been questioned and several of the women, including Lisa, were fingerprinted, too. The sheriff has to look at all angles."
"Never thought I'd say this, but I might need a lawyer. Heard tell you got your license for here."
"I did and I'm willing," Mitch assured him. "Listen, Lisa, could you give us a minute in private so I can talk to my new client?"
Mitch knew Lisa would understand attorney-client privilege. She nodded, patted Gus on the shoulder and moved away from them, strolling past the craft booths.
"So, Gus, let's just get to it," Mitch said as they walked farther away from the crowd. "When you left Ginger, you swear she was all right?"
"If you call spitting mad at me all right. Cussed me out, said she had a ship coming in, whatever that meant. Said she didn't need a man in her life who tried to tell her how and where she had to live. Except for the ship coming in, same stuff she yelled at me at the cafe in town--which lots of people saw and will prob'ly tell the sheriff about."
Mitch realized the ship coming in could be the money from Ellie that both Ellie and Graham had mentioned to him. He told Gus, "Mrs. Bonner gave Ginger some cash but she can't have thought that would add up to much or be a long-term thing."
"And Ginger said she was selling some of her baked stuff to your guests, but I didn't figure that was much of a ship coming in."
"I take it the sheriff didn't charge you with anything," Mitch said, looking the big man straight in the eye.
"Naw, but he told me not to leave the area. I just didn't like the way things were going when he questioned me."
"Then until something else happens, lie low, and don't tell anyone you've hired a lawyer."
"You need payment up front? I always pay my bills."
"How about free chainsaw sharpening for life?" Mitch told him. "But there's something else I would like to know. Did Ginger say anything at any time about enemies or someone else she was angry with besides you?"
"Naw. Angry with not having money for what she wanted sometimes, that's all."
"Did she ever say anything about the day Lisa fell in the river?" Mitch asked. "We think Ginger was in the area that day and might have seen or heard someone or something."
"You mean like a scream when she fell in? Someone like who?"
"Gus," Mitch said, "Lisa and I will keep your secret that you're lawyered-up, so we'd like you to keep one of ours. She didn't just fall in the river. She was pushed."
"Who by?" he demanded, frowning, then shook his head. "Not by Ginger."
"I didn't say that. We're trying to find out who. So did Ginger ever breathe a word about seeing or hearing anything that day? You did talk about driving us back to the lodge, didn't you?"
"Yeah, she was glad I found you. But she said nothing about the day Lisa went in the river. Did you tell the sheriff she was pushed? What if there's like--I mean, a mass-murderer type who drowns women or tries to, anyway?"
Whoever thought Gus Majors didn't have much upstairs was wrong, Mitch thought. Dead wrong.
PART III
Meeting the Monster
It was a monstrous big river down there.
--Mark Twain
17
"L
isa, please come in and sit down," Graham said as she entered the lodge library that evening for what the Bonners were calling an informal interview and Mitch had called a debriefing. He'd rearranged the furniture and was sitting in a chair under Christine's shelf of dolls. At a glance, Lisa could tell the dolls had been moved around, but by Graham or Christine? Did he hope to manipulate his three candidates the same way in these private sessions?
She sat in the leather chair facing him, one that was lower and smaller than his, much the way he had things set up in his office back home. A table next to him displayed neat piles of magazines on Alaska. Graham's chair had arms so he could rest his elbows; hers did not, so she clasped her hands lightly in her lap. He had no notes, not even a pen out, but she saw a small tape recorder on the table. He was going to tape these sessions? Perhaps another ploy to keep his candidates off guard to see how they would react.
"I hope you don't mind if I record our conversation," he said. "I borrowed Ellie's recorder."