was Langsford killed quietly and not the others? Besides that, why waste time on this victim when there were more accessible targets closer to the access road? I'm almost certain the killer walked from the locked gate to Langsford's RV. It doesn't make any sense.'
'Maybe Langsford's RV was the first one he could get into,' Hutch said.
'Spree murderers don't operate that way,' Kerney said. 'They get on an emotional high, act indiscriminately, go for easy kills, and then move on.'
'Are you saying Langsford was deliberately killed?'
'It's possible.'
'That could mean we've got multiple murders to cover up one crime.'
'That's my best guess at this point,' Kerney said. 'And if no more victims surface, I'll bet the farm on it. Start deep background checks on all the victims. Look for anything that could point to a motive for murder. Pay particular attention to Langsford.'
'You've got it, Chief.'
Kerney glanced at Randy Shockley, who was assisting an agent taking statements from impatient senior citizen campers. 'Is Agent Duran at the district office?'
'He's standing by.'
'We're going to get heavy media attention on this, Hutch. Get the public information officer down here from Santa Fe ASAP. Have him release a statement saying we're handling the cases as a multiple murder spree. He can fill in the blanks from there. If he has questions, I'll be around.'
'You're not going to Kansas?'
'Not a chance.' He lowered his voice and leaned into Hutch. 'Where does Duran stand with his investigation on Shockley?'
'He's just about got it wrapped,' Hutch replied. 'Can you backstop him, Chief? I can't spare anybody.'
'Does Shockley know the axe is about to fall?'
'He doesn't have a clue.'
'Tell Duran I'm on my way.'
Hutchinson left, and Kerney raised his eyes to the sweep of mountains, his gaze settling on Joplin Ridge, high above Dog Canyon. Long before the park existed, he'd come here as a boy on camping trips with his father to explore the freshwater springs and seeps that enabled lush plants and trees to thrive at the edge of a desert filled with yucca and mesquite. Spindly, eight-foot-tall ocotillo shrubs climbed the flanks of the rocky Sacramento Mountains, masking any hint of the existence of the hidden springs.
Now Dog Canyon was part of the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. Kerney had grown up hearing stories about Oliver Lee from his grandfather, who ranched on the west side of the Tularosa Basin in the San Andres Mountains back when Lee controlled the water in Dog Canyon and a million acres of free range. To this day, people argued over whether Oliver Lee was a hero or a villain in the range wars that erupted during the late Nineteenth Century. The living descendants on both sides of the feud kept the quarrel going. It had become a peculiar form of entertainment that spilled over into local politics, bar fights, and business dealings.
Kerney nodded at Sergeant Shockley as he passed by, and thought glumly of needing to call Sara to cancel his visit.
After leaving a message for Sara and talking by phone with his boss, Andy Baca, chief of the state police, Kerney left the crime scene and drove to the district office. Alamogordo had once been a sleepy desert railroad town, but with the opening of the air base during World War II and the establishment of White Sands Missile Range after the war, all that had changed. Now the community went boom and bust and boom again on annual congressional defense appropriations.
A major four-lane highway cut through the town along the east side of the Tularosa Basin, and a commercial strip stretched beyond the city in both directions. There was the usual assortment of bars, pawnshops, cut-rate furniture stores, and used-car lots that catered to servicemen mixed in with motels, fast-food franchises, and gas stations that served the highway traffic.
Thanks to the establishment of a permanent training station for the German Air Force and the consolidation of stealth bomber and fighter squadrons at Holloman Air Force Base, the city was enjoying a comeback from the deep defense budget cuts that had occurred at the end of the Cold War. But in spite of banners on light poles proclaiming local attractions and community events, the main strip still looked seedy.
The state police district office was in a building that housed several other state agencies on a major street near the old downtown area. Kerney parked in the back lot, rang the bell, and the dispatcher buzzed him inside, where Agent Robert Duran waited for him.
A small-boned, wiry man, Duran competed in cross-country and marathon races, and had recently transferred from criminal investigations to the Internal Affairs Unit.
'What did you get from Shockley's ex-wife?' Kerney asked.
'According to the ex, he was always bringing stuff home after his shift. Booze, office supplies, a nice luggage set, a brand-new chain saw-stuff like that.'
'Weapons?'
'Oh, yeah. Lots of those. He had a locked closet in the garage where he kept the goodies. When he moved out last year, he took everything with him. She saw him load up at least ten handguns, several long rifles, and a shotgun when he left.'
'Did she give a statement?'
'In writing, Chief.'
'Did Shockley tell her where he got the weapons?' 'He said he traded for them, or bought them used.'
A handgun Shockley had reported as returned to the owner had surfaced in a recent El Paso armed robbery, and Kerney asked if Duran had talked to the owner.
'Couldn't do it, Chief,' Duran said. 'He died six weeks before Shockley sent the dated and signed receipt to Santa Fe. Shockley forged the owner's signature on the form.'
'Did the perp who used the gun identify Shockley as his supplier?'
'He never met Shockley, but he gave me the name of the Juarez gunrunner who sold him the pistol. I had a nice long chat with the guy. Once he understood that I wasn't going to put the Juarez cops onto him, he fingered Shockley as one of his illegal weapons suppliers.'
'How many weapons did Shockley sell him?'
Duran consulted his notebook. 'During the last two years, Shockley sold him approximately sixty weapons: mostly handguns, all in cherry condition. The dealer paid him an average of four hundred dollars for each gun, sometimes more.'
'Did you recover any of them?'
'No, but I got a partial list of makes and models from the guy-as much as he could remember. I compared it to Shockley's evidence reports. What Shockley said he'd returned to the rightful owners, he was mostly selling.'
Duran closed his notebook. 'The Juarez buyer isn't willing to cross the border and testify, if and when we go to trial, Chief. In fact, I had the distinct feeling he would disappear as soon as I left. I tape-recorded his statement.'
'You've got enough to make your case without him.'
'I've got more we may be able to use. There's been a spike in the number of stolen cars reported by the district over the last three years, beginning right about the time Shockley got his sergeant stripes. I asked the intelligence unit to do an analysis. Most of the cars were stolen on Shockley's swing and graveyard shifts. When he worked days, nighttime auto thefts dropped dramatically.'
'Do you have anything connecting Shockley to the auto thefts?'
'Not yet.'
'What about the money trail?'
'That, I've got. Shockley plays the market. He has four separate Internet brokerage accounts. His total investment over the past three years exceeds one hundred twenty thousand dollars. He sure hasn't been investing that kind of cash with his take-home pay.'
