“What? How?”
“Carbon monoxide poisoning. He and his mother and sister—they all died in their sleep. The news hasn’t been released to the public yet, but the staties are saying it was a faulty furnace.”
“Did you happen to catch the name of the guard?”
“Clegg maybe.”
“Pegg?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
I slumped back against the seat. I am sure I must have looked to Pulsifer as if I’d been poleaxed.
“You knew him, I take it.”
“Not really,” I said. “But he struck me as a decent guy. He was young and naïve, but he had a good heart. And they killed his mother and sister, too?”
Pulsifer pricked up his ears. “Who’s the they in that sentence?”
“I don’t know.”
Rancic was the name in my head. But however much Gary Pulsifer might have changed in sobriety, he was still a rumormonger at heart. I couldn’t trust him with my unconfirmed hunch.
“So I take it from the crossbow and arrows you just bought that you’re pursuing a theory about who shot your wolf.”
“It doesn’t seem as important as it did a while ago.”
“If it keeps you from meddling in active homicide investigations, I’m all for it. As your union rep, I recommend that you continue chasing your mystery archer. Which brings me to the other thing I want to talk to you about. I got a call from Kent Mears last night. He was drunk and pissed off. He’s no Socrates, but he figured out how you came to knock on his door yesterday. The fact that we’re both game wardens. It wasn’t cool of you to do that, Mike. The program is supposed to be anonymous.”
“I apologize.”
He stuck his hand into the cold air between us for me to shake. “Just don’t do it again.”
“Do you really think people can change, Gary?” I wasn’t sure who I had in mind with this question.
“I’m betting my life on it.”
35
After Pulsifer had driven off, I placed a call to Steve Klesko.
To my surprise, the detective picked up immediately. I had assumed he would be too busy for me.
“You must have heard about Pegg,” he said.
A crow descended out of the mist to perch on a branch in the tree beside the graveyard. The wet black bird had a look of eager, deserving expectation, as if I might be inclined to toss it some food.
“All I’ve heard so far has been third-hand,” I said, trying to ignore the beggar. “What’s this about a faulty furnace?”
“I can’t comment. You know that.”
“If you’re not going to talk to me, then why did you take my call?”
I could hear him breathing on the other end as he considered his response.
“What do you know about Pegg’s connection to your friend Billy Cronk?” Klesko said at last.
“I know he tried to visit Billy at the Farm a couple nights ago, but got cold feet. I suspect he had information about the prison stabbings, who was really behind it, maybe.”
“Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. All I can tell you is he got up the nerve to visit Cronk at Bolduc last night. It was the last time Tyler Pegg was seen alive.”
“Why don’t you ask Billy what they talked about?”
“I would, except he’s not here.”
I assumed it was a joke. “What do you mean he’s not there?”
“I mean that sometime last night Cronk walked out of the Bolduc Correctional Facility and disappeared.”
“What?”
“With all the talk of a pardon he must have figured he was free to go. The warden begs to differ, needless to say.”
“Shit!”
Leave it to Billy Cronk to jeopardize his pardon by escaping from a facility from which he was due to be released any minute.
“Any idea why he jackrabbited?” Klesko asked.
“Pegg must have told him something.”
“Like what?”
“That his family was in danger.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, by the way? Aimee and the Cronklets as you call them.”
The crow stared at me through my windshield, which was growing mistier by the minute from my rapid breathing. “They may be staying at my house.”
“May be staying?”
“I offered the place to them while I’m up in the Sandy River Valley. Whether or not they took me up on the invitation, I have no idea.”
Klesko paused half a minute to process my statement.
Then he said, “We know that Cronk called his wife last night after he met with Pegg. So he knows his family is shacked up at your house. My impression of Mrs. Cronk is that she’s not going to be inclined to share information with me. Would you call that a fair assessment?”
“More than fair. Look, Steve, the only reason Billy would have walked away from the Farm is that he is deeply worried for Aimee and the kids’ safety. And given what happened to the Pegg family, I’d say his concerns are legitimate. Is there any way—?”
“I can’t assign a trooper to watch them if that’s what you’re about to ask. I can, however, stake out your place since it’s the most logical place we’re going to find Cronk.”
“So you’re going to use his family as bait?”
“The man escaped, Mike. That’s a felony. Maybe the governor will pardon him for that one, too, but in the meantime, we’re going to put out a BOLO with his name on it.”
“I get it.”
“There are a few more questions I need to ask you. You’re not going to like them, but I don’t have a choice. From Billy’s folder I know he worked as a caretaker at a mansion outside Grand Lake Stream. There’s good reason to think he’s familiar with the operation of furnaces—”
“You think Billy might have killed Pegg and his mother and sister?”
“His whereabouts are unaccounted for. And Pegg’s Honda is missing.”
“No fucking way.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because Billy Cronk is incapable of harming an innocent person.”
“It’s nice that you believe that, but I don’t have the luxury. And since I can’t ask Tyler Pegg what he told your friend, I have to pursue all possible theories about how those three people died.
