Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries) (8 page)

AS TULLY AND LURCH WALKED
into the lobby, the CSI unit suddenly said, “Hey, what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“In that room over there. If it’s what I think it is, I want to take a look at it.”

They walked over to the room. It was filled almost to all four sides with a giant box about a foot high. Protruding up from the middle of the box was a pointed mound, painted blue-green and capped with white.

“Wow,” Tully said. “I’ve seen these things before but none anywhere near this big.”

“It’s a three-dimensional topographical map of the whole county!” Lurch exclaimed. “This thing must have cost a fortune!”

“Not all that much,” a voice behind them said. They turned to see Blanche Wilson standing there. “Three geography majors from Eastern Washington University made it as part of their senior project. The lodge furnished only the supplies. And food and lodging. They were a great bunch of kids, unlike certain college rascals I could mention.” She nodded in the direction of the WSU frat boys playing cards in the lounge. “Those guys were going to scale the steep backside of Mount Blight, but I guess the weather got too much for them. They seem to prefer sitting in the lounge and arm-wrestling. And drinking. I’m going to cut off their drinking pretty soon. Their rudeness and roughhousing have pushed me to the limit. I wish you would think up something for them to do, Sheriff.”

“I’ll see if I can come up with something,” Tully said. “I should think you would be way past your limit by now, Blanche.”

She glanced around, apparently to make sure no one else was listening. Lurch seemed intent on the three-dimensional map. “I’m afraid, Sheriff Tully,” she said, “you will think me about the most insensitive person you’ve ever met. I have tried to appear concerned about Mike, but I’m not that good of an actress. The truth is, I would just as soon he stay gone, although I don’t wish him any harm. I lied to you when I told you I didn’t think there was another woman. I suppose there could be a dozen other women, for all I know. It’s just that I can hardly imagine another woman taking up with him. Mike is a thoroughly nasty man. Scarcely a day has gone by since we got married that he hasn’t been mean to me in some way. Not physically, mind you, but just things he would say, which can be worse than physical.”

“I suppose,” Tully said. “By the way, do you know anything about his business arrangement with Horace Baker?”

“Only what was printed in the
Blight Bugle
. Mike never told me anything about the development or any of his other endeavors. I do know that he was very upset when the planning department turned it down.”

“Like what?”

“He about went through the roof. He was practically a maniac that whole week. Then he settled down, or as much as Mike ever settles down.”

Tully wondered how he should tell her. There seemed no good way, so he simply told her. “Horace Baker was murdered last night.”

Blanche Wilson seemed stunned. She staggered as she stepped backward and sat down on a bench. Tully walked over and sat down next to her. “You okay?”

“I can’t believe somebody would kill Horace.”

“He wasn’t the most beloved person in town. But we have reason to believe his killer must have known him pretty well. Apparently, Horace had poured the person a glass of whiskey and even let the person walk behind him. He was shot in the back of the head.”

Blanche stared off into space. “You think Mike might have done it?”

“It’s possible, I suppose. If he somehow made it to town without a car. You told me no vehicles were missing.”

“That’s right. Was he killed after Mike went missing?”

“I believe so. I don’t know the exact time yet. Can you think of any reason your husband would want to kill Horace Baker?”

Blanche shook her head. “Not really. There were a lot of problems that resulted from the turn-down of the new development, but killing Horace wouldn’t have solved any of them as far as I know.”

Lurch turned and yelled over to him. “Hey, boss, come take a look at this. It’s fantastic. It has about every feature of the county in three dimensions, right down to tiny cars on the streets.”

“Listen, Blanche—you mind if I call you Blanche?”

She shook her head.

“We’ll get this thing straightened out. I’ll keep you informed about whatever we turn up. There’s no point in you worrying any more than you have to.”

“I appreciate that.”

“By the way, Blanche, does Mike have any guns?”

She laughed. “Dozens of them! I have no idea how many.”

“Do you happen to know if one of them is a .22-caliber pistol?”

“I couldn’t even guess. If you want, you can come up to our living quarters and take a look for yourself. He has a couple of large cabinets crammed with guns.”

“I may take you up on that.”

Blanche got up and walked toward her office.

Tully let Lurch tell him about the three-dimensional map, even though Tully could see the thing for himself.

“Look, boss, they even put in the West Branch Lodge.”

“Boy, that is surprising, considering that the West Branch Lodge paid for it.”

Lurch obviously wasn’t listening. “See, there’s even a little ski lift between the Blight Mountain Lodge and the top of Blight Mountain.”

“I hate skiing,” Tully said.

“Me too,” said Lurch. “But you know something, Bo, we could really use one of these maps in the department. It’s got every road and trail on it. You can see the whole county in a glance.”

“I suppose you’d like to make the thing yourself.”

“I’d love to!”

“I think maybe you’ve got too much time on your hands, Lurch. Maybe you need a girlfriend.”

“I have a girlfriend. At least I used to have a girlfriend. You keep me so busy I haven’t seen Sarah in weeks.”

“Maybe you need two girlfriends, Lurch. One here and the other in Boise.”

“Maybe I’ll get a job in Boise.”

“Not a chance. I’ve already told everyone there what a terrible CSI unit you are.”

“I can almost believe that.”

“You better believe it.”

TULLY HEADED ACROSS THE DINING
room toward the table where Perkins and Pap were seated but passed Lindsay sitting alone at a table for two. “Mind if I join you?” he asked.

“Please do, Sheriff. Say, is it all right if I call you Bo? After all, we’ve already been intimate.”

Tully had started to spread the large linen napkin across his lap. His head jerked and he leaned across the table. “We have not been intimate, Lindsay!” he hissed.

“Of course we’ve been intimate!”

“Shhh! Not so loud! And we have not been intimate!”

“You carried me naked up the side of a mountain! If that’s not intimate, Bo, I don’t know what is.”

“You weren’t naked!” Tully hissed at her. “I had you wrapped up in my coat!”

“Yeah, well, my bare heinie was sticking out. It practically froze. I think it’s still blue from the cold. You want to see?”

“No, I don’t want to see!”

Lindsay grinned at him. “I’m joshing you, Bo.”

“You better be! I hope you haven’t told this story to anybody else, that you and I have been intimate.”

“Seven or eight people is all.” She laughed at his reaction. “No, only kidding.” Then she turned serious. “Listen, Bo, I know you risked your life to save me. You were wonderful! Thank you, thank you, thank you. If it had been up to Marcus, I’d be dead by now.”

“You’re welcome. But I have to tell you, Lindsay, I would have done it for any beautiful young woman.”

She laughed. “I bet you would.”

The waitress came over and they ordered. Tully took the Home Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Lindsay the Rocky Mountain Seafood Platter.

Tully said, “Listen, Lindsay, can you keep your mouth shut?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Okay, I believe you. We’re all kind of isolated here at the moment. And there seems to be some pretty odd stuff going on.”

“Like what?”

“For one thing, I’m pretty sure somebody tried to kill Pap and me with that avalanche.”

Lindsay expressed her amazement with a whispered four-letter obscenity.

Tully went on, keeping his voice low. “I’m telling you now, just in case something happens. It probably won’t, but if it does I want you to know, so you can tell Herb Eliot, my undersheriff. Right now I think Mike Wilson is the culprit, that he started the avalanche in an effort to kill me. I’m not sure why.”

“Geez,” Lindsay said, her eyes tearing up. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Bo.”

“Look, there’s not much chance of anything happening. But there’s this very weird stuff going on. Right now we’re pretty much cut off from any immediate help. If you notice anything unusual at the lodge, let me know, okay? And if something should happen to me…”

“Yeah, I’ll tell Herb Eliot what you told me. Bo, I like it that you trust me. And maybe someday we’ll be intimate.”

“Don’t say that!” Tully hissed.

She gave him a wicked grin.

AFTER DINNER, TULLY ROUNDED UP
Pap, Dave, and Lurch, and took them to his room. He informed them of his latest discovery, that the avalanche probably had been started deliberately, very likely for the purpose of wiping out him and Pap as well as isolating the lodge.

“I can understand them wanting to wipe you two out, boss,” Lurch said. “Lots of people want to do that, but why isolate the lodge?”

“You want to know why?” Tully said. “Well, I don’t know why. As far as killing Pap and me in the avalanche, only Mrs. Wilson knew about the time we were headed up this way. Maybe she told somebody. Somehow I think the avalanche may have something to do with the murder of Horace Baker. Mike Wilson must be involved in this. He’s missing and Baker’s dead, and they were both partners in that development that was shut down. Lurch, was Susan able to get at least a rough time on the death for Baker?”

“She said it had to be between eleven to midnight, calculating in all the factors.”

“Okay, so let’s say Wilson slipped out before the avalanche and killed Baker. Then the avalanche would keep him from getting back to the lodge. If he set off the avalanche, the road out would be blocked for him to get out. Obviously, if he turns up on this side of the avalanche, that gives him a pretty good alibi for Horace’s murder. Not to mention the lack of a motive, as far as we know.”

Dave said, “I don’t want to inflate Bo’s ego any more than it already is, but we need to consider the motive for someone trying to kill him and Pap. There has never been a single murder in Blight County since he’s been sheriff that Bo hasn’t solved. He’s even solved quite a few by legal means, but no matter what it takes he gets them solved. So if you eliminate Bo, your chances of getting away with murder in Blight County go way up.”

“That’s pretty much the way I see it,” Tully said.

“What about me?” Pap said. “He tried to kill me too.”

“True,” Dave said. “But most everybody wants to kill you. You would just be a bonus.”

Pap laughed, obviously pleased. He dug out the makings from his shirt pocket and rolled himself a cigarette. He snapped a thumbnail on a kitchen match. The match burst into flame, and he lit his cigarette. Tully shuddered.

“What?” Pap said. “What are you staring at?”

“Nothing,” Tully said. “Any ideas? You can see how desperate I am, to be asking you guys anything.”

Dave said, “Byron got a good cast off that print in the snow. We shouldn’t have any trouble matching it to Wilson’s boots, if we find his boots.”

“Yeah,” Tully said. “If we find Wilson and if we find his boots. Maybe he made those tracks and maybe he didn’t. Our Indian tracker here seems to think there’s something wrong about the tracks. If somebody else made the tracks as some kind of ruse, what did that person do, swim the river? There obviously are no tracks leading back from the river.”

“He would have to be picked up by a boat,” Lurch said. “Either that or he drowned and floated off down the river.”

“There may be some rough water between here and the Pout House,” Tully said. “A person taking a boat up there might really have to know what he’s doing.” He tugged thoughtfully on his mustache. “If those tracks were faked, made by somebody other than Mike Wilson, then Mike Wilson is probably dead. Somebody would have gone to a lot of trouble to make us think Mike fell in the river and drowned. I’m going to see if Grady, the handyman, knows whether the lodge boat might handle the rough spots upriver. If so, maybe Lurch and I will see if we can run the boat up to where the tracks drop down into the river. That way we’ll know if the person who made the tracks could be picked up by boat. You two walk in along the tracks and see if you can pick up any other signs that the tracks may have been faked. Lurch and I will meet you at the river.”

“Me!” cried Lurch. “Why does it always have to be me? You know I’m terrified of boats!”

Tully said, “What’s your point, Lurch?”