The Huckleberry Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (20 page)

“Etta Gorsich,” Susan said.

“You must be psychic!”

“No, I just eat at Crabbs too. Lester has a thing for me and keeps me abreast of all your comings and goings.”

“Lester!”

“You leave Lester alone, Bo! You give him any trouble, you’ll have trouble with me. Like with the bullet you just slipped into your shirt pocket.”

“Oh, don’t worry about Lester. I’ll leave him alone.”

“So, what’s it like, dating a fortune-teller?”

“As I get tired of repeating, Etta is not a fortune-teller. She’s an investment consultant. She’s a very nice lady and doesn’t discuss cutting up dead people while we’re having dinner. I’ve scarcely been able to eat a bite since my last dinner with you, and that was weeks ago.”

“Well, you needed to lose a few pounds. And even if you don’t believe it, I’m glad you found somebody.”

“Thank you. And I’m glad you found yourself a new pilot. The free airfare will be nice. See if you can get tickets for Etta and me.”

“What, there’s not enough room for two on her broom?”

Tully thought it quite inappropriate for an attractive woman like Susan to laugh so hard while standing next to a dead person.

He went home and slept for two hours. Then he stopped by Angie’s hotel to check on her. It was after two o’clock and she was seated in the café eating breakfast. He pulled up a chair across from her and sat down. “You recovered from our little adventure?”

“I just woke up! You, by the way, look terrible, Bo.”

“Thanks.” He picked a piece of bacon off her plate and munched it. A waiter came over.

“Would you like to order, sir?”

“Yeah, I would. I’ll have what she’s having.”

“Good,” Angie said. “Then I can consider that piece of bacon out on loan. So what’s happening?”

Tully lowered his voice. “I’m putting together a raid. We’re going to hit Orville Poulson’s farm tonight.”

“Tonight! What’s the big hurry? Give us a chance to recover.”

Tully eyed another piece of Angie’s bacon but she snatched it up and started nibbling it. “Well, when Stark doesn’t return—Stark, that’s what we think the name of the dead guy is—then the other two are going to get concerned. They’ll pull out as soon as they think the jig is up and they’ll take their hemp with them.”

“So what are you arresting them for?”

“Possession with intent to sell. A couple tons of the stuff, maybe more, that we should find at the barn tonight. And after we’ve picked up a bit more evidence, murder. Daisy has cadaver dogs on order for tonight. I have a pretty solid hunch we’ll find Orville’s body under the house. As for the huckleberry
murders, we might be able to hunt down Craig Wilson to identify the guys who killed his friends and shot him. I hope you’re going to stay and help me with that.”

She took a large bite of hash browns and spoke around it. “You’re pretty sure the marijuana is stashed at Poulson’s?”

“Yeah. Pretty sure, anyway. What better place than a barn?”

“So your sociopathic friend Crockett may be involved in this?”

“Yeah. In fact I suspect he’s the brains. And he was sitting there on a ranch with a huge empty barn.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“As I told you, Daisy has arranged for cadaver dogs to accompany the troops. A judge has given her a warrant to search the whole ranch, but the main place I want them to check out is the crawl space under the house. Poulson disappeared in the winter, supposedly on a trip to Mexico, and the ground around the ranch would have been frozen solid. I don’t think these are the kind of guys who would hack a grave out of frozen ground.”

Tully’s order arrived. Angie called in her bacon loan and nibbled it thoughtfully. Tully tasted the hash browns. Not perfect but not bad.

Angie said, “They could have stashed the body under some hay in the barn and waited for the ground to thaw in the spring. Then they could have dug an eight-foot-deep hole with a backhoe, and dumped the body in. I don’t think cadaver dogs would detect him that deep down.”

“Quit trying to confuse me, Angie.”

“Why don’t you just go up and use my room?”

Tully stared at her. “But I need sleep.”

She laughed. “I promise I won’t bother you. I’ll go shopping. I have a very strong urge to go shopping.”

Tully thought for a moment. “Okay, I’ll take you up on your offer. Wake me at six?”

“You got it, Sheriff. What time’s the raid?”

“We meet at my office at seven sharp.”

“Good. Are you bringing Dave in on it?”

“Yeah. Dave would never forgive me if I didn’t. He was pretty upset over the killings in the huckleberry patch.”

Angie gave him her key and he went up to the room and used her phone to call Daisy.

“Boss! I thought you went home. I just tried to call you.”

“No, I’m sleeping in town in the FBI’s hotel room. It’s not what you think, Daisy. It’s perfectly innocent. She’s gone! If you have any problems, call me here.” He gave her the room number.

“Innocent? This would be a first, then?”

He groaned. “Daisy, get real. We’ve got some serious work going down tonight. Have the deputies ready to move at six forty-five, all of them armed to the teeth and wearing their vests. You, too. I know the vest conceals your nice little figure, but we all have to sacrifice. The cadaver dogs ready to go?”

“Straining at the leash, boss. So is their handler, Gordy something.”

He yawned. “Good. I’m stopping in for a little visit with Ray Crockett about six-thirty. I’ll be there when our guys come in to bust the joint. Oh, and the FBI wants in on this. If we nab the guys responsible for the huckleberry murders, they’ll fall under Angie’s province, if they’re still alive. She can have them however they are. Have Ernie pick her up at her hotel.”

“Got it, boss.”

“Just remember, you’re the best I’ve got, Daisy.”

“How about the best you’ve ever had?”

“Let me mull that over.” He hung up.

AFTER TELLING THE plan to his assembled deputies, Tully drove out to the ranch. As he turned into the gravel road he could see the large white boat parked in an open-sided shed out back. The barn loomed darkly behind it. He went up the walk and knocked on the door. Ray Crockett opened it. For a fraction of a second, his face registered shock. Then the old Ray took over. “My goodness, Sheriff, what brings you out at this hour?”

“Business, Ray, business.”

“I hope you haven’t come to haul me in for the murder of Orville Poulson.”

“We’ll have to talk about that, Ray.” He glanced into the living room. A tall, slender, white-haired man was refreshing his drink at the small bar.

Ray Crockett said, “Sheriff Tully, I guess you and Orville Poulson already know each other.”

The man turned around. “No need for an introduction, Ray,” the man said, smiling. “Bo and I have known each other for twenty years or more.”

Poulson strode across the living room and grabbed Tully by the hand. “Wonderful to see you, Bo! Can I fix you a drink?”

Tully couldn’t find his voice for a moment, then croaked, “As a matter of fact, you can, Orville. Make it a large one. And while you’re at it, I need to call my office. May I use your phone, Orville?”

“Help yourself, Sheriff. It’s in the hallway.”

Tully dialed the department number. Fortunately, Daisy was still there.

“Hi, boss. We’re ready to move out.”

“Cancel the cadaver dogs, Daisy.”

“How come, Bo?”

“Don’t ask questions. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”

“Is the raid still on?”

“Yes. No point in canceling now.”

He hung up.

Back in the living room, Orville was seated in a rocking chair, sipping his drink, and Crockett was on a sofa across from him.

“I can see you’re as busy as always, Bo,” Orville said. “Your drink’s on the bar. Scotch straight up, as I recall.”

Tully picked up the drink and took a gulp. “Perfect, Orville.
Just what I needed. Yeah, I’ve got more than enough crime to keep me going. What brings you back?”

“A sad situation that you’re familiar with. A friend got word to me about Marge’s accident. True, we haven’t been on the friendliest of terms since our divorce, but we were married almost forty years. Happily married for about thirty. Those years become a part of you. I was shaken to the core by the news. Now Ray tells me the paper says there’s suspicion she was murdered. Is that right, Bo?”

“That’s right. And we have evidence, too.”

“Evidence! I can’t for the life of me think of anything Marge might have done that someone would want to murder her.”

Tully sipped his drink. “I can’t either, Orville. But these days it takes very little to get someone murdered, even someone as sweet and innocent as Marge. I think there are people who viewed her as a nuisance and were concerned she might draw attention to their little scheme. Because she hadn’t heard from you in a long while, she was sure you had been murdered and she was dead set on my arresting the person she thought had done it.”

“For heaven’s sakes, who did she think that might be, Bo?”

Tully glanced at Ray, who was smiling at him.

Tully sighed. “Well, to be blunt about it, Orville, she thought it was Ray here. She thought he had killed you and buried you under the house. She was after me constantly to arrest Ray for your murder, but of course, your body was hard to find since you were wearing it.”

Ray continued to smile and Orville shook his head. “She must have been teched, Bo. Maybe the divorce was harder on her than I thought. I know she didn’t like the idea of me trusting the whole ranch to Ray here, but shoot, I even trust my Social Security checks to him. He must have a dozen of them stashed away for me.”

Tully glanced at Ray. He had stopped smiling. “Sounds to me as if you’ve put a lot of trust in Ray.”

“Why not, Bo? He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across.”

A low rumbling came from behind the house. Ray got up, walked into the kitchen, and looked out a window. “Oh, it’s just some fellows who came to pick up their boat. They said they didn’t have any place to park it and wanted to know if they could leave it in your shed, Orville. I said, ‘Sure.’ Hope that was okay.”

“Okay with me,” Orville said. “There’s no walls on the shed so their boat’s not very secure. Used to be a kid around here who stole anything not nailed down, so I hope they didn’t leave any valuables in the boat.”

Ray said, “Orville, the guy who owns the boat is headed for the back door. I’d better step out and talk to him. Uh, Sheriff, is something wrong?”

“If you’re referring to the gun I have trained on your head, Ray, yes, indeed, something is wrong.”

Orville gasped out, “Wha—?”

Then came a rasping blast from a bullhorn: “Gentlemen, stand right where you are! Raise your hands, put them behind
your heads, lace your fingers together, and drop to your knees! Nobody move!”

“What on earth!” Orville said.

“No problem,” Tully said. “Just remain seated, Orville, and we’ll get this all straightened out. Find yourself a chair, Ray. This may take a while.”

Tully walked into the kitchen and looked out the back window. A large moving van had pulled in behind a white pickup. A deputy with a shotgun was standing over two men on their knees in the beams of the pickup’s headlights. Tiny moths flitted about them. Pugh was handcuffing another man, apparently the driver of the van. The man shouted something at Pugh. Not a good idea. Pugh said something to him. The man sat down on the ground. Ernie Thorpe came running from the barn. Dave Perkins was just getting out of his car. Angie emerged from the passenger side. Dave walked over to Pugh. Thorpe was waving his hands and telling them something. Dave shook his head. Pugh turned and looked toward the house. He wasn’t happy. He pointed to the back door. Thorpe came running over. Tully let him in.

“I hate to tell you this, boss, but there’s not so much as a toke of marijuana anywhere in the barn!”

“What!”

They both turned.

Orville was standing there. “Marijuana in my barn? What on earth are you saying, young man?”

Thorpe looked at Tully. The sheriff shrugged helplessly and nodded for his deputy to reply.

Thorpe’s voice was shaky. “Uh, we had a suspicion that marijuana was being stored in your barn, sir. But . . . but we couldn’t find any.”

“I should think not!” Orville said.

Thorpe shook his head and went out to talk to Pugh.

Tully heard the front door open and close. Then it opened again. He walked into the front room. Ray was backing in through the door followed by Daisy, who held the muzzle of her revolver practically on his forehead.

Daisy said, “I caught this fellow sneaking out, boss. I thought maybe you wanted him to stick around.”

“Good idea, Daisy. Where were you going, Ray?”

“With all the excitement, I needed a breath of fresh air. I was only stepping out to the porch.”

“Stay seated until we get this mess straightened out. Daisy, shoot him if he moves. Ray, what’s that moving van doing out there?”

“Beats me, Sheriff. I don’t need it. Everything I own will fit in my car. Maybe they got the wrong address.”

Orville said, “Bo, I hope you can explain all of this.”

“I hope so, too, Orville. What we know is that there was a large marijuana harvest near here and it had to be stored somewhere. For a number of reasons, we thought it had to be in your barn.”

Orville stared at him. “In my barn? Bo, I’ve got
three
barns on the ranch. The one right here, another out in the meadow, and one down by the river.”

Tully felt his jaw start to sag. “Three barns!” he said. “Just
one moment, Orville. I have to speak to one of my deputies.”

He stepped to the back door and yelled, “Thorpe!”

The deputy came running over. “There are three barns,” Tully said.

“Two more barns!” Thorpe blurted out.

“Yes, one in a meadow and one down by the river. Check them out. Fast! I don’t know how long I can go without my heart beating.”

Thorpe signaled two deputies to follow him. The three of them climbed into a department Explorer and roared off toward the river.

Ray shouted at him from the living room. “I think you’re supposed to have a search warrant, Sheriff!”