Bone Harvest - Mary Logue [54]
“I know no one was ever charged with the murders, but did you have any ideas about who did it?”
“Sure, I did. I made no bones about it at the time. I told anyone who cared to listen. But the sheriff couldn’t get the evidence against him.”
“Who did you think was responsible?”
“Theo Lindstrom.”
Claire remembered that name, but wasn’t sure where she had heard it. “Who was he?”
“A neighbor of Bertha and Otto’s.”
Then Claire remembered. In her mind she saw the plat map and saw Lindstrom’s name on the plot of land to the north of the Schulers’.
“Why did you think he had done it?”
“You gotta remember when this all happened. It was only a few years after the war was over. Theo Lindstrom had been through some very tough battles. He had been one of the few survivors in his platoon. He hated the Germans. That might have been what it was all about. It didn’t take much to set him off. But I think he and Otto were also arguing over the border of their property. Also, some weird things had been happening at the Schulers’. He had found some dead cattle out in his field.”
“Did the sheriff look into it?”
“Yes, but supposedly Theo Lindstrom was gone the day the Schulers were killed.”
“Where?”
“He was in Madison. Buying some piece of machinery. He had an airtight alibi. Or so the sheriff told me. I still didn’t buy it.”
“Why not?”
“Madison’s not that far away. Four hours if you know what you’re doing.”
“Is Lindstrom still alive?”
“No, he died about twenty years ago. Never a happy man. The war really took it out of him. I always felt sorry for his wife and kid.”
“Are either of them alive?”
“His wife died a few years after he did, but Paul is still living on the farm. He’s an odd one. I think his dad scared the crap out of him when he was a kid and he never could do much with himself after that.”
“Well, maybe I’ll talk to him about his father.”
“You know who else you should talk to? An old army buddy of Theo’s. They went into the service together and came out together. Tight as clams. Chuck Folger. You know him?”
“Yes, I think I’ve had the pleasure.”
Wahlund scratched the front of his head. “If it was a pleasure, it must not have been Chuck.”
Rich sat at the bar of the Harbor View Café and watched the sailboats on Lake Pepin. They weren’t much to watch. Late afternoon the wind had dropped off and they bobbed on the silky surface of the lake, becalmed.
That was how he felt waiting for Claire. He had been ready to move forward, ready to begin a new phase of his life with the woman he loved, and she had taken the wind from beneath his sails—as the old saw went. He was adrift.
But he was trying to snap out of it. He decided they needed to do something fun, so he had loaded the canoe in the back of his pickup and he hoped to persuade Claire to go out on the river with him tonight. Maybe she’d want to try to make love in the bottom of a canoe. He had brought large lifesaving cushions for padding.
One of the bartenders of the Harbor View placed a bottle of Leiney’s in front of him without asking. Rich nodded his thanks. The bartender asked, “You waiting for the lovely deputy?”
“I am.”
“She working on that poisoning that happened last night?”
“Of course.”
“Must be hard for her to even take time to have dinner.”
Rich felt his shoulders rise in anger, but calmed himself. “Yup, but she has to eat like the rest of us.”
Claire walked in and said hi to some friends near the door and then made her way back to him. She was in her uniform, but had the top buttons on her shirt undone and her hair down. He saw people watching her as she walked back to where he was sitting. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.
“Can we just stay at