On the drive to the mountains he took a call from Kendall. “Rifling matches,” Kendall said, referring to the gun Sophie led them to. “Or let’s just say the turnings are similar enough.”
“Anything on the gun?”
“Wiped clean with solvent.”
“So now you really need her to come across with more.”
“Yep.”
“Has she ever seen the rifle?”
“She says no. Nyland only alluded to it.” Kendall elongated the word alluded for emphasis and followed with his opinion that Sophie was systematically disassociating herself, the same point he’d made last time they talked. “We need a full confession from her and she’s dancing around the edges. How’s your daughter?”
“Shaken.”
“Keep an eye on her today.”
In the midafternoon Marquez hooked up with the team, and they trailed Bobby Broussard into the Crystal Basin, then to Carr’s Grocery, a general store and bar that had survived decades in a remote pocket of the Crystal Basin by selling the forgotten pieces of equipment, food, fishing lures and bait, maps, and, of course, alcohol. Pine wainscoting in the bar had darkened over time, and the yellowed walls above it were decorated with hunting photos of bear and deer kills, old black-and-whites that had yellowed with smoke and time. Proud hunters gripping antlers or lifting the head of a black bear laid out in the back of a forties-era truck.
Fish and Game was tolerated here, even liked by some of the younger family members that ran the business, and yet, Marquez felt that the place carried the presence of those who resented restraint or laws regulating hunting and for whom the rules changed with opportunity. But then, it had been years since he’d had a drink in the bar.
Bobby Broussard was alone at a table in the corner, his eyes darting from Marquez to the doorway behind.
“It’s legal to have a beer, isn’t it?” Bobby asked, grasping at a toughness he couldn’t own. “What are you people following me for?”
“I want to tell you what I think will happen to Nyland if we don’t find him first.”
“He ain’t going to no prison because he didn’t kill anybody.”
“Cut the hick talk, Bobby, and listen for a minute. You don’t want to become an accomplice and that’s the way you’re heading.”
Bobby grinned and lifted his beer.
“Did I say something funny? You know, Petroni was found,” Marquez said.
“The warden killed his wife and got what was coming.”
“What did he do after that, Bobby, drive out Howell Road where you’ve been milking bears, wrap himself in a hide, sew it shut with fishing line, and throw himself in a well?”
“What are you trying to put on me?”
“You’ve helped with the bear farms.”
“I don’t know about any bear farms.”
“Milking the bears puts you at Johengen’s where Petroni’s body was found. You can figure the rest out yourself.”
“Sophie said you’d show up like this.”
“There were thirty-two gallbladders in that barn, a lot of paws and hides. You’ll be locked up a lot longer than Troy was and maybe for a lot longer than that if you get named in a murder warrant. They’ve played you because they don’t think you’re bright enough to know the difference.” He paused a beat. “Nyland is going down. So is Durham, but you don’t have to let them take you down with them.” Marquez got his phone out. “I’ll let you listen to the voice mail I got driving up here. You’ve talked to Detective Kendall, you know him, don’t you?”
Bobby shrugged, took a pull of the beer like nothing he’d heard interested him. He smirked as Marquez called up the voice mail message and replayed it, pressing the phone to Bobby’s greasy ear. Kendall was talking about the murder warrant issued this morning. The county was going out to the public, maybe even as they sat here, warning that Nyland was armed and dangerous and wanted for questioning in the death of both Jed Vandemere and Bill Petroni.
Marquez pulled the phone back.
“When you kill a peace officer you get special circumstances.
If you call Troy right now, I’ll bet he’ll tell you police have been out to the house this morning.”
“They already been out.”
“There might be a way out for you still, but Nyland is going down. He’s in a lot of trouble, and Sophie is working with the detectives.”
“She talks a lot of nonsense sometimes. They’re meant to be together.”
Marquez knew from the way Bobby delivered it, that last statement hadn’t been his own. Maybe it was something Nyland had said to explain everything, but it sounded a lot like Troy talking.
“You’re not hearing me, Sophie flipped, she’s helping Kendall put the case together. She’s feeding the detectives information because she doesn’t want to go down with Nyland. She isn’t going to keep him supplied. She might make you think she is, but she isn’t and that leaves you holding the bag. If you can give me your exact routine at Johengen’s farm, what you did out there and who directed you, then maybe I can help you. And I need to know where the other farms are. Where are the bears now?”
Bobby grinned like that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, repeated it, “Where are the bears?” Then he stared and appropriate of nothing, said, “Supposed to snow tonight.”
“Is Nyland here in the basin?”
“You’re the one that doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Bobby grinned again and Marquez left him in the bar. Half an hour later they watched him transfer two sport-type zip bags from Sophie Broussard’s pickup truck. As Bobby pulled away and they got ready to follow, Marquez took a call from Kendall.
“Thought you were with your family,” Kendall said. “You didn’t say you were up here.”
“We followed Bobby Broussard into the basin, and he just picked up a load of supplies from Sophie.”
“She’s cooperating with us. So is Broussard. Nyland is somewhere in the Barrett Lake area and we’ve got people in there where the drop is going to happen, but let’s hope it doesn’t goddamn snow before we get him. All Bobby needs to do is drop the supplies and haul ass. We’ve got it from here, Marquez. This is ours now.” Kendall waited a beat and then his voice hardened.
“Are we clear on that?”
“Barrett Lake?”
“Don’t even think about.”
“You plan to arrest him when he picks up these supplies?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll see you coming.”
“There’s a SWAT team with a lot more training than you’ve got. You’ve got to stand aside now. I’ll call you after we book him. I’m serious about this. This isn’t even a conversation we should be having.” Kendall hung up.