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The floor manager thrust a finger at her and she looked at a camera and said, “Good afternoon. I’m Daisy Jones and we have a very serious request from two of the best-known law enforcement officers in Minnesota, two men who were both terribly wounded in a famous shoot-out in New York’s Hamptons last winter... We will get to them in one second. Later on the show...”
When she came back, she looked at Virgil and said, “Virgil Flowers, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent known for his fantastic clearance rate... Virgil, what’s going on here?”
Virgil told her about the discovery of the van at the airport, andthe blood on the floor. He didn’t mention Heath, but did say that the van owner was believed to be dead, murdered, and, because of some timing considerations, that his body was believed to be buried within a two-hour drive of the Twin Cities.
She introduced Lucas as a U.S. Marshal. “And Lucas, you believe that dirt taken from the van could be a clue,” Jones said. “You want this program, and our audience, to help find the dead man?”
“That’s right, Daisy,” Lucas said. “A BCA expert on Minnesota soils tells us that the white Chevrolet van recently had been driven across marshy soils typical of floodplains. He found algae within the soil, the type of algae found in river floodplains. We believe it’s quite possible that the murdered man is buried very close to a river—one that occasionally floods over the burial area.”
“How can we help, Virgil?”
“You can ask your audience, the audience that lives near a river within an hour or so of the airport, if they saw lights, car lights or van lights, where there shouldn’t have been any, the night before last, between about four and six. The van had no trailer hitch or roof rack, it couldn’t have been pulling a boat or hauling a canoe. It would be a vehicle very close to a river, on the floodplain, without a trailer of any kind. And it would have been there for a while. And it might have been in an obscure place, where not many people go.”
“Is this related to the murder of Alex Sand and his children?” Jones asked.
“It may be, Daisy,” Virgil said. “There are a couple of murder investigations going on simultaneously. They may be linked.”
“You say there may have been more linked murders than just the three at the Sand house?” She looked amazed.
“We can’t expand on it, but that is the case,” Lucas said.
—
She had morequestions, and when it was over, they went to a commercial break and Daisy said, “Thanks, guys. That was good. I’d give you each a Snickers bar if I had two more. I need a sugar hit.”
She took a Snickers bar out of a bag hidden behind her chair, took a bite, put the bag back behind her. Virgil and Lucas got untangled from the lavalier mikes and were shepherded toward the exit by a producer. As they left, they heard Daisy shout, “Ray: have I got caramel on my teeth?”
Outside, Virgil asked, “Do you really think this will produce?”
“I think it’ll be picked up by all the other stations, and probably the papers. It can’t hurt. If Coffman hasn’t ruled against the warrant yet, then we’re not using the fruits of an illegal warrant to ask for help. If he decides it is illegal. And goddamnit, your dirt guy better pull some algae off those van tires, as backup, in case we have to swear where the dirt came from.”
“I’ll make sure that’s being done,” Virgil said, and he got on his phone.
22
After discovering that the flash drives were gone, Hess had run up the stairs and lifted the mattress on the bed. The computers were also missing. After an hour or so attempting to quiet his initial panic, he lay on his bed, lights on, forearm across his eyes, and thought about it.
Key fact: he wasn’t in handcuffs. If any cop had found that stuff, he’d be in a dungeon somewhere. Fact: he’d smelled that odor when he first walked in. Ethereal, but there. Perfume. Women.
After resisting for a long time, he’d come to a conclusion: Cooper had been there. She’d thought of him, in relation to the boys. Now that she had the proof, what was she going to do?
If she was going to turn him in, where were the handcuffs? Was it possible that she was going to come after him herself? To go for revenge, rather than call the law?
Just barely possible. If so, then he had to strike first, recover the flash drives, recover the computers, get rid of all of it.
Get rid of Cooper, and the woman she was with.
—
Cooper and Meltonhad to go to three different Cabela’s stores to get the two items that they needed. Melton went in, bought them, paid a lot of cash, apologetically.
Two Armasight generation-3 night-vision monoculars. She bought them the morning after the burglary, and they tried them out that evening. Melton had been skeptical, Cooper insistent, and both were surprised that they worked so well.
Cooper had the house gun ready. They wouldn’t use the Carter gun for this ambush, only if it became necessary to kill Hess at his home. The plan was simple: they’d see Hess coming—they were fairly sure he would be—and Cooper would ambush him. When they were sure he was dead, they’d call 9-1-1 and begin screaming for help.
The baby would be in bed a little after dark, would awaken later for a feeding, and then sleep until dawn. Hess would come before then, and Cooper would kill him.
“From the office window I can cover the whole front of the house. From the Zen room, you can cover the whole back of the house. He can’t come from either side without showing himself to one of us,” Cooper said.
