The Huckleberry Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (19 page)

“Shucks,” Poke said. “I’ve never been in this far on a dark night with some fellow shooting at me.”

Angie put her hands on her hips. “If all you mountain men will just shut up for a moment, I’ll tell you how to get out of here. See that line of dead trees over there? Well, follow along them until we see green woods. Then we’ll know we’re moving along the north edge of the swamp. We keep the green trees off to our right until we see Bo’s red Explorer.”

“That’s right,” Tully said. “I was checking to see if Angie had been paying attention, and by golly, she was.”

Angie rolled her eyes.

Two hours later they were in the Explorer and headed back to Poke’s. Tully paid him three hundred dollars in cash and they were on their way into town.

“What we going to do with the stiff?” Pap asked.

“Drop him off at the medical examiner’s.”

“You think that’s a good idea? In the old days we would have taken him out in the woods and buried him. Or we could have got some stones and sunk him in the swamp.”

Tully turned and looked back at him. “Have you forgotten we have an FBI agent in the car?”

“That’s right,” Angie said. “And I haven’t quite acclimated myself to the Blight way.”

“That’s a pity,” Pap said. “It complicates matters no end. Susan will want to know why we didn’t leave the body where it was until she did her examination.”

Tully said, “And I’ll tell her we would have had to pole the raft back out of the swamp, drive into town, notify her and her crew, then lead them back to the swamp, load them all on the raft, pole them out to the island, and—”

“Stop!” Angie cried. “I get your point!”

“So the way we’re going to work this,” Tully said, “we’re going to drop Angie off at her hotel, then we’ll haul the body to the medical examiner, ask her to get some prints off it so maybe we can get an ID.”

“Sounds good to me,” Pap said.

“I don’t think it sounds that great,” Angie said. “I have to file a report.”

“We’ll give you everything you need for your report,” Tully said. “You might have to write in a few gaps. You do know how to write gaps, don’t you?”

“Actually, no.”

“Well, I’ll teach you. Here’s your hotel.”

Angie said, “I have to take a nap, to get my mind working again. Just remember, everything in my report has to be the truth.”

“It’ll be the truth.”

“It better be. Otherwise I may find myself permanently assigned to Blight.”

•  •  •

Tully and Pap stopped at the medical examiner’s office. Tully went in and got Susan and two attendants with a stretcher on wheels.

“Jeez,” one of the attendants said. “He’s all bent.”

Tully said, “Yeah, well, you’d be bent too if you had to ride in the cargo space of an Explorer for fifty miles. Strap him down and he’ll flatten out nicely when he warms up. We just spent a night out in a swamp with him, so you can’t expect everything.”

“What happened?” Susan asked.

Tully told her his version and afterward said, “You understand that’s our story, sweetheart, and we’re sticking to it.”

“The usual, in other words. So what do you want me to do?”

“I can give you the exact time of death, so you don’t have to bother with that ugly stuff. You can do whatever you do, as long as you wait until I’m out of here. The main thing I want are the prints off the guy. Then get them over to Lurch so he can try to get an ID. I checked the guy’s pockets but he didn’t have a billfold. He paddled out to the island in a canoe, so there should be a vehicle somewhere near the swamp, unless he was dropped off by someone. In any case, this guy was involved in a large-scale marijuana operation. His pals are still out there running around and they’re very dangerous.”

“So you think you know who they are?”

Susan’s attendants were strapping the corpse to an examination table behind them. The sounds were ugly. Tully shuddered. “Yeah. They’re the same guys that killed the three kids up in the huckleberry patch. One down and two to go. The problem is, I just don’t have proof of anything yet. There are some watering cans and various tools out on the island. I may get Lurch out there to see if he can pick up some prints.
It hasn’t rained since the murders, so the prints should be okay. That way we can tie the murdered guys to the island.”

Susan laughed. “You’re looking for proof, Bo? Whatever happened to the Blight way?”

“That’s my fallback position.”

•  •  •

He dropped Pap off at his house, then drove over to the courthouse and went to the department office. The crew didn’t even bother to look up. He tried his special coffee pump. It filled his cup with dark black coffee that smelled wonderful. He smiled in surprise. He stuck his head into the radio room. “This is great, Flo. I like having a pump all to myself.”

She favored him with one of her blazing smiles. “Anybody else tries to use it, boss, I break his wrist.”

Daisy looked up. “Well, it’s about time, Sheriff. Do you ever think to turn on your phone, so we don’t have to worry ourselves sick about you?”

“No way you need worry about me. Old Tully knows how to take care of himself. We did have to kill a fellow who took a shot at us. Pap was lighting one of his hand-rolleds in the dark, and I guess the assailant took offense and tried to gun the old man down. I can’t say I blame him. Maybe he hated those hand-rolleds as much as I do. One of our party—not me—drilled the sniper through the chest. We’ve got some prints coming in from the dead guy, Lurch. You may be able to get an ID on him.”

“Great,” the Unit said. “I’ll check with Susan.”

Daisy said, “We should know better than to let you out unsupervised.”

Pugh asked, “You say you didn’t shoot him, Bo?”

Tully shook his head. “No, Brian, Dave did. The guy was apparently aiming for my father and barely missed him. Anyway, we ended up spending the night in the swamp. Now, Brian, I want you to put together a raiding party for seven o’clock tonight. Get Ernie and six other deputies. Make sure they’re well armed and wearing their vests. I’ll be back at four and will fill you in then.”

Daisy asked, “Can I go, Bo?”

“You bet, sweetheart. You’re a deputy, after all. But wear your vest. There could be serious shooting.”

She said, “You really think these guys are dumb enough to shoot, Bo?”

“I hope so. We’ll have Dave along. Give him a call at the restaurant, just to remind him, Daisy. He’s probably already sacked out, so give him a couple of hours. Oh, and be sure to inform the FBI. She’ll be at her hotel. What’s her name again?”

“Agent Angela Phelps.”

“Right. Tell everybody we’ll meet here at seven.”

He walked into his office and shut the door. After staring at his painted window for a moment, he dug out his tattered pocket notebook. Putting his finger on a number in the book, he sat down and dialed the phone.

“Yeah?”

“Mitch?”

“No, I’ll get him.”

Mitch answered. “Yeah?”

“You guys need to hire a receptionist, Mitch. The phone manners there are terrible.”

“I’d do that, if I was a rich sheriff. How you doin’, Bo?”

“Fair to middling. I spent the night camping out and every bone and muscle I’ve got is aching. But enough about that. I’ve got a stiff down at the medical examiner’s, and I was wondering if one of you sterling citizens might be able to identify him.”

“We don’t have any fresh kills, Bo, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Remember the guy who chased the little girl into your house and one of your guys laid down a line in front of him from an AK-47? I’d like someone who saw the guy to come down and see if the stiff is the same fellow.”

“One second, Bo.”

Tully could tell Mitch had his hand over the mouthpiece but he could still hear him giving an order. Someone shouted, “What! No way! I ain’t!”

Mitch said, “Red will be right down, Bo. He may be a little worse for wear but he’ll be right there.”

“Thanks, Mitch. I appreciate it.” He hung up.

Tully sighed and sipped his coffee. When he had drained the last drop of it, he wondered if Flo had got over her divorce from her loser husband. If so, she’d be a good prospect for a live-in housekeeper. On the other hand, he didn’t think he could stand listening to a woman constantly gripe about her
ex-husband. You need to let divorcées cool for about a year. He put both hands flat on his desk and slowly pushed himself up. He walked out into the briefing room and caught Pugh just as the deputy was leaving.

“Do we have Bev out of the hospital yet?”

“Yeah. She seems to be okay. I put her up at the Pine Creek Motel, on the county, of course.”

“I hope you explained to her that it is not a good idea to start turning tricks out of there.”

“That slipped my mind. But she talked about taking up a new trade.”

“Good. In any case, I want you to pick her up and bring her down to the M.E.’s lab. I want to see if she can identify our dead body as one of the guys that used to sit at her table in Slade’s.”

“You got it, boss.”

“See the two of you there in an hour.”

As he walked by Daisy’s desk she spun around on her little swivel chair and said, “Bo, you better go home and get some sleep. You look terrible.”

“Maybe. First, though, I have to stop by the medical examiner’s. One of the guys from Mitch’s gang is coming down to see if he can identify the body. Brian’s bringing our prostitute. It’s a party. Then I’m headed home.”

“Oh. Well, say hi to Susan for me.”

“You bet,” Tully said. “I suppose you know she hates me.”

“Maybe. But single desperate women can get over hate for a man pretty fast.”

He grinned at her. “I’ll keep that in mind, Daisy.”

Pleased to see her blush, he worried all the way out the door he might be hit in the back with a blunt object.

He was waiting in the reception room at the medical examiner’s office when Red showed up outside on his motorcycle, the machine apparently unencumbered by a muffler. He walked out to meet the rider. “Hey, Red, I expected you might bring along those AK-47s.”

“What AK-47s you talking about, Sheriff? Pugh picked up the only one we had. Mitch said for me to tell you we didn’t know what it was, so we used it for a wall hanging.”

“I see. Well, I appreciate your stepping in and protecting Jenny.”

“Anytime, Sheriff. She seemed like a real nice little girl. If one of the guys laid a finger on her, Mitch would have shot him dead on the spot. Well, I guess he would have taken him out behind the house and shot him there. He wouldn’t want Jenny to see any more violence. Not that Mitch, being a convicted offender, has a gun. I don’t want you to think that.”

“I’m sure you don’t, Red. Let’s go in and have a look at the body.”

Red raised his shoulders in a quivering shudder. “All right, but I really hate this, Sheriff. It gives me the creeps, having to look at a dead body. Still, it’s better than being one, I suppose. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“Really. I’d guess you’d made a few of them in your day, Red.”

“You got that wrong. I got no stomach for dead people.”

They walked into the lab and Tully introduced Susan to Red. Then she whipped the sheet back off of the dead man’s head. Red sucked in his breath and swayed back and forth. Tully grabbed his arm and steadied him.

Red gasped. “Cover it up!”

Susan pulled the sheet back over the body’s head. Red turned and lunged back out into the reception room.

Tully thanked Susan and followed him out. The man was pale and shaky. “You okay, Red?”

“I hate this kind of stuff!”

“Maybe you should take up another line of work.”

Red shuddered. “Don’t think I ain’t thought about it. I might even start at the junior college.”

Tully sat down in a chair next to him. “Good idea, Red. What do you think you might major in?”

“Arithmetic.”

“Arithmetic used to be a good major but now everybody’s got a computer that does the adding and subtracting. You might want to look into something computers don’t do, whatever that might be. So, did you recognize the corpse?”

“Yeah. He’s the same guy chased the little girl.”

Brian walked in with Bev. She gave Tully a big smile. The discoloration was almost gone from around her eye and she was much prettier than he remembered. She blurted out, “Oh, Sheriff! I’m so glad to see you. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful Brian’s been to me. Why, he even—”

Pugh gave her a sharp look. “Enough about me, Bev! I think the sheriff has a little job for you.”

“I do,” Tully said. He took her by the hand, led her back into the lab, and introduced her to Susan. The M.E. pulled back the sheet.

Bev gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “That’s the guy who hit me! His name is Stark. I think it’s his last name. One of the other two called him that several times. He was a mean one, but I could tell he was scared of the other two.”

Susan pulled the sheet back over the man’s face. “Cause of death was two gunshot wounds to the chest. One bullet went clear through but we saved the other one. You want it, Bo?”

“Naw. Oh, on second thought, give it to me.” She put the bullet in a tiny plastic envelope, sealed it shut, and handed it to him. He dropped it in his shirt pocket. He turned to Bev. “You getting along all right financially?”

“Brian’s been providing me with money but I need to get out and find a real job.”

“No hurry, Bev. Take it easy for a few more days and get on your feet.” He almost said, “instead of off them,” but caught himself in time.

The room suddenly erupted in a thunderous roar. Both Tully and Pugh reached for their guns. Then Tully said, “Just Red, leaving on his motorcycle.”

Pugh left with Bev. Tully turned his attention to Susan. “You happy these days?”

She smiled. “Do you really care, or are you just trying to be attentive?”

He laughed. “No, I really care, Susan. I want you to be happy. Anything new in your social life?”

“I’ve been out with another flyboy a couple of times. So far he hasn’t set off any chimes. How about you?”

“Nope. Oh, there’s one lady shows some interest in me. She’s very nice but kind of sophisticated. A little weird, too.”