safe dealing with him in the station.”
“What were the two of you fighting about?”
“The same old thing we always fight about. The moonshine business and him getting the land he wants. He keeps threatening to fire me if I don’t make an arrest. Every time he threatens to fire me, I threaten to run against him in the next election. He knows the way he’s treated women in this town that I’d get virtually every female vote, the Hispanic vote, and a fair share of the males. He wouldn’t have ever said it while he was alive, but I think he knows I would beat him.”
“Would you really want that job?”
“Yeah. I even filled out the paperwork to run next year. I pulled the papers out of my desk and showed him when he said he was going to fire me. He lost his mind and said he would have me fired by the end of the month. He said something about how he thought I was in cahoots with the illegal business and if he had to he would plant some booze on me and send me up the river.”
“And that’s when you lost it?”
“No, I lost it when he called my old boss Chief Lee the ‘c’ word.”
“Crazy?”
“No,” she paused, “rhymes with hunt.”
“Oh, no.”
“He said she was probably in on it too and I was just carrying on her crooked tradition of a backwoods cop.”
“Well, we’ve certainly got a mess on our hands here. It’s a good thing you never filed those papers to run against him.”
Blanca looked at the ground. “I was so mad when he left yesterday I went straight to the courthouse and filed.”
“Ugh,” Cam sputtered. “Make your phone calls and we’ll figure all this out later. Maybe there’s something under all that dirt that will point us to a killer. Until then, I’m afraid you’re going to have to live under a small umbrella of suspicion.”
“Help me,” she said, with the sweetest look Cam had ever seen. Blanca took another step toward him and put her hands on his hips as if they were slow dancing. “I need you.”
“I’m all yours,” Cam said, swallowing hard.
Worried that the officer who pulled him over the night before might arrive on the scene after Blanca’s calls, Cam called Turner to come and get him. As far as Blanca knew, he’d just discovered the body an hour or so ago. He didn’t want her to know he had been driving around after midnight. The last thing Cam needed in his life was a cloud of suspicion over him.
Turner knew the area well and arrived before anybody else. Cam told Blanca to call or come by his house later when she knew something. He promised to be semi-sober.
“Did she buy it?” Turner asked once Cam was in the car and they were out of sight.
“Yeah. I added a little more to it, but I basically stayed on script. I know you’re a part of their group, but be real with me for a minute.”
“I’m always real.”
“Sorry. Is it possible that Claude killed Billy?”
“No. I know he didn’t. He was with me when the motion sensor went off. We heard it.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Claude and I were running our last pot for the time being. Until things settle down at least. From what was said at the council meeting and you seeing my peanut gun you’ve probably figured that I can make just about anything you can imagine. I set up a motion detector connected to a cell phone. I set the sensitivity to high so a deer running by wouldn’t be able to set it off. It took a series of movements to trigger it. When it triggered, it sent a signal to another one a half mile away in the opposite direction of our still. That one was connected to a hammer-like device that fired a shotgun shell. We heard it and I swear he was with me when we did.”
“You scare me.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I didn’t see any motion detectors when I was there and I’ve been there twice.
“I went and picked them up a few hours later.”
“And you didn’t see anything?”
“I wasn’t looking, but no. And it was
“What were the two of you fighting about?”
“The same old thing we always fight about. The moonshine business and him getting the land he wants. He keeps threatening to fire me if I don’t make an arrest. Every time he threatens to fire me, I threaten to run against him in the next election. He knows the way he’s treated women in this town that I’d get virtually every female vote, the Hispanic vote, and a fair share of the males. He wouldn’t have ever said it while he was alive, but I think he knows I would beat him.”
“Would you really want that job?”
“Yeah. I even filled out the paperwork to run next year. I pulled the papers out of my desk and showed him when he said he was going to fire me. He lost his mind and said he would have me fired by the end of the month. He said something about how he thought I was in cahoots with the illegal business and if he had to he would plant some booze on me and send me up the river.”
“And that’s when you lost it?”
“No, I lost it when he called my old boss Chief Lee the ‘c’ word.”
“Crazy?”
“No,” she paused, “rhymes with hunt.”
“Oh, no.”
“He said she was probably in on it too and I was just carrying on her crooked tradition of a backwoods cop.”
“Well, we’ve certainly got a mess on our hands here. It’s a good thing you never filed those papers to run against him.”
Blanca looked at the ground. “I was so mad when he left yesterday I went straight to the courthouse and filed.”
“Ugh,” Cam sputtered. “Make your phone calls and we’ll figure all this out later. Maybe there’s something under all that dirt that will point us to a killer. Until then, I’m afraid you’re going to have to live under a small umbrella of suspicion.”
“Help me,” she said, with the sweetest look Cam had ever seen. Blanca took another step toward him and put her hands on his hips as if they were slow dancing. “I need you.”
“I’m all yours,” Cam said, swallowing hard.
Worried that the officer who pulled him over the night before might arrive on the scene after Blanca’s calls, Cam called Turner to come and get him. As far as Blanca knew, he’d just discovered the body an hour or so ago. He didn’t want her to know he had been driving around after midnight. The last thing Cam needed in his life was a cloud of suspicion over him.
Turner knew the area well and arrived before anybody else. Cam told Blanca to call or come by his house later when she knew something. He promised to be semi-sober.
“Did she buy it?” Turner asked once Cam was in the car and they were out of sight.
“Yeah. I added a little more to it, but I basically stayed on script. I know you’re a part of their group, but be real with me for a minute.”
“I’m always real.”
“Sorry. Is it possible that Claude killed Billy?”
“No. I know he didn’t. He was with me when the motion sensor went off. We heard it.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Claude and I were running our last pot for the time being. Until things settle down at least. From what was said at the council meeting and you seeing my peanut gun you’ve probably figured that I can make just about anything you can imagine. I set up a motion detector connected to a cell phone. I set the sensitivity to high so a deer running by wouldn’t be able to set it off. It took a series of movements to trigger it. When it triggered, it sent a signal to another one a half mile away in the opposite direction of our still. That one was connected to a hammer-like device that fired a shotgun shell. We heard it and I swear he was with me when we did.”
“You scare me.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I didn’t see any motion detectors when I was there and I’ve been there twice.
“I went and picked them up a few hours later.”
“And you didn’t see anything?”
“I wasn’t looking, but no. And it was
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