Donald Harstad: Known Dead

‘‘Really?’’ I’m always at least that quick.

‘‘We think that Volont knows that. But that it suits his purposes better, somehow, to have him not be dead.’’

‘‘But,’’ I said, ‘‘he was in the Army. His prints would be on file.’’

‘‘Who did you run the prints through?’’ asked George rhetorically. ‘‘What agency maintains the records?’’ He looked at me with sad eyes.

‘‘So that means he’s not one of the ‘known dead,’ then?’’ I asked.

‘‘Well, no, I guess not.’’ George looked at me curiously. ‘‘Not for certain. Why, is that important or something?’’

‘‘Oh, sort of. To me, I guess.’’ I snorted. ‘‘Just kind of a play on words that bothers me. Only now it bothers me in a different way.’’

Yeah.

WELL, THAT’S WHAT actually happened. The story about the ‘‘natural gas explosions rocking a small midwestern town’’ just ain’t true. Neither are the ones about the ‘‘enraged courthouse employee’’ who shot up the courthouse that day. I know. I was there.

Herman, Billy, and Nola Stritch all got federal time, and shouldn’t be out for a while. Ted did confess to doing some of the shooting in the park, but it turned out, very conveniently, that the two dead terrorists in the courthouse did all the killing that day in the woods. Ted said he only knew them by their code names of Norman and Hiram but had absolutely no idea who they really were. Hey, I believe Ted, don’t you? No matter, he got life.

Herman Stritch didn’t shoot Rumsford. We know that. The crime was cleared by saying it was an ‘‘unknown’’ assailant, and that it was ‘‘possibly inadvertent.’’ I think it was Wittman. He was in the house. We have that nailed down. Did he shoot, or did Gabe? Good question. The better question is how it could be ‘‘inadvertent,’’ especially since he ‘‘allegedly’’ shot him twice. I don’t know for sure who Wittman knows, or who he works for, but he isn’t in any prison as far as we have been able to tell.

Which leaves Gabriel, otherwise known as Jacob Henry Nieuhauser.

That name is never mentioned in any of the official reports, including mine. It’s that simple. He is referred to as an ‘‘unknown suspect.’’ That’s so the Feds’ investigation isn’t compromised. Yep. I think it’s also so Volont doesn’t have to admit that he outwitted himself. Is he dead? If he is, then Volont would have to have suppressed his fingerprint identification. The prints on both bodies were submitted to the FBI labs. Could Volont arrange that? Piece of cake. But with Volont, who knows. He could have planted that guess with the other agents, and have been sure George would tell me and Hester. I don’t know.

But if he is still alive, I’d like to meet him again sometime.

Lamar is back at work. He knows something is very, very wrong. I’ll tell him before I mail this in. I think he ‘‘needs to know.’’