was his salvation.?
?That'?s sure what somebody wants you to think. You and everybody else in town.?
?You really believe he?s being framed? After his death? Who has a motive to frame Tim Jessup??
?Cui bono, my friend.?
?What??
?Who benefits??
?From his death??
?Yes. And from smearing what remained of his good name. It?s pretty clear that someone wants Tim?s death to look like a run-of-the-mill drug murder. Guaranteed to go in the ?unsolved? file.?
Logan looks uncomfortable.
?Which is exactly how Shad Johnson seemed to be reading it last night at the crime scene,? I remind him. ?Before any such evidence had been discovered. By the way, when Shad was here to make sure you threw the book at Soren Jensen, did he give you any sense of urgency about solving Jessup?s murder??
The chief can?t meet my eyes now. ?Not exactly.?
?Uh-huh. I?d say the situation?s pretty self-explanatory, Don.?
Logan gets up from his desk and walks to the window, toys with the blinds. ?Let me ask you a question. You know a lot about this town. You were raised here, you'?ve written about it.?
?What do you want to know??
He turns and looks me squarely in the eyes. ?Who actually runs this place??
This is a question I?'ve asked myself since I was a boy.
?You?re the mayor. Do you run it??
?Far from it. In fact, our kind of city government is literally defined as the ?weak mayor? form of government.?
Logan gives me a guarded look. ?You?ve got the power to fire me.?
?I?d happily trade that for the power to fire the district attorney.?
The chief grunts as if he agrees. ?My folks always told me Natchez was run by the garden clubs. Maybe that was true once, but that idea?s a laugh and a half now.?
?They never really did, Don. This town was always run by a few big men behind the scenes. Men like Leo Marston. Judges, bankers, lawyers, oilmen. But things have changed. The big money?s mostly gone or spread among the heirs. There?s not that much power here
anymore. It?s a free-for-all. White or black, everybody?s chasing whatever money they can find. We?re just like the rest of the country that way.?
Logan nods dejectedly, but something else seems to be eating at him. ?I tell you, I'm starting to feel like the marshal in a company town. Mining town, lumber town, whatever.?
?Gambling town?? I suggest quietly.
A quick, worried glance. ?You said that, not me. Look, gambling is gambling, and everybody knows what comes with it. But it?s legal now, and given that, I have to say the casinos have been good partners.?
?You sound like a lot of people when they talk about casinos.?
?How?s that??
?Careful.?
?Well. It?s like being police chief in a town by an army base. If you?re not pro-army, you?re in the wrong job. The way I see it, my job is to collect evidence and make arrests. I can only go by the evidence I find.?
?Chief, your job is to uncover the truth.?
Logan looks at me with a dogged defiance in his eyes. ?No, sir. That'?s a jury?s job. And a judge?s. Lawyer?s, maybe. And it don'?t make a bit of difference how much detective work I do if the DA doesn?'t want to prosecute something.?
Now I stand. ?If you find solid evidence, Shad will have no choice.?
?You really believe that? You were an assistant DA yourself. You know how political that stuff gets.?
?Murder is murder, Don.?
The chief makes a clicking sound with his tongue. ?Well, I'?ll sure be interested to see the results of Jessup?s autopsy.?
?When will you get those? Next week??
?Actually, Jewel Washington put a rush on it. She?s pretty tight with the people at the crime lab in Jackson. I think the pathologist may be cutting Jessup late today.?
A fillip of excitement shoots through me. ?Does Shad know that??
Logan shakes his head. ?I wouldn'?t want to be Jewel when he finds out either.?
?If he tries to retaliate against Jewel for doing her job the way it ought be done, Shad?ll find out just how much power I
?
?Penn, look??
?No, this is bullshit. You tell me one thing. If the autopsy comes in conclusively as homicide, are you going to press the investigation or not??
Logan straightens up with impressive dignity. ?If it comes back homicide, I'?ll be investigating a homicide. I'?ll do it by the book, and I won'?t miss a lick. But, brother, in the end, being chief of police is a lot like being mayor. Unless you?re backed up by the people above and below you, it?s just a nice-sounding title.?
As Logan grimaces under the burdens of his office, something disturbing strikes me. ?Don, we?ve been talking quite a while, and you haven'?t asked me anything about my balloon getting shot down.?
He takes a deep breath, then answers with carefully chosen words. ?First off, I can see you weren?t hurt bad. Second, it happened over Louisiana. Not my jurisdiction. Mine ends at the river.?
I sense barely contained anger behind his eyes, but he will not voice it.
?One thing has troubled me since last night,? I tell him. ?You said Tim tried to call me several times before his death. I was in one of the highest parts of the city, but I never got those calls. No texts either. How could that be??
Logan folds his arms and looks at the institutional green carpet.
?May I see Tim?s phone??
The chief shakes his head. ?I can?t do that.?
?Why not??
?Ask the district attorney, not me.?
?Do you
the phone? Is it in the evidence room??
Logan keeps his gaze on the carpet. ?You?re outside the bounds of what I can answer.?
?Jesus, man, what
you tell me??
Logan chews on his bottom lip for a while. Then he glances at his door and walks to within a foot of me. ?Last night, there were two localized interruptions of cellular service. In two different places, and at two different times.?
I ponder this for a minute. ?Let me guess. The first was around midnight, near the cemetery.?
Logan nods almost imperceptibly.
?And the second was right around the time Tim died. When he jumped out of the SUV and was trying to get away from whoever was inside.?
?You get the prize.?
?How widespread was the interruption??
?From the complaints, the best I can figure was about half a square mile near the cemetery. Up on the bluff it
