The Jugger

not.

So this was the thing to do; go over the ground himself, every inch of the field back here behind the old man's house. And if the shovel wasn't here, then start questioning the neighbours. Maybe one of them saw the man with the shovel. It was possible, certainly possible, and people would remember something like that, a man running along carrying a shovel.

'Hello, Captain! You looking for something?'

Younger looked up, startled, and there in front of him was a boy of about nineteen, tall, gangly, acned. It took Younger a second to break away from his own thoughts, and then he placed the boy; the Ricks boy, from the house next door to Joe Sheer. The one Willis had been talking to that first night.

Younger said, 'Hello, there.' What was the boy's first name? Alfred, that was it. 'Hello, there, Alfred.'

'Maybe I can help,' the boy said. 'If you lost something.'

On the off chance, Younger said, 'Did you see a man with a shovel out here yesterday?'

'Man with a shovel?' The boy frowned and shook his head. 'I saw a shovel, but I didn't see-'

Younger said, 'A shovel? Where?'

'Over there, by that red bush. This morning I found it, and a bag, like a potato sack, right next to it.'

The captain started off towards the red bush. 'Is it still there, do you suppose? If it's still-'

'I took them,' the boy said. 'I didn't think they belonged to anybody, just thrown a-'

'You've got them? Where?'

'In the house, down cellar.'

'Show me.'

'Sure.'

The boy led the way, back to his house and down into the cellar. The shovel and bag were on an old worktable down there.

Younger looked at them and smiled. They'd have the boy's prints all over them now, but there might still be others they could use. At least this proved his theory; the killer had panicked, and run out across the fields carrying the bag and shovel. He was an amateur, probably a local citizen. He could be found.

Younger said, 'I'll have to take these along, Alfred. They're evidence, in a case I'm working on. When I'm done, I'll bring them back. Finders keepers. All right?'

The boy shrugged. 'You can keep them,' he said. 'We've got a shovel of our own anyway.'

Younger went upstairs and out the front door and headed for his Ford. Before he got there, Willis came out of Joe's house and across the lawn and said, 'Where'd you get that stuff?'

Younger was pleased with himself. 'I had a theory,' he said. 'I figured the guy got panicky and-'

'Where'd you get them?'

Irritated, wanting to tell Willis the whole theory, he said, 'The guy threw them away out in the field behind the house.'

Willis looked at the Ricks house. 'That's where you found them?'

'The kid next door found them.'

'Oh.'

'What about you?'

Willis shook his head. 'No luck so far.'

'I don't think the money's in the house. We'd of found it by now.'

'I'll keep looking,' Willis said. He turned around and went back into the house.

Surly bastard. Younger would be glad to have the partnership done with. He put the shovel and bag in his car and drove away.

PART FOUR

ONE

PARKER went back in the house. He knew Younger would keep himself busy for a while, have fun looking the shovel over for fingerprints. He might even dust the burlap bag.

Inactivity was making Parker irritable, testy. All he did was sit here in Joe Sheer's house and wait for that state cop, Regan, to come up with whoever killed Tiftus. And even then that might not ease the situation. The Willis cover might be loused up no matter what way things went here.

But maybe not. He knew more now than he'd known five minutes ago.

After Younger had driven away with the useless shovel and burlap bag, Parker went over to the side window in the living-room and looked over at the house next door. Through the window there he could see another