homicide in Seattle,” Walt said, a spike of heat flooding him. He’d been looking for a way into a discussion of Boldt, and Wynn had just handed it to him.
“Impressive.”
“I’d wanted to talk to you about that.”
“Me? Why would you want to talk to me about Caroline?” Back on his heels.
“Was she on the list server?” Walt asked, beginning to draw tangents. “Did she have reason to fear Martel Gale?”
“Any woman alive has reason to fear Gale. He eats ’em for breakfast. Treats ’em like his personal punching bags. Did Gale know her? Wouldn’t surprise me. He attracted the lookers like flies to shit. But if she was on the server, it didn’t do her any good, did it? The alert came two weeks late. You believe that shit?”
“There’s a Seattle detective, a Sergeant Boldt, would like a word with you, in private, about Caroline Vetta. He’s suggesting you meet over here, not in Seattle, in order to avoid the press.”
Wynn coughed a laugh. “Shit, you guys are all a piece of work. You’re telling me I’ve got to get back on the horn with my lawyer?”
“If you want to involve your lawyer,” Walt said, “I think that might be agreeable. The idea is to keep it out of the press, not to pull an end run on you.”
“As if the cops care.”
“This one does, apparently. He can do it in front of all the cameras if you’d prefer.”
He looked up from the drink. “I don’t see why we can’t do something. Let me make a call and get back to you.”
“Works for me.” The man drank the liquor like it was water. “Do you have reason to believe Martel Gale is in Sun Valley?”
“You already asked me that.”
“And you said you shot at him, not that you knew he was here.”
“Listen, several women could have testified against him for all I know. Right? And why not Caroline? She could have been one of the girls. Maybe he paid her back.” The way he looked up over the rim of the glass sent a charge through Walt. He needed to make sure Boldt talked to this one.
“The sooner you can let me know about meeting with the detective, the better. He’s going to fly over specially for this.”
“Am I supposed to be honored? Let him do what he’s got to do.”
“I’d like to inspect your weapon,” Walt said.
“Pity, it’s in the bedroom safe, and hell if I didn’t forget the combination. That’s what I was on the phone to my lawyer about. I knew you fellas would probably want to see it, and I didn’t want to piss anyone off, but it’s in there locked up and I won’t have the combination until tomorrow sometime, when my office is open.”
“About the time your lawyer’s plane lands?” Walt asked.
“Cynicism from a county sheriff?”
“Why make it more difficult than it has to be?”
“So the lawyers earn their money, I guess.”
“You can’t go firing a gun in your backyard.”
“So you said. Gale was out there. I wasn’t taking any chances.”
Walt heard the man’s name and thought of his wife. It was Gail out there. He’d never be fully free of her, which was the hardest part to adjust to—like one of those stomach microbes from Mexico.
If he had a killer loose in the valley, he needed to know about it.
“Could have been a hiker,” Walt said. “Could have been a neighbor.”
“Gale did Caroline,” Wynn said. “I was next on the list. Trust me. A guy like that settles scores. Football players. Hell, they remember the smallest shit from the previous season, and they make the player pay the next time they face him across a scrimmage line. It’s the way the game’s played. It’s who they are.”
“In which case you’ve either wounded him or escalated the terms. And your gun’s locked in your safe,” Walt said. “And you forgot the combination.”
Wynn glanced into the house and back at Walt. “That is problematic,” he said. “Maybe you could leave that smokin’ hot deputy at my front door all night.”
“Deputy Chalmers is married with five kids. Her husband runs a martial arts school in Hailey. Her eldest is eighteen and has his black belt.”
Wynn didn’t seem to hear. Walt had lost part of him back at the mention of Boldt.
“A second weapons violation will result in felony charges. Neither of us wants or needs that. Forgetting the combination to the safe may be a good thing.”
“I see someone out there, and I’ll shoot first, ask