Heat Lightning (15 page)

Warren shook his head. "Nothing to do with that. I'm providing security for the convention. I've got two hundred guys in it, armed-response guys, bodyguards. I've got plans for the whole works right here in my briefcase, and the Secret Service requires, you know--they require that we keep it all under guard. The plans, me, everything."

"So this doesn't have anything to do with Wigge?" Virgil was skeptical.

"No, no. This is strictly the convention," Warren said. "You think this guy, the killer--you don't think he'd come after . . . people who know John?"

Virgil shrugged. "We don't know what he's doing, Mr. Warren. So the security is not a bad idea. But you're telling me that you didn't know about this meeting, about what's going on. Wigge never told you anything about it?"

"I think it might go back to his cop days--he said the Mafia might be involved," Warren said.

"The Mafia." Virgil let the skepticism show.

"That's what he said."

"In Minnesota?" Virgil asked.

"The Mafia is here," Warren said. "If you don't believe that, I can't help you."

"I know it's here--I know both guys," Virgil said. "Their average income last year was fourteen thousand dollars, from delivering pizza."

They talked for another five minutes, but Warren didn't know what was going on; he wanted a few details about Wigge's death, shook his head when Virgil told him about the torture.

"Why did they torture him?" he asked.

"They must think he knows something. They're trying to find something out. I don't know what that is."

"Well, I sure as shit don't--"

The conversation was interrupted by Virgil's cell.

Carol said, "We got a break, I think. I got a number for you, it's a cop out in Lake Elmo."

VIRGIL EXCUSED himself, walked out on the front lawn, and called Roger Polk, who was in Lake Elmo, all right, but turned out to be a Washington County deputy sheriff. "The Liberty Patrol is on a run up to Grand Rapids for a funeral--"

Virgil said, "Wait, wait. The Liberty Patrol?"

"Bunch of bikers who provide security for the funerals of guys who get killed in Iraq. You know--they've got these antiwar church goofs who show up at the funerals to scream at the kid's parents? About how the kid deserved to die?"

"Yeah, I read something about that," Virgil said.

"The Patrol backs them off. Anyway, they met yesterday after work, and rode up to Duluth, sixty of them, about, riding in a pack. They're staying overnight in Duluth, and then they're heading over to Grand Rapids. One of the guys' wives is my sister-in-law, and she heard the thing on the radio, about Ray Bunton. She says that Ray Bunton was riding with them. She knows him. He's gone before."

"All right, all right. That's good, that's terrific," Virgil said.

VIRGIL SAID GOOD-BYE to Warren, trotted back to his truck, got out his atlas. Minnesota is a big state, but a good part of the northern third, where Bunton was heading, was vacationland: thousands of cabins on hundreds of lakes, surrounded by thirty thousand square miles of forest, bogs, and prairie.

As long as Bunton stayed on a highway, it'd be possible to locate him. If he were headed into the Red Lake reservation, as his uncle said he was, he'd be a lot harder to find. There was a history of animosity between the Red Lake tribal cops and outside cops, especially when it came to arresting tribal members.

And if Bunton weren't headed specifically to Red Lake, if he was planning to stop at one of the tens of thousands of cabins scattered all over hell, all off-highway, he'd be impossible to locate.

Best shot to catch him was on the highway and Bunton knew it--that was probably why he went up in a pack, using the other riders for cover.

VIRGIL GOT on the phone, talked to the highway patrol office in Grand Rapids. Because of the potential for trouble at the funeral, the Grand Rapids office knew where the Liberty Patrol was--still in Duluth. "They're eating down on the waterfront, making a little tour of it, picking up some Duluth guys."

"Do you have anybody traveling with them?"

"Nope. We're just talking to local deputies, who're passing them through," the Grand Rapids patrolman said.

"Have them take a look at the plates," Virgil said. He read off Bunton's plate number. "Don't be too obvious about it. We don't want to spook him."

"If your guy is in there, we'd have trouble pulling him out," the patrolman said. "Everybody's cranked about this funeral. We could have a riot here tomorrow, if those church people show up. We'd rather not have a riot tonight, busting one of the riders."

"So take it easy. I think he's riding up there as cover, so he can shoot the rest of the way up to Red Lake," Virgil said. "I'm coming up, I'll take him out. But keep an eye on him. If he makes a run for Red Lake, you gotta grab him."

"We'll keep an eye out," the cop said. "When'll you get here?"

"I'm driving and I got lights, so I'll be coming fast--but it's gonna be a while," Virgil said. "I won't catch them before they get there. Call me when you know anything at all."

"We'll do that."

HE CALLED Carol and told her where he was going; stopped at the motel, grabbed a change of clothes and his Dopp kit, but didn't check out; stopped at a Cub supermarket and bought some premade cheese-and-meat sandwiches, a six-pack of Diet Coke, and a sack of ice for his cooler. He packed it all up and headed north on I-35, lights but no siren, moving along at a steady hundred miles an hour, past the rest stop where he'd been at midnight--still cop cars where Wigge had been killed--almost to Duluth.

From there he hooked northwest through Cloquet toward Grand Rapids.

On the way, he got two calls. The first came an hour and ten minutes out of St. Paul, the highway patrolman reporting that Bunton had been spotted by a deputy who'd cruised the whole pack as they left Duluth. "Not sure it's him, but it's his bike."

"I'm coming," Virgil said. He was tired now, too long without sleep. Needed some speed, didn't have it.

When he was twenty minutes out of Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids patrolman called again and said, "Your guy is still with the group. They just rode into town and we picked him out. It's the guy in your pictures. He's wearing a bright red shirt with a black do-rag on his head. Easy to track."

TOM HUNT, the state trooper, was waiting on the shoulder of the road just south of town. Virgil followed him into the patrol station, where Hunt transferred to Virgil's truck, tossing a shoulder pack in the backseat. "Saw him myself," Hunt said. Hunt was a sandy-haired man with wire-rimmed glasses, dressed in khaki slacks and a short-sleeved shirt. He looked more like a junior high teacher than a cop. "He wasn't trying to hide. He was like the third guy in line."

"Well, nobody ever said he was the brightest guy in the world," Virgil said.

Hunt looked out the side window and said, "Huh."

Virgil grinned. "So what you're wondering is, if he's so damn dumb, how'd he kick my ass?"

"Well, I figure, shit happens," Hunt said, being polite.

"Truth is, we were having a little talk--polite, not unfriendly," Virgil explained. "And he's an old guy. Got me looking in the wrong direction and sucker-punched me. He's old, but he's got a good right hand."

THE LIBERTY PATROL had taken a block of rooms at an AmericInn, but after checking in had begun heading out to Veterans Memorial Park for an afternoon barbecue. Hunt directed Virgil through town to the park, which was built on the banks of the Mississippi. They left the car a block away, Hunt got the shoulder pack out of the backseat, and they ambled on down the street, cut through a copse of trees, onto a low mound covered with pine needles, the fragrance of pine sap all about them. Another guy was there, leaning on a tree. He turned when he heard them coming, and as they came up, Hunt said to Virgil, "Josh Anderson, Grand Rapids PD."

"He's still down there," Anderson said. "Got a beer, over by the barbecue."

The bikers were a hundred yards away, their bikes on one side of a pavilion, a few women clustered around a couple of picnic tables on the other side, the guys around two smoking barbecue pans. The afternoon breeze was coming at them, and Virgil could smell the brats and sweet corn, and the fishy scent of the river. Hunt unslung the pack, took out a pair of binoculars, looked over the gathering. After a moment, he said, "Huh," just like he had in the car. A rime of skepticism.

"What?" Virgil asked.

"There's a guy in a red shirt and a black do-rag . . . but he sort of doesn't look exactly like the guy I saw."

"Let me look." Virgil took the glasses and scanned the gathering, found the man in the red shirt, studied him, took the glasses down, and said, "We're too far away. We need a closer look."

Hunt asked, "You want more backup?"

"Ah . . . nah. If it's him, and he sees me, he'll either run or try to get the other guys to back him up. These other guys--they're not bad guys. I don't think they'll have a problem with an arrest for assault on a cop. And if he runs . . . we'll take him."

Anderson, the Grand Rapids cop, took a radio out of his pocket. "We've got a couple more guys around. We got a car across the bridge, we could block that."

"Do that," Virgil said.

ANDERSON MADE A CALL, then the three of them walked down to the pavilion. Something about cops, Virgil thought, got everybody looking your way. By the time they got to the group, most of the men were looking at them, but not the guy in the red shirt. He'd turned his back. Virgil let Hunt take the lead. He produced an ID and asked a guy, "Is there somebody in charge? We've had an issue come up. . . ."

While he was talking, Virgil walked over to the barbecue to get a closer look at the man in the shirt. As he walked around him, the guy first looked away, then glanced up. Not Bunton. But Bunton had been there--the way the guy looked at Virgil, half defiant, half placating, meant that he was wearing the red shirt and do-rag as a decoy. Virgil could see it in his eyes.

Virgil said, "Goddamnit," and turned and walked back to Hunt, who was talking to a gaunt, gray-bearded man who must have been pushing seventy.

"Darrell Johnson," Hunt said when Virgil came up. "He's the president."

Virgil stepped close to Johnson. "How long ago did he leave? Is he on his bike?"

Johnson's eyes shifted and he started, "You know . . ."

"Darrell, don't give us any trouble," Virgil said. "There's a felony warrant out on Bunton. I'm amazed you don't know--it's been all over the radio and television."

"We been ridin'. We didn't know," Johnson said.

"It's part of an investigation into the murders of four people-- including the three guys whose bodies got dumped on the veterans' memorials. You know about those? I guess the question is, are you guys only going to funerals? Or are you manufacturing them?"

Johnson sputtered, "What're you talking about? We didn't know Ray had anything to do with that. He said it was traffic tickets."

"It's murder, Darrell," Virgil said. "When did he leave?"

A couple more bikers had eased up to the conversation, including a woman with a plastic bowl of potato salad. Before Johnson could answer, one of the other bikers said, "I told you he was bad news. Something was up."

Johnson said, "Look, we came up here for this funeral. Those crazies are coming up, and we're gonna get between them and this boy who got killed."

Virgil said, "I'm a veteran, Darrell. I appreciate what you do. But we got four bodies. We gotta deal with that."

Johnson nodded, and sighed. "He got out of here probably fifteen minutes after we rode in. He went out the back. He said he was meeting a friend here."

"You see the friend?"

A few more of the bikers had stepped up. "I did," one of them said. "He was driving a piece-of-shit old white Astro van. Said something on the side about carpet service. Somebody's carpet-cleaning service. I think they put the bike inside of it."

Virgil nodded. "Thanks for that. Now, could you ask this guy in the red shirt to come over here? We don't want to disturb anybody, but we need to talk."

The guy in the red shirt was named Bill Schmidt. "He said he was dodging parking tickets," Schmidt said, not quite whining. "I don't know anything about any murders. He said the cops had a scofflaw warrant out for him."

Schmidt said Bunton was headed for the res, that a cousin had picked him up. He asked, "Are you gonna arrest me?"

"Not unless I find out you're holding something back," Virgil said. "This is serious stuff, Bill."

"He said traffic tickets . . ."

Virgil looked at Hunt: "He sucker punched me again."

VIRGIL LEFT Hunt and the others in Grand Rapids, put the truck on Highway 2 and headed northwest toward Bemidji, and called into the BCA regional office. The agent in charge, Charles Whiting, said he would touch base with every cop and highway patrolman between Grand Rapids and Red Lake.

"We can't play man-to-man, we've gotta set up a zone defense," Virgil said. "We need to get as many people as we can, sheriff's deputies and patrolmen and any town cops who want to go along, get them up on the east and south sides of Red Lake."