Silver Wilderness Range Page 11

  Royce interrupted, “I don’t care what he’s done around the school. If he ever again speaks to those children, or any children, like that, I’ll be handing out arrest warrants. For both him and you. It is a hate crime. His words were racist. And I’m holding you responsible to see that those children are not being bullied. Or in any other way harmed.”

  Almost stumbling back, Jane moved as Royce walked toward the doorway. “I’ll talk with everyone. No need to be stern. Of course, we can’t do much when children have squabbles…”

  Royce spun around; her eyes were a few notches up from stern. “You’d better do much. Call together the parents. Send a note home with all the children. I don’t want to bring criminal charges. But you can bet I’ll do exactly that. I’ll roll you both up in warrants. Those children’s mother can bring a lawsuit against you. And she’ll win. And don’t ever, ever disrespect the mother of those children. She will not be vilified for making certain her children are not bullied.”

  “He’ll never say anything to them again. He said he wouldn’t. He’s a man of God, and a man of his word.”

  Royce walked away. When she got to her vehicle, Chance was sitting at attention in front of the vehicle door. “Hop in, girl,” Royce ordered. “Time to attack paperwork.”

  As she drove, the sheriff felt a desire to pound someone. Suddenly she laughed. There were so many candidates from which to select. Earl Harris, Jane Garnett, and the entire executive branch of the Silver Wilderness Center. With an embarrassed grin for losing her temper, Royce shook her head.

  “Chance, before paperwork, I should take you to a nice quite place, and let you run those paws. And maybe I could use a little nerve-settling jog myself.”

  Chapter 11

  “I tell you, Seth fell into a crevice, or maybe an old mine shaft we aren’t aware of,” Nick muttered. “Royce, you’re stuck in a grove on this one. We’re spinning our wheels. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve had deputies out there with search teams. He could have fallen in the creek and got carried fifty miles downstream. I don’t believe he’s among the living.” As the sheriff and undersheriff ended the deputy meeting and walked back to Royce’s office, he gave a huge sigh. “Some hunter will probably find the body. Or maybe the snow will bury him, and it will be spring before we find the body. But he’s not alive.”

  “You’re probably right, Nick,” Royce acquiesced. “It could be that he isn’t,” she agreed. “But if he isn’t dead, we’ve got to find him before the blast of winter-like weather hits. We’ll be getting snow soon. If he’s out there and it snows, he’ll certainly be dead.”

  “I think he’s a goner now,” Nick repeated.

  “And if he is, the chances are that he could have been murdered.” They sat across from one another. “Nick, if he was killed by someone, we need to find the body and the evidence before it deteriorates.”

  “Meanwhile, we continue looking for this ghost of a man. I agree, with all his flipping enemies, he’d could have been murdered. Nobody liked the duffer.”

  “Okay, I’ll take a deputy and we’ll scour the home he lived in. Talk to the Emmett couple.” Royce snapped her fingers as she questioned, “What were their first names again?”

  “Harriet and Barney.” Nick chuckled. “They aren’t high on my suspect list.”

  “Reason?” she asked with amusement.

  “He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Bumbling around, trying to figure a question out. And she doesn’t even know where she’s at. Coaxing anything from them is tough. They aren’t capable of pulling a candy bar heist. Interviewing them was dismal. She asked me three times what house did we want to search?”

  “Maybe he has another house we don’t know about.”

  Nick’s expression changed. His laugh seemed to explode. “Royce, I’m sure Seth’s creditors examined every square foot of Crystal’s property. And then donned a rubber glove to examine each of Seth’s orifices.”

  Royce chuckled. “Okay, why don’t I snag either Sam or Terry and go to talk with the blithering Emmetts?”

  “Take Terry. Deputy Sunshine is on a ticket writing campaign.”

  “You talked with him about his lack of tickets?”

  “I told him not to listen to sob stories.” Nick shook his head, then stood and put on his hat.

  “He’s all yours for the rest of the day,” Royce said. She suggested, “Why don’t you take him on a ride with you, and you show him how it’s done.”

  With an embarrassed smile, he half whispered, “Mr. Revenue will be on the road this afternoon. So, no speeding, Sheriff.”

  “No problem. I’ve got dozens of excuses for speeding.” As Royce left, she heard Nick playfully moan.

  ***

  Meeting with Harriet and Barney Emmett went fine for the first five minutes. Royce and Terry stood with hats in hand on the Emmet’s weathered front porch.

  Harriet grumbled, “We got work to do, so we should be hightailing it.”

  Royce countered, “Mrs. Emmett, we really need to speak with you about Seth Egan. It’s imperative that we find Seth.”

  “I know weather won’t hold up sending the snow,” Barney spoke solemnly. “But we talked with the other deputy. Told him all we know.”

  Royce attempted to get a fix on the Emmetts. Both in their early fifties, they looked as if they’d been a matching set for the entire time. Harriet and Barney both had graying hair. His was receding. Both had piercing blue eyes. They each stood about five feet tall. He was probably two inches taller. Both allowed many seconds between each word.

  “Do you have a key to the Egan home?”

  They looked at one another, which caused an automatic glance between Royce and Terry. Terry jumped in, “Your delay in answering makes me think you do have the key.”

  Barney shrugged. “We got us a set of house keys when we were cleaning out the house. I’d hired a couple of hands to do the lifting. We might still have the keys.”

  While he walked away, Harriet stood still as stone and gazed at Royce and Terry.

  With the few moments delay, Royce remembered seeing them a few times in town. She considered that it was funny about her knowing people. A few years ago, there was an amazing influx of people into the area. There were newcomers that she had maybe nodded to, or spoken with a few times. It was changing. Timber County was changing.

  But then she had also changed. Much of Timber’s solitude had disappeared, just as hers had.

  When Barney arrived, with keys jingling, he pointed toward the massive stone home off to the side. A small dirt path of a road led to the Seth home. Barney pointed the way. “You know this might could be breaking and entering,” he lectured. “I got two sets of keys. Can’t find the other set. It belongs to the bankin’ fellas. They took it over. Well, the people out at the Center, they was gonna own it. Mrs. and Mr. Austin were plenty perturbed about it.”

  “Do you think when they found out, they might have been angry enough to kill Seth?” Royce inquired.

  Harriet had been lagging behind, she quickened her pace. “Everybody in the area was made angry enough for that. Seth was an old devil.” Her lips pursed.

  Barney mumbled, “Now, Harriet, he did give us work.”

  “He even shorted us. From the beginning.” Her words were terse. She enunciated slowly when she was angered.

  Royce frowned a moment. “I’ve heard that he has his detractors.”

  Harriet and Barney continued trading glances.

  “How about you two?” Royce asked. “After all, he cheated you folks. You’re probably the only friends he had.”

  “We weren’t his kinda people,” Harriet answered.

  “And he wasn’t ours,” Barney added. “The only thing we ever did together is go hunting.”

  “Was he equipped with any survivalist training?” Royce interrogated.

  “Naw. He’s a smart fella, so maybe he could get on to livin’ in the wilderness. But I don’t think so. I give that a thought, that maybe he was
hiding out. But a fella needs endurance, and I’m not sure he has enough.” Barney firmly stated, “He’s got him a ticker problem.” Barney tapped his own chest. He mighta fell down a mine shaft, never to be heard from again.”

  “It is possible,” Royce said. “And you have no idea where he might have gone if he had endurance?”

  “Nope, not a clue. I’m guessing his bones have been spread all over the Wilderness area by coyotes.” Barney barked a laugh.

  “That seems to be the consensus.” As the front door swung back, Royce tried to find the light switch. She blinked her eyes and coughed from the dust.

  “There’s no electricity,” Barney spoke. “Ain’t gonna be put back on the market until everything is cleaned up proper and they try to sell it.”

  Royce and Terry retrieved their flashlights. Shining them in the darkened areas, the two women carefully walked through separate parts of the house. When Royce got to the bedroom closet, she checked the inside. Her fingers ran across the closet’s back corners.

  Royce called to Barney. When he arrived in the room, she asked, “Barney, you have permission to be in the house?”

  “Yep. Since I did the cleaning up. After the pod was filled, they said I could have anything else I found. Nothing but trash.”

  Royce pulled a flash drive from the closet. “So basically, you can take this, right?”

  “Yeah, but who the heck would want that thing?”

  “You’d give it to me?”

  “I got no use for it. You can have it.”

  When they returned, Harriet was waiting in the foyer.

  Royce quizzed, “Where were the furnishings taken?”

  “Don’t know,” Barney answered. “Folks from the Center had the big pod taken away. We thought we’d get some of the takings. But no. You got more questions?”

  “Not for now.” Royce and Terry walked back to the vehicle.

  Terry laughed “What would you have done if they sent the law in for us busting in like that?”

  “I’d explain that we’re not in the commission of a crime. And that we thought we might have heard someone in duress. Groaning. After all, we are looking for a missing man. Necessity. We were excused from criminal liability if acting under the duress of circumstances to protect life.”

  “I’ve heard of ‘necessity’ but never expected to hear it in Timber County.” Her laugh was strained. “While turning over a home.”

  Fortunately, Royce had Barney’s permission to remove the tiny flash drive she’d found on the closet shelf. Still, she wouldn’t want to in any way implicate her deputy. She would tell Terry only if she found any important information on the thumb drive.

  Royce turned the ignition key. “When we get back to Timber, and also in the morning, I’d like for you to call every pod company in the area. If they don’t have a record of any pods removed from this address, check to see if a pod was taken by Silver Wilderness Center. Also, check if the Center has purchased any pods. Clearing out the homes they trade off for their services might have required they buy a couple pods.”

  “I doubt that Seth would crawl up inside a pod.”

  “Probably not. But let’s keep a lookout for pods.” Royce slipped a butterscotch disk between her lips. She handed a candy to Terry. “When scouting for crime, butterscotch helps.”

  “I love it. Glad you carry the candy.” She paused, then asked, “Why butterscotch?”

  “It was what my dad liked.”

  “I’ve read stories about him. He’s a legend around these parts.”

  “Yes,” Royce agreed.

  “My brother was my parent’s favorite. Mine, too. When he was killed in the war, my dad stopped telling stories, giving advice. Everything. Now they’re upset with me for becoming a deputy. They wanted me to be safe.”

  “Everyone wants you safe, Terry.”

  “Are there any more mentoring tidbits I should know?”

  “Yep. When you’re in a shootout, always shoot to kill. It isn’t a tickling match.”

  Terry’s laughter exploded. “Ge’ez, you’re beginning to sound like Nick.”

  “Seriously, be very careful. Don’t take chances.”

  Chance’s head poked between them as the German shepherd stretched to see why her name was called.

  “At ease, Chance,” the two women said in unison.

  The remainder of the drive was quiet.

  Royce wondered what might be on the thumb drive. She was glad that she was tall. Chance whined, wanting her head scratched as she attempted to press through between the front seats. Her paws rested on the console. Terry tickled her topnotch.

  Terry sighed. “So, that was a wasted trip.”

  “We found out a great deal,” Royce replied. She planned to examine the flash drive in the morning.

  “Now we know that Seth had hunted the area. So, he might be familiar with the wilderness. But I think he probably died the first night when he escaped.”

  “When he was murdered,” Royce disputed.

  Terry teased with a smile, “Before that sinister night he croaked.” Terry’s gallows humor kicked in. “Sheriff, I understand your insistence that it was a homicide. With all the people that hated him, it would be a waste if he dropped over of a coronary.”

  Royce shook her head. “Plenty amazing. You youngsters certainly amuse me.”

  Chapter 12

  Mornings were dark longer. Dawn was only in its beginning when Royce and Chance walked around to the alley behind Molly’s Pantry. Royce was hoping that her informant – Plato, would be hanging out for a sack of Molly’s pastry. Molly always wanted to make certain the derelict had something to fill his stomach. She wanted no empty bellies in Timber County.

  “Bingo!” Royce exclaimed when she saw Plato leaning against a building. “I was looking for you.”

  “I hate dark mornings,” he moaned. “I was sorta waiting for your mom to toss me some crusts. And I’m needing smokes,” he responded with a crooked grin.

  Royce dug in her pocket and pulled out some tattered bills. “Got to keep my confidential informant happy.”

  “Sheriff, you’re gonna be happy, too. That fella, Rick Durant, you know Daisy’s cousin’s kid?”

  Royce leaned nearer, “Yes?”

  “Well, he’s come to town finally. Checked in at the Eagle Inn boarding house. I was told that by the fella who sweeps up there. Rudy.”

  “That does make me happy. Anything on Seth?”

  “I reckon them deputies are right. I think he’s a goner, too.”

  “I surely could be wrong,” Royce confessed. “But Chance and I don’t think so. And if he is dead, I’m betting he was murdered.”

  Plato shifted, then his frown lifted. “I remember old Seth told me about the Center out there a killin’ folks.”

  “Killing folks?” Royce paused.

  “He accused them of killing folks. He even tells me that he overheard the doc tellin’ a guy how there is some killin’ drug that made it hard to discover in bodies. Tells that too much of it kills nice and clean. But the other guy said that they’d probably have ‘em cremated. Unless the family pitched a fit.”

  Plato’s voice lowered, “Seth claims it is called sucky-lynch…”

  Royce frowned. “Succinylcholine?”

  “Might be so, but I don’t rightly recall. Makes ‘em stop breathin’ and all.”

  Royce recalled having heard about this drug having been used in murders. It was a neuromuscular blocking agent used as an adjunct to surgical anesthesia. A muscle relaxant for surgery, or when a patient is on a breathing machine. Too much is deadly. Difficult to detect. That was probably what Seth had heard. But what patients.

  “Plato, did he name any patients?”

  “Naw. He might a been bullshittin’ like always. But if it happened, it was probably old folks with no one caring.”

  Royce swallowed. She’d been to the Center dozens of time to visit with some of the elderly people she knew. And she would take Gran to visit he
r friends. Royce asked herself why she hadn’t snooped around. Questioned folks. But what would they have told her. People were frightened to talk now, and certainly would have been then. The sheriff felt guilty that she hadn’t investigated. Maybe there would have been something she could have done.

  “If you can think of anything else, let me know. Good work, Plato. And keep a lookout for Seth.”

  “I’ll put five bucks on he’s been et up by a bear.”

  Something told Royce that Seth might well have been munched up by a grizzly. And that he probably would have given the bear indigestion.

  ***

  After stopping a few minutes at Molly’s, and telling Molly that Plato was awaiting his breakfast, Royce boxed up some donuts and Danish for the Deputy’s meeting. Wanda was at the dispatch desk. Exchanging hellos, Royce put the pastry down on the counter. She told the dispatcher, “I’ll be in my office for a few minutes. Then I’ll be out for a while. Please ask Nick if he’ll handle the meeting. I’ll be in touch later.”

  Royce opened her computer. She pulled the flash drive that she’d obtained from Seth’s closet from her pocket. As she loaded it and awaited the file to emerge, her whisper was brief, “Goddess of Enforcers, please let there be something important on this.”

  There were two files. One had a precarious looking padlock over it. The other looked as though it might be no problem at all to open. Clicking on the file felt magical as she saw a list of names appear. There were some names she knew. Some she did not. One stuck out. Larry Austin. That meant that the list might have been Seth’s financial victims. Royce printed up three copies. One for her, one for Nick, and the other for D.A. Mike Parker. She then emailed the file to Lyn Evans.