Floyd smiled, amused that Birkholz couldn’t remember breakfast, but knew exactly the years his sons shot deer. He wiped away some dust and examined the spots. To him they looked more like blood than rust. “Can I keep this?” he asked, wondering if the spots were blood from the ’99 buck or other deer over the years.
“Makes me no nevermind. It’s just been collecting dust in the shed since the last deer.”
“I’d like to bring some deputies up to check around the ground if it’s all right with you. We’ll probably bring in a couple metal detectors and check for buttons and things like that.”
“It’s okay with me. Since my wife passed on it’s pretty lonely around here. I’d be happy to have the company. If you let me know when you’re coming I’ll even put on some coffee and pick up a dozen rolls.”
Floyd smiled and reached down, rubbing the now purring cat behind the ears. “If you do that, you may never get rid of the deputies.”
Floyd put the rope into an evidence bag in the trunk.
“You don’t seem very happy about finding the tree and the rope,” Barb said, reacting to Floyd’s silence. “Didn’t you want to find the tree?”
“Yes and no. Life would’ve been so much easier if we asked a few questions and came up with the same inconclusive answers we’d had back when the ATV was stolen. On the other hand, it’s amazing that we can come up with new leads years after Aaron Roberts disappeared.”
“Do you think that’s really the rope in the picture, and that the rust on the rope is actually blood?”
“Who knows if this is really the rope. The stains look more like blood than rust,” Floyd observed as they got back to the blacktop. “I’ll have to send it in for testing, but my guess is that it’s more likely from the deer than human.”
“Will they test to see if it’s Aaron Roberts’ blood?”
“That would take DNA testing, and we’d have to get samples from Aaron’s parents or siblings. I’m not sure that would buy us anything more than just assuming it’s his.”
“There could be someone else’s blood on it with Aaron’s, and that might tell you who else was there, maybe even who cut him.” When Floyd didn’t answer immediately Barb added, “Is that another one of the questions that you hoped you wouldn’t have to answer?”
“To test, we would have to get blood samples from the suspects. To do that, we would have to convince a judge that we had probable cause that someone had committed a crime, and I can’t say I’d be doing anything other than fishing right now. Judges won’t go for that.”
Barb sat in silence, thinking. “Isn’t there a DNA database?”
The state only tracks DNA from felons and sex offenders and it’s only been active for a couple years. There’s a military database too, but I’m sure Aaron’s DNA wouldn’t be there.”
“What are you going to do?” Barb asked.
“We’ll get a couple deputies out to the tree with metal detectors to see if we can find a button, knife, or something. Then, I suppose I’ll talk to a bunch more people about what happened that night.”
“Who haven’t you talked to yet?”
“There are friends, neighbors, relatives, and old lovers who we haven’t interviewed. Any of them might have a nugget of information they didn’t remember or didn’t want to share back then.”
CHAPTER 15
“Hi, Babe,” Sandy Maki said, pecking Barb on the cheek. “How did it go with Floyd at Passenger Lake?” Sandy asked as he scraped the remnants of his cereal bowl into the garbage disposal. He set the bowl in the dishwasher and wiped off the counter.
“I showed him the tree and the guy who owns the cabin had a bloody rope he found one spring by the tree. Floyd said he’s going to have it tested to see if the stains are really blood.”
“Good job! I’ll bet Floyd was happy.”
“He didn’t seem happy,” Barb said, leaning against the doorjamb. “He said he would send some deputies out with metal detectors to search the area around the tree. Is that what you’ll be doing this afternoon?” Barb asked as she followed him to the bathroom.
“I don’t know. I haven’t checked in for my shift yet.”
Barb reached out and touched Sandy’s straight dark hair. “Volunteer to do it. I’ll stay up until you get home because I want to hear what you find.”
“Chances are we won’t find anything. That’s usually what happens. But I always appreciate you being up when I get home.”
Floyd was waiting for the afternoon deputies in the bullpen when the dispatcher paged him with an urgent call.
“Deputy Swenson, this is Melissa Schotten. I’m calling from home.”
“I appreciate you calling back. Some things have come up regarding the night Aaron Roberts disappeared and I wanted to talk to you about your memories.” The line was silent so long Floyd asked, “Are you still there?”
“Yes, but I don’t see the point in having any discussion. What happened that night is ancient history best forgotten. I didn’t want to talk about it then, and now that everyone involved is dead or gone, I don’t see any point in talking about it now.”
“Humor me. I have to write a report and I’d like to have the best, most complete information possible. Tell me what happened.” Floyd slipped the pictures out of the envelope and spread them atop the assorted piles of papers on his desk.
“I talked to Mom, and she said you showed her a picture of five of us in a bar. I vaguely remember Kenny taking a picture when we were sitting in the Beroun bar. I haven’t seen it, but I can’t imagine there’s a smile on my face. I had broken up with Kenny when he was in Korea. When he came back he wanted to get back together and he begged and cajoled me until I agreed to go out with him. He tried to be a gentleman and make a good impression, but I kept waiting for him to revert to the jerk that I’d seen too often. It only took a couple nights of drinking with his friends and he had that old-Kenny attitude, but there was something more. It was like he had to keep proving that he was the toughest guy wherever we went.
“After like two nights of that, I told him to take me home. I was done. He apologized and said it would be different, but I demanded to be taken home. When he refused, I had one of my girlfriends drive me home.”
“So, you broke up with him, but somehow you ended up together the last night before he was to report in Missouri.”
“It was a mess. He called and begged. He told me it was his last night in Minnesota and that he would be shipping out for Saudi Arabia and might never come home. I told him that didn’t matter because we were through even if it was his last night on earth. Finally, he said we’d go out just as friends — no romance — just a bunch of old friends going out for drinks together. He promised there would be at least six of us going out together. I called Kathy to make sure he was telling the truth, and she said that she and Aaron were riding along with us, and that everything would be okay.”
“So, you talked to Kathy Tucker and she said that you’d be double dating?”
“Right. I explained to her that Kenny and I were done, and she promised we wouldn’t be left alone.”
“I’ve got the picture of the five of you in front of me. Tell me what happened after the picture.”
“Well, everyone was drinking heavily and inhibitions seemed to be slipping. I held back a little because I didn’t want things to get out of control. Mike and Betsy were necking inside the bar and Mike announced that they were leaving. That left just four of us. I told Kenny and Aaron it was time to call it a night, and that I wanted to go home. Aaron was okay with that, but Kenny was saying things like we were short hitters, and we were party poopers. I threatened to get someone else to drive me home and then Aaron and Kathy said they would drive me home, so Kenny relented.