Free Defiled: The Sequel to Nailed Featuring John Tall Wolf (A Ron Ketchum Mystery Book 2) by Joseph Flynn Page A

you remember it, buddy?”
    Brant furrowed his brow in concentration.
    Then he said, “Well, on the drive down to the marina, I did see this one truck.”
     
    Ron and Tall Wolf stood on the police dock at the shoreline of Lake Adeline at sunset, scheduled that day at 8:20 p.m. The lake patrol coppers told Ron there hadn’t been a recreational boater on the lake for the past fifty minutes. No one intended to get sideways with Clay Steadman when it came to preventing a disaster.
    That and they didn’t want to be on the water if a bomb off nearby.
    “That’s the whole point of terrorism, scaring people,” Ron said.
    Tall Wolf asked, “Who are they more afraid of, the mayor or the bad guys?”
    “Bad guys come and go, the mayor is forever.”
    Brant Sutherland had told them the truck he’d seen was either dark green or dark blue. Maybe a little of each. It wasn’t new. At least it wasn’t shiny. But it didn’t look real old either. It wasn’t a big truck. More like an SUV. He wasn’t sure if it was a personal vehicle or the kind someone with a city job might drive.
    “I was still kind of tired,” Brant said of the moment he’d seen the vehicle.
    And he was eight years old.
    Roger Sutherland sketched a vehicle from his son’s description.
    Shaded it with green first. No, Brant said. Roger added some blue shading.
    “That’s sort of it.”
    Roger made a copy for himself and gave the drawing to the chief. “If Brant remembers anything else, I’ll send you an update.”
    The chief and the special agent spent two hours driving around town looking for any vehicle that came close to resembling Roger Sutherland’s rendition of his son’s memory. They made three stops, spoke briefly to the drivers, two residents and a tourist. Eyeballed them. Talked to them. Weighed the information they collected and didn’t get the least tingle of guilt from any of them. They did keep the information gleaned from the driver’s licenses and the vehicle’s tags. They entered the names and numbers into Ron’s computer. You never knew. Someone with a far darker nature might be driving one of those SUVs the next time they spotted it.
    Ron bought dinner for himself and Tall Wolf at a Japanese steak house.
    “You up to working through the night, special agent?” he asked.
    “Patrol? The mountains or the lake?”
    “Both. You have a preference?”
    “I’ll take the water.”
    “Okay. Just remember, it’s cold and deep.”
    Tall Wolf nodded. “I’ll wear my life vest. You have some woolies I can put on?”
    “We’ll find something to keep you warm. Probably won’t be too small.”
    “Snug’s okay.”
    The Goldstrike PD managed to outfit its federal colleague without discomfort. But Tall Wolf didn’t want to take one of the department’s patrol craft. Damn things had cops written all over them, literally. He wanted something less conspicuous. Lull any bad guys he might meet into underestimating him.
    Ron got the keys to Officer Dennehy’s Sea Ray Bow Rider. It was tricked out with all sorts of electronics. And, being a cop’s boat, it had a spotlight. Dennehy took the special agent through all the controls. Pretended like he didn’t worry about someone else using his boat.
    Said he’d topped off the gas tank that afternoon.
    After the patrol officer left them, Tall Wolf turned to Ron.
    “So what do you think, Chief?” he asked. “Just a coincidence you find a bomb the same morning Hale Tibbot turns up dead?”
    Ron said, “I think the same thing about coincidences you do, I’m sure.”
    “Yeah. I don’t see the connection yet, but I’ll be surprised if we don’t find one.”
    A more honest appraisal than what Tall Wolf had offered Marlene.
    The chief said, “Maybe we’ll both be smarter tomorrow.”
    The two men shook hands on that. Tall Wolf set off onto the lake, handling the Sea Ray like it was something he’d done before. Ron watched until he was out of sight. They’d agreed to check in with each