I was there," Bergen said.

  Lucas looked him over, then nodded. "Men we've still got a problem," he said. "Me time."

  "Forget the time," Bergen said. "I swear: I was there and they were alive. I believe the killer camejust as I left-maybe even was there before I left, and waited until I'd gone-and killed them and spread the gas around, but accidently set it off too soon. If the firemen are wrong by a few minutes, then the times work out and you're barking up the wrong tree. And you've managed to severely... damage me in the process."

  Carr looked at Lucas. Lucas looked at Bergen for a long beat, nodded, and said, "Maybe."

  Bergen looked from Lucas to Carr, waiting, and Carr finally said, "Let's go." To Bergen: "Phil, I'm sorry about this. You know I am."

  Bergen nodded, tight-mouthed, unforgiving.

  Outside, Carr asked, "Do you believe him now?"' "I believe he's not gay."

  "That's a start." They walked to the car in silence, then Carr said wearily, "And thanks for taking the rap on Bob Dell.

  Maybe when this is over, Phil and I can patch things up."

  "I'm going to get Gene and take Harper. Why don't you catch a nap for a couple of hours?"

  "Can't. My wife'd be cleaning," Carr said. "That's pretty noisy. I can't sleep worth a damn when she's working."

  Lucas called Climpt on the radio, got him headed back toward the courthouse. While Carr returned to his office, Lucas found Henry Lacey talking to a deputy.

  "I need to talk to you for a minute," he said.

  Lacey nodded, said, "Check you later, Carl." And to Lucas, "What's going on?"

  "There're rumors that Shelly's having an affair with a lady at the church. I think I met her the other night."

  "So... T' Lacey was defensive.

  "Is she married or what?"

  "Widowed," Lacey said reluctantly.

  "You think you could get Shelly over to her house? On the sly? Get him a nap, get her to stroke him a little? The guy's on the edge of something bad."

  Lacey showed the shadow of a smile and nodded. "I'll do it. I should have thought of it."

  Lucas, Climpt, and the young deputy Dusty, who'd first talked to John Mueller at the school, took Harper out of his gas station at 4:30, just before fall dark.

  Lucas and Climpt ate a long lunch, reviewed the newest information coming out of the Madison laboratory crew at the LaCourt house, stalled around until the county judge left the courthouse, then picked up Dusty and headed out to Knuckle Lake. When they pulled into the station in Climpt's Suburban, they could see Harper through the gas station window, counting change into a cash register. He came out snarling.

  "If you ain't got a warrant I want you off my property," he said.

  -a -E "You're under arrest," Climpt said.

  A Harper stopped so quickly he almost skidded. "Say what?"' "You're under arrest for the promotion of child pornography. Put your hands on the car."

  Harper, dumbfounded, took the position on the truck.

  Dusty shook him down, then cuffed his hands. A kid who'd been working in the repair bay came out to watch, nervously wiping his hands with an oily rag. "You want him to stay open or you want to close down?"

  Climpt asked.

  "You stay open until the regular quitting time, and there better be every last dime in the register," Harper shouted at the kid. He turned and looked at Lucas. "You motherfucker." And then back at the kid: "I'll call you. I should be out real quick."

  'There's no bail hearing until Monday. Court's closed," Climpt told him.

  "You fuckers," Harper snarled. "You're trying to do me." And he shouted at the kid: "You're in charge over the weekend. But I'm gonna count every dime."

  On the way back to town, Lucas turned over to look at Harper, cuffed in the back. "I'll say two things to you, and you might talk them over with your attorney. The first is, the Schoeneckers. Think about them.

  The next thing is, somebody is gonna get immunity to testify. But only one somebody."

  "You can kiss my ass."

  Harper called an attorney from the jail's booking room.

  The attorney ran across the street from the bank building, spoke with Harper privately for ten minutes, then came out to discuss bail with the county attorney.

  "We'll ask the judge to set it at a quarter million on Monday , in court," the county attorney said. He was a mildly fat man with light-brown eyes and pale brown hair, and he wore & medium-brown suit with buffed natural loafers.

  "A quarter million? Eldon, my lord, Russ Harper runs a filling station," said Harper's attorney. He was a thin, weathered man with long yellow hair and weather-roughened hands.

  "Get real. And we figure this is important enough that we can get the judge out here tomorrow morning."

  "I wouldn't want to call him on a Saturday. He goes fishing on Saturdays, and gets quite a little toot on, sittin' out there in that shack," the county attorney said. "And Russ's station could be worth a quarter million. Maybe."

  "There's no way."

  "We'll talk to the judge Monday," the county attorney said.

  "I'm told that this gentleman"-Harper's attorney nodded at Lucas----@'and Gene Climpt have already beat up my client on one occasion-and this is more harassment."

  "Russ Harper's not the most reliable source, and we're talking about child pornography here," the county attorney said. But he looked at Lucas and Climpt. "And I'm prepared to guarantee that Mr. Harper will be perfectly safe in jail over the weekend. If he's not, somebody else will be sitting in there with him."

  "He's safe enough," said Lacey, who'd joined them.

  "Nobody'll lay a finger on him."

  Carr was in his office, looking perceptibly brighter.

  "Get some sleep?" Lucas asked. "You're looking better."

  -Three, four hours. Henry talked me into it," he said, a ribbon of guilt and pleasure running through his voice. "I need a week. All done with Harper?"

  "He's inside," Lucas said.

  "Good. Wanna call Dan?"

  Dan Jones was the perfect double of thejunior high principal.

  "We're twin brothers," he said. "He went into education, I went into journalism."

  Dan was all-state baseball, Bob was all-state football. I remember when you boys were tearing the place up," Carr said, his face animated.

  And Lucas thought: He does like it, the good-old-boy political schmoozing.

  "Glory days," said Dan. To Lucas: "Did you play?"

  "Hockey," Lucas said.

  "Yeah, typical Minnesota," Dan said, grinning. Then he turned to Carr and asked, "Exactly what is it you want, Shelly?" j Carr filled Jones in about Harper, and Jones took notes on a reporter's pad. "We don't want to mislead you," Carr said, just slightly formal. "We're not saying Russ killed the LaCourts-in fact, we know he didn't. But as background, so you won't go astray, we want you to know that we developed the information about the porno ring out of the murder investigation."

  "So you think the two are related?"

  "It's very possible... if you sort of leaned that way, you'd be okay," Carr said.

  "To be frank-no bullshit-we want the story out to put pressure on the other members of this child-molester group, whoever they are. We need to break something open, but we don't want you to say that," Lucas said. "We think there's a chance that Harper'll try to deal. Go for immunity or reduced charges. That could be significant. But we'd like to have it reported as rumor," Lucas said.

  Climpt was digging around on his desk, found
the porno magazine from Milwaukee, said, "You can refer to this, but you can't say directly what's in it," and passed it across to the newspaper editor.

  Jones recoiled. "Jesus H. Christ on a crutch," he said.

  he remembered, and glanced up at Carr: "Sorry, Shelly."

  "Well, I know what you mean," Carr said lamely.