'What got me…what really struck me was when I saw his mole on the tube. I was glued to it on the screen just like I had been in life. Didn't know where to look when talking to the man. Whole time I was dealing with the man, I kept thinking to myself, 'Mr. Croombs, why not at very least clip the damn hair from your mole, so it's not so damned distracting?' You know?'
'When exactly did you rent the property to Mr. Croombs?' asked Lucas.
'Two and a half, maybe three weeks ago.'
'Can you pinpoint on a county map exactly where the property is located, Mrs. Robeson?' asked Lucas, guiding her to a wall where a number of state and county maps stared down on them.
'It's in the North Country area, Bridger Falls-you know, that development that fell through when the owners went belly-up?'
'I know the general area, yes,' replied Lucas. 'Go on.'
'Well…the old farmhouse on Hazard Creek Road belonged to the Kenyon estate. Whole thing's now in probate, but the house was placed with us to sell or rent.'
She pointed it out on the map, smack in the Navasota River Canyon area. From there, they went to a computer, and typing in the search window, Lucas fed it the address and die owner's name, Kenyon. The computer quickly identified the exact location, and the fact it bordered on Waller County.
Kelton had arrived again, this time escorting Jana North to their cozy hideaway, introducing her to Cahill and Robeson. Getting Sallie Robeson's okay to remain, Jana- having been coached by Kelton-thanked the realtor for indulging her. Seeing the jurisdictional overlap on the computer screen, she said, 'We'd best notify and involve Sheriff Dennis Laird over there. He can bring his dogs to the party. Always bragging he's got the best police dogs in the state.'
'All right. We can rendezvous with Laird at County Line and Canyon Road, here,' Lucas said, pointing to the screen.
The Dragnet program Lucas used also pinpointed the location of every state, county, and dirt road leading in and out of the property, displaying a flashing red O around the perimeter of their destination and several bleeping red Xs at each site where a roadblock made sense. Finally, the program bleeped a blue line from the address of Precinct 31 to the farmstead, the shortest route. As with Meredyth, Jana North stared at the computer image of their target and converging lines of approach.
'Are there any barns or other structures on the property?' Lucas asked Sallie Robeson.
She plucked at something jammed tight in her Lone Star Realty purse. 'Yes, a large barn and a tool shed, as well as a root cellar, used for hurricanes and tornadoes as much as for vegetables.' She continued to struggle with the thing in her purse, finally tearing it free with a vial of lipstick, a half pack of Big Red gum, a wad of tissue, and a hair clip, all of which Stan Kelton rounded up from the floor.
She had pulled forth a folded Xerox map of overlapping pages held together by cellophane tape. A contented smile creasing her wrinkled face, she handed the map to Lucas. 'I've got the locations of the shed and bam clearly marked, Lieutenant, case you asked, and you did.'
Lucas smiled in return and asked, 'Where's the root cellar?'
'Under the kitchen, a door going down from the kitchen.'
Lucas nodded. 'Did you ever see any improvements made to the house that Croombs or Mrs. Croombs made?'
'The pens the dogs're kept in were already there. Old chicken coops with high fencing, well maintained. Made a good run for the animals.'
'I mean to the house…or perhaps to the barn? Any equipment brought in?'
'I'm not sure I follow you.'
'We believe the couple meant to turn the property into a veterinary surgery,' explained Meredyth, a bit of a lie to draw the woman out.
'Ahhh… explains a lot. I never knew that.' Then Sallie sat biting her lip and staring off into space, her features a mask of uncertainty.
Lucas cautiously prompted her. 'We're trying to locate a table, a stainless-steel table like you would see in a veterinary office. It's very important to our investigation.'
'My, but I feel I'm inside a Nancy Drew mystery novel.'
'Any medical materials or supplies at all that you saw?' pressed Lucas, a tinge of frustration filtering into his voice.
''Fraid not, no. Saw their two dogs. Healthy, beautiful dogs. Greyhounds he said he saved from a gassing. He seemed a kind man.'
Lucas keyed a few strokes and began printing a copy of the electronic map off the computer. 'I've got them pinpointed,' he said as the printer came to life.
'We'll need a SWAT team going in, hit the out- structures simultaneously, but first we have to brief everyone on the geography and layout while a warrant is being secured, unless Harry tells us the existing two warrants cover any rental property Belkvin entered into.'
'Not likely,' said Jana North, holding up the warrant she had used at the home. 'This one's quite specific to the home, garage, any cars in his name on the premises. If you read the fine print on the one you used at his practice, it's likely also to be specific to that location only. They're just not interchangeable.'
The realtor, Sallie, chimed in again. 'The woman was in heat to get the electrical and the water up and running, but they never asked about the closest place to shop, which I thought odd.'
Everyone strained to hear the words of the matronly realtor's tale as she had begun to whisper. 'Said they had a lot more animals than those two dogs to care for, and that's why the need for plenty of space to run the animals, that sort of talk, but again, they didn't seem interested in knowing where the nearest feed store was, you know, for these phantom animals.'
'Phantom animals?' asked Jana.
'They talked like they were going to fill the bam and the pastures with animals. Least he did. Talked on and on about it. Friendly in a nonstop talkative way,' she said. 'You think that's 'cause he might've been, you know, nervous?'
'Quite possibly,' Meredyth said, nodding.
'You say you only saw the two dogs? Are these the two you saw?' asked Jana, holding up the photo of Belkvin and his greyhounds.
'That's them, the lovely things…so graceful and well behaved.'
'They spoke of other animals on the way?' asked Meredyth.
'They…I mean he…Mr. Croombs, he made some remark that the animals were in transport from Amarillo. When I asked if it was horses, she changed the subject, asked me to walk off the property lines with her.'
'And did you?' asked Lucas.
'Oh, no! Heavens. It'd have taken a day to walk those boundary lines, so I showed her how she and Mr. Croombs could step off the lines themselves. Left them a map I'd brought out with me, just like the one I made up for you.'
'How many acres is the property?' asked Lucas.
'Fifty-nine, and some odd shape it is; follows along a creek that's one of those ghost streams, you know… comes and goes depending on the time of year. Folks around Navasota call it Old Hazard Creek… runs smack through the property, and some parts of the section they rented cross the creek, and some don't.'
'Creek is running flush now, I bet,' said Lucas, 'given last month's rains from those two passing hurricanes.'
'It's full over its banks, yes.'
'Jana, you know Judge Henry Lowell fairly well, right?' asked Lucas.
'I'll get you your warrant, Lucas.'
'Tell Lowell what we have, plenty of probable cause on the photo and sketch IDs alone. Here's the location.' He handed her a copy of the electronic map. 'And we need the warrant to extend to any garages, outbuildings, and vehicles owned or rented by the suspects using the names Lauralie and John Croombs, Lauralie Blodgett, or a Dr. Arthur Belkvin.'
'Just tell him it's to do with the Post-it Ripper case and he'll want in,' said Kelton. 'It's coming on election time.'
