CHAPTER
56
Holly got changed and fed Daisy. She still had a couple of hours before dark. She drove north on A1A and turned into Jungle Trail. Maybe Hurd was still there. She drove rapidly along, then came around a corner and saw a police car and an ambulance. The body was being loaded, and Hurd had a garbage bag in his hand. Holly parked off the road to allow the ambulance to pass, then got out of the car and approached Hurd.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Hurd asked.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
“What happened here, Holly? I found your underwear. Were you raped?”
“Almost,” she said, then she gave him a terse account of what had happened while, at her insistence, he took notes.
She went to the car, got Mosely’s gun and handed it to Hurd. “This is what I shot him with.”
Hurd took the gun, released the clip and looked at the ammunition. “Hollowpoints,” he said. “That accounts for the condition of the body.”
“Did anybody show up here from Palmetto Gardens?” she asked.
“I was here for about fifteen minutes alone before the ambulance came,” he replied. “A Range Rover drove up to the gate from the inside, sat there for a minute, then left. Nobody got out.”
“Did they see your car?”
“I don’t think so,” Hurd said. “It was parked where it is now, out of the way.” He pointed. “And the brush would have made Mosely’s body hard to see.”
“I wonder what Mosely was doing out here,” Holly said. “He certainly wasn’t looking for me, because nobody knew I would be here. I didn’t know myself until I arrived.”
“He was wearing sweatclothes and sneakers,” Hurd replied. “Maybe he was jogging along the outside of the fence.”
Holly realized that she had not even thought about what kind of clothes he was wearing. “Maybe so. But who would wear a gun while jogging?”
“Somebody who hoped to shoot something,” Hurd said. “There are deer and other wildife out here. Maybe Mosely just liked to kill things.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that,” she said. “Tell me, did you let anyone know you were coming out here?”
“No, you said not to.”
“Good. There’s something else I have to ask you about, Hurd. I’m sorry if it seems like prying.”
“Shoot.”
“Did Bob Hurst have anything to do with your divorce?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, was he having an affair with your wife?”
Hurd shook his head. “I don’t believe he was. They started seeing each other after we separated. He told me that himself. Our house was just down the street from his, and we had socialized a little while I was still married. Bob had been divorced some years ago. He was lonely, I guess. I wasn’t suprised that he and Linda got married.”
“So, after Bob started seeing your wife, he would have had access to her house?”
“Yes, I suppose so. I had moved out, into an apartment, and like I said, he lived just down the street. Why are you asking about this?”
“Because I think Hurst stole the Smith and Wesson thirty-two from her house, the one Chet Marley was killed with.”
“That makes some kind of sense, I guess. It was Bob who filed the burglary report for Linda.”
“A smart move,” Holly said. “Let me ask you this: remember the tape we heard of the bug in Barney Noble’s car?”
“Yeah.”
“You think that could have been Hurst in the backseat?”
“I honestly don’t know. It was impossible to identify a voice from what we heard. Wasn’t the FBI going to try to clean up the tape and improve the quality?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if it’s been done yet. I haven’t heard anything.”
“I think we ought to go talk to Bob Hurst,” Hurd said, looking at his watch. “He might still be at the station.”
“We don’t really have anything on him yet. The tape isn’t good enough, unless the FBI can work wonders with it.”
“He doesn’t know how good the tape is,” Hurd said.
“You’ve got a point. Let’s go.”
As they walked into the police station, Bob Hurst was walking out.
“Got a minute, Bob?” Holly asked.
Hurst looked at his watch. “My wife’s expecting me for dinner.”
“You’re going to be late,” Holly said. She led Hurst to interview room one, with Hurd Wallace bringing up the rear, and closed the door behind them. “Sit down,” she said.
Hurst looked at Holly and Hurd. “What’s this about?” he asked.
“Put your gun and your badge on the table,” Holly said.
“I asked you a question.”
“And I gave you an order.”
Reluctantly, Hurst did as he was told. Hurd put the two items into his pocket, and they all sat down.
“Consider that I have read you your rights,” Holly said.
Hurst now looked worried.
“Bob, this is the one and only chance you’re going to have to help yourself,” Holly said.
Hurst watched as Hurd set a tape recorder on the table.
“Before we turn on the machine, I need to tell you three things. First, the FBI has had a bug in Barney Noble’s car for some time now; second, we know you stole the Smith and Wesson thirty-two from Linda’s house; and third, Cracker Mosely has confessed.” Mosely had confessed only to raping Rita Morales, but Hurst didn’t know that.
“Confessed to what?” Hurst said.
“It’s over, Bob. We’ve got you on tape taking money from Barney Noble to rat out the department.”
Hurst didn’t deny it. “What did Cracker tell you?” he asked.
“You have to tell us everything right now, or face…well, you know what you’ll have to face.”
Hurst began to sweat. “Jesus, I just got married,” he said.
Holly said nothing.
“I talk, I walk,” Hurst said.
Holly still didn’t speak.
“Look, I didn’t kill anybody! I can give you who did, but I have to walk!”
“We may be able to help you,” Holly said.
“I want a guarantee. I was there. I didn’t have a choice. But I didn’t kill anybody.”
“If that’s the truth, and you testify against them, tell us everything, and I mean everything, then I’ll recommend to the prosecutor that you walk.” She turned to Hurd and nodded.
Hurd turned on the recorder.
“I am Chief of Police Holly Barker,” she said into the microphone. “Deputy Chief Hurd Wallace is present.” She gave the date and time. “Detective Robert Hurst is present for interrogation. Detective Hurst, have you been apprised of your Miranda rights?”
“Yes,” Hurst said.
“Do you wish to have an attorney present during this interrogation?”
“No,” Hurst replied.
“Start at the beginning. Tell us everything,” Holly said.
Hurst took a couple of deep breaths. “I first met Barney Noble at Hank Doherty’s house at a poker game last May. Hank, Barney, Chet Marley, Cracker Mosely, and I were present. It was the first time I had met Mosely, too. My car was in the shop, and Chet had given me a ride. When we were through playing, Barney offered me a ride home, and I accepted. We stopped at a hotel bar for a nightcap.
“Talk got around to money. I had lost a couple of hundred bucks, mostly to Barney, and I couldn’t really afford it. Barney gave me back my money and said he might be able to send some off-duty work my way. I had gotten soaked in a divorce and was pretty hard up, what with the alimony, and I said sure, I’d like that. Barney explained to me about Palmetto Gardens and how private the members wanted to keep it, and he said that it was important for him to know if my department ever had any interest in the place. All he wanted, he said, was a little advance warning. He offered me two hundred a week for that, and I agreed, and he drove me home. He gave me two hundred that night.