Page 83 of Blood Moon

Pensively the ogre asked, “Do you ever wonder who took her and what happened to her?”

“Not really, no. But I wish that one of these days somebody would step into a shallow grave, or get their fishing line tangled up on an arm or a leg and pull her out of abayou. Once she’d been identified, we could point to her remains and say, ‘So that’s where Billy Oliver dumped her.’ His granny is no longer with us to dispute his guilt.”

“Everyone would shake their heads in sorrow,” he went on wistfully. “Then that would be the last they ever thought of it. We could close the case for good, and the disillusioned former detective John Bowie, along with his worthless allegations against me, would be ridiculed.”

Frank chuckled. “That’s some daydream, Tom.”

“It’s my wet dream.”

Chapter 23

John and Beth’s return to the fishing camp sent Mutt into a frenzy of joy. “He’s going to drive us nuts if he doesn’t burn off some energy,” John said.

He stayed outside to play fetch the stick. Beth sat down at her computer and emailed Professor Wallace an invitation for their Zoom, then called Max. To her disappointment, she got his voice mail. She left a second message, urging him to call her back.

Again, she considered calling Richard and asking him to track Max down, but she rejected the idea for the same reason as before: She didn’t want to ring an alarm bell before conferring with Max on how to finesse Brady.

John and Mutt came inside. He filled Mutt’s water bowl and took a bottle of water for himself from the fridge. He asked Beth, “Any luck?”

“In reaching Max, no. When he doesn’t want to be found, he accidentally-on-purpose forgets where he left hisphone. The Zoom with the professor is at five-fifteen. Will you sit in?”

“I’d like to hear what he has to say about the blood moon mystique.”

“He was in a rush, so I didn’t tell him specifically why I was reaching out, only that I was doing research for aCrisis Pointepisode.”

While listening, John had also been checking his various phones for messages. “Gayle Morris texted five minutes ago. Said to call.”

“Probably in response to what you told her about Billy.”

He accessed her number. She answered right away. They exchanged cursory greetings; then John said, “I’m putting you on speaker so Beth can listen in. What did you think about Billy Oliver’s faux confession?”

“John, if that was rigged, your department has raised the bar on police corruption.”

“It’s no longer my department, Gayle.”

“Pardon?”

“Barker canned me yesterday. I apologize for not telling you sooner, but you deserve to know. You also need to know that I’m not shrugging this off and quietly slinking away. No hard feelings if you choose to hang up now.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, “How high up does it go? Does it start and stop with Barker?”

“To be determined.”

“Have you taken it to Internal Affairs?”

“No, because I wouldn’t know who among them to trust. Barker’s got some enemies, but also people who kowtow to him, either out of fear or for favors.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Try to gather some evidence. So far, I don’t have anyone to back me up. Only three of us were in Billy’s cell within ninety seconds of Isabel Sanchez finding him. Myself, Billy’s lawyer, now deceased, and Barker’s number one heavy who everyone calls the ogre.”

“And Sanchez? Have you taken her temperature on the matter?”

He told her about his attempt to talk to the deputy. “Somebody scared her into silence.”

“God, I hate dirty cops.”

“Me too.”