Free Fire - C. J. Box [39]
The room was suddenly silent except for a loud sigh from Layborn.
“The sooner we do this the sooner I’ll get out of your hair,” Joe said quickly. Ashby acquiesced and sat back in his chair. With his fingers, he signaled, Go on.
“It looks to me like everybody involved did everything exactly right,” Joe started, hoping to relieve some of the doubt they might have. “By the book, down the line. From the initial call to throwing McCann into the Yellowstone jail. I have no questions about the procedure at all. In fact, given the crime, I was damned impressed with how restrained and professional you all were.”
He looked up to see Layborn nodding as if to say, What did you expect?
“The things I don’t get have nothing to do with how you handledthe arrest. They have to do with other aspects of the case.”
Joe didn’t like talking so much. He had already used more words in this room than he had in the past month. But he had no choice but to continue. Self-doubt began to creep into his consciousness,like a black storm cloud easing over the top of the mountains. He wasn’t sure this was a job he could do well, a role he could play competently. Joe liked working the margins, keeping his mouth shut, observing from the sidelines. He did his best to block out the image of the thunderhead rolling over.
He asked Demming, “You were the first to respond, correct?”
For the first time, Demming sat up. Her expression changed from embarrassed to interested.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “I was actually off-duty at the time. I was coming back from Idaho Falls with my daughter, who had to see the orthodontist. I was out of uniform, but I had the cruiser and my weapon. I heard the call from dispatch and realized I was just ten to fifteen minutes away from the Bechler ranger station, so I responded.”
Ashby cut in. “That corner of the park is by far the least visited,” he said, his voice monotone, as if he’d explained it countlesstimes, which he likely had. “You can’t even get there from the park itself. In order to get to Bechler, you’ve got to drive into Idaho or Montana and come back in. The road down there doesn’t connect with any of our internal park roads. That’s why we didn’t—and don’t—have a constant law enforcement presencethere.”
Joe said, “I’ve read the file, Mr. Ashby. I know where Bechleris located. What I’m asking about are things that aren’t in the incident report.”
Ashby sat back slightly chastened.
Demming continued, “When I got to the station, McCann had turned over his weapons and was sitting on the bench waiting.He didn’t put up any kind of struggle, and he admitted to what he’d done. I took him outside, cuffed him, and waited for backup.”
“Which was me,” Layborn said. “I was there within the hour.”
“How did McCann act?” Joe asked Demming.
Demming shook her head, as if trying to find the right words. “He was easy to get along with, I guess. He didn’t say all that much. He wasn’t ranting or raving, and didn’t act like he was crazy or anything. In fact, he seemed sort of stunned, like he couldn’t really believe it was happening.”
“So he didn’t deny the murders?”
“Not at all. He described what happened down at Robinson Lake. That he’d been hiking and the campers harassed him, so he defended himself. That’s how he put it, that he was defending himself.”
“Asshole,” Layborn whispered. Joe ignored him.
“So at the time you arrived, he didn’t indicate to you he knew anything about the Zone of Death?”
“No.”
Ashby looked pained. “We don’t like that term and we don’t use it.”
Joe acknowledged Ashby but pressed Demming. “So he found out about it later? After he was in jail?”
Demming shook her head. “I had the feeling he knew about it at the time,” she said. “It’s just an impression, and I can’t reallyprove it. He was just so cooperative. I got the impression he knew that he was going to walk eventually. He acted like he had a secret.”
Joe nodded.
“You never told me