'How did Wacey get involved in this?'
Vern rubbed his face and sighed.
'Getting Wacey in this deal was the single most stupid fucking thing I ever did. But he was the one who told me about that idiot Clyde Lidgard. He said Lidgard had talked to him about some little creatures he saw up in the canyon. Wacey knew about the pipeline, of course, and he had heard about Miller's weasels just like everybody else had. He told Clyde to keep it a secret, that it was some big government secret that just he and Clyde could know about. Clyde liked that shit. Then Wacey told me about it.'
'So you and Wacey and Clyde went up there and wiped out the weasels,' Joe said.
'But unfortunately you didn't wipe them all out, and Ote Keeley and his buddies found what was left.'
Vern nodded. Joe thought Vern figured he had nothing more to lose by talking.
'Ote must have hoped that if he delivered a Miller's weasel to you that you would drop the charges on him,' Vern said. 'That was how you got involved in this whole stupid fucking mess.'
Joe grunted.
'I always thought of you and Wacey as my boys,' Vern said, his voice cracking. 'My proteges. Wacey was always a little hotheaded, but he was determined and he was tough. You were the straight arrow. A little slow at times and you fucked up now and then, but basically you were a stand-up kind of guy. Now look what's happened: Wacey has gone over the edge and you're pointing a gun at me. I'm disappointed, Joe, at the way things turned out. How did they ever go so wrong?'
'Who killed the outfitters?' Joe asked.
Vern sighed, rocking his head back as if he were in pain.
'Wacey killed the outfitters. Then he killed Clyde. He's a goddamned lunatic hothead. He likes to be the one in control. I had no idea he could be like that. That was never supposed to happen with the outfitters. He said they were drunk when he rode up on them, and they showed him a couple of the weasels they had dug up and they mouthed off. Wacey said one of 'em went for a rifle.'
'So Wacey told Clyde Lidgard to stay up there and guard the camp until we showed up?'
Vern nodded.
'I wondered why Wacey slept so hard the night before we went into that camp,' Joe said. 'And how he could just walk right up to that camp like he owned the place. It's because he had spent the night before that up there and he knew exactly what we were going to find.'
'Wacey made sure Clyde got shot,' Vern confirmed.
'What was in it for Wacey?'
Vern slumped against the door of the truck. It was as if every question knocked him farther down.
'He wanted in the worst way to be the sheriff, if you can believe that. He wanted to be the big shot.'
'I believe it.'
'I told Wacey I had some things on Barnum that would make Barnum drop out of the race. Barnum, back in the old days, liked Indian women. He used to hit on them when they were drunk and brought into jail. He's got a couple of grown kids on the reservation he pays support for. Nobody knew that but him and me. And eventually Wacey. That was part of the deal before it went so sour.
'That's how it started,' Vern said, his voice small. 'All I wanted to do was make a lot of money and all Wacey wanted was to be the sheriff. All I wanted were the big bucks I know I deserve after all of those years of working for the state. I was so close, too. The clearances were issued and that pipeline was just humming toward Saddlestring. But things got out of hand because of Wacey.
'All I ever wanted was a ton of money. Then Wacey went fucking nuts trying to cover up everything. The more he tried to cover it up, the worse it got. I warned him off of going after your daughter, but he was absolutely convinced that she knew about some living Miller's weasels. He kept saying if he could find those weasels and get rid of them that this whole thing would be over.'
Joe had suddenly lost his concentration.
'What?' he yelled.
Vern looked scared. 'You didn't know about your daughter?'
'Know WHAT about her?' Joe quickly switched the revolver from his left to his right hand and shoved the barrel into Vern's nose, pinning Vern's head against the passenger window.
'Jesus, Joe!' Vern honked.
'WHAT?'
'That Wacey thought she was keeping a couple of them as pets!' Vern said his eyes fixed on the gun barrel. 'That's why he figured out a way to get you people out of your house and up to Eagle Mountain--so he could find those weasels. He told me this morning that he was going to head up to your place today to look for them.'
Anguished, Joe pushed harder on the pistol.
'Wacey went after my daughter?'
'Please, Joe ... ,' Vern pleaded, eyes bulging and blinking.
'Did Wacey shoot Marybeth, Vern? Did he? Is that what happened? He was up there looking for weasels and instead he fucking shot my wife?'
Vern started to sputter out a reply but Joe, already knowing the answer, cut him off.
'That son-of-a-bitch was my friend,' he said, more to himself than to Vern.
Joe thought about how Wacey had blocked Joe's entrance into his own house earlier and how he had hustled Joe back out onto the road. Wacey had told the cop to find Vern and tell him Marybeth had been shot. Wacey had