Known Dead_ A Novel - Donald Harstad [66]
After the interview, I assembled both investigative teams, including my friend George of the Bureau, who pretty well knew everybody there, and had come up that morning to help us with his expertise. Well, that’s what he said. We all knew he was scoping things out for his superiors, but we let it pass. We didn’t know if we might need the FBI in a hurry, and it never hurt to have them up to speed. George Pollard had a new partner, Mike Twill. He went to look over the situation while we talked. There was also the incidental matter of a federal warrant being issued for Herman Stritch, for resisting the serving of a federal process . . . our guys’ Original Notice had been from the Federal Land Bank. Herman was engaged in some fraudulent practices, it appeared, with the Land Bank the victim. Fine by me. The federal charge was peanuts compared to what we had against Herman, but it was nice to have one in your pocket if you needed it. A federal charge, not a peanut.
We discussed the two investigations, and came to one very obvious conclusion: if we were to ever find out the names of the people involved in the park killings, we were going to have to accomplish two things. One, take both Herman and Bill alive and relatively intact. Two, do so in a way that would gain their cooperation.
Yeah, right.
‘‘I’m not saying this is going to be easy,’’ said Hester.
‘‘Well,’’ said George, ‘‘that’s good, Hester.’’
After a pause, I said, ‘‘It shouldn’t be too hard to get at least one of them alive and well. Probably both. Right?’’
‘‘Sure,’’ said Hester.
‘‘But cooperative doesn’t exactly leap out at me.’’
Al cleared his throat. ‘‘To do that, you gotta give ’em just a bit of what they want.’’
‘‘Yeah, but what Herman seems to want,’’ said George, ‘‘is being held blameless for shooting officers, for not paying contracted debts, and to be placed in charge of an independent state.’’
‘‘Like I said,’’ said Hester.
It’s hard to argue with the truth.
‘‘Look,’’ she said, ‘‘we just have to talk to him some more. We’ll get a hint of something that’ll work.’’
‘‘She’s right,’’ said Al.
‘‘How long do we wait?’’ I asked.
‘‘For what?’’ asked Al. ‘‘The hint?’’
‘‘No. How long do we wait before we go on in and yank ’em out.’’
‘‘I’m not sure that we’d want to do that,’’ said Al.
‘‘Well,’’ I said, ‘‘I think that’s gotta be a county decision . . . and I’m in charge, at least until Lamar gets back. It’s going to be my decision. And there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that we go in and get ’em after a reasonable wait.’’
‘‘That might be,’’ said Al. ‘‘But we own the TAC team, and if you want to go on in against their advice, I’m afraid you’ll be on your own.’’
I’d been afraid that it was going to come down to that. Liability first.
‘‘Look, Al. It’s a decision that has to be agreed on in advance, because it’s probably going to have to be made in a hurry. You know that.’’ I stood up. ‘‘That’s why I brought it up now.’’
Al didn’t say a word.
‘‘For now,’’ I said, ‘‘I’ll count on using your team. I’ll put something together, you and the team commander approve it, and when the time comes, I’ll use it.’’ Bluff.
Al smiled. ‘‘Have you ever attended a crisis school?’’
Well, he had me there, if you didn’t count the last couple of days. He had, and he also controlled the resources. All I had was three officers, four reserves, and the office staff. And me. And I felt that my luck had been stretched awfully far yesterday.
‘‘Well,’’ said George in a cheerful voice, ‘‘let’s give it a little time, all right?’’
I nodded, noticing how quiet Hester had gotten. Great. With A1 and me disagreeing, she wasn’t going to be available to work freely either. Shit.
I wasn’t going to jump in like an idiot. I think everybody knew that. I hoped they did. What I wanted was a plan for direct intervention, carefully thought out, that I could order up on short notice. What A1 and company