He decided to come back early in the morning and take another crack at Eric.
Kerney knocked at Sedillo's motel room door, and the lieutenant opened up. He reported that nothing of consequence had been uncovered during the search of Eric Langsford's house and van, except for a receipt from a package goods store in Maria, Texas, dated the same day Langsford had left the band.
Kerney summarized his interview with Langsford, placed the cassette of the taped conversation in Lee's hand, and asked Sedillo to put an agent on it right away.
"Have him backtrack on Langsford," Kerney said.
"That's a three-day swing."
"So far, he's our only suspect without an alibi."
"Did his sister have one?" Lee asked.
"I haven't gotten that far with her yet."
"I could use more people, Chief."
"Not possible. The way it stands now, if we don't get serious movement by the end of the week, we'll be down to just you and me. Did Mary Margaret run those employee names?"
"Yep, and you can forget about it. At the time of Mrs. Langsford's death there were no political activists, hardcore felons, convicts, or fugitives working at the resort or casino who we can connect to Langsford. There were two cases against employees that resulted in bench warrants for failure to pay child support. Both fathers made their back payments and got a stay out of jail card. One other employee did time for aggravated battery against a police officer, stemming from a DWI stop. But he got drunk two years ago, passed out on the railroad tracks, and was run over by a train."
"Eric says he hasn't seen his father in years-never once visited him. Get an agent up to Ruidoso in the morning, showing Eric'spicture around the judge's neighborhood. That beat-up van he drives would be pretty hard to miss."
"Will do. Is that it, Chief?"
"Why is Langsford so damn happy his father is dead?"
"Maybe he just didn't like him."
"I think it goes deeper than that."
"You may be right," Lee said. "We just got the information you requested from the phone company on those hang-up phone calls made to Linda Langsford's residence. All of them were made the night of the murders from pay phones along the killer's route."
"What about the anonymous calls to her office?"
"Two one-minute calls were made one right after the other from an Albuquerque number. I've got an agent making contact now."
"Let me know as soon as you hear anything. We may have caught a break."
The phone rang. Lee walked to the bedside table, picked up, listened for a minute, and then dropped the handset in the cradle with a shake of his head. "It doesn't look promising, Chief. The Albuquerque calls came from an elderly man who misdialed a grand daughter's Roswell number. He reversed two digits."
"I want confirmation on who he is, who the granddaughter is, and whether or not anyone else has access to his telephone."
"We have an agent from the Albuquerque district office rolling on it now."
In the morning, Kerney checked his unit for damage, found none, did a short run, and called Sara at Fort Leavenworth, half-hoping she'd already left her quarters for class. She answered on the first ring.
"How are you?" he asked.
"Pumped," Sara answered. "We start the advanced military studies sequence today. The Civil War. Grant's Vicksburg campaign. I've been reading all about it. Very exciting stuff. You never call me in the morning. What's up, sweetie pie?"
Kerney told her about Isabel Istee, Clayton, and the two grand children.
"My, my," Sara said.
Kerney waited for more, but Sara remained silent. "That's it?" he finally asked.
"I'm thinking."
"I swear, I knew nothing about this."
"You lead a shockingly interesting life, Kerney." Kerney caught a hint of amusement in Sara's voice.
"The Irish are cursed that way," he said.
"I'm not sure I like the idea of being married to a man who's a grandfather."
"Don't say that."
"This has thrown you, hasn't it?"
"It's a little unsettling."
"I'm a bit stunned by the news myself," Sara said. "You're absolutely sure about this?"
"I have no reason to doubt it."
"Then we'll just have to accept it."
"It's not a problem for you?"
"Well, the upside is that now I know you can father children."
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"But I don't like the idea of an old love suddenly reappearing in your life."
"You're still kidding, right?"
"Of course I am. Don't go getting insecure on me, Kerney. This wasn't a situation of your making. When do I get to meet your new family?"
"I'm not sure that will happen. I'm not perceived as a welcome addition to the clan."
"It sounds complex. I'll try not to add to the confusion."
"Meaning?"
"Having a husband who's a grandfather isn't something I've had to consider before. But it doesn't make me love you any less."
"That's what I wanted to hear. I need to get going."
"Be careful out there, grandpa."
"Give me a break," Kerney groaned.
"You're tough, you can take it."
Agent Robert Duran checked out of the motel, threw his luggage filled with dirty laundry into the unit's trunk, and slammed the lid. Getting pulled off the vandalism case by Lieutenant Sedillo to be sent on a three-day road trip to backtrack on Eric Langsford was irritating.
Because Duran was part of the Internal Affairs Unit, Sedillo had asked-not ordered-Robert to take the assignment, knowing full well that turning down the request could sully Robert's reputation as a gung-ho officer. With his eye on an upcoming sergeant's vacancy in criminal investigations, Robert couldn't afford any bad raps about his dedication to the job.
He sat in his unit and studied a map, mentally tracing the route Eric Langsford said he'd taken after quitting the band in Maria, Texas. The pivotal issue hinged on where Langsford had been last Thursday night.
Robert decided to work Langsford's drunken travels home in reverse order, starting with his last stop in Juarez, an easy eighty-mile drive from the Oliver Lee State Park.
If he could confirm that Langsford had been within striking distance on the night of the murders and didn't have an alibi, it would make him a prime suspect.
Robert tossed the map on the seat and thought about the vandalism case he'd been forced to put on the back burner. Chasing down the person who'd disabled and damaged Chief Kerney's unit was no small matter, especially given the strong likelihood that a cop could have done it in retaliation for the Shockley shooting.
Duran couldn't see a civilian sneaking around a motel where a bunch of cops were staying, or even knowing which car Kerney drove. And some of the smug reactions from Shockley's buddies at the city PD about the vandalism made it clear that there were those who believed Kerney deserved a payback. It wasn't a stretch to believe that the situation could easily escalate into a physical attack against the chief.
With no hard target outside the department on the horizon, Duran had asked all district personnel and the agents working the spree killings to account for their time during the two incidents. It hadn't gained him any new friends or valuable information, so he'd been about to start working the bars where Shockley had hung out when Sedillo dropped the Langsford assignment on him.
So be it, he thought glumly, switching his attention to the field notes on Eric Langsford. If nothing panned out in Jufirez, he would be spending his time in shit kicking bars and backwater border towns for the next three days.