what?”
“Nothing’s ever a coincidence, except when it is.”
“Jeez, I’ll write that down. That really helps,” Price said.
• • •
THEY TALKED FOR a few more minutes, and then Virgil said, “What I’d like is for you to do two things for me—hunt around Bigham and find out if Jimmy Sharp, Becky Welsh, and Tom McCall were staying there for the last week or so. They couldn’t make the rent in the Cities, so they had to be staying somewhere cheap, or free. Maybe with some friends? I don’t know. . . . But if you find them, have some backup.”
“I’ll put the word out. If they were there, we should know today,” Price said. “What’s the other thing?”
“Find out where Jimmy’s car is. It’s an old black Firebird, the DMV has the tags. They apparently drove here in the Charger and left here in the truck. So, where’s the Firebird? We can’t find his old man’s truck, either, so they might have a new set of wheels . . . but maybe, maybe they went back to the Firebird. We really need to know how they’re traveling.”
“But if they had the Firebird when they hit the O’Learys’ house, why did they have to hijack a car?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wonder . . .” Price scratched his forehead again.
“Yeah?”
“They go into the O’Leary house, planning to rob it . . . I wonder how they thought they were going to get away? They couldn’t plan on finding a guy standing next to his car.”
Virgil said, “Huh.” They thought about that for a minute, then Virgil said, “Maybe they were planning to kill everybody in the house, and take a car. And panicked, instead.”
“Jeez . . . you think? There were five people there.”
“But then, they’re nuts,” Virgil said.
• • •
PRICE LEFT, and Virgil went back to the phones. He called the O’Leary house, now curious about the victims of the first crime, and found that Marsha O’Leary, Ag’s mother, was in the hospital, suffering from exhaustion. Her husband was with her. He talked to Marsha’s mother, Mary Hogan, who said that Marsha had been particularly friendly with two women from Shinder, classmates, Bernice Sawyer and Harriet Washburn, whom Marsha had known since before kindergarten.
“For Shinder things, they’d be the best ones to talk to,” Hogan said. Her voice had an elderly scratch to it, but tough and dry, like a woman who’d seen some death.
“I’ll do that,” Virgil said.
• • •
VIRGIL TALKED TO SAWYER FIRST. She was a thin, friendly woman with a big country kitchen. Her parents owned the local grain elevator, and her husband worked there. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard about Ag being murdered. I thought, my God, what are they doing up there?”
Sawyer had gone to the class reunion, and the dance, and remembered that Becky Welsh had been working the food service, serving desserts.
“Marsha was wearing her diamonds. I don’t know how Becky could have missed them—the most diamonds anybody around here ever saw. Marsha did it on purpose. She had a couple of old rivals here, who wound up leading pretty modest lives, and she was . . .” Sawyer smiled. “Sticking it to them, I guess you’d say.”
She’d never heard of a Tom McCall. “He doesn’t live in Shinder, and I don’t believe he’s ever lived here, because I know everybody who lives here,” she said.
When he was done with Sawyer, Virgil touched bases with Washburn, because he couldn’t think of what else to do, and Washburn confirmed what Sawyer had said. Becky Welsh had almost certainly seen the diamonds. Washburn, who also claimed to know everybody who lived in Shinder, agreed that there was no Tom McCall, either in the present or in the immediate past.
Virgil left Washburn, went out and sat in his truck; then called Duke, learned that Duke had been in touch with the local media, and had been called by both KSTP and Channel Three television in the Cities.
“You
“Nothing’s ever a coincidence, except when it is.”
“Jeez, I’ll write that down. That really helps,” Price said.
• • •
THEY TALKED FOR a few more minutes, and then Virgil said, “What I’d like is for you to do two things for me—hunt around Bigham and find out if Jimmy Sharp, Becky Welsh, and Tom McCall were staying there for the last week or so. They couldn’t make the rent in the Cities, so they had to be staying somewhere cheap, or free. Maybe with some friends? I don’t know. . . . But if you find them, have some backup.”
“I’ll put the word out. If they were there, we should know today,” Price said. “What’s the other thing?”
“Find out where Jimmy’s car is. It’s an old black Firebird, the DMV has the tags. They apparently drove here in the Charger and left here in the truck. So, where’s the Firebird? We can’t find his old man’s truck, either, so they might have a new set of wheels . . . but maybe, maybe they went back to the Firebird. We really need to know how they’re traveling.”
“But if they had the Firebird when they hit the O’Learys’ house, why did they have to hijack a car?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wonder . . .” Price scratched his forehead again.
“Yeah?”
“They go into the O’Leary house, planning to rob it . . . I wonder how they thought they were going to get away? They couldn’t plan on finding a guy standing next to his car.”
Virgil said, “Huh.” They thought about that for a minute, then Virgil said, “Maybe they were planning to kill everybody in the house, and take a car. And panicked, instead.”
“Jeez . . . you think? There were five people there.”
“But then, they’re nuts,” Virgil said.
• • •
PRICE LEFT, and Virgil went back to the phones. He called the O’Leary house, now curious about the victims of the first crime, and found that Marsha O’Leary, Ag’s mother, was in the hospital, suffering from exhaustion. Her husband was with her. He talked to Marsha’s mother, Mary Hogan, who said that Marsha had been particularly friendly with two women from Shinder, classmates, Bernice Sawyer and Harriet Washburn, whom Marsha had known since before kindergarten.
“For Shinder things, they’d be the best ones to talk to,” Hogan said. Her voice had an elderly scratch to it, but tough and dry, like a woman who’d seen some death.
“I’ll do that,” Virgil said.
• • •
VIRGIL TALKED TO SAWYER FIRST. She was a thin, friendly woman with a big country kitchen. Her parents owned the local grain elevator, and her husband worked there. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard about Ag being murdered. I thought, my God, what are they doing up there?”
Sawyer had gone to the class reunion, and the dance, and remembered that Becky Welsh had been working the food service, serving desserts.
“Marsha was wearing her diamonds. I don’t know how Becky could have missed them—the most diamonds anybody around here ever saw. Marsha did it on purpose. She had a couple of old rivals here, who wound up leading pretty modest lives, and she was . . .” Sawyer smiled. “Sticking it to them, I guess you’d say.”
She’d never heard of a Tom McCall. “He doesn’t live in Shinder, and I don’t believe he’s ever lived here, because I know everybody who lives here,” she said.
When he was done with Sawyer, Virgil touched bases with Washburn, because he couldn’t think of what else to do, and Washburn confirmed what Sawyer had said. Becky Welsh had almost certainly seen the diamonds. Washburn, who also claimed to know everybody who lived in Shinder, agreed that there was no Tom McCall, either in the present or in the immediate past.
Virgil left Washburn, went out and sat in his truck; then called Duke, learned that Duke had been in touch with the local media, and had been called by both KSTP and Channel Three television in the Cities.
“You
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