The two men talked quietly for a bit, before Norton patted him on the shoulder and headed back toward the SUVs. “All done,” he said cheerfully to his deputies as he walked past them.
“You going to let him get away with shooting at us, Pete?” one deputy asked furiously. He kept his voice low so Jorgensen couldn’t hear, but it carried just fine to Mac.
“He’s upset because his wife is leaving him and taking his sons,” Norton said. “Seems like we can cut him some slack. Nobody got hurt.”
There was a bit of muttering, and Mac made a note to ask Rodriguez if this was common procedure. He knew the cops had a boys-will-be-boys attitude — if you were white — but this seemed off. And it sent the message that it was understandable to shoot at a deputy? He wouldn’t work in a department like that.
“All done here,” Norton said.
Angie got in the back seat without comment, and Mac took his spot in front.
“You seemed awfully confident he wouldn’t shoot you,” Mac said in a neutral voice.
The sheriff shrugged as he started the SUV and backed out of the gravel parking lot. “Lucas isn’t a bad guy, really,” he said. “Been on some wilderness training exercises with him, so he knows me. He’s just upset.”
“Wilderness training exercises?” Mac asked.
“Yeah, there’s a guy up here who runs them. Kind of like geocaching, but a bit more exciting,” Norton said. “You should try it. Given your background, you’d like it.”
“I would,” Mac agreed. “Can I get his name?”
“Craig Anderson down in Marysville is the contact person,” Norton said. “But they’re based out of Sedro-Woolley. Runs them most weekends, I think. You should talk to him about going on one. I’ll get you his number.”
“I’d like that,” Mac said, not admitting he not only had the number, he had talked to the man just days ago. He’d have to review his notes to see if he could get away with going out with a group.
“Tell him I sent you,” Norton added. “I’ll put in a good word.”
“Appreciate it,” Mac said. He changed the subject. “So, you used to believe that Sandy Hook was staged, denied that it happened. Have you changed your mind on that since you’ve had to deal with one up here?”
Norton was silent for a moment. “Hard to deny we’ve got a problem with school shootings when one happens in your own county,” he said slowly. “So, I’m not as vocal about Sandy Hook as I once was. But there was something about that one that just didn’t set right with me, with a bunch of us sheriffs, you know?”
“What didn’t set right?” Mac asked, ignoring the obvious answer. A whacked-out teenager with access to an AR-15 went into a school and killed a bunch of kids and teachers. He would never forget President Obama’s tears that day.
“First, it was too convenient. Liberals were trying to get gun control legislation passed, and then bam! There’s a tragedy that says we need gun control to protect our kids,” he said more energetically than his previous remarks. “Some folks believed it was done with actors,” he continued. “That it was all made up.”
“And then you had a school shooter here,” he said.
“Yeah,” Norton acknowledged. “And there was nothing faked about it. Kid stole a gun from his father and headed to the school to get revenge. I get he was angry because a girl refused to go out with him, but shooting seven people over it? And then he killed himself. Tragic. But it wasn’t the gun’s fault.”
“His father was charged and convicted with gun violations,” Mac observed, noting the man’s sympathy once again for a guy ‘wronged’ by a woman. Pete Norton was truly a piece of work, he thought again.
“Not by my department,” Norton responded. “City did that. I wouldn’t have.”
“Why not? He’s got weapons he shouldn’t have, out where his 15-year-old son can grab them. Didn’t purchase them legally, either,” Mac persisted.
“I don’t believe the gun laws regarding those purchases are legal to start with,” Norton said. “Not constitutional. People were furious about the deaths and wanted someone to blame. He took the blame.”
Some truth to that, Mac acknowledged. But then, he deserved the blame. “You know him?”
“Yeah, goes to my church,” Norton said. “Tragedy like that? Hit him hard. And then he’s harassed for it. People were making anonymous calls, leaving threats. And finally, those charges.” Norton shook his head.
“What about the victims’ families?” Mac asked. “Did they get help? Were they the ones who called for an investigation?”
“Probably,” Norton said as if it didn’t interest him. “City was responsible for the victims and their needs.”
“So that made you reconsider Sandy Hook?”
“Some,” he conceded. “Still think there was something hinky about how that went down. But yeah, I now know a kid can be so crazed by the events in his life that he resorts to violence. Hard to take. We need to do better by our kids.”
“There have been 30 school shootings in the last year,” Mac observed. “You think there is something hinky about all of them?”
The sheriff was silent as he pulled back into the lot behind the sheriff’s department. He parked, and then he turned to Mac. “I think the kids are being used by anti-gun enthusiasts to pass legislation regulating guns. And those laws are unconstitutional,” he said levelly. “And I don’t give a god-damn about what the state legislature says or what the courts say. The Constitution isn’t difficult to read.”
“You think disturbed teenage boys constitute a well-regulated militia?” Mac asked.
“Not the boys. But their parents? The ones who owned the guns? I
