"The connection to a stun gun doesn't stop there," Lester continued. "This may be a stretch, but soon after Leppman started helping out the Burlington PD, he was on a ride-along with a patrol unit when they responded to a burglary. It was a sporting goods store, but heavy into personal protection. Among the things missing was a Taser-the store owner's private property, taken from his office. Later, when they caught who did it, the Taser never reappeared."
"Did everything else?" Joe asked.
Les held up a hand. "Like I said, this is a stretch. No, a bunch of it was gone forever, sold for drugs."
"But our boy was at the scene," Willy commented.
"And according to the case narrative I read," Lester said, "the Taser was the only thing missing from the office. Everything else had been out front."
"Was Leppman ever suspected?" Sam asked.
"No," Lester told her. "They had no reason to."
"What's the Burlington PD doing about him now?" Joe wanted to know.
That brought Les up short. He hesitated before answering. "I don't think anything. They just sent me the list of people who were in the building when the Taser went missing. They didn't even comment on Leppman. He's in the building so much, he doesn't stand out."
"If he already had the Taser," Willy asked, "why did he need a cartridge?"
To Joe, the question didn't have much weight. Every cop has to take at least one practice shot with a stun gun before it's officially issued. He was therefore surprised that Spinney had an answer.
"When it was stolen, the Taser didn't have a cartridge. That's one of the reasons it caught my eye. And since, as we know, every cartridge of that brand has a traceable serial number, he didn't want to just go out and buy one-not considering the use he had in mind."
"All right," Joe said, getting up from the windowsill and walking over to the coffeemaker. "So much for the Taser. What about the chemicals that Hillstrom's tox screen dug up-the fentanyl and the DS… DM…"
"DMSO-dimethyl sulfoxide," Spinney finished for him. "Both it and fentanyl are used by vets, especially large-animal vets. The Leppmans have horses, and Leppman himself is the one who rides the most. I made a discreet call to their stable, pretending I was shopping around, and got chatty with some woman up there. I couldn't get a lot of details, but I dropped Leppman's name, and she told me he was like a groupie, hanging around, asking questions and learning how everything's done. I specifically asked about vet visits, and she said the same thing applied-he loved grilling the vet and learning the ropes. So he had access and probably had or got knowledge."
"Why hit both guys in Brattleboro?" Sam threw out.
"And why move one of the bodies and dump him out of town?" Willy added.
A silence filled the room momentarily.
"Because Brattleboro's not near Burlington and Shelburne?" Joe suggested without much conviction.
After another pause, Willy shrugged. "I can live with that," he conceded. "Why the river?"
"If the logic works for one, why not both?" Joe countered. "For all we know, the original plan wasn't to have either one of them found in a motel room. Could be Brattleboro was chosen because of its distance, and the river so that not even Bratt would be pinned down-it would also make it look like an accidental drowning."
"Meaning something went wrong?"
"Could be. We certainly know both crime scenes were almost antiseptically cleaned up," Joe said. "What was Leppman's office like?" he asked Lester.
Spinney leaned back in his chair, by now feeling much less self-conscious as someone who'd dropped the ball. "I almost hate to say this, since I really do like the guy, but it was spotless."
"I've got a question," Willy asked generally. "Whatever happened to Oliver Mueller? I been out of the loop for some of this, but weren't we all hot and bothered about him at some point?"
Sam answered that one. "I put him on the back burner. He was looking good for a while-same kind of profile as Leppman, maybe better, with a history of violence-but he had alibis for both killings, and witnesses, too. I haven't written the report yet, but I'll spell it out there."
Joe took a long swallow of his coffee before finally announcing, "All right. We need to see about a search warrant for Leppman's computer before we put him in a room for a talk. And before all that, let's track his past movements-where he was when Nashman and Metz were killed being the big ones. Bring in extra help if you need it. Put everything about him under the scope. When that conversation takes place, I want all questions already answered and that warrant ready to be used. He needs to know that the only reason he's there is to confirm what we already know. Everybody good with that?"
Predictably, Sammie answered for them all. "Good, boss."
Chapter 24
Joe raised his glass and addressed everyone more or less gathered around the table, which really meant Leo, who was propped up in a rented rolling hospital bed nearby.
"To old returnees and newcomers alike," he toasted, nodding toward Lyn and her daughter, Coryn. "May you forever be welcome at our table, and may you forever stay out of all ditches. But if you've got to do what you've got to do, then speedy recovery and consult my brother and mother on matters of technique."
To the general laughter following, he added, "I cannot tell you how happy I am with this outcome. You two scared the bejesus out of me."
They were all back home at last, Leo having been released earlier in the day, with home nursing and physical therapy visits scheduled for the next few weeks. By pure coincidence, Lyn had said that Coryn was visiting from Boston, so Joe had brought them north for the day's major event, much to Coryn's satisfaction-she had wanted to check him out in any case, and now had been handed serendipitous access to the entire diminutive clan.
Joe couldn't be sure, of course, since he'd only just met the girl, but she seemed to be liking what she saw. Certainly, that was true for him. He found her genuine and honest and funny-a natural offshoot of her mother, all the way down to the same almost lissome frame.
Unfortunately, they weren't going to have her for long, since she had to be back at work the next morning and was driving south in an hour, leaving Lyn behind to spend the night. This was, therefore, a celebratory dinner for more reasons than just Leo's return to the fold.
The meal was easy, relaxing, and filled with laughter. Joe kept glancing at his mother and seeing in her expression the pure joy of a return to normalcy. The proximity of her own mortality, which, he knew, had loomed large in her mind with Leo's disability, seemed to have slipped back once more. She looked more relaxed and self-confident than he'd seen her in weeks.
By the end, when all except Leo were gathered by the door to send Coryn off with hugs and best wishes, Joe was back to feeling that his out-of-kilter world might be resettling on a more even keel. Lyn and he seemed on the right track, with her daughter's blessing; the double homicide investigation in Brattleboro was gaining credible steam; the source of Leo's accident had been addressed with Dan Griffis's flight from the area-even if for unrelated reasons; and Leo was on the mend.
Life had been worse, and not that long ago.
Later, in his old bedroom at the front of the house, with the walls glowing in candlelight and the two of them buried deep under old family quilts, he and Lyn made love quietly, with an ease and a familiarity that each found at once surprising and confirming.
But this peacefulness proved short-lived. In the middle of the night, Joe heard the phone ringing in the living room-an unheard-of occurrence in most rural settings, and a nearly guaranteed harbinger of ill tidings.
He slipped out of bed fast and focused, getting to the phone by its third ring.
"Gunther?" said a familiar male voice.