Free In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

him.
    About ten years younger than McElroy, Fred was a known rowdy, drinker, and thief. He would steal anything, but he preferred to steal guns. He threw in with Ken McElroy because McElroy was bigger and better at stealing: he knew which farmhouses had valuable furniture and guns; he knew when the residents were going to be away, and he always had plans on how to get in the house, get the goods, and dispose of them. Fred also threw in with Ken because Ken had more guts than most other guys. He would do things most of them wouldn't dream of doing, and just being around him made Fred feel stronger and tougher. Nobody ever, ever fucked with Ken McElroy. Being Ken's buddy, Fred got a little more respect than otherwise.
    Ken treated him like a father. Once, when Fred said he wanted a job in a town about 100 miles away, but he had no way to get there, Ken gave him $300 to buy a car and $100 for gas. The money was never mentioned again. The two of them also played a lot of pool in the bars, and one night Ken won all Fred's money, his watch and ring, then gave it all back to him with a smile and a pat on the back at the end of the evening.
    For Fred, the most exciting times were when Ken got twisted over something and decided he had to get even. He would start drinking and talking about it, and the more he drank, the madder he got. His face would get red, and he would start describing loudly and angrily just what he was going to do for revenge. He would turn to the man on the stool next to him and say, "You think I won't?" Eventually, Ken would fall silent and stare at the counter or the wall; finally he would stand up and demand of Fred, "You in or out?" Fred was almost always in, because he wanted to see what was going to happen.
    Ken McElroy and his sidekicks were known characters to the law in Doniphan County, Kansas; they were suspected of regularly stealing animals, grain, and chemicals. Troy, the county seat, is thirteen miles west of St. Joe, on Highway 36, an easy jump across the Missouri River. On February 7, 1969, the farmers' co-op warehouse at Leona, a tiny town a few miles west of Troy, was broken into and burglarized. The thieves took several cases of a new herbicide which was so expensive that the trunk of a car could easily hold more than $1,000 worth. Two nights later, the warehouse was burglarized again, and the thieves took more of the chemical.
    The local cops speculated that Ken McElroy was behind the breakins, and figured that if he had come twice, he might come a third time. The co-op hired an elderly night watchman, placed him inside the warehouse with a 20-gauge shotgun, and told him to protect the goods. Five nights later, the watchman was standing guard when he heard somebody breaking in the door. He yelled at the thieves to stop, and they turned and ran. He fired the shotgun at the retreating figures, then called the sheriff's department.
    When Undersheriff Jerry Dubach received the call in Troy, he jumped in his car and headed west toward Leona. The night was cold and snowy and the roads were icy; any speed over 35 or 40 mph was extremely dangerous. On the edge of town Dubach met a yellow Cadillac heading east toward Missouri at 65 mph. He flipped around and chased the Caddy, but couldn't close in on it without risking losing control. He followed the car as it crossed the bridge over the Missouri River into St. Joe and turned off at the 22nd Street exit. But by the time Dubach reached 22nd Street, his quarry was gone. He drove around awhile looking for it, but the Caddy had simply disappeared.
    Jim McCubbin was the special agent for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation assigned to the investigation. Like every other cop around, he knew Ken McElroy and was anxious to nail him. McCubbin had been unable to develop any proof of McElroy's involvement in the chemical thefts, until he learned that the night of the third burglary, February 14, 1969, a man had had some shotgun pellets removed from his rear end in a