“They’re both cops,” Jesse said.
“It’s got to be more than that,” Louis said. “We’ve got to search that cabin, top to bottom.”
He turned. Jesse was shaking his head.
“It’s there, Jess. All we have to do is — ”
“I’m not going back in there,” Jesse interrupted, turning away. He took a deep breath. “I’m not going back in there.”
The sound of a siren drew Louis’s attention before he could reply.
“Chief’s here,” Jesse said quickly, leaving the shanty.
Louis emerged just as the Bronco pulled up in front of the cabin. Gibralter got out and started toward the front door.
“Chief! Out here!” Jesse called.
Gibralter stopped and turned, peering toward them. He started down the snowy bank and across the ice.
“How long was Fred retired?” Louis asked as they waited.
“About two years,” Jesse said. “Fred trained me. I liked the guy. Everybody did. Even the Chief.”
“The chief?”
Jesse nodded slowly. “They were friends, sort of. After Fred retired, they went fishing together sometimes.”
They fell silent.
“Jess, about the cabin,” Louis began.
“Drop it,” Jesse said sharply, and walked off toward Gibralter.
Louis frowned as he watched him go. What was going on here? What had caused Jesse’s reaction in the cabin? And why was he refusing to go back in? Then it came to him. Jesse hadn’t been sick from the smell. He was scared. Two of his colleagues had been gunned down. And for all any of them knew, whoever had done it wasn’t finished.
Gibralter and Jesse came back to Louis. “What’s going on?” Gibralter said, his eyes scanning the shanty.
“This is where Lovejoy was shot,” Louis said.
Gibralter’s eyes registered surprise. “Here? How do you know?”
But he didn’t wait for an answer. He stepped around Louis and looked inside the open door of the shanty. “Kincaid, hand me your flashlight,” he said.
Gibralter stepped inside, directing the flashlight over the chair and the jagged hole with its bloody edge. Then he slowly backed out of the shanty and turned to face Jesse and Louis.
“Fred was a good man. I could count on him,” Gibralter said tightly. He looked away abruptly, his eyes going back to the cabin, then up at the pines rimming the lake.
Louis watched him carefully, looking for a reaction, not just of a chief for a downed comrade but for a man mourning a dead friend. But Gibralter’s face remained composed and Louis didn’t know whether to feel pity or admiration.
“I want this entire area secured and searched thoroughly,” Gibralter said. “From the cabin to those trees.”
Louis scanned the shoreline. The area had to be at least a mile square. He caught Jesse’s eye and knew he was thinking the same thing. Gibralter was grasping at straws.
“Harrison, has Cedar Springs been notified?” Gibralter said.
“Yes, sir.”
Gibralter knelt and brushed a layer of powdery snow away from the ice. Visible on the surface were a few dark spots Louis thought at first might be blood. Gibralter stood, took a deep breath and blew it out in a white vapor. He looked at the sky.
“Anyone know the weather forecast?”
“Six inches by midnight,” Louis said.
“Well, we damn well better try to preserve something,” Giubralter said sharply. “I need these spots intact. Harrison, go get a broom from the cabin. I want the snow around this shanty carefully removed and the ice checked for evidence all the way to the shore.”
Louis was going to say that there had been two hard snows in the last week. But judging from the look on Gibralter’s face, logic wasn’t going to go very far.
“Want me to go get a fucking tent, too?” Jesse said.
Louis glanced at him, stunned by his sarcasm.
Gibralter glared at Jesse. “Do what I say, Harrison.”
Jesse trudged off across the ice.
“And watch where you step!” Gibralter hollered, standing and brushing the snow from his hands. He turned and peered back in the shanty’s door.
“Was there a card?” he asked after a moment.
“Yes.”
“Where was it?”
“Next to his chair, under the crossword.”
“What?”
“He was working the crossword puzzle, sir, when he was shot.”
Gibralter’s eyes grew distant. “Crossword,” he said softly. He turned away, his gaze wandering out over the lake. Louis watched his profile. Whatever emotion Gibralter was allowing himself to feel he wasn’t going to let anyone else see it.
After a moment, Gibralter turned back to face Louis. “Anything else?” he said brusquely.
Louis hesitated.
“You’ve got something on your mind, Kincaid. What is it?”
“It’s Jesse, sir,” Louis said.
“What about him?”
“When we were searching the cabin, Jess got pretty shaken up. I just think he — ”
“I know Harrison better than you do, Kincaid,” Gibralter interrupted.
Louis nodded. “I know. It’s just that, well, I think he’s scared by all — ”
“Scared?” Gibralter shot back. “He can’t afford to be scared. None of us can right now, Kincaid. There’s a fucking cop killer out there.”
“Chief, with all due respect, I don’t think you can fault a man for being — ”
“Two men, two of
“Yes, sir,” Louis said.
Gibralter turned and started back to shore. He stopped and turned to Louis.
“Find him, Kincaid,” he said.
CHAPTER 10
It was almost eleven. Still no sign of her.
