The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [79]
George had stepped in behind him, and Cletus was handcuffed in two seconds flat.
“Watch your head,” I said, as we stuffed him into the car, and shut the door.
“What the FUCK is going on here?” Cletus’s support group was about twenty feet off the rear bumper.
I kept my gun in my hand, but pointed downward. “Cletus is under arrest for murder,” I said. They both stepped forward. “Interference with this arrest permits me to use deadly force,” I said, perfectly evenly. It was hard to say it that way. I was nearly laughing. “Think twice, gentlemen.”
They were absolutely rooted to the spot. Stunned. These weren’t hard-core professionals, obviously.
I got in the car, looked over at George, grinned, shut the door, and was backing up before the two men in the drive could even move. Splash. Not intended, but funny as hell.
As we hit the end of the drive, I let out a loud “YES!” and hit the gas.
“You can’t do this,” said Cletus. He didn’t sound too convinced.
“You’re under arrest for murder, Cletus,” I said. “You might want to remember that you do have a right to remain silent…”
Cletus had made the big mistake. He was predictable. Altogether too predictable.
I looked over at George. “What’d I tell you?” He just grinned. I picked up the mike. “Comm, Three is ten-seventy-six, one ten-ninety-five.”
In other words, we were en route, and we had one prisoner in custody.
“Ten-four, Three.” She sounded relieved.
“Three, One?” That was Lamar. “Meet you back at the office.” He sounded pleased.
“Ten-four.” Nonchalant. You had to be.
Sixteen
Thursday, January 15, 1998, 1737
We got back to the office, and I was just getting my proud little ducks in a row to begin booking Cletus into the jail, when Lamar approached me.
“Mike can start that,” he said. He looked very grim. “You come back here with us.”
I thought it was sort of strange, but I went back with him into his office. George and Volont were there. They didn’t look too happy, either.
“Sit down,” said Lamar. “Special Agent Volont has something to tell you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“First,” said Volont, “you have to know two things. One, I’m telling you this because events have, well, overtaken us here. Two, the two brothers were killed by a single individual, acting alone.” He looked at me, evenly.
“Your surveillance team did witness the murders,” I said. Hell, that wasn’t such bad news. Not at all.
“No.” He sighed. “No, they managed to miss that, with the same skill they demonstrated when you caught them.”
He made a little pyramid with his extended fingers.
“They were killed by a man I’ve been tracking for years. You know him as Gabriel.”
“You’re kidding me …” All I could think of to say.
“No.”
Jesus. In the first place, it had just dawned on me that Gabriel, who was a professional in every sense, and was not only capable of killing without remorse, but who was also very able as well, could very easily have been at Borglan’s residence as we were arresting Cletus.
“You might have said something a little sooner,” I said. I looked over at George. “Or did you know?”
“No.”
“That,” I said, “violates just about every ‘need to know’ guideline in the book.” It did, too. You were never supposed to expose an officer to danger in the name of confidentiality. Never.
“He isn’t there,” said Volont. Just a flat statement. “I’m just telling you this because you’ll probably find it out from Cletus.” He looked at me. “You do intend to interview him, don’t you?”
“So where the hell is he?” I thought it was an appropriate question. “Gabriel, I mean. We’ll need to find him as soon as we get a warrant for his arrest.”
Volont held up his hand. “Just a moment. The Bureau has a source fairly close to our Mr. Nieuhauser,” he said. “I receive the reports on a regular basis. Gabriel’s movements and intentions are usually known to us in near real time.” He sounded pleased. “We have to wait until Gabriel is at a location that we could discover by other means, before