The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [153]
I stepped around the tire as I saw Harvey Grossman emerge from the shadows. His hands were in the air. I advanced slowly toward him, pointed my gun at his chest. “You’re under arrest!”
In the silence that followed, Volont expressed his gratitude to George. “You fucking idiot! I needed him alive!”
If George had decided to shoot again, I wouldn’t have stopped him. In the distance, I could hear the wop, wop of Huey rotor blades. Closer, I could hear Carrie crying and screaming at Hester.
“Don’t hurt my mommy, you … you damn cop!”
Epilogue
As far as the Beauregard goes, there was some truly great TV coverage, with her being pulled to shore by the two diesel locomotives. Endless interviews with the “survivors.” A great print article by Nancy, with exclusive photos by Shamrock. The two of them covered the entire event, with a little help from their friends. If they ever were really angry at me, it didn’t last too long. They sent me a tin of cookies with a note. WE FORGIVE YOU. JUST DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. It was signed NANCY & SHAMROCK.
I’ll tell you, they got some great photos of Adams and me at the stretch van.
ATF had a bomb team search the General Beauregard just as soon as the last person came off the boat. There were no more bombs. The marine engineers told us that if the railroad yard diesels hadn’t been ready when they were, we likely would have lost the boat, and most of the passengers. Points to Lamar on that one.
At any rate, Cletus got two years for conspiracy. A plea bargain. He claimed he’d been duped. I sort of think that he was. Well, with a lot of his own effort.
Blitek was charged with attempted murder, but skated on a plea of insanity. Honest. I couldn’t believe it. As far as I’m concerned, he was inept and fearful, not suicidal. But the prosecutor said we wouldn’t be able to prove who he was trying to kill, since he hadn’t actually killed or hit anybody. My argument was that we couldn’t prove he was suicidal, since he was still alive. Prosecutors have no sense of humor. I’m told that all Blitek does at the Mental Health Institute is argue politics with the doctors.
Freddie, the poor devil who started the whole thing off by missing his cousins, got a five-year suspended sentence for burglary. One of the few plea bargains I agree with. And I know Fred. We’ll probably get him for burglary again someday. He won’t be able to help it.
Freddie’s aunt, the mother of the murdered Colsons, came to see me. She wanted to know what the man was doing in the house, when he killed her sons. Why he was there in the first place. I finally told her that he was a burglar, too, but a much more dangerous one than her sons.
The best news, from an evidentiary point of view, was that we finally had access to the real fingerprints for Gabriel. We were able to match them as far back as an ejected rifle cartridge found at the Stritch farm where the photographer was shot. Finally closed that case.
Both Harvey and Linda Grossman told us that Gabriel had, indeed, killed the two boys at the farm. He had thought they were cops, and never changed his mind. Harvey’s in prison, doing an armed robbery stretch for the boat business, time plus fifteen years for having the handgun in his possession. He was, it turned out, a convicted felon. Federal. Volont had been onto him from the start, and made sure Gabriel was able to recruit him. Seemed kind of unfair to me. After all, he never would have been there in the first place if it weren’t for Volont. Linda got a twenty-year suspended sentence. Her daughter, Carrie, was the main reason for that.
I never told anybody what Volont told me about the devices Gabriel wanted to buy. But I watch the news every night, waiting. Somebody, after all, has probably purchased them by now.
Volont said that when he was at the body of the first surveillance agent, he could hear somebody say, “He’s where?” inside the shed. Turned out that Carrie was on the phone to her dad, telling everybody where we were. That’s why he jumped over the snow pile. When he did, he just