“No, I don’t think you did,” I said, hating to admit it. “If you had, you would have taken that book with you and then left the body for Cartwright to find eventually.”
Cartwright was flipping through the book. “I don’t see where this is proof of anything, Markham.”
“What else would Barrett be hauling from the border year ’round? And if it wasn’t something illegal, why didn’t he keep a record of it with his regular paperwork? I think Wheeler found out about it and took the book to blackmail his father-in-law.”
Barrett’s fists doubled up and he took a step toward me. “You dirty liar! I’ll—”
“You’ll shut up and stand still, Ralph,” Cartwright snapped. “We’ll get this all straightened out, don’t worry. If you’re telling the truth, I’m sure you won’t mind me asking your boys some questions.”
Barrett paled. He still wasn’t thinking. He lunged for the book in Cartwright’s hand. The sheriff moved it out of the way, put his other hand in Barrett’s chest, and shoved him back. “Now that wasn’t a smart thing to do, Ralph, not at all. Makes me think Markham might be on to something. Why don’t you go sit in the car until I’m through here?”
I could see defeat on Barrett’s face now. He took a deep, shuddery breath and trudged slowly back to the sheriff’s car.
As Cartwright turned back to me, I said, “I had to wound one of Barrett’s boys. I think by the time you get out there, they’ll be only too happy to spill all of it to you.”
Cartwright frowned. “I’ve known Ralph Barrett for a long time, Markham, and I can’t help but think you may be right about him. I’d appreciate it if you would stay around until we find out for sure, though.”
“I didn’t plan on going anywhere.”
Cartwright wiped away the sweat that was trickling into his eyes. I followed his gaze and saw Elaine Wheeler watching us intently, with Jackie and Cindy peeking around from behind her.
“This leaves us with even more of a problem, Markham. If Barrett or his men didn’t kill Wheeler, who did?”
I had been hoping that he wouldn’t ask that, but I would have been surprised if he hadn’t. I called, “Would you come over here, Jackie?”
Under his breath, Cartwright said, “Oh, now, hell, Markham...”
Jackie walked up to us slowly. I said, “You were telling me about the Man in the Moon, Jackie. Why don’t you tell the sheriff?”
He swallowed and said, “I just said that the Man in the Moon should take bad people away, even if they’re grownups.”
“Was your daddy bad last night?”
“He scared us. He said we would never see Mama again. I didn’t want to go with him, and neither did Cindy. He said he would hit us if we didn’t behave, and then leave us there for the Man in the Moon.”
“Did he have a gun?”
Jackie nodded solemnly. “He showed it to us. He said he might even shoot us if we were bad and save the Man in the Moon the trouble.”
Cartwright said softly, “Oh, Lord.”
Elaine Wheeler had come closer, close enough to hear, and now she said, “Don’t listen to him, Sheriff. Don’t listen to him!”
“What happened when the car broke down, Jackie?” I asked.
“Daddy got out to see about it. I told Cindy we were going to run away from him. She was afraid. But Daddy had left the gun on the seat. I took it to scare him. I didn’t want him to get us...”
We all waited.
“And then... and then... the Man in the Moon came. He got Daddy. That’s what happened. The Man in the Moon did it.”
Cartwright knelt beside him. “You did the right thing to tell us about it, Jackie. Now why don’t you come for a ride with your mother and your grandfather and me?”
“Can Cindy come too?”
“I think she’d better stay here.”
Elaine Wheeler wailed, “Oh, my God!”
I met Cartwright’s eyes. “I can stay here with the little girl for a while.”
He nodded. “I’ll send somebody right away. Then you come on in to the office.”
I walked over to Cindy while Cartwright was bundling Elaine Wheeler and Jackie into the car. Then he got the gun out of my Ford and wrapped it up so that Jackie couldn’t see it. I was glad of that.
Cindy asked, “Where’s Jackie and Mama going?”
“They’re just going for a ride.”
“Can I go too?”
I picked her up, struck by the lightness of her, and then watched Cartwright’s car disappearing into the dust. “I don’t think so,” I said, “but you don’t mind staying here with me for a while, do you?”
She shook her head. “I like you, Mr. Markham. You won’t let the Man in the Moon get me, Will you?”
It wouldn’t do any good to tell her that he gets nearly all of us at one time or another.
“No, Cindy. I won’t let him get you.”
“SM—”
by W. L. Fieldhouse
Major Lansing of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Department pursues a bloody trail of murder and espionage!
What was left of the red Datsun was still smoking as Major Clifford Lansing arrived. He parked his white Volkswagen behind a caravan of MP jeeps that had already assembled behind the headquarters building of Montgomery Barracks. Two attendants were carrying an inert form on a stretcher to the open back of an Army ambulance. They weren’t hurrying. A white sheet covered the face of their burden.
Lansing emerged from his tiny car and approached the white-capped military policemen. Seeing the golden oakleaf tacked to the green baseball cap of Lansing’s fatigue uniform, the MP’s saluted briskly.
“I’m from the Criminal Investigation Department, homicide division,” Lansing explained. “What have we here?”
“A car blew up, sir,” an MP staff sergeant replied. “That car.” He pointed at the smouldering wreck.
“That saves me some detective work,” Lansing remarked dryly.
“The car belonged to a Lieutenant Benton,” the cop said, consulting his note pad, “Apparently he climbed into the car, started the engine and wham!”
“Benton is the customer they’re loading into the ambulance, I assume. Anyone else in the car?”
“No, sir.”
“Did anyone see the explosion, Sergeant?”
“No one saw it, sir,” the cop answered. “But they sure heard it. Spec. Six Daniels from the re-up office was the first person to reach the wreck.”
The MP tilted his head to indicate a short, stocky man with dark hair a ski-slope nose bisecting two button eyes. SP6 Daniels saluted as Lansing drew closer.
“I’m from the CID,” the Major explained, returning the salute. “I’d like to know what happened here. Will you help me?”
“As much as I can, sir,” Daniels nodded eagerly. “I was working in the re-up office, counselling a young trooper who plans to make the Army a career. Nice kid. He wants to re-enlist and remain stationed in Germany. Well, I heard this explosion. The whole building seemed to shake. Everybody in the ‘head shed’ must have heard it, because people were running into the hallway as I came out of the office. There’s a fire escape right next to re-up. So I hurried outside and down those steps.”
Daniels pointed to a small wooden fire escape with a flight of stairs extending from the second story to the ground. “The car was on fire,” Daniels continued. “It had been blown apart. One tire was rolling down the driveway and a car door was lying at the foot of the stairs.”
“Was Lieutenant Benton still inside the wreck then?” Lansing asked.
“No, sir. He was lying on the ground about eight feet from the car. I didn’t even recognize him at first, his body was burned so badly. Damn! It was the worse thing I’ve seen since ‘Nam’.”