cameras. A Forest Service pickup truck entered the frame, moved down the street, and pulled into a parking space in front of the bank.
“Recognize that truck? Traffic cams, Gilly. Did you know Ketchum has traffic cams now?”
Menquez’s face went a pasty gray. He looked at Walt and back to the overhead screen as Walt played the clip again.
“You see the time stamp?” Walt asked. “Days before you claimed to have found the SUV. There’s a time stamp on the withdrawal as well.”
Menquez licked his dry lips. He looked like a beached fish.
“We can get you into treatment, Gilly. We can do that before all this comes out, so the Service will foot the bill for it. You’ll come out clean and sober and on your feet, and maybe you even keep your job.”
“I got kids. A family. I needed that money. I wouldn’t have taken it.”
“You’ve been drinking up your paycheck, Gilly. I see this all the time. This is nothing new to me. Let me help you.”
“I didn’t mean to screw things up for you. I found the truck. I swear I was going to tell you. But there was the wallet on the floor. The guy had written his PIN number on a piece of paper tucked into his wallet. I mean, how stupid is that? It’s like he was asking me to do it.”
“I need you to run it down for me. I need every detail exactly as it happened.”
“Including the bat?” Gilly said.
Walt felt a bubble in his chest and did his best to suppress his surprise.
“How come no one found that bat?” Gilly asked. “That wouldn’t have nothing to do with you, would it, Sheriff?”
Walt wasn’t going to answer that. “Every detail,” he said.
“Including the bat? Or am I supposed to leave out the bat? Then again, maybe this is up for negotiation. Maybe both of us have something the other guy wants. Maybe we both got something to hide. Maybe this works out for the both of us.”
“I need to know exactly what you did,” Walt said. “The chain of evidence is corrupted. It’s not going to hold up in court, but I need this evidence. Do not play with me, Gilly.”
“But then that bat’s going to need explaining. That’s evidence too, right?”
“You let me worry about that.”
“I imagine you are worried about that.”
“You don’t want to go there.”
“We’re already there—you and me. I’m not going anywhere but to treatment and jail, isn’t that right, Sheriff? Or maybe you’re buying me my next drink and we get all chummy-like.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.”
“I saw you go to the back of the Jeep just when everyone showed up. I didn’t see you take nothing out of the Jeep, so maybe you put something in. You want to talk about evidence, Sheriff?”
Walt pushed the legal pad toward Gilly. “I’ll give you thirty minutes. Every detail exactly as it happened. What you found, when you found it, what you did.”
“I’m going to include tossing that bat into the woods,” Menquez said, taking a deep breath. “That’s right: it was lying there on top of the wallet. Didn’t see the blood on it until I moved it. But when I did, I chucked it out of there. That goes down here,” he said, tapping the pad, “unless you tell me otherwise.”
“Did you see who drove the SUV?”
“No. Engine was cold when I found it.”
“You said there was blood.”
“A stain on the bat. I know dried blood when I see it, Sheriff. You track poachers for thirteen years, there’s not much you haven’t seen.”
“The bat and wallet were on the floor. Anything else? Was there anything else of value in there?”
“Maybe there was, maybe there wasn’t.”
Walt sensed there wasn’t. He pushed the pad even closer to Menquez. He needed a few minutes to get in front of the baseball bat as evidence. He hoped Boldt would answer the phone. “Exactly as it happened,” he said. He stood and headed to the door.
“Whatever you say, Sheriff.” Gilly Menquez gurgled up a laugh.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Walt said. He’d placed the call from his office phone where there would be a record of it. He felt like a juggler who kept adding balls to the circle he kept alive in the air. There was a limit to it all and he was quickly approaching it.
“They developed prints,” Boldt said, half apologizing. “Three different sets. Last I was told, those prints were being run through ALPS. Not sure of the hang-up. Let