Code 61 - Donald Harstad [49]
Well, we sure as hell couldn't leave them in the house.
“Let me call Lamar,” I said, “but I think we should talk to the group inside, first.”
“Sure.”
We explained to Hanna, Huck, Kevin, and Melissa that we were going to make out an application for a search warrant, and submit it to a judge.
“Then what?” asked Huck.
“Then,” I explained, “the judge either issues the warrant or he doesn't. If he does, we begin the search.”
“If he doesn't?”
“Then,” I said, “we go home to bed.”
“What about us?” asked Melissa.
“Well, that's the tough part,” I said. “We can't let you just go about your business, because we have the right to secure the premises while we make application to search it.”
“You mean we can't go to our rooms?” This from Hanna.
“Not without an escort,” I said.
“I don't think you can do that,” said Kevin. “I don't think that's legal.”
I sighed. “Okay, let me explain it this way. If I tell you it's legal, and it isn't, then I can't use anything in court that I find here at the house. See?”
He just looked at me.
“Neither can I use anything that I'm led to by any evidence in the house that I've discovered under the search warrant.” He was still quiet. I sure had their attention, though. “Judges call that the fruits of a poisoned tree. Means it's all tainted and unusable. Okay so far?”
“Yes.”
“Good. So, then, you understand that when I say we sure as hell can do that, that only an idiot would tell you that if it wasn't true, because then it would totally screw up his investigation. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you don't have to worry, even if I am an idiot.” I grinned. “And what are the odds?”
He didn't return the grin, but Melissa and Huck did.
“The bad news,” Hester said, “is that, if we do get the warrant, you all won't be able to remain here tonight, and can't be let back in until we're done.”
That didn't go over well.
Once we got that all straightened out, and the group had started to settle down, I dropped the bomb.
“Oh, yeah. Before we do anything else, any of you know the whereabouts of a Dan or Daniel Peel?”
You could almost hear their mouths clamp shut. They tried as hard as they could to communicate with one another without speaking, and I think they were remarkably successful. Even I could read the looks that selected Holly Finn, or Huck, as their spokesperson. Not bad at all.
“Certainly,” she said. Her mind was racing, I could tell by the clipped tones and her eyes darting upward, left, then right, then back to me. All in a split second, she appeared to have considered what she wanted me to know, what Toby might have said, Toby's precipitate flight, and the death of Edie. I know by what she said next.
“Dan comes here once in a while, just like other people do. I don't know where he lives, and I'm not even sure what he does for a living.” She glanced around, having given her instructions to the crew. She continued, “He's okay, he seems to be harmless.” She looked me straight in the eye. “I assume Toby told you he thinks he's a vampire?” She grinned, and it looked genuine.
“Peel thinks he's a vampire, or Toby thinks Peel's a vampire?” I wasn't quite clear.
“Oh,” she said, “Toby thinks he's one, all right.”
“Why's that?”
“In case you hadn't noticed,” she said, with mock confidentiality, “Toby is a little bit dorky.”
“So, you're saying that Dan Peel doesn't think he's a vampire?”
“He might,” she said. “It's hard to tell what somebody thinks.”
“Sometimes it's easier than you think.” I stared at her for a second. “You know where this Dan Peel is now?”
“I wouldn't even guess,” she said.
Huck had just established herself as leader, and written Toby off as an idiot. And, incidentally, dodged the Dan Peel question for the moment. I filed it away, and got