Read Online A Nose for Justice by Rita Mae Brown - Free Book Online Page B

acquainted with both of them. Everybody loved Carlotta; Pete and Lonnie were no exceptions.
    “You keep telling me you’re going to find me a wife just like you.” Lonnie kissed her on the cheek.
    “Give me time. Give me time. You’re special.”
    Now seated, Pete drawled, “Lonnie, that means bullheaded. Will take a special woman.”
    “Takes one to know one.”
    “Anyone tell you two that you’re getting like an old married couple?” Jeep poured half and half into her coffee.
    Lonnie wrinkled his nose as he looked at Pete. “Too hairy.”
    Even Mags burst out laughing at this.
    Jeep had shown the policemen the Nicholas Cavalry School ring. She’d also handed them an envelope with photographs of the ring for their records since she wished to keep it. Pete said since it was found on her property, and given the time frame of the crime, why not?
    Pete knew Sheriff Haley would readily concur. He was a practical man.Allowing the university to remove and study the bones would save his department money. It wasn’t as though the murder occurred yesterday.
    “Haven’t talked to you since I called you about that explosion,” Jeep said to Pete while pouring herself another mug of coffee. “What happened up there?”
    “Someone blew up the pump.” Pete was enjoying Carlotta’s coffee. “Our department has a pretty good explosives expert, part time. I gave her the fragment and some paper bits Lonnie and I found and she was able to come back with answers.” Pete stirred his coffee after Carlotta refilled his cup. “It was a small pipe bomb. Small enough that you or I could have slid it into our coat pocket. Residue inside indicated that whoever did it had access to high-grade materials and knew what he was doing.”
    “That’s hardly consoling.” Jeep sighed.
    “Based on her conclusions—oh, I forgot to mention, he used some paper wadding.”
    Lonnie chipped in. “A grocery list.”
    “It wasn’t me!” Carlotta held up her hands in surrender.
    “Carlotta, you’d throw a grenade instead.” Jeep laughed.
    Pete continued. “But here’s the thing, again according to Mindy, our explosives expert: The perp didn’t want to cause a great deal of damage. Just enough.”
    “Enough?”
    “Either to divert our attention or as a warning. Then again, this could be a fruit loop.”
    “Fruit loops with pipe bombs usually do things like ride buses to take out a lot of people, isn’t that right?” Mags joined in.
    “More or less, ma’am. We’ve not had to deal with anything like that in Reno and I pray we never will; people whose sole purpose is to kill others they don’t even know. This is something else entirely and I don’t know why it happened. I could try and impress you ladies with solid-sounding theories, but I just flat-out don’t know what motivated our bomber.” Pete didn’t sound frustrated so much as puzzled.
    “No one claimed responsibility,” Lonnie added.
    “Why would someone do that?” Although Mags had spent periods of time throughout her life in Nevada and knew more about the state thanmost, she wasn’t up-to-date on recent politics or problems, whereby a radical group would claim a bombing.
    “For political gain,” Jeep answered. “If a movement, say environmental—labor in the old days—is extremely well organized, well led, there’s always an arm that is violent. The main group disavows this fringe element but actually directs its actions.”
    “Why?” Mags wondered, and so did Pete and Lonnie.
    “Violent or outrageous acts, whether from the left or the right, make any nonviolent position appear more reasonable. It’s another way to move the center off center, shall we say? Forty years ago the center of American politics would seem quite leftist now. The Republican Party’s conservative wing has managed to move the center rightward with great success. Of course, now they’re fighting among themselves, but that happens. Not just their problem. It’s an old strategy and