'Probably setting up what you guys call a 'canned hunt.' According to the folks back in Louisiana, that was one of their favorite tricks. Irony of the whole thing, of course, is that our friend Chareaux seems to have been killed by the bear that they had in that cage. Must have gotten loose during the ruckus when your buddy showed up.
'By the way,' Grynard added casually, 'I meant to ask you something. Did you ever work with McNulty before?'
Lightstone hesitated, trying to remember exactly what Paul McNulty had told him about his file. Something to the effect that he'd gotten it cleared through Washington for Carl Scoby to hand-carry it over from Customs to the Anchorage office, so that he could still function-to a much lesser extent-as a wild card within the region. Although he hadn't told Marie or anyone else yet, he'd already told McNulty that he'd take the job, which meant that his transfer orders had presumably already gone through to the regional office.
The question was whether ASAC A1 Grynard or his men had managed to locate and talk with Carl Scoby or any of the very few senior agents in the D.C. office who knew about McNulty's plans for a regional undercover team. Given that they'd been working the scene for only three hours, Lightstone didn't think that too likely.
'I ran across him a couple of times on previous duty assignments,' Lightstone said. 'Guess I figured we'd have plenty of time to get to know each other after Tom and I got back from the fishing trip,' he added, giving Woeshack- who was looking thoroughly confused now-a meaningful glance. He turned back to Grynard. 'You mind if I ask you a question?'
'Sure, go ahead.'
'You have any idea who killed him?'
'You mean McNulty?'
'Yeah.'
'It's a little hard to tell just yet. Could have been Chareaux, of course, or one of his brothers. Or even one of the people they were working with out here. Apparently you got to see at least one of them close up. The guy you thought you killed.'
Lightstone blinked.
'Thought?' he asked, incredulous. 'The guy's brains were all over the rocks.'
'Well, if he was dead, then apparently somebody made off with the body and the brains.' A1 Grynard looked down at his notebook again. 'We found a lot of blood, of course, some of which probably belonged to this guy Jackson, the refuge officer. And a couple of expended. 357 and 5.56mm casings.'
' A couple?'
'That's right, but no body.'
'Oh.'
'And we did happen to notice that there was what appears to be a 5.56mm Colt Commando rifle in the debris of your airplane, along with a considerable number of expended casings. I guess some of them could have cooked off in the fire-'
'I explained all of that to your agent,' Lightstone said calmly. 'We got fired on from the ground when we took Jackson's boat in to check on all the shooting we heard. I ended up killing one of the men who was shooting at us, and I took his weapon because I didn't want to leave it there for the other guy-'
'The one with the sniper rifle?' Grynard interrupted.
'Right.'
'And you were more concerned about a small-caliber automatic weapon than what you've described as a larger- caliber scoped rifle with… what did you say…?' Grynard looked down at his notebook. 'A tripod?'
'Bipod. Two legs. Military type. And to answer your question, I would have been concerned about guys with slingshots if they were aiming the damn things at me,' Lightstone said evenly.
'Yes, of course,' Grynard nodded sympathetically. 'Please go on.'
'And then we were fired on when we went back up in the Cessna, so we fire back-'
'With the Colt Commando?'
'Because I'd lost my. 357 back at the outcropping when I ran out of ammunition. I don't suppose any of you guys have managed to find it yet?'
'No, we haven't found your duty weapon, or Refuge Officer Jackson's, or any larger-caliber casings, or any evidence of a bipod-mounted weapon being fired in the general area you described to our agents.' A1 Grynard shook his head regretfully. 'Nor have we been able to confirm your statement that your plane was hit, as you and Special Agent Woeshack put it…' Grynard referred to his notebook again '… several dozen times. Unfortunately, as you undoubtedly realize by now, thin aluminum panels seem to burn very quickly when-'
'Hey, wait a minute. I know we got hit because-' Woeshack started to interrupt, but Lightstone waved him off.
'I'm sure that if we search long enough,' the clearly unperturbed FBI agent went on, 'we will undoubtedly find both duty weapons, and some evidence of the other rifle, and possibly even some brains of the individual that you claim to have killed. And perhaps, if you… excuse me, I meant if we are real lucky, our laboratory just might be able to verify your contention that there were a large number of bullet strikes on what little remains of your plane. But there's a great deal of very rugged country out here-'
'And right now, you don't believe much of anything we've told you?' Lightstone finished.
'I do understand that we are all fellow law-enforcement officers,' A1 Grynard smiled easily as he put away his notebook, 'but I have to tell you that I find this case-and you, in particular, Mr. Lightstone-to be quite vexing.'
'Oh, really?' Lightstone smiled. 'And why is that?'
'Because I find it difficult to understand why the Chareaux brothers, assuming that at least one or two of them are still alive, would remove the body of one of their associates but leave their own brother's body here.
'Nor can I understand,' A1 Grynard went on, 'why it is that when we query your background, we can easily retrieve your police records from San Diego. However, when we try to follow up on your transfer to the federal government, we discover that aside from your fairly impressive training records at FLETC, no one at the U.S. Customs Service seems to remember you.'
'I told your agents-'
'That you were placed on a covert assignment because of your previous police experience,' A1 Grynard nodded, no longer making any pretense of needing to refer to his notebook. 'Which does make a certain amount of sense. Unfortunately, you declined to describe the nature of this assignment-'
'As I told your agent, it's my understanding that the investigation is still ongoing.'
'— or the name of your immediate supervisor, which I suppose is reasonable for someone working a deep- cover assignment.' A1 Grynard smiled. 'But what we found to be far more difficult to understand was why you failed to mention the fact that approximately one year ago, Special Agent Paul McNulty booked you into the Anchorage Police Department jail on suspicion of dealing in illegal ivory.'
'Uh…'
'Oh, no, that's quite all right,' ASAC A1 Grynard said, holding up his hand. 'I'm sure that you could provide me with an explanation that would keep my staff busy for the next three or four weeks. And under normal circumstances, I really wouldn't really mind, because that's what they get paid for.'
Lightstone tried to interrupt again, but A1 Grynard would not have it.
'You see, we're shorthanded, too, and we're awfully busy right now trying to figure out who did kill Special Agent McNulty. So I'll tell you what. Why don't you take that helicopter ride back to Anchorage and get that wound of yours looked at, then start becoming acquainted with your new job as-what was it? — senior resident agent of the Anchorage office? I'm sure you'll find that sufficiently distracting that you won't see any need to leave the Anchorage area for, oh, let's say for about three or four weeks. How does that sound to you?'
'Like you and I aren't going to be getting along very well for the next few days,' Henry Lightstone said evenly, nodding his head in appreciation of the senior FBI agent's interrogative skills.
'I think that's probably a fair statement,' A1 Grynard agreed, his light gray eyes taking on that glint of amusement again. He started to turn away, then stopped and turned to face the two agents once more.
'Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention one other fascinating bit of information,' he said calmly, his penetrating gray eyes staring straight into the eyes of Henry Lightstone. 'It seems that two other Fish and Wildlife Service Special agents who happened to be working with Paul McNulty at the time of your, uh, booking incident last year have recently turned up missing.'
'What?' Lightstone blinked in shock.
