hunting equipment and some camo, and showed it to Virgil.
“Not Realtree,” Virgil said.
“But he had some, and he could have had some more, someplace else.”
“Could have, but probably didn’t,” Virgil said.
“How do you know that?” O’Hara asked.
“Because he wasn’t the bomber. He was murdered.”
Barlow said, “Aw, man, don’t start this shit again. First Erikson, now Wyatt…”
“Erikson led to Wyatt,” Virgil said. “The bomber led us down the garden path. He wanted us to look hard at the first setup, so we’d buy the second one.”
O’Hara was curious. “You know who it is?”
“Yeah, but I need another piece of the puzzle. I should get it this afternoon. I want you both to get down on your hands and knees, praying that the call comes through.”
“Well, who is it?”
“I don’t want to slander anyone,” Virgil said. “Wait until the call comes through.”
They all got pissed at him, so he slouched out to his truck, drove out to the PyeMart site, intending to do some fishing. When he got there, he found Pye looking at the footings; Chapman was looking over his shoulder.
Pye saw him getting out of the truck and said, “Well, you fucked me. And, I still gotta kiss your ass, for nailing down this Wyatt guy.”
“Wyatt’s not the guy,” Virgil said.
Pye took a step back. “So, you fucked me, and then you fucked me again?”
“I didn’t think you used that kind of language, Willard,” Virgil said.
“I don’t, unless somebody really fucks me,” Pye said.
“I’ll get the guy this afternoon. Or maybe tomorrow, depending.”
“Depending on what?”
“I’ll let you know about that,” Virgil said. “In the meantime, keep your mouth shut about this. I only told you, because he tried to kill you.”
Pye bobbed his head, and Chapman nodded.
Virgil said, “So, you’re pulling the store out?”
“Sounds like it. I been all over Ahlquist, and what he says is, three city councilmen and the mayor have been suspended, and under state law, the governor is going to appoint replacements until there can be an election. The first order of bidness is gonna be to reverse the zoning changes on grounds that the former council was bribed. I don’t believe it, I still gotta talk to my boy.”
“Tell you what, Willard: just between you and I and Marie’s potential two million readers, you bribed their asses. You know it, I know it, and Marie’s two million readers know it. There’s gonna be a trial, and it’s all gonna come rolling out.”
“Well, there will be if there’s a trial-but who knows what might happen, between now and then?” Pye said, showing the slightest crinkle of a smile. “Anyway, it’s time for me to get the crap outa town.”
“You’re not gonna stay for the ass-kissing ceremony?”
Pye looked at his watch, then asked, “When you gonna get him again?”
“Today or tomorrow. Tomorrow at the latest.”
“And you won’t tell me who it is?”
“Not yet,” Virgil said.
“Can you tell me how you knocked it down?” Pye asked.
“Two things. You almost had a birthday party, and I was in the right place at the right time. I’ll tell you the rest of it tomorrow.”
Virgil was getting his fly rod out of the truck when he took a phone call from Sandy the researcher. “You were right,” she said. “We’ve got a receipt, but they’ve got no video.”
“Goddamnit. I don’t suppose he signed his own name,” Virgil said.
Sandy said, “Not unless his real name is Mick E. Maus.”
25
Virgil put the fly rod away and called Ahlquist from his truck, and said, “I’m coming over. I can tell you who the bomber is, but we have to talk about how to catch him. Probably ought to have Good Thunder there, if you can get her. Somebody from the county attorney’s office, anyway. Anybody you think should know. I’ll call Barlow, get him in, and my two guys from the BCA.”
“Fifteen minutes?” Ahlquist asked.
“Yeah, that’s good. I’ll see you there.”
He called Jenkins and told him to bring Shrake, and Barlow. “I got my call. I think I can tell you how it happened, and who did it.”
Virgil pulled into the parking lot outside the county courthouse, left his car in a slot near the door. Shrake and Jenkins went by in Shrake’s Cadillac, Jenkins lifting a hand to Virgil, and found a spot farther down the lot. Preoccupied with his thoughts about the bomber, Virgil didn’t see Geraldine Gore come through the courthouse door until she shouted at him, “You dirty sonofabitch.”
She was accompanied by a man in a gray suit, white shirt, and pink tie; he might as well have had an ID patch on his back that said, “Lawyer.” He said, “Geraldine, Geraldine,” and tried to catch her arm, but she twisted away and came steaming toward Virgil. She was carrying a big leather purse and Virgil had the feeling that she was going to swing it at his head.
She did. He stepped outside the swing, and said, “Take it easy, Mayor, for Christ’s sakes.”
She said, “You motherfucker,” and came back in, angrier and angrier, swung again and missed. Shrake and Jenkins came up and Shrake said, “I bet she takes him.”
Jenkins said, “You’re on for five. That fuckin’ Flowers has got the reach on her and twenty pounds. Okay, three pounds.”
Her attorney was on her by then, shouting, “Geraldine, Geraldine, stop it, stop it!” He wrestled her away, then turned to Virgil and said, “I hope you’re not offended.”
Jenkins jumped in: “Offended? You mean, because she committed aggravated assault, assault on an officer of the law, extortion of a witness, obstruction of justice? And those are just the felonies.”
Gore screamed, “Shut up, you asshole.”
Virgil said, “I forgot you guys had been introduced.”
Shrake said, “Oh yeah, the three of us go way back.”
The attorney: “Agent Flowers…”
Virgil said, “Just don’t let her shoot me, when I turn my back, okay? I’m going inside.”
“So we’re okay?” the lawyer asked.
“Yeah, except now I need an aspirin,” Virgil said.
Gore shouted, “You’re gonna need more than an aspirin, you shit, you shit, you shithead, you peckerhead, you…”
The lawyer hauled her away, sputtering and screaming.
Shrake watched them go, then said to Virgil, “You find the most interesting crooks.”
“You got an aspirin?”
They gathered in a courtroom, Virgil, Ahlquist, Barlow, Good Thunder, Shrake, Jenkins, O’Hara, and a tall fat deputy that Virgil didn’t know, but who turned out to be the chief deputy, and whose name was Jeneret.
“So who is it?” Ahlquist asked. They were sitting in the court pews, with Virgil on a chair in front of them.
Virgil held up a finger. “We thought, when we started, that we could figure out who did it if we could only figure out how he got the bomb in the Pye Pinnacle. If it was an accomplice, finding the name would give us a human tie. If he placed it himself, he had to have some special skill.”
