"THE THING about framing Feur is…it might still work," Jensen said.
"It might," Virgil agreed. "A decent defense attorney will put Judd and Feur on trial, tie them to the Gleasons and the Schmidts. The Gleasons and the Schmidts did help cover up a murder…"
Jensen: "What?"
"I'm keeping some of it confidential," Virgil said. "But I'll fill you in later."
The three deputies looked at each other. "What are you going to do?" Big Curly asked.
"Nothing, right now. Just keep your eyes open and your heads down."
Little Curly stood up and said, "That's it?"
Virgil nodded: "Yeah. I'm willing to hold this talk privately-I'm not required to file a public report. But I really do think you should drop any election plans. It might even be a good idea to show some public support for Jim Stryker for reelection."
Big Curly said, "Shit."
"Six people dead so far," Virgil said. "Your relationship with Williamson would be a tough thing to come up, during an election year."
Big Curly looked around the courtroom and said, "There are things that ain't right about this place."
Little Curly interrupted: "Shut up, Dad." He said to Virgil, "It's a deal. We're backing Jim." To his father: "Let's go, Dad. C'mon. Let's go."
They trooped out, but a couple of seconds later, Big Curly stuck his head back inside the courtroom. "I'm sorry," he said. Then he was gone.
Jensen said, "Now what? I'm not sure that any of this will get a conviction…"
"I gotta run an errand," Virgil said. "I'll be back in the early afternoon."
JESSE LAYMON was sitting at the bar, eating a cheeseburger, talking to a guy with a flattop and a red face, whose arm was very close to hers. They both had beer glasses in front of them. Her ass looked terrific on a bar stool, Virgil thought, as he pulled up next to her and said, "Hello, darlin'. Am I late?"
The flattop guy gave him a drop-dead stare, and Jesse said, "Hey, Virgil." She pointed to the beefy guy and said, "This is Chuck, uh…"
"Marker," the beefy guy said.
"Marker, who is a deputy sheriff with Kandiyohi County," she said. "We have some friends in common, in Willmar. And Chuck, this is Virgil Flowers, of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who is trying to keep me from being murdered."
Marker straightened a little: "What?"
"She's the center of a pretty big…Say, you guys known each other long?" Virgil asked, looking from one to the other.
Marker picked up his glass: "About ten minutes. I better get back to my meeting."
When he was gone, Jesse smiled and patted Virgil on the arm and said, "That wasn't very nice."
"Well, I don't have a lot of time. I'm here to bullshit you into doing something that you won't want to do," Virgil said.
"Do I get to wear a wire?"
"Well, they're not actually wires anymore, but they're sort of like that," Virgil said. "Smaller. But I do want you to have a chat with Todd Williamson."
"He's called me on my cell a couple of times, but I haven't answered," she said.
"Eat your lunch: I'll get a cheeseburger. Then we'll give him a call back. I've got a script for you."
"You think he's the one?"
"Maybe," Virgil said. "Evidence seems to be piling up."
"You think he'll admit it to me?"
"Hard to tell," Virgil said. "Could be putty in the hands of a pretty woman…"
"Yeah, right." She held up a finger to the bartender. "Bill, please. Give it to this guy."
23
VIRGIL GOT ON the extension, listened through four rings, and then Williamson picked up.
Jesse said, "Todd-I'm sorry I'm late, but I conked out last night. You called me?"
"Just to tell you that I talked to Judge Solms last night and he said that we both ought to get started on DNA testing. We can get kits from the same lab that the sheriff's office uses, and have them witnessed by a court clerk or a sheriff's deputy, and send them off for testing. That'll clear up our rights to the estate of the Judds. I'm still kind of uncertain-I know that you've pretty much got it nailed down."
"Ah, you're a Judd," Jesse said. "You can see it in you, if you look. You can see it in me, too. So what do they do? Suck some blood or something?"
"No, no, it's just a little kit with a Q-tip on the end of it, and then we scrub in the inside of our cheeks. No blood, nothing like that. Doesn't hurt-it's like brushing your teeth. Solms said the reason for using the same lab is, we can get a better price on comparing the DNA to the two Judds'."
"All right," Jesse said. She was interested. "What do I do, just call the sheriff's department and make a date?"
"Call Solms' clerk," Williamson said. "She'll set it up for you. They might have Margo Carr come over from the sheriff's office to supervise, make sure we do it right. Okay?"
VIRGIL THOUGHT he was about to ring off, and made a rolling motion with his forefinger, and Jess nodded and jumped in: "I'd like to talk to you about Virgil Flowers. I'm really getting confused about this. You know, Mom and I visit Betsy Carlson over in Sioux Falls, at the rest home, every once in a while…Do you know Betsy?"
"I know who she is," Williamson said. "Never met her."
"Well, the last time we went over there…her mind wanders. We told her some of the things that were going on. We told her that Bill Judd died, we thought maybe she was in a will or something. Anyway, when we told her, she got all excited, and said she'd seen the man in the moon. She was really freaked out about it: she'd seen the man in the moon."
"I'm sorry," Williamson said. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, I noticed, one time, you've got that man-in-the-moon tattoo on your arm. I thought maybe she was talking about that. And Virgil's been asking me about the man in the moon because I've got man-in-the-moon earrings…and, well, what's this man-in-the-moon stuff?"
Williamson said, "I don't know. Betsy wasn't talking about me. How could she be? We never met."
"I thought, I don't know," Jesse said. "You look a little like Bill Judd, and if you'd interviewed her or something…"
"Nope. Never did," Williamson said. "She was in the home long before I got here."
"All right," Jesse said. "Still. I'd like to talk about Virgil. I'm over in Worthington with my mom, I won't be back until late, 'til the stores close. You think we could hook up somewhere in Bluestem? Like at the Dairy Queen? I'll probably be back at nine-thirty or ten?"
"Let me think…What time do they close? The Dairy Queen?"
"Eleven."
"Ah…tell you what. Let's hook up at ten. I'm working late tonight, I could walk over."
"See you then," she said.
She rang off and Virgil flopped back on the bed. "Excellent," he said.
"You really think he did it?" Margaret Laymon asked. She was sitting on the other bed, had been looking on in bemusement as Virgil and Jesse worked on the phone call.
"Yes. Probably. But not for sure," Virgil said. "If he shows up tonight, he could dig his own grave. Or, he might clear himself. Either way, I get rid of a major suspect."
Margaret looked at her daughter: "Told you. Pure cop."
24
WHEN THE OUT-OF-TOWN COPS had been milling around the salad bar, Virgil had spotted a deputy from Dodge County that he'd done some work with a few months earlier. When they got off the phone with Williams, he took Jesse along and introduced her to the guy, whose name was Steve Jacobs. Jacobs was chatting with another cop, a deputy named Roger Clark from Goodhue County. Virgil told them about the killings in Bluestem and introduced Jesse as one of the people under threat.