them;
Pope was intrigued but wary because if Joe was right he would look foolish for his agreement with Ennis, and Tassell was pained by the prospect of confronting one of the most powerful and willful men in Teton County. While Joe listened, he saw the neighbor in the tam come out of his house with his dog. He had kept Stella out of it so far, figuring it was the least he could do. Even though he knew she was dead, the fact hadn’t really sunk in yet.
“Let’s go back to the station,” Joe said, interrupting.
“I’ve got an idea how we might be able to get Ennis to admit he murdered his wife.”
Pope and Tassell looked at Joe with incredulity.
They were in the Cherokee before the neighbor made it down the block, for which Joe was grateful. That man, he had learned the day before, was a talker.
Thirty Six
Pi Stevenson was in the process of flipping the open sign to closed in the window of Wildwater Photography when Joe rapped on the door. She started to point to the sign, then recognized him and unlocked the bolt.
“What happened to you?” she asked, recoiling from the bruises and lumps on his face.
“Is Birdy here?” Joe asked, not wanting to take the time to explain.
“He’s in the back,” she said. “Would you like to come in?” “I’ve got some colleagues with me,” Joe said. He saw her look over his shoulder at the sheriff ’s SUV, which was parked against the curb.
“Am I in trouble again?” she asked.
“Not that I know of,” Joe said, stepping inside and signaling Tassell and Trey to follow. The studio was small, the walls filled with action shots of skiers and rafters and a few obligatory Tetons at daybreak. A long front counter divided the public area from a small office and a curtained darkroom. A red light was on above the darkroom entrance, and Joe assumed that’s where Birdy was.
“What do you want?” she asked. “We were just about to close up for the day.”
Joe looked straight at her. “How would you like to contribute to a real bad day for Don Ennis and Beargrass Village?”
Her eyes lit up, and she beamed. Then, with determination, she turned and shouted over her shoulder, “Birdy!”
“You’ve got to be real careful here,” Joe told Pi and Birdy. “You can’t lie, and you can’t insinuate anything at all, even if he presses you, or wants to negotiate over the phone. Do you understand me?”
Pi nodded, trying to contain her enthusiasm. She was both giddy and nervous at the same time. For his part, Birdy seemed pleased to have Pi so happy with him for agreeing to go along with Joe’s idea.
“I’ll be on the phone in the office,” Tassell warned, looking from Pi and Birdy to Joe. “If anything you say comes across as even a hint of extortion or entrapment, I’m pulling the plug on this. We’ll have the call recorded, and it has got to be clean enough to stand up in court if we need it.”
The store’s office was crowded. One of Tassell’s deputies had brought in the owner of the local Radio Shack, who was opening up boxes containing a tape recorder and an 8mm video camera. Randy Pope was at the Game and Fish building, calling the agency director and the governor to let them know what was happening. Joe wondered why Pope had been so anxious to leave, but was pleased the man wasn’t there.
“What if he acts like he doesn’t know what we’re talking about?” Birdy asked.
“That’s fine,” Joe said. “That means he’s either innocent or he’s buying time to deal with you later. My guess, though, is he’ll want to take care of things right away. He won’t really believe you have anything, but he’s too impulsive not to make sure. He’s a man of action. If that’s the case, we want him to come here. We don’t want a meeting set up anywhere else. You’ve got to be careful not to tip him off in some way. If that happens, we’ve lost our opportunity.”
Over his shoulder, Tassell asked his deputy if the telephone tap was working, and the deputy said it was. The owner of Radio Shack looked excited to be able to play a part in the operation, Joe thought.
“What about the video camera? Where are we going to put that?” Tassell asked.
The man from Radio Shack and the deputy looked around the room theatrically for a good location.
“How about on the shelf behind the counter with all the other cameras? We can put a piece of tape over the red light so they won’t know it’s on,” Trey said, pointing over Tassell’s head. Birdy had a display of old and new cameras that he used for photographing skiers and rafters.
“That makes sense,” Tassell said, rolling his eyes at the obviousness of it.
“Give us a minute,” the Radio Shack owner said. “I want to test everything.”
While they waited, Joe went over things again with Pi and Birdy.
“And to think this was all about meat,” Pi said triumphantly. “Flesheaters lose their moral bearings when confronted with the possibility of not getting what they want, which is more flesh. Or in this case, better flesh.”
Joe was confused for a moment, and could feel Tassell staring at him. He motioned Joe into the office and shut the door.
“She’s a loose cannon,” Tassell said. “She’ll screw this up and we’ll get hung out to dry for entrapment.”
“Can you think of another way?” Joe asked.
Tassell hesitated. “No.”
Joe opened the door and went back to the counter, Pi and Birdy looking at him expectantly.
“Are we still on?” Birdy asked.
