“Where did the money come from?” Brandt asked.
“I still don’t know.”
“He knows who this third person is?”
“I’m sure he does. His problem isn’t who; it’s where. I think that’s where he hopes I’ll come in-by leading the way-and his ego has it that he’ll succeed even if I don’t want him to.”
“Maybe,” Tony said thoughtfully, “or Shattuck could try forcing you to cooperate.”
I saw him looking at Gail, who immediately grasped his point. After a few seconds’ silence, she pulled off to the side of the road and put the brake on. She sat staring at the instrument panel before her. Her voice was neutral, almost cold, in an obvious effort to keep her emotions at bay. “Do you agree with Tony?”
“He does have a point,” I admitted. “If Shattuck does come to Vermont, he’ll be a complete outsider. He knows we’ll be watching for him, and he doesn’t have the connections or the hiding places he has in Chicago. He’ll have to work hard just to keep out of sight-and try to make every shot count. If he finds out about the two of us…”
She nodded silently.
“I’d feel a whole lot more comfortable giving you around-the-clock protection,” Brandt said to Gail, “or suggesting you take a small vacation.”
She stunned me with her own alternative. “If I stayed in town, and the police protection was discreet, I could be useful getting this guy out into the open.”
“I disagree,” I blurted out, horrified at the idea.
“Why not? It’s perfectly logical.”
“This guy’s not sane, Gail-”
Tony interrupted. “She does have a point, Joe. And we could control it so she wouldn’t really be exposed.”
“This is dumb, and it misses the point. What we need to focus on is the identity and location of the third man.”
“From what you’ve told me, Shattuck’ll do anything to gain an edge; it might pay to take advantage of that.” Brandt turned to Gail. “You have call forwarding on your office phone?”
“Office and home both.”
“So you could work out of your home?” She shrugged. “For a while, I suppose. I do need to get out-show properties, that sort of thing. Plus, there’s the board and my other activities.”
“But for a few days? We could set you up at home and have the place covered while you posed as bait. You could tell people you had the flu.”
I scowled at him. “Thanks a hell of a lot. One innocent person’s already been killed because of this.”
Gail said quietly, “By killing me, he’d be killing his leverage.”
“That’s rational-he’s not.” I turned from her to Brandt, who merely smiled and raised his eyebrows. The terror I had felt at Shattuck’s hands was mine alone. I could try to impress upon them just how cold-blooded he was, but I knew the end result would be the same, and that only I would feel reduced by the experience.
All that was left, therefore, was to concede to her logic-reluctantly. “I hate this.”
Gail smiled sympathetically, squeezed my hand, and put the car back into gear. “He probably won’t even show up.”
I didn’t bother answering.
“There is another problem,” she said after a while. “You better cook up something for the board explaining what Joe’s been up to this last week. If they find out I knew before them, we’re all going to feel the heat.” She glanced over her shoulder at Brandt. “I don’t know how specific you want to make it, but maybe you could have a little conversation with the town manager, and let him be your messenger.”
He nodded. “Good point. I also need to update the State’s Attorney. I won’t say anything to the selectmen about Shattuck or the stakeout-just that you were in Chicago, Joe, and stirred up a few wasps in the process.”
The meeting Brandt had arranged with the squad had the elements of an awkward homecoming, prefaced as it was by the ritual number of jokes about my battered appearance, and offset by several quizzical sideward glances I was not intended to see.
“I didn’t get all the answers in Chicago that I’d banked on,” I began. “But I did get a few. I’m hoping that with the information you’ve been gathering in my absence, we’ll be able to wrap this case up fast. And speed, unfortunately, is now of the essence. It turns out we are no longer the only ones interested in finding out who opened up on us with an M-16. For that reason, I want to stress that what is said in this room stays here. There will be no interoffice memos, no casual chats by the coffee machine, and no late-night pillow talk with wives or significant others. If anyone questions what we’re up to, your answer should be we’re trying to put a name to the skeleton and find the person who did the shooting. Don’t tell anyone how we’re progressing. Our advantages in this race are knowledge and speed. If we give those away, we lose. It’s that simple.”
“Who’s our competition?” Ron asked.
I held up a mug shot. “This man-Robert Shattuck.” I then passed it to Ron to make a tour of the table.
“That photograph was taken about twenty years ago, so age the face in your minds and add gray hair-last seen tied back in a ponytail. Shattuck is just over six feet, trim and fit-one seventy-five to one eighty-and fifty-five years old. He is armed and violent. These”-I tapped my bandages with my finger-”are the results of some of his handiwork. He’s a dangerous man.”
I held up the two shots of Pendergast. “And this is our skeleton-David Pendergast, born in Marquette, Michigan, aged twenty-nine when he died. From what I could find out, he was charismatic, reckless, manipulative-and also dangerous. Not unlike Shattuck. I’ll have copies made of all these.”
I leaned forward on the table, choosing my words carefully. “Mr. Shattuck knows who we’re after-as far as I can make out, it’s someone from his past-but he doesn’t know where he’s hiding. Which means Shattuck may end up, one way or another, depending on us to supply that information. If he does show up in Brattleboro, he should stick out like a sore thumb, so he’ll probably act quickly and ruthlessly.
“He might try to get to me through Gail Zigman, since our friendship is common knowledge. If that happens, we hope to use that opportunity to lure Shattuck out into the open. The chief will fill you in.”
Brandt didn’t bother standing. In his familiar unemotional style, he told them of the plan he and Gail had worked up in the car. Gail would be under discreet guard at home, and would make outings only if absolutely necessary, and then always with a man on the floor of her car and another team tailing. The stakeout would be coordinated by the department’s Special Response Team-our version of SWAT-of which both Ron and Sammie were members. Brandt told them there would be an SRT meeting following this one. Given my involvement with Gail, he added, it had been agreed that I would concentrate on the other aspects of the investigation.
Kunkle spoke up after Brandt had finished. “Why not just pull in our snitches and spread the word about this guy? It’s not like he has a million places to hide.”
I nodded in agreement. “We need to shake the bushes, but until we know Shattuck’s in the area, the main thrust of this investigation should be to find the shooter. Again”-I raised my hand for emphasis-“the stakeout has got to be kept under wraps. Should Shattuck turn up, he’ll expect a minor manhunt, but he may not think we’re bright enough to set a trap.”
I stepped away from the table and began to pace at the head of the room. “Mr. Dunn has kindly made available to us a list of former residents of so-called Hippie Hollow, dating back to the time of Fred Coyner’s wife’s death. The list is fairly extensive, and we don’t know how many-if any-of them are still living in the area. But we need to find the ones who are and question them about Fuller, Pendergast, and anyone else who might have been with them. That means telephone directories, phone calls, the computer, and so forth. If you get a hit, follow it up in person and let me know as soon as possible. Remember: We want to do it right, but it’s got to be fast, and it’s got to be discreet. We don’t want to tip our hand, so watch your backs, and take note of anything or anyone unusual.