Chapter Twenty-Two
“So we’ve got a dilemma,” Sheridan stated as she looked around the dining room table at the Pickett home later that night.
Sheriff Steve Sondergard sat at the head of the table and Nate Romanowski slouched at the other end.
Sheridan addressed them both. “The three of us have interviewed all the ranchers we suspect.
And each of us thinks we have uncovered enough suspicious stuff to believe that any one of them might have ordered or done the ambush two days ago.
“As I promised,” she said to Sondergard, “we’ll share everything we found out with you. And you have agreed to do the same. Hopefully we can come up with a consensus on the best way to proceed.”
Sondergard nodded to acknowledge the arrangement.
Nate said nothing and showed no indication of what he was thinking.
No doubt, Sheridan thought, Nate wasn’t sure yet if he trusted the new sheriff.
As far as she knew, they’d never met. Nate was instinctively suspicious of law enforcement and he had many good reasons over the years to come to that opinion.
Sondergard had reacted with surprise when Nate was introduced at the table.
It wasn’t a warm greeting. The sheriff had no doubt already heard some stories about the outlaw falconer, and obviously they weren’t stories that had warmed his opinion of the man.
“So you’re the vaunted Nate Romanowski,” Sondergard said.
“I am.”
“Why are you here?”
“They asked me.”
“Do you have some kind of special law enforcement experience?”
“I’ve been arrested and shot at by federal law enforcement,” Nate said. “And I’ve held my own as well.”
“Care to elaborate on that?”
“Not tonight,” Nate said, dismissing him. “I think I’ve got a few years before the statute of limitations kicks in.”
Sondergard looked over at Sheridan for some kind of explanation.
“He’s my boss and a family friend,” she said. “Nate has a very unique way of looking at things.”
“We’ll see,” the sheriff said, raising his hands in surrender.
Nate had of course brought Kestrel, who was currently absorbed in watching Bluey again in the family room.
—
After briefing Sondergard and Nate on the news from Marybeth about Joe’s condition, she turned to each of her sisters and gave them the floor.
In addition to recapping their conversations with the Thompsons and McElwees, they played snippets of the interactions from their phones and showed the few photos they’d surreptitiously taken before and after the interviews.
After concluding her presentation, Lucy said: “My feeling is that Michael Thompson and even Clay Hutmacher view our dad as standing in their way. To them, he’s an impediment.
Brandy, too. Thompson perceives himself as above the law, and I can see him ordering the ambush to prevent my dad from nixing his development project, whatever it is.
As I told my sisters, Thompson just reeks of desperation.
I got the feeling that he’s circling the drain unless he can pull off one more thing.
And Brandy, I think, would do anything to stay on top. ”
Sondergard said to Lucy, “Deputy Carroll talked to them before you got there. He didn’t come away with the same impression as you did, to be honest. He said Thompson was arrogant and condescending, but from what I understand he’s always that way.”
“What do you think he’s got planned out there?” Lucy asked. “He wouldn’t tell me, other than to hint that it’s some big deal.”
Sondergard said, “I’ve heard from a couple of county commissioners that Thompson has made some calls requesting a block of time at a future meeting.
He wants to show up with his lawyers and pitch some kind of big presentation.
His appearance hasn’t been scheduled yet because Thompson insists that the public and the press can’t be there.
That’s a no-go according to state public meeting laws, so the commission and Thompson’s people are negotiating.
But I have no idea what he plans to present. ”
“Whatever it is, I think he’ll do anything to make it happen,” Lucy said.
“Yes, but that doesn’t help us figure this out,” Sondergard said, indicating the case at hand.
“Because when it comes to the timeline of the ambush the other morning, he’s got a hell of a tight alibi.
It turns out he was flying from Atlanta to his ranch that morning.
His wife was with him. We confirmed that with the FAA and our airport manager. His alibi is solid.”
“It’s solid if you think he pulled the trigger himself,” Lucy said.
“But I don’t think that for a second. Thompson is the type to order it done and stay an arm’s length away from the actual act.
I could see him giving the order to Clay Hutmacher, though.
Clay was here at the time, and he knows enough people in this valley to know who he could hire to pull this off. Or maybe Clay was one of the shooters.”
“I thought Clay Hutmacher was Dad’s friend,” April said.
“He was,” Sheridan responded. “But when Clay Junior died, it broke the old man. He hasn’t been the same since it happened.”
“Is there any evidence that Clay was involved?” Sondergard asked Lucy. “Other than the fact that he followed you when you left the ranch? That alone doesn’t tell us anything. Did he say anything to you that implicates him?”
“Not really,” Lucy said. “But he seemed guilty of something.”
Sondergard nodded, but it was obvious he wasn’t convinced. Nate showed nothing.
The sheriff said, “I have an open mind on this, but you’ve got to give me more in regard to the Thompsons. If we want to get a search warrant for his premises or something—maybe to try and find the rifles that were used—I need more to take to a judge.”
“What about what he says about our dad?” Lucy asked.
“That isn’t much, is it?” the sheriff asked. “He and Hutmacher simply say that your dad can be stubborn. That probably offends you, but from what I know of him, that’s completely true.”
—
April was next. When she was through, she said, “The McElwees are running a large-scale drug distribution center, and I think they’re working directly with one of the cartels.
I think our dad suspected what was going on out there, and if that isn’t motive to want him out of the picture, I don’t know what is. ”
Sondergard didn’t dispute that. He said, “I’m going to reveal something here that can’t leave this house. Does everyone agree with that?”
Nods all around from the sisters. Sondergard paused, looking directly at Nate. Finally, Nate nodded his head and blinked his eyes, agreeing to the deal.
“Good,” the sheriff said. Then: “We made a decision not to really interview the McElwees in regard to the shooting.”
“What?” April asked, quickly angry. “Why in the hell wouldn’t you go talk to them?”
“I did talk to them for about ten minutes,” he said. “Look, give me a second here to explain. We’ve heard the stories about the McElwee sisters from a CI we trust.”
“CI?” Lucy asked.
“Confidential informant,” Sondergard said.
Then: “The sheriff’s department initiated a joint investigation with the FBI and DEA before I got here, but the ball got dropped after the last sheriff left.
A task force like that involves a lot of bureaucracy and sign-offs, and it isn’t moving as quickly as we’d like it to.
But the McElwee sisters are on our radar.
“For now, though, we decided not to go out there and interrogate them,” he continued.
“We don’t want to tip our hand until we’re ready.
From what I’ve heard, the McElwees are well-connected in regard to the LE community.
We’re keeping this under wraps until we’re ready to go out there in full force.
But we don’t want them to know about it before we do. ”
“I think that’s a bullshit reason,” April said. “Our dad got shot.”
She gave a disapproving glance at Sheridan as if to scold her for being somewhat involved with the new sheriff. Sheridan glared back.
“Believe me, I know why you’re upset,” Sondergard countered. “If it were totally up to me, we would have brought the sisters in yesterday morning. But the feds were adamant, and they’re leading the investigation. So we deferred for the time being.”
“Not good enough,” April said, smoldering.
She sat back hard in her chair and crossed her arms across her breasts.
“I could see those gangbangers setting up the ambush,” she said.
“And what they’re doing chasing cows around on foot is beyond me.
But those boys aren’t ranch hands, that’s for sure.
And by the time you and your buddies decide to raid the place, they could be gone and the sisters could clean up and play innocent like they’ve done before. ”
“It’s a risk,” the sheriff said. “But it is what it is. I value the new information you’ve provided.”
April rolled her eyes and sighed.
—
“And now we have John and Shelby Bucholz,” Sheridan said to deflect from the tension in the room between April and Sondergard. Before she began, Sheridan noticed that Nate had a half smile on his lips. Apparently, he’d been quietly amused by the argument.
“I talked with them personally,” Sondergard interjected.
He apparently wanted to prove, especially to April, that he had been working on the case.
“They came into the department voluntarily and we spent about forty-five minutes together. Nice folks, I’d say.
They said they were gathering cattle the morning of the ambush.
When I asked them if anyone could corroborate that, they gave me the names of two locals they’d hired to help them.
Both of the guys were a little sketchy, but they confirmed that they’d been out on the ranch helping out John and Shelby that morning. ”
Sheridan looked hard at him and said, “Steve, you’re wrong about them. They’re not nice folks.”