Marcus gestured at the TV screen. "Press Richards. How often have you heard the police claiming they expected to make arrests soon?"
"Too often." Jocelyn turned his head. "Promise me you won't go out that way until they catch whoever it was."
He leaned closer and kissed her. "I promise." It would be an easy promise to keep. With the site compromised there was no reason for him to go out that way. Besides, he'd be spending his spare time looking for somewhere new to set up.
Wednesday, March 5
Marcus was threading a pipe when his boss tapped him on the shoulder. Linda Jane pointed to two policemen at the door of the workshop. "The police would like a word with you."
He blanked out for a moment. Could they have found something that connected him to the deaths on Salt Lick Run? But it was only for a moment. He glanced down at the half-complete job he'd been working on. "I hope this won't take long," he called out to the policemen.
"Just a few minutes of your time, Herr Acton," Heinrich Steinfeldt said.
That didn't sound like they had anything. He grabbed a rag and wiped his hands on it. "You want to talk out in the sun?"
"Sure," Blake Haggerty said.
Once outside Marcus led them to a sheltered spot in the sun. "So, how can I help you?"
Blake flipped open his notebook. "We understand you were out on the RingLakes yesterday?"
"That's right. I usually go out fishing on Sunday if I can get away. Caught half a dozen fish yesterday."
"How far did you go?" Heinrich asked.
"Go? On the water?" Heinrich nodded. "There's this nice little nook on the south side of the Gray's Run peninsula-the fish seem to love it there." It was also a long way away from the campsite. He mentally complimented himself for his superior thinking and planning. By having a stash of gas there the boat rental's records would show he hadn't consumed enough to even put him close to where the still had been.
"Did you see anything suspicious?" Blake asked.
"I was fishing," he said. "When a guy's fishing the only thing he worries about is what might be happening on the end of his hook."
"True!" Blake muttered sheepishly. "So you didn't see anything?"
"I saw a cloud of smoke a bit after midday. I think it might have been the fire they showed on TV last night."
"Maybe," Heinrich said. "Just a couple more questions. Our information is that even though you were fishing, you had a large caliber hunting rifle with you yesterday?"
"You bet I had a rifle with me yesterday. I had a bad experience a few years ago when I got treed by a wild hog." Marcus shuddered dramatically. "There ain't no way I'm going out without something that can deal with a pig. That bastard hung around all day and most of the night. Never again." The story was even the truth, as too many people would be happy to tell them. It'd taken a while to live down that little experience.
"Didn't you have a handgun?" Blake asked.
"Sure, but a little.380 ain't much good against a three hundred pound boar. It just pissed him off."
"What kind of rifle do you own?" Heinrich asked.
"You name it, I've got it," Marcus joked. "But if you mean what did I take out with me yesterday, that was a civilian version of the M-14." He shrugged. "It's a bit too much gun, but I'm a lefty, and bolt-actions and levers can be a real pain."
"A couple of years ago you installed a valve on a wellhead out on Salt Lick Run?" Heinrich asked.
Marcus nodded. "Sure. The Hart brothers wanted to tap a local wellhead rather than haul gas in for the still they had at their little primer manufactory. They had all the proper permits for it, so I installed a tap."
"This was a pipeline?" Heinrich asked.
"Nope, just a tap so they could fill their own bottles. They weren't using enough gas to justify the cost of a pipeline."
Heinrich flipped his notebook closed. "Thank you for your time, Herr Acton. If you think of anything. "
"Call the police. Sure." Marcus shook hands with both officers and watched them walk off. That hadn't been so bad, and it seemed he'd covered his tracks well. A glance at his watch had him hurrying back to work. The client expected his bio-gas reticulation system to be ready for him by tomorrow, and there was still a lot of work to be done.
Dina walked into the police department and straight up to the reception desk and asked if she could see her uncle.
"Sergeant Frost is very busy," Eva Bernhardt said. "And shouldn't you be in school?"
Dina sighed. Adults had one track minds. "It's lunch break.Can you tell Uncle Estes that I need to speak to him, please? It's important."
Eva looked askance at Dina, but she did pick up the internal phone and called her uncle. "Sergeant Frost, your niece is at the desk and would like to talk to you. She says it's important." She nodded absently as she listened. "Yes, of course." She put down the phone. "Do you know where Sergeant Frost's desk is?" Dina nodded. "Very well, he's expecting you."
"Thank you," Dina said before hurrying off. She made her way to the office her Uncle Estes shared with several other officers. He was sitting down, papers spread all over his desk.
"I know you well enough to know you'd only ask to see me about something important, so take a seat and tell me."
Dina climbed onto the hard wooden chair and sat looking at her uncle. "Bruno recognized two of the men."
"Dina, I know you think a lot of Bruno, but you were both too far away from the car to see their faces."
"Bruno didn't have to see their faces close up to recognize them, Uncle Estes. He says they are his brothers," she said as if that explained everything.
Her uncle's eyes widened, and he reached for a clean sheet of paper and a pen. Do you have their names?"
"Wilhelm and Hermann." She shrugged. She knew that wasn't what her uncle really wanted, but it had been difficult enough getting that much out of Bruno.
"And their surname? Come on, surely if they are brothers, they should have the same name as Bruno."
"Bruno doesn't have a surname, Uncle Estes. At least not one he knows. He's only ever answered to Bruno."
Estes sighed. "What does he know about them? Are they older or younger than him?"
"They're older. They were really horrible to him when he was growing up. That's why seeing them scared him so much."
"How much older?"
"Bruno thinks they were about ten years older. They were always bigger than him when he was growing up." Dina really hadn't liked what she'd heard about Bruno's brothers. They sounded like a pair of real bullies. She'd never be that mean to her little brother.
"And how old is Bruno?"
Dina had to shrug again. "We don't know. Mom's best guess, based on the work history she's been able to back-track, is that he's about twenty-five."
"So we're looking for two men in their early- to mid-thirties."
"And fairly new to Grantville, because me and Bruno were out that way last year, and there was no shed in that spot."
"You were heading for that site?"
"They built their shed right on top of a really good patch of milkweed me and Bruno were going to harvest."
Suddenly the office went quiet. Dina looked around at the blank faces staring at her. "The latex you get from the milkweed is worth over a hundred dollars a gallon," she explained. "Of course you have to collect a lot of milkweed to get that much latex."
"Of course you do," Estes muttered as he got to his feet. "Well, there's not a lot we can do about your information unless you can give us a name. So for now, we'd better see about getting you back to school before you're missed. Come on, I'll give you a lift."
Dina followed her uncle, who was joined by Sergeant Fleischer. She was doing up her seatbelt when Erika Fleisher looked over her seat. "Dina, we appreciate your coming in to tell us what you've learned."