Mountain Woman Snake River Blizzard (17 page)

Man
went through the plan of building homes f
or sale
and hiring the boys on at salary.  “
W
ith the way people are moving out to this area, w
e hope
to start a business building homes.  And you two would be a big part of that, if you’re interested.”

Both boys were leaning forward
with wide eyes
to hear the proposal.
  Both nodded.

“
I
’d need you t
o fence
off home sites
on the
south side of our
forty acres.  I want the sites a hundred
and fifty
feet wide and
three
hundred deep to allow room for a barn if the owner wants one.  Build them ten feet from the west side and twenty feet from the edge of the road.”

“How large will the houses be?” Roy asked.

“
Family-size.  We’d like to establish a nice neighborhood around here.  I expect Coeur d’Alene to grow and the need for homes should be steady.  If this works out and we produce quality homes at reasonable prices, they will sell.”

Kate returned delivering plates of food. 
“Sorry,” she whispered as she set Man’s plate before him.  “I’m low on supplies here.”

“Looks fine to me,” he assured her.

The boys both began to eat, even though they’d already had breakfast.

Man turned his plate so his eggs were in front and
the canned beans
w
ere
in the back.  “
You’ll both need to act smart and take charge when we’re off on cases. 
I’ll establish an account at D
&
D Lumber
and m
ake
arrangements with the bank
.
”

“Our company will be known as K&
M Homes,” Kate put in
, sitting at the table
.  “You’ll
be representing us, so you’ll need to keep that in mind in all you do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” both boys said, shying away from her stern gaze.

“Maybe
Cliff
could be our first customer,” Roy said.
 
“
He made a comment about a place to
live other than at his store. 
That is, if Mom decides to marry him. 
But,
from what he said,
I think he wanted more than just a building lot.”

“If he’
s interested i
n a larger place,” Man said, “w
e
would be willing to negotiate.
He might want
one
on the west side
closer to town and his store.”

“And, you never know,” Kate said.  “Maybe one day you boys can have your own construction
company
.  Shobert Construction.  That has a nice ring
,
doesn’t it?”

Dan only stared at her in amazement, but Roy laughed.  “That rings loud and clear, ma’am. 
It sure does. 
I can already hear it.”

Man and Kate laughed with him and they all dug into their breakfast.

***

The next morning, they woke to a bright sun shining.  Man went and looked outside.  “The snow is already settling with the sun,” he said over his shoulder.  “I expect by nightfall it’ll be down to knee deep or so.
”

“I hope so,” Kate said as she was busy making a fire to cook breakfast.  “Go do your chores,” she said.  “I’ll have food on the table when you get back.  I expect Roy and Dan will be back si
nce they showed up with it
snowing yesterday.
  They got a lot done inside the porch.
”

Man nodded.  “
I think they’re excited by the prospect of making a life for themselves.
”

“They need to,”
Kate
said.  “
I think their mother is moving on. 
I wouldn’t be
surprised if we’re attending a wedding soon.”

They had finished eating and Man was putting his heavy work clothes on when they heard a noise outside.  Kate went to look and turned back to Man.  “It’s the boys.”

Man went out to meet them and Kate pulled her coat on and went with him.  She was anxious to hear about Lucille.

“She’s feeling a lot better today
,” Roy said.  “
Mr. Landers brought over a lot of new clothes for her. 
It has been ages since
we’ve seen her so happy. 
She was
humming the whole evening
.
”

“What do you wa
nt us to do today?” Dan
asked
, his tone unusually sharp
.

“Take the wagon into town and
get the materials to finish
the inside of the porch,”
Man
replied.  “The snow is too deep to work on the fence, but if the sun stays out, in a day or so we can get back on that job.”

He was helping the two boys hook the mules to the wagon when a rider came into sight.  Man went out to meet the man.  It was a
police officer
.

“Chief Kincaid sent me out to ask if you and Marshal Kate could come to his office.”

“What’s going on?” Man asked.

“I don’t know.
I rode up to work and the chief came out and told me to ride out and ask you to come to his office.  That’s all I know.”

“Tell him we’ll be there as soon as we change clothes and saddle our horses.”

“Will do,” the
police officer
said and turned to
ride back toward Coeur d’Alene.

Chapter
8

Police Chief Coy Kincaid was waiting
by Assistant Chief Dunlap’s desk when Deputy Marshal Kate and Mars
hal Homer Manchester walked into the office.

The police c
hief shook their hands and gestured towa
rd his office. 
Dunlap stood and followed.   He closed the
door when everybody was inside.

“We have a sensitive
situation developing,” Chief Coy said.  “I need your help.”

“What’
s going on?” Kate said.

The chief gestured toward Dunlap and then at the door. 
Dunlap
tiptoed to the
door, pulled it open quickly, peeked outside,
and looked both ways in the hallway.

He closed the door and turned back to Chief Coy.  “It’s clear.”

“We may have somebody passing information
out of this office
,” he said.

He gestured to
everyone to sit
at the table.  He went to the end and sat before he began to speak softly.

“We have a potentially serious situation developing.  I sent a letter to Chief Marshal Meek asking for your help in this matter.  I got a reply this morning.  He concurred in your assistance.”

He handed the letter to Man.

Kate leaned over and
read the letter
.  It wasn’t specific, it simply stated that Marshal Man and Deputy Marshal Kate would give assistance as needed, but if there was a lead on Vasquez and Engledow,
the marshal
s would give that their first priority.

Man hande
d the letter back to the
chief and waited for
details.

He gestured at the door again.  Dunlap hurried to the door and jerked it open.  A
police officer
was kneeling at the door listening.

Dunlap grabbed the man and pulled him into the room.  “Cuff him and put him in the isolation cell and nobody talks
to him
without either you
or I
present,” Chief
Kincaid said.  “Make that very clear to the
jailer and assure him that he’
ll be in the cage if he disobeys that order.”

“You can’t do this to me,” the policeman protested.  “I was walking down the hallway and
dropped my pencil and
bent over to pick it up when Dunlap
opened the door.  I wasn’t eavesdropping.”

“Your pencil is in your shirt pocket, how did it get there if you were bending over to pick it up.  You didn’t have time to put it there aft
er I grabbed you,” Dunlap said.

The
police officer
was
silent,
as h
e didn’t have an answer.  “Who’
s paying you to pass information?” Chief Kincaid asked.

Again,
the man was silent.  “Get him out of here,” the chief ordered.  “I’ll talk to him later.”

“We’ll wait for Dunlap to get back,” the chief said.  “I want him to hear this and have his input.”

Kate glanced at Man.  This was the second time they had been involved in this type of case.  It obviously involved somebody important.

When Dunlap came back and took his seat Chi
ef Kincaid again spoke softly.

“As a way of explanation, I need to go back in time and fill you in on a few details.  The mayor of Coeur d’Alene is from one of the original settlers in the valley.  They acquired a vast amount of land and property.  This was handed down to Theodore Günter.   Theo, as he is called
,
married into
the Knorr family.  They are also affluent. 
They came here at about the same time and gobbled up the good land.
  I heard it got testy back then on which family got the most and better quality property.

Anyway,
going on with our predic
ament.  This is a tad confusing so
try to keep up. 
Theo and his sister-in-law were caught in a compromising situation by his brother-in-law, Elmer Knorr.  The wife's name is Evelyn and the sister-in-law is Rosalind.  Rosalind's husband is Hans Geyser. 
The Geysers are not nearly as affluent as the
Günter
and
Knorr families
, but they are con
sidered in the upper
class.

Here’
s the situation as of this
morning.  It appears we may be
looking at a divorce between Theo and Evelyn and
Rosalind
and Hans.”

“That shouldn’t be anything to get us involved,” Kate said.  “That appears to be a domestic problem.”

“It was
until
Elmer Knorr, the
brother who
caught Theo and
Rosalind
in bed
,
was found floating in the lake yesterday morning.
  A preliminary investigation indicated he was murdered and dumpe
d into the lake
.  The doctor said h
is death
was not accidental
drowning
.
  According to
gossip
, we could be in for a shooting feud between the
Günter
and Knorr clans.  A cousin to
Theo reported somebody took a shot at him yester
day afternoon.  The bullet clipped his leg, but we have been told
both sides are going armed now.  We want to nip this in the bud as fast as possible.”

“That I understand,” Man said.  “After all the trouble with the miners uprising, we don’t need more killing and shootings.”

“
The police department is caught in the middle of this with the Mayor of Coeur d’Alene on one side and a member of the city council
on the other.  That member
is a Knorr.  Both families have interest in a lot o
f business
es
and there are
Günter
s and Knorr
s on almost every important board
and committee,
including the bank.
 
I need your help putting the fuse ou
t.”

Kate gestured toward the door where the policeman had been caught eavesdropping. 
“Which side do you thin
k hired the stooge?”

“Either could
have
, but the odds are
Günter
.  W
ell
,
that’
s my assumption
,” Kincaid said
. 
“
Theo has always wanted
details of every case we investigate.  I’
ve suspected he knew too much about
some cases and the only source wou
ld be
an
inside
informer
.”