And yes, she knew Cleve disposed of her skin at the fish-cleaning station. He had told her that.
She had slept through most of the trouble in the trailer the day of the shoot-out, she said. Cleve had given her some medication for her pain, and it knocked her out. The noises from the front of the trailer were awful, in an otherworldly way, but she had thought at the time that she was dreaming.
Despite everything, she said, she still loved Cleve Garrett. And more important, she still believed in him.
Hersig’s voice was shaky as he told Joe the story. When he was through, he said, “I think I need to go take a shower.”
Sheriff Barnum claimed not to have any idea what Cam had been up to in regard to the CBM rights on the ranch, although he admitted be-ing interested in buying his retirement home there. Joe believed him, but also knew that Barnum had sat by quietly during the course of the investigation, as land values plummeted. He had not revealed his real estate interest to the rest of the task force, and he secretly benefited from the perception that the valley was “spooked.” This led Joe and Hersig to speculate that Barnum may have had perverse motivation not to solve the crimes quickly, but they had no solid evidence of that.
Nevertheless, word got out within the community about the land deal that never was, and Barnum’s interest in it. There was even talk among the coffee drinkers at the Burg-O-Pardner about launching a recall petition on Sheriff Barnum. As far as Joe knew, the action wasn’t followed through. But there was no doubt that Barnum’s reputation had taken a beating, and that he would stand little chance in the next election. Not that it mattered much, Barnum declared in the Roundup, because he had planned to retire anyway. It had been a good twenty-six years, he said.
For the twentieth time since the shoot-out, Joe sat lost in thought in his office. All but one big-game hunting season had ended, and winter was on the way. Paperwork was piled up in his in-box, and he’d missed three straight weekly reports to Trey Crump. The mutilations had, of course, stopped. Portenson had gone back to Cheyenne. The Murder and Mutilations Task Force had been disbanded for lack of purpose.
But for Joe, there was unfinished business. The case was still open, and not just because Eric Logue was still at large. There were still too many questions.
Nate Romanowski had all but disappeared. His only communication with Joe was a terse message left on the answering machine: “Joe, I was right. That bear is here for a reason. He’s just a vessel, an agent. He’ll be here only as long as he has to be.”
In the end, as the search for Dr. Eric Logue lost both hope and urgency, the only workable scenario they could give any credence to was this:
Eric had been a boy in the mid-1970s, when the first rash of cattle mutilations in the West was news, so the concept wasn’t foreign to him. Perhaps that was when his fascination and obsession with a paranormal answer to the crimes was first implanted.
Eric Logue, in his sickness, had come to believe that his mission was to kill and disfigure living beings and collect trophies. He believed that others were telling him to do it, or he had somehow convinced himself that he was pleasing the owners of these voices through his acts. He used his experience as a surgeon, as well as his tools, to do it. His first disciple in his mission was Nurse Bob, who had problems of his own.
Using his new identity and the cover of the fictitious Iconoclast Society, he returned to the Rocky Mountain West, first to Northern Montana, then to Wyoming. He had a reason to be where the mutilations were discovered, after all. He said he was studying them.
The mutilations in Montana, from Eric’s perspective, had gone very well. No one suspected him. What didn’t go well, though, was that the officials in charge of the investigation treated him like he was a crank. They didn’t take his theories seriously, and didn’t welcome his knowledge or advice. There were a few converts, Deena being the primary one, but overall, he was disappointed.
He realized that cattle and wildlife weren’t enough. He needed to up the ante. He needed some help, so he asked Nurse Bob to rejoin him in Saddlestring. No one had recognized him from his youth there.
Eric and Nurse Bob started with animals, as they had in Montana. Then, on the single night in Twelve Sleep County, they had split up, with one of them going after Stuart Tanner and the other Tuff Montegue. Eric took Tanner, Nurse Bob took Tuff. This explained why Tanner’s death was similar in style to the cattle mutilations. Nurse Bob, who was not as experienced in technique, had done a crude job on Tuff.
Nate’s thought was that while Eric stayed with Tanner’s body, his presence discouraged predators from moving in. Meanwhile, Nurse Bob left Tuff ’s body to the bear while he drove to pick up Eric. Once they were together again, Nurse Bob used his cell phone to report Tanner’s body.
This is where the scenario began to fall apart, as far as Joe was concerned. There was still no explanation for why Eric came “home” to Saddlestring, or whether there had been any contact with Cam. If not, why had the murders obviously helped Cam’s land deal along? Joe couldn’t accept coincidence as an explanation.
They must have been in contact, Joe thought. Either Cam had asked Eric to use the cover of the cattle mutilations to kill Stuart Tanner, or Eric had somehow taken it upon himself to help out his brother. Either way, they must have communicated at some point. Otherwise, how would Eric have known to target Tanner?
The method and aftermath of the mutilations themselves, whether animal or human, still didn’t produce a logical explanation. How had Eric actually killed the animals and mutilated them without leaving tracks or evidence? What had he done to the bodies to prevent predation?
What explained the feeling in the air Joe experienced when he first found the dead moose?
What scared Maxine so badly that he was now the proud owner of the world’s only all-white Labrador?
The last part of the scenario was just as troublesome. What had driven Eric and Nurse Bob to confront Cam in his home, and to kidnap him? Why did they pick up Not Ike? And why had Eric and Nurse Bob killed and mutilated Cam?
And the biggest question of all: Where was Eric Logue?
Joe was still distracted when he and Marybeth cleared the dinner dishes from the table. He had scarcely heard the dinner conversation, with Lucy, Jessica, and Sheridan talking about their day in school.
As he filled the sink with water, Marybeth said, “You’re thinking about Eric Logue again, aren’t you?” He looked at her.
“We may just never know, Joe. We’ve discussed it to death.”
