Johnson City arrested yesterday evening for assaulting the very officer now held hostage. Stay tuned to KNOW for further updates.”
Marlin found Sheriff Bobby Garza sitting in his patrol car, eyes closed, a cup of steaming coffee perched on the dashboard.
Marlin looked through the passenger-side window. “Wake up, cowboy.”
Garza swiveled his head Marlin’s way. “Wake up, my ass. I’ve got a headache that would floor a mule.”
“And eyes like two pissholes in a snowbank.” Marlin said. “You know, I hear four out of five doctors recommend Excedrin for hostage situations.” He climbed inside and nodded toward the squat building forty yards away. “What’s the latest?”
Garza shook his head and took a sip of coffee. “Corey told Darrell to get the hell out about an hour ago.” Darrell Bridges was the dispatcher who had remained inside the sheriff’s office. “That was fine with me,” Garza said, “because by then I had a couple of the phone guys tapping into the lines from outside. So now we can take calls without interrupting nine-one-one service. And we don’t really need the radio at this point. We can still talk car to car.”
“So Corey has the run of the entire office now?”
“Yep, and he’s covered up all the windows so we can’t see inside. Pretty smart move, really. But at least he’s talking to us now.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got Tatum acting as negotiator. He’s doing a pretty fair job. Taking things one step at a time.” Bill Tatum was one of the deputies-a man Marlin liked and respected. Hopefully, Jack Corey felt the same way. “Corey damn sure isn’t talkin’ about coming out yet, though. All Tatum’s managed to do is twist his arm a little. Corey wants some food in there but we’re refusing it until he gives us something in return.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we know he ain’t gonna give up Wylie, so I asked him for Wylie’s gun belt. I want to take away that extra ammo. Later on, he’ll want something else, and I’ll ask for a bullet out of the gun. You just keep picking away at what they’ve got. I’ve read that sometimes you can get them down to just a bullet or two that way.”
Marlin grinned. “Pretty smart. But why is Tatum negotiating instead of you?”
“For starters, he’s taken a couple of courses on hostage situations. I’ve only taken one. Never thought I’d need it. I mean, how often do we come up against something like this? Shit like this just doesn’t happen out here. It’d be like asking the folks in Kansas to have emergency plans for a hurricane.
“And the other thing; one of the few things I do know-the top cop is never supposed to be the negotiator. Otherwise, Corey would expect immediate answers to his demands. He’d be like, ‘Why can’t you do this for me? You’re the sheriff.’ This way, Tatum can string things along, tell Corey he needs to check with me and get back to him.”
“Not to be ignorant, but what does that accomplish?” Garza stopped for a moment to listen to some radio traffic. One of the deputies at the door wanted a bathroom break.
“You’re supposed to drag these things out as long as you can,” he said. “Supposedly, the longer it lasts, the less chance there is of someone getting hurt. The perp is supposed to come to his senses, so they tell you to stall all you can. Unless someone’s in immediate danger. Then all bets are off.”
The men sat in silence for a moment, and Marlin noticed the scene was eerily quiet. It was amazing, really. The better part of the Blanco County Sheriff’s Department was figuratively handcuffed, held at bay by the whims of the hapless redneck inside.
Marlin spoke up: “What about the DNA test? Can’t the lab speed it up, let us know if Corey’s a match or not?”
“You’d think so, but I guess they got cops all over the state asking for rush jobs. That’s just business as usual. They told me six days.”
Marlin sighed in frustration. “But, Christ, we’ve got a real situation here.”
“You don’t have to tell me. Oh, speaking of test results, did you hear? The blood all over Emmett Slaton’s house wasn’t human.”
Marlin had forgotten-for the last few hours anyway-about the disappearance of the old rancher. “Then what the hell was it?”
“Animal of some sort, but the tests don’t tell us which. They just show that the blood’s not human.”
“What do you make of that?”
Garza made a passive, palms-up gesture. “Got me. But I’m taking it as a good sign, for now. We never found his dog, so maybe it ran off injured and Slaton’s been looking for it. ’Course, that doesn’t explain Slaton’s truck at the Save-Mart. Anyway, we’ll see what the boys can come up with. All the deputies who aren’t here are either working on Slaton or looking for your boy Peabody.”
Marlin waited for a gibe that didn’t come.
“I’m pushing everybody to the limit as it is,” Garza said. “Everyone’s on the clock, and most of them have been on duty since yesterday morning. If something doesn’t shake loose pretty soon on that Slaton mess-and this one here-I’m gonna have to call in the Rangers.”
The Texas Rangers, a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, were available to smaller law- enforcement entities on an as-needed basis. But Marlin knew Garza prided himself on running an independent department.
Marlin mentioned what he’d just learned from Joe Biggs about Bert Gammel. When he was done, Garza tilted his head to one side and blew out a breath. “That’s the first I’ve heard of that. A lot of cash, huh?”
“Enough to buy a Ford Explorer a couple years old, according to Joe.”
Garza gave Marlin a sidelong glance. “You up for playing detective a little longer?”
Marlin didn’t really know how he felt about it, but he knew the Sheriff’s Department already had its hands full. He’d have to make a few calls to game wardens in neighboring counties, asking them to help pick up the slack on poaching calls in Blanco County. “What the hell,” he finally said.
“That’s my boy,” Garza smiled.
They talked it over and agreed that Garza would secure subpoenas first thing in the morning so Marlin could check into Gammel’s financial affairs at the local banks. Apparently, a couple of deputies had already searched Gammel’s home-including the only financial records they could find: his checkbook-and nothing had raised a red flag. Marlin would have to look a little deeper.
“After the banks, you might want to talk to his friends and coworkers,” Garza said, with a pained look on his face. “Wylie obviously didn’t cover those bases very good.”
Marlin nodded.
Garza grinned and said, “Man, it would look so good.” He waved a hand across Marlin’s left biceps, as if reading an imaginary patch on his arm. “Blanco County Sheriff’s Department.”
“Here we go again,” Marlin said as he climbed out of the car.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Handcuffs were nothing new to Thomas Peabody. He had been shackled several times before, and had even managed to extricate himself from the infernal devices on a couple of occasions. Those were pleasant memories. It was always amusing to see the puzzled expressions on the officers’ faces (oppressive pigs!) when Peabody managed to slip his delicate hands free.
But this time, the cuffs were just too restrictive. Yes, he had been successful at “walking through” the cuffs backwards (the benefits of yoga were wonderful, indeed), so now his hands were cuffed in front of him. But there was simply no hope of slipping his hands through the metal manacles. The game warden had been too perturbed when he had clamped them on Peabody’s wrists, and Peabody could feel them biting into his skin ever since. Therefore, Peabody would have to be a bit more resourceful. In time, he’d find a way out of this puzzle, and then he could proceed with the more urgent task of shutting down Sal Mameli, just as he had threatened to do. In truth,
