Back of Beyond

Larry and Cody exchanged looks, waiting for the other to start.

“A body, right?” Tubman said, annoyed. “You’ve got a body?”

“We’ve got that,” Larry said. “Likely three days old. Male. Burned up in the fire.”

Larry briefed the sheriff on the crime scene and what they’d found. He offered no opinions or speculation, just a solid accounting of the facts as they’d found them. He did it with such authority, Cody thought, that on the facts alone there was only one conclusion. He appreciated that Larry didn’t even hint at their earlier discussion.

“Accidental death then,” Tubman said with some relief. “Or what we like to call ‘death by misadventure,’ if you add in the empty bottle. Is Skeeter on the way?”

“As far as I know,” Larry said. “Cody had him called.”

“Let’s hope he shows up alone without his fan club,” Tubman said, shaking his head.

The sheriff nodded toward the hikers in Dougherty’s truck. “Those folks the people who called it in?”

“Yes, sir,” Dougherty said. “I questioned them separately.”

“Did they check out?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are they county residents?”

Cody heard, Are they voters?

“No, sir,” Dougherty said. “The man’s a college professor from MSU. The woman’s his student, apparently. They really don’t want their names out, if you catch my drift.”

Tubman smiled. “Too bad. Their names will be in the report. So tell the professor he better start doing some damage control with his wife.”

Dougherty laughed.

“And get them out of here,” Tubman said. “Take them back to their car so they can go home.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cody watched Dougherty get into his vehicle and start it up. He waited for the professor to remember his backpack in Cody’s Ford, but the professor looked distraught. The woman stared out the window, as if contemplating what the rest of the semester would be like now. As they left the two of them appeared to be engaged in an angry exchange, based on the waving of hands.

Cody thought: They left the backpack.

Then he thought: Fate.

* * *

The bad blood between the sheriff and the coroner had recently come to a boil when Tubman was quoted in the Independent Record declaring that the cause of death of a twenty-five-year-old drifter found in Lincoln was due to an overdose of meth. He used the opportunity to make a case for increased drug-enforcement funding for the sheriff’s department. The next day, Skeeter held a press conference for the newspaper and the two television stations and made a point of saying they were awaiting autopsy results and, “Maybe our local sheriff should just stop by my office to learn how we actually do our job, since he seems to somehow know things that haven’t yet been determined scientifically.”

Although the victim was later declared to have died due to an overdose, the war had begun over which one of the two would be the official spokesman for law enforcement in the county when it came to dead bodies. Because both men were running again and wanted as much authoritative face time in the press as possible, it was often an ugly race to the cameras for both of them.

Bodean opened his door and leaned out. “We’ve nailed down the owner of this place,” he said. “Local man name of Henry Winters, age fifty-nine. No record.”

“We found his ID,” Larry confirmed.

“It didn’t burn up?” the sheriff asked Larry.

“The wallet was in his bedroom in the side of the cabin that’s still standing.”

“I don’t know him,” Tubman said dismissively. Meaning Winters wasn’t influential with the city council or a campaign contributor.

I did, Cody thought. He was angry with the sheriff’s gut reaction.

Tubman took his wet hat off and looked at it in his headlights. “I gotta get me one of those plastic hat condom things so the felt doesn’t get stained.”

Another set of headlights strobed through the lodgepole pine trees.

“Who smashed up the unit?” Tubman asked, turning his attention to Cody’s dented Ford.

“I hit an elk on the way up.”

“I hope you’ve got good insurance,” Tubman said, not kindly.

“I hope you’ve got a cow permit,” Bodean laughed.

Cody cleared his throat. “I think it’s a homicide.”

Even in the diffused light from the headlights, Cody could see the sheriff’s face darken.

“Larry thinks it could be accidental, but I don’t. I think somebody killed Hank and tried to cover the crime by burning the place down. If it wasn’t for the rain, he would have completely gotten away with it.”

Tubman spat between his feet. “It sounds accidental, Cody.”

“I’ll give you that. But I knew the man. It wasn’t an accident.”

The sheriff turned on Larry: “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

Larry shrugged. “We’re still working it out,” he said.

“Before Skeeter gets here,” Tubman said to Cody, “tell me why you don’t think this is what it appears to be.”

Cody told him, leaving out the part about him being in AA. Leaving out the part about the missing coins. Saying he knew Hank Winters never drank alcohol.

“That’s your reasoning?”

“Yes.” Cody could feel Larry glaring at him but didn’t look over. Hearing in his head, Don’t ever screw me, and don’t ever put me in a position I don’t want to be in.

Tubman crossed his arms and shook his head. “So what do I tell the press? What do I tell that fucking Skeeter?”

“Whatever you want,” Cody said. “I’m investigating it as a homicide.”

The sheriff set his jaw. “I know you sometimes forget this, Hoyt, but you work for me. And from what I’ve heard, it’s an accidental death. Do you dispute anything Olson told me?”

“No.”

“Then keep your theories to yourself until you’ve got something a hell of a lot better than what you’ve got. The last thing I need right now is an unsolved murder leading up to the primary. Do you understand? It’s an accidental death until you can prove to me it isn’t. Like if the autopsy boys in Missoula find a bullet hole in his skull or a knife in his gut. Then we’ve got something that changes the situation. Got that?”

Cody felt a familiar rage building up in him. But he managed not to lash out.

“Got that?” Tubman said again.

“I hear you,” Cody mumbled.

Deep in the trees from the direction of the main road he could hear the sound of a vehicle approaching.

“Oh no,” Bodean said, zipping up his long yellow raincoat and turning toward the road. “Skeeter’s coming.”

“Shit,” Tubman said, turning away from Cody, dismissing him. “Skeeter’s been showing up places wearing a sidearm lately. He’s trying to hammer home the fact that he’s law enforcement. Let’s see if the joker is packing.”

* * *

Skeeter was called Skeeter, Cody’d been told, because he didn’t like his first name, which was Leslie. SKEETER was stenciled on his vehicle doors. He pulled his four-wheel-drive behind Cody’s Ford, blocking him, and jumped out quickly, already dressed for the weather. Before he zipped his rain jacket, Cody saw Skeeter