He realized that cattle and wildlife weren’t enough. He needed to up the ante. He needed some help, so he asked Nurse Bob to rejoin him in Saddlestring. No one had recognized him from his youth there.
Eric and Nurse Bob started with animals, as they had in Montana. Then, on the single night in Twelve Sleep County, they had split up, with one of them going after Stuart Tanner and the other Tuff Montegue. Eric took Tanner, Nurse Bob took Tuff. This explained why Tanner’s death was similar in style to the cattle mutilations. Nurse Bob, who was not as experienced in technique, had done a crude job on Tuff.
Nate’s thought was that while Eric stayed with Tanner’s body, his presence discouraged predators from moving in. Meanwhile, Nurse Bob left Tuff ’s body to the bear while he drove to pick up Eric. Once they were together again, Nurse Bob used his cell phone to report Tanner’s body.
This is where the scenario began to fall apart, as far as Joe was concerned. There was still no explanation for why Eric came “home” to Saddlestring, or whether there had been any contact with Cam. If not, why had the murders obviously helped Cam’s land deal along? Joe couldn’t accept coincidence as an explanation.
They must have been in contact, Joe thought. Either Cam had asked Eric to use the cover of the cattle mutilations to kill Stuart Tanner, or Eric had somehow taken it upon himself to help out his brother. Either way, they must have communicated at some point. Otherwise, how would Eric have known to target Tanner?
The method and aftermath of the mutilations themselves, whether animal or human, still didn’t produce a logical explanation. How had Eric actually killed the animals and mutilated them without leaving tracks or evidence? What had he done to the bodies to prevent predation?
What explained the feeling in the air Joe experienced when he first found the dead moose?
What scared Maxine so badly that he was now the proud owner of the world’s only all-white Labrador?
The last part of the scenario was just as troublesome. What had driven Eric and Nurse Bob to confront Cam in his home, and to kidnap him? Why did they pick up Not Ike? And why had Eric and Nurse Bob killed and mutilated Cam?
And the biggest question of alclass="underline" Where was Eric Logue?
Joe was still distracted when he and Marybeth cleared the dinner dishes from the table. He had scarcely heard the dinner conversation, with Lucy, Jessica, and Sheridan talking about their day in school.
As he filled the sink with water, Marybeth said, “You’re thinking about Eric Logue again, aren’t you?” He looked at her.
“We may just never know, Joe. We’ve discussed it to death.”
“I didn’t think it was possible to discuss anything to death,” he said, taking a jibe at her.
“Very funny.”
He washed, she dried.
Lucy and Jessica laughed in the next room at something on television. Joe looked over his shoulder at them. They had changed out of their school clothes. They liked to dress alike, much to Sheridan’s consternation. Tonight, they both wore oversized green surgeon’s scrubs.
“Why are they wearing those?” Marybeth asked, suddenly alarmed, knowing whom the shirts once came from.
She raised her voice. “Both of you girls go change clothes right now. I thought I told you to get rid of those.”
Both girls looked back at Marybeth, obvious guilt on their faces. They had forgotten.
“Sorry, Mom,” Lucy said as she skulked to her room. “Sorry, Mrs. Pickett,” Jessica said.
Then it was as if Marybeth’s legs went numb, Joe saw, the way she suddenly reached for the door jamb to keep herself steady.
“What?” Joe asked, puzzled.
Marybeth looked at Joe. Her expression was horrifying.
“What?”
“Oh, no,” she said, looking pale. “Marybeth . . .”
She turned to him and whispered, “Joe, Marie didn’t throw out those scrubs. She let Jessica keep them and wear them.”
“So?”
“Think about it, Joe. A woman wouldn’t keep something like those scrubs around her house unless she had a reason. Marie had to know they were there. She washed them for Jessica, and folded them up for her, probably dozens of times.”
Joe said, “Go on.”
“Why would Marie keep those in her house? Clothes that would remind her husband of the brother he hated? Why would she keep a picture of Eric on her mantel? And now that I think about it, you were more surprised that Eric had come to their house after Cam that day than Marie was.”
Joe felt a hammer blow square in the middle of his chest. “Marybeth, do you know what you’re saying?”
Instead of answering, Marybeth stepped forward to intercept Jessica as she walked toward the bedroom to change. Marybeth dropped to her knees so she could look at Jessica eye-to-eye. She placed her hands gently on the little girl’s shoulders.
“Jessica, how long have you had those shirts?” Jessica stopped and thought. “A while.”
“How long?”
Jessica was surprised at Marybeth’s tone. “A couple of years, I guess. I don’t remember exactly.” “Who gave them to you?” “Uncle Eric.”
Joe watched Jessica carefully. There was fear growing in her eyes. Marybeth asked, “Jessica, was your uncle Eric at your house a couple of years ago? Before you moved here?”
Her eyes were huge and she was on the verge of tears. But she nodded. “Your dad and your uncle Eric didn’t get along very well, did they?” “No.”
“Your dad even asked you to get rid of those hospital scrubs when he saw you wearing them, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“But your mom said you could keep them, as long as you never wore them around your dad, right?”
Jessica nodded. “I think they’re cool to wear.” “I understand.”
Jessica looked over Marybeth’s shoulder at Joe. Joe knew that Jessica couldn’t determine if she was in trouble or not.
“No one’s angry with you, Jessica,” he told her. “Just answer Marybeth’s questions.”
Jessica nodded. “My mom said I could keep them as long as I didn’t wear them around my dad, and I never did.”
Marybeth asked, “Your mom and uncle Eric were good friends, weren’t they? They talked a lot on the telephone when your dad wasn’t there, right?”
Joe took a deep breath, feeling a shroud of dark horror engulf him. When Jessica nodded, Joe didn’t even want to see Marybeth’s reaction.
But Marybeth remained calm, at least outwardly.
“Okay, honey,” Marybeth said, standing. “You can go change now.” Jessica didn’t move.
Joe and Marybeth stared at each other, neither wanting to say anything in front of Jessica. Jessica watched them both, and her eyes filled with tears.
She looked at Marybeth. “My mom’s not coming back, is she?”
38
Three days later , Marie Logue was at the New Orleans International Airport, checking in for a flight to Milan, when she was surrounded by a dozen special agents from the local office of the FBI. The name she was using was Barbara Grossman, and she had a Louisiana driver’s license and a four-year-old passport to prove it. Unfortunately for Marie Logue, the FBI had, on videotape, the footage of the transaction taking place between Marie and the same man who had sold Eric Logue his Cleve Garrett identity papers.
Portenson was exuberant and cocky when he called Joe and told him what had happened. He said he had thought it through once Joe tipped him off about the relationship between Marie and Eric Logue, and he figured out that Eric had probably told Marie about the location of the identity thief in New Orleans. Portenson figured that Marie would eventually go there herself, for her new documents. Portenson said his colleagues in New Orleans had arrested the identity thief earlier in the week and had made a deal for leniency with him if he would help them set her up, including the placement of video cameras in his office over a bar on Bourbon Street.