Robert Walker - Final Edge

She had pulled forth a folded Xerox map of overlapping pages held together by cellophane tape. A contented smile creasing her wrinkled face, she handed the map to Lucas. "I've got the locations of the shed and bam clearly marked, Lieutenant, case you asked, and you did."

Lucas smiled in return and asked, "Where's the root cellar?"

"Under the kitchen, a door going down from the kitchen."

Lucas nodded. "Did you ever see any improvements made to the house that Croombs or Mrs. Croombs made?"

"The pens the dogs're kept in were already there. Old chicken coops with high fencing, well maintained. Made a good run for the animals."

"I mean to the house…or perhaps to the barn? Any equipment brought in?"

"I'm not sure I follow you."

"We believe the couple meant to turn the property into a veterinary surgery," explained Meredyth, a bit of a lie to draw the woman out.

"Ahhh… explains a lot. I never knew that." Then Sallie sat biting her lip and staring off into space, her features a mask of uncertainty.

Lucas cautiously prompted her. "We're trying to locate a table, a stainless-steel table like you would see in a veterinary office. It's very important to our investigation."

"My, but I feel I'm inside a Nancy Drew mystery novel."

"Any medical materials or supplies at all that you saw?" pressed Lucas, a tinge of frustration filtering into his voice.

"'Fraid not, no. Saw their two dogs. Healthy, beautiful dogs. Greyhounds he said he saved from a gassing. He seemed a kind man."

Lucas keyed a few strokes and began printing a copy of the electronic map off the computer. "I've got them pinpointed," he said as the printer came to life.

"We'll need a SWAT team going in, hit the out- structures simultaneously, but first we have to brief everyone on the geography and layout while a warrant is being secured, unless Harry tells us the existing two warrants cover any rental property Belkvin entered into."

"Not likely," said Jana North, holding up the warrant she had used at the home. "This one's quite specific to the home, garage, any cars in his name on the premises. If you read the fine print on the one you used at his practice, it's likely also to be specific to that location only. They're just not interchangeable."

The realtor, Sallie, chimed in again. "The woman was in heat to get the electrical and the water up and running, but they never asked about the closest place to shop, which I thought odd."

Everyone strained to hear the words of the matronly realtor's tale as she had begun to whisper. "Said they had a lot more animals than those two dogs to care for, and that's why the need for plenty of space to run the animals, that sort of talk, but again, they didn't seem interested in knowing where the nearest feed store was, you know, for these phantom animals."

"Phantom animals?" asked Jana.

"They talked like they were going to fill the bam and the pastures with animals. Least he did. Talked on and on about it. Friendly in a nonstop talkative way," she said. "You think that's 'cause he might've been, you know, nervous?"

"Quite possibly," Meredyth said, nodding.

"You say you only saw the two dogs? Are these the two you saw?" asked Jana, holding up the photo of Belkvin and his greyhounds.

"That's them, the lovely things…so graceful and well behaved."

"They spoke of other animals on the way?" asked Meredyth.

"They…I mean he…Mr. Croombs, he made some remark that the animals were in transport from Amarillo. When I asked if it was horses, she changed the subject, asked me to walk off the property lines with her."

"And did you?" asked Lucas.

"Oh, no! Heavens. It'd have taken a day to walk those boundary lines, so I showed her how she and Mr. Croombs could step off the lines themselves. Left them a map I'd brought out with me, just like the one I made up for you."

"How many acres is the property?" asked Lucas.

"Fifty-nine, and some odd shape it is; follows along a creek that's one of those ghost streams, you know… comes and goes depending on the time of year. Folks around Navasota call it Old Hazard Creek… runs smack through the property, and some parts of the section they rented cross the creek, and some don't."

"Creek is running flush now, I bet," said Lucas, "given last month's rains from those two passing hurricanes."

"It's full over its banks, yes."

"Jana, you know Judge Henry Lowell fairly well, right?" asked Lucas.

"I'll get you your warrant, Lucas."

'Tell Lowell what we have, plenty of probable cause on the photo and sketch IDs alone. Here's the location." He handed her a copy of the electronic map. "And we need the warrant to extend to any garages, outbuildings, and vehicles owned or rented by the suspects using the names Lauralie and John Croombs, Lauralie Blodgett, or a Dr. Arthur Belkvin."

"Just tell him it's to do with the Post-it Ripper case and he'll want in," said Kelton. "It's coming on election time."

"We'll need to call out another SWAT unit. Hope they don't think we're running on empty again," said Lucas to Stan.

"I'm on top of it, Lucas."

As Jana North and Stan Kelton rushed for the nearby telephones, Lucas stepped away from Mrs. Robeson and Cahill, allowing them to confer. Meredyth followed Lucas. He'd gone back to the large wall map, and now he jabbed a pin into each location on the city and county map where Dr. Arthur Belkvin might be at this moment, including the old farmhouse. Lucas quietly said, "We've got multiple people now all claiming our sketch is of a man they encountered, one a John Croombs, the other a Dr. Arthur Belkvin."

"He's using her mother's name now?" asked Jana.

"Mere, I think you ought to hang back here…let the rest of us handle this out at Kenyon's."

"No way, Lucas. I've earned a right to be there. I want an end to this as much or more than anyone."

"It could be another dead end, you realize? For all we know, they've left the state, gone to Baja or Mexico City."

"No, not her. Him maybe, but not her."

"Okay, you can come along, but you're to hang back. I don't want to give this nutcase a shot at you," he told her.

"Me, what about you? She knows that I love you, and she knows that killing or maiming you would destroy me. You need to hang back as much as I do."

"You love me? That's something I thought I'd never hear after you let it slip that once." Their eyes met and they shared a smile. "All right, agreed. We let the SWAT team storm the place and take them down before we enter. We have Jana directing a separate team from relative safety against the barn, and Stan's earned a right to lead storm troopers against any additional outbuildings."

"We ought to bring Lincoln in on the raid too, Lucas."

"Yeah, Captain Lincoln's definitely going to want to be in on the capture. Election's coming up!" he quipped. "He's also going to want to know about Frank's blunderbuss attempt to make off with our witness and our case."

"I hear Gordon may be running for commissioner if Clarkson keeps his promise to the voters and bows out," Meredyth replied. "A collar like this could get Gordo elected."

"Call him at home," Lucas suggested.

Meredyth got on her cell phone and made the call, explaining to Lincoln the new developments. "Everything's on a snowball's course downhill now, Captain. We've got the bastards in our sights. We're seeing bear tracks."

"Bear tracks?"

"Lucas's word for good signs, good omen, sir."

"He teaching you Cherokee? Never mind. I just hope you two have better results from this information than you did with Belkvin's office and home."

"You've heard all about it then, I take it." She wondered how he had gotten the news, and from whom, and in what way it had been shaded. She also wondered if he had knowledge of Frank's bid to take over the interrogation of a witness with FBI in the room.