own.
“Heard about you, Officer Wager. Good to meet you.” His voice rumbled with half-swallowed phlegm.
“Sorry I’m late—car trouble.”
“Those things happen. Dorothy’s fixed you up with coffee? Good—come on back. Tell me what all you’re doing out here.”
The man’s office, made even smaller by his bulk, had a tiny window protected by a mesh of heavy metal. It looked out into a corrugated steel well on the other side of the basement wall. The top of the well had a barred grate over it. While Wager told the sheriff what he thought Spurlock had a right to know, the large man stared up at strips of blue sky.
“Howie Morris called me last night. Told me you two’d talked some.”
The deputy’s telephone had been pretty busy. “He thinks I’m working for the FBI or BLM. I’m not. I was asked to come out here and see if I could help coordinate between your office and the feds, and that’s what I’d like to do.”
“You were asked to come out here? By who?”
“The FBI, through Captain Melrose, Denver Police Department. The initial request came to the CBI from the state attorney general’s office.” Then he played the big card. “The governor signed off on the request, too.”
As chief executive of the state, the governor had the power to name replacements for elected officials who, for one reason or another, failed to serve out their terms; the state attorney general had direct supervision of all district attorneys as well as the state court system in Colorado. That office’s power over sheriffs was in the hazy area that called sheriffs and their deputies “officers of the court.” Under law, the court system was one structure leading all the way from local small-claims courts up to the state supreme court. However, like judges, sheriffs were elected by district and had wide latitude in performing their duties. Reported irregularities in that performance were assessed by the state attorney general’s office, which had the power to empanel grand juries to investigate complaints. But the distinction between local and state powers was a flexible and sometimes competitive line. While no one at either state or local level was ever eager to investigate charges of malfeasance, it had happened occasionally. And no sheriff enjoyed the idea of explaining to the voters at the next election why he had been investigated by the SAG, or why the governor had threatened to appoint someone else to the job.
The heavy flesh of Spurlock’s face hid any emotion, as did his baggy eyes, which rested, unblinking, on Wager. “The governor did, huh? So just what kind of ‘coordination’ you have in mind, Officer Wager?”
“Whatever it takes to solve four homicides.”
“Three, none of which was in my jurisdiction. We’re not sure the fourth’s a homicide.”
“It’s listed as a suspicious death. I’d like to clear it up one way or the other.”
“You’d like to do that, would you?” He folded large-knuckled hands comfortably across his stomach. “Well, just what makes you think I won’t be able to do that without your help?”
“I don’t doubt that you can. And I know for sure I couldn’t do it without your help. But my job—what the governor and the attorney general sent me out to do—is to help you and the federal people work together to determine if any of the deaths are related.” He added, “If they are, then maybe working on one will lead to a break on the others.”
“And just why does the state attorney general’s office think they’re related?”
“Four homicides—possible homicides, I know—in a three-month period and in a population this small is suspicious in itself. Then you add the facts that two were federal employees killed by snipers, and the third was an informant for the feds. It becomes a possibility too strong to ignore.”
“That’s the way the people in Denver see it?”
“If it happened in another county, wouldn’t you wonder?”
The sheriff
“Heard about you, Officer Wager. Good to meet you.” His voice rumbled with half-swallowed phlegm.
“Sorry I’m late—car trouble.”
“Those things happen. Dorothy’s fixed you up with coffee? Good—come on back. Tell me what all you’re doing out here.”
The man’s office, made even smaller by his bulk, had a tiny window protected by a mesh of heavy metal. It looked out into a corrugated steel well on the other side of the basement wall. The top of the well had a barred grate over it. While Wager told the sheriff what he thought Spurlock had a right to know, the large man stared up at strips of blue sky.
“Howie Morris called me last night. Told me you two’d talked some.”
The deputy’s telephone had been pretty busy. “He thinks I’m working for the FBI or BLM. I’m not. I was asked to come out here and see if I could help coordinate between your office and the feds, and that’s what I’d like to do.”
“You were asked to come out here? By who?”
“The FBI, through Captain Melrose, Denver Police Department. The initial request came to the CBI from the state attorney general’s office.” Then he played the big card. “The governor signed off on the request, too.”
As chief executive of the state, the governor had the power to name replacements for elected officials who, for one reason or another, failed to serve out their terms; the state attorney general had direct supervision of all district attorneys as well as the state court system in Colorado. That office’s power over sheriffs was in the hazy area that called sheriffs and their deputies “officers of the court.” Under law, the court system was one structure leading all the way from local small-claims courts up to the state supreme court. However, like judges, sheriffs were elected by district and had wide latitude in performing their duties. Reported irregularities in that performance were assessed by the state attorney general’s office, which had the power to empanel grand juries to investigate complaints. But the distinction between local and state powers was a flexible and sometimes competitive line. While no one at either state or local level was ever eager to investigate charges of malfeasance, it had happened occasionally. And no sheriff enjoyed the idea of explaining to the voters at the next election why he had been investigated by the SAG, or why the governor had threatened to appoint someone else to the job.
The heavy flesh of Spurlock’s face hid any emotion, as did his baggy eyes, which rested, unblinking, on Wager. “The governor did, huh? So just what kind of ‘coordination’ you have in mind, Officer Wager?”
“Whatever it takes to solve four homicides.”
“Three, none of which was in my jurisdiction. We’re not sure the fourth’s a homicide.”
“It’s listed as a suspicious death. I’d like to clear it up one way or the other.”
“You’d like to do that, would you?” He folded large-knuckled hands comfortably across his stomach. “Well, just what makes you think I won’t be able to do that without your help?”
“I don’t doubt that you can. And I know for sure I couldn’t do it without your help. But my job—what the governor and the attorney general sent me out to do—is to help you and the federal people work together to determine if any of the deaths are related.” He added, “If they are, then maybe working on one will lead to a break on the others.”
“And just why does the state attorney general’s office think they’re related?”
“Four homicides—possible homicides, I know—in a three-month period and in a population this small is suspicious in itself. Then you add the facts that two were federal employees killed by snipers, and the third was an informant for the feds. It becomes a possibility too strong to ignore.”
“That’s the way the people in Denver see it?”
“If it happened in another county, wouldn’t you wonder?”
The sheriff
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