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and a twenty-something. Troopers tossed the car on site — just a quick search incident to arrest. The two younger kids had phones on them, so we checked their latest messages, and we’re pulling the laptop from the victim’s room.”
    Tuggey nodded slowly, and resumed, “Mayor said his own phone was ringing off the hook. Says to me, ‘I’ve got six inches of accumulated snow on that stretch of road the highway department can’t get to. I’ve got people trying to get to work along the back way, one car in a ditch right now.’”
    No doubt Mayor Engle had awakened as Tuggey had, alerted by the all-points bulletin. Deputy Cohen, first on the scene, had made a general announcement from the site that went out to all law enforcement bodies, including his own Sheriff.
    Which made Swift ask, “Why isn’t Sheriff Dunleavy running this?”
    Tuggey all but rolled his eyes. “Oh, no doubt Engle had been hoping this case would have stayed within the Sheriff’s Department so he could have polished his image. Amazing. Even someone dead in the middle of the cold road ain’t enough to push politics aside.
    “But, Dunleavy made the right choice, Swift. That’s why you got the call. The Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have the manpower or experience for this. Dunleavy’s good at what he does: the jail is a tight ship, the Deputies serve the community and the mental health offices, but he would be in over his head on this so he T.O.T.-ed it to us.”
    “He’s worried about over-running his budget,” Swift observed.
    “Hey, you don’t want to catch cases? Then you should have taken that Attorney General’s job.”
    “I didn’t mean that, Tug.”
    “Dunleavy can’t stretch a dollar, so what? What’s important is that we had a body in the road, a crime scene in the middle of a snow storm, and potential witnesses or suspects fleeing the scene. It’s more than Dunleavy was prepared to handle. He made the right decision. What I’m just telling you, is that the Mayor was wadded up over it. Says to me, ‘When can we get this road cleared? We got people have to get to work.’”
    “Should have asked him to make that statement publicly.”
    Tuggey threw his head back and laughed, dispelling the slight tension in the air.
    “Exactly right. I should have.” Tuggey grew serious again. “What I did say was: We don’t rush a crime scene. We process it. We work up to the body.” He looked shrewdly at Swift, his sooty fingers forgotten. “You sure you and Silas got everything? Last thing I need, Swift, is people saying we rushed it. The mayor wouldn’t take any heat from that — he’d deny it. But did he or anyone from his office contact you, put pressure on you?
    “No, sir. We’re getting the road open sooner than later because that weather isn’t giving us anything. What we got is how that kid died and, right now, anything those three kids know about it. And I think we’re in agreement that CLS headquarters in Albany is too far away and too long to wait for an autopsy, so I made the call and went with Doctor Poehler in Plattsburgh. Had the on-call mortuary service pick up the body and take it up.” Swift felt a chill as he recalled the mother’s face through the van’s small windows. It haunted him. Why did a mortuary service van have windows anyway? “We can use the Albany FIC if and when we need the DNA databank. I’m on a first-name basis with two analysts there. Whatever we need will come quick. Okay?”
    Tuggey pointed a finger in the air. “Okay, but listen. I’m going to keep the Sheriff’s Department plugged in on this all the same. Alan Cohen is a good man and Dunleavy tells me he’d like him to get a little more experience. And they were first on scene. Least we can do is show him some respect for not going all cowboy on us.”
    “Long as he knows this isn’t a ham and egg routine.”
    Tuggey narrowed his eyes. “He knows. Everybody knows.”
    “Okay.”
    Tuggey sighed and shifted his