Page 116 of Cougar Point

“Milligan surprised me. She had somehow gotten to Duke’s gun and shot me. I shot her. End of story. I’ll send a copy of my report to your sheriff and you can read it. If you have any questions please feel free not to ask on your way out of town.”

While he was reciting this, the medic was giving me annoyed looks. I was annoyed too.

“Can I go inside and take a look, Lucas?”

“No. It’s a crime scene. Mrs. Marsh has been found. Your services are no longer needed.”

The medic tells him, “Sergeant, we need to take you with us. I want a doctor to look at that wound. There’s an entrance and exit but part of the bullet could still be embedded and can cause you some real damage if it gets infected.”

“Listen to him, Lucas. There are two other officers here and you’ve done your bit. Let your crime scene people take it from here. We’re going to the hospital.”

Ronnie says, “Thank you.”

Lucas looks at me and grins. “You’ll be her junior partner someday.”

I don’t care but that’s never going to happen. “Probably. She’s pretty sharp. For instance she noticed there’s no bag of money out here. What happened to it?”

His eyes turn to slits. “There was no money when I got here. Thundercloud must have hidden it after he took it from JackMarsh. I guess Thundercloud wasn’t going to share the loot. He shoots Missy and Vinnie and then shoots Duke, but Duke didn’t die. Duke kills Thundercloud and goes in to finish Mrs. Marsh off but I stopped him. I heard gunshots when I arrived. Good thing I got here in time.”

“Wow. It sure was,” I agree. “I guess it must have happened the way you said.”

Lucas smiles in acknowledgement. The smile evaporates when he realizes I’m not done.

“But I’d still like to see the scene. We’ve come this far together. And you’ll need me to write a report verifying what I saw and heard. Right?”

We look at each other a long time. He’s lying. It was probably Thundercloud who shot Jack’s car up and took the money. If he planned to kill them all why hide the money? And why isn’t Lucas putting together a search party to find it? He could be suffering a little shock after getting in the fracas here. But I prefer to think of him as a lying corrupt cop. It’s just as likely that Lucas is the ringleader. No matter what he says, the investigation isn’t over. It’s just beginning.

The paramedic reappears and starts examining Lucas, and I take the opportunity to walk away from the ambulance with Ronnie.

“You don’t want to go in there,” I say. “But I have to.”

“Don’t tell me what I want,” she says sharply, and then puts a hand to her mouth. “Sorry Megan. I didn’t mean that.”

Lucas was right about one thing. Ronnie wouldn’t need me much longer. I’m glad and sad.

“No, I’m sorry,” I say. “This is your show, Ronnie. How do you want to do this?”

“Lucas didn’t give you permission to go in,” she says, casting an anxious glance back at the ambulance.

“He didn’t say we couldn’t. And we’re still deputized.”

Just then, we see an officer dressed in a white Tyvek suit with a hood approaching the building. I show him my badge. Ronnie says, “Sergeant Lucas wants us to go in with you.” The officer looks skeptical then shrugs.

“Don’t track through any of the blood. And don’t touch anything.” He walks ahead of us mumbling, “Why not make it a party?”

“We really appreciate it,” Ronnie says brightly.

The officer slows and says, “Just stay to one side and walk where I walk. It’s just that Lucas was all over this place and it looks like it was more than once. He knows better than to muck up a crime scene. I guess he’s getting short-timer syndrome.”

There are numerous bloodstains on the concrete floor in the shape of a shoe sole. They all look like the same shoe until we come to a steel door set into a concrete wall. The door is open and there are several sets of bloodstains on the concrete floor.

The bodies of three men and a woman are sprawled on the concrete floor. Missy is unrecognizable. Her face is destroyed, and she has two bullet wounds in her chest too. Vinnie is in a pool of blood. He’s been shot in the stomach. The two men were shot several times, head and stomach. I recognize Duke by his white shoes. Overkill. Anger. Psychotic. It’s all the same. I can relate. I shot a serial killer and rapist in the crotch once. Actually several times. I gave him a man-cave where his man-hood used to be. Maybe I went a little overboard. Nah.

One of the male bodies was shot—I count them—seven times. His face is destroyed and he’s wearing a leather jacket.Thundercloud.Jack said the person who took the money and shot at him was wearing a leather jacket.

I examine the bodies again. Missy is lying on her side, right arm laid out along the floor with a semi-automatic in her right hand. Her other arm is behind her. Her head is turned slightly as if she was looking at Thundercloud. The gun bothers me. I couldswear Missy was left-handed when I interviewed her. I squat and look more closely at the gun hand. The forefinger is on the trigger. I would have thought she’d drop the gun when she was shot, but I’m not a forensic expert.

Lucas said he’d gone back inside after he brought Victoria out to his car. He told Victoria he was checking on the kidnappers. That would explain why there are so many sets of shoeprints in this room, but only one set entering or leaving. Missy was armed and shot him. He shot her. Plausible. But why was Missy holding the handgun in her weak hand?

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