Chapter 29

I was still trying to figure out who was after me when Myrna came out, carrying a pan of water and a rag with the first aid kit tucked under her arm. I just sat and let Myrna clean the blood from the back of my neck while I waited for the sheriff to arrive. After about five minutes, he came sliding into the driveway. When he got out of his car, he came directly up to the porch.

"Jon, what the hell's going on out here? Myrna said something about a bomb?"

I had him sit down and brought him up to date on the explosives I had found, as well as my thoughts about the block of clay. He said that when his demo man got here, he would have him send the clay in immediately to check for fingerprints and DNA traces. He questioned me a little more intently on the car bomb, and who I thought might have put it there.

I told him I had checked out the car this morning and it wasn't there then. I also told him whoever had set up the fake clay bomb had been an amateur, because of the way it had been done. It was almost as if he or she had actually thought they were handling the real thing. When his demo man got there, the sheriff sent him to the garage after talking to him for about fifteen minutes. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but the directions must have been pretty detailed because the deputy just kept saying, "Yes Sir."

"Jon, not to interrupt what's going on, but you need a couple of stitches in this cut. It's pretty deep and I can't get it to stop bleeding. I am going to call Kat and have her come out to look at it."

"Oh no you don't, Myrna, I will be fine! Just go in the house and get some flour and press it into the cut. That will stop the bleeding. I am not leaving here tonight, and I certainly don't want Kat back out here with all that's going on. This time you will listen to me and do as I say!"

She didn't say anything else, but took the pan back into the house and returned with a cup with flour in it. I bent my head down and hissed to myself as she roughly pushed the flour into the cut. She did it twice before finally telling me it had stopped bleeding. I was also told that when I changed my shirt, to give it directly to her so she could get the blood out before it had time to set in.

I got up and went in to change. When I came out wearing a t-shirt, I handed her the bloody shirt. The sheriff immediately tried to take it away from her, saying that since I had been crawling around the garage with it, there might be trace evidence on it. Oh well, I thought, so much for another new shirt. I thought Myrna was going to go off on him. He finally had to pull the shirt out of her hands.

"Myrna, I promise you if my lab guys ruin his shirt, I will personally pay to have it replaced. Now will you calm down? And if you don't mind, will you get us some coffee? I have a feeling we are going to be here for awhile. I have my mobile forensics truck on the way as well as a bomb container truck so we can get that thing away from here."

That seemed to mollify Myrna, because she grinned at the sheriff and went back into the house. He turned to me and started talking, and a lot of what he said was very interesting to me.

"Jon, do you think Dwight had anything to do with this? I never liked him and we have clashed several times over cases here in the county. It seemed like he always had his nose in my business until you got him fired. I almost jumped up and down when I heard he had been let go and was under indictment. I personally hope he gets convicted and has to spend a few years in jail. I heard that before this happened, he was planning on running for sheriff against me next year. Could you imagine the people having that little dictator as their sheriff? I will tell you that he and the new DA seem to be close friends. That one I don't understand, but as long as they don't try to run my department, I'm not gonna worry about it. Jon, what the hell's going on? I mean two shootings, and now this? Someone's got you in their sights for some reason. Oh, and I also have extra deputies working the Jr High Prom tonight. With what's going on, and knowing Sally was planning on going, I thought it prudent. My daughter is with her and those two are as thick as thieves."

I looked at him and smiled, saying I also had several people watching them. That got me a crafty look and a big smile from the sheriff. I couldn't see anything other than honesty in him. I knew he and Bill were friends, so I brought him up to date about the church, the Runt and what this was all about, as far as I knew. I went on to tell him that I had no idea why, after all these years, I was having so much trouble with them. He just looked at me and smiled. Myrna came out and gave us all coffee and sat back down in the swing with Carver. I waited to see what the sheriff would have to say.

"Jon, Bill and I have discussed a lot of this after the first shooting. As you know, we are friends, but what you don't know, is that he, Jeb and I were in the same outfit in the war. I'm like you; I adopted my daughter because I thought I had a lot more to offer her than living in some orphanage. I still have a flyer on the girl's uncle that you talked about. The charges were upgraded to murder about three years ago. He went after another one of his relatives in Kentucky for some reason, and things went south and he ended up killing him. He is on the FBI's ten most wanted now. What I don't understand, like you, is why after all this time the church is pushing you so hard. Jon, there has to be something you know about, or did, that they want forgotten or buried away. I also want a copy of those photos you said you sent to Interpol. I have a lot of contacts in law enforcement around the country, and maybe somebody knows him. Don't worry, I will be discreet about it."

I started to say something more, but his men called him over to the forensics truck to show him something. I heard several raised voices before he came back to the porch with a puzzled look his face.

"Jon, they found one print on that block of clay but it doesn't match anything in our database. I have them checking Federal and NCIC as we speak. My guy says the bomb under the car was a dud too. It was two road flares taped to a magnet with a blinking LED from an alarm clock. If it could have gone off, it would have just caused a bunch of sparks under the car. I am having them dust the rest of the garage, including your grandfather's old office. Jon, this is damned strange, I don't know as I've ever heard of anything like it. That bomb under the car, according to my man, was a professional job. He said it was all tied in like someone who knew what they were doing did it. They found bits of skin on the ends of the bare wires where whoever did it twisted them with his bare fingers so he could push them into the clay. We will send all that to the state lab for DNA analysis. Jon, if you have anymore vehicles, I want my men to check them out too."

I looked at Carver and he returned the look with wide eyes. I told the sheriff about the farm jeep and Carver's truck, which were kept in the caretaker's small garage. He said he would send his bomb guys to check it out. I told him to tell them to be careful, just in case. He said he would, and got up to go to the forensics truck. I waited until he was out of earshot and turned to Carver.

"Do you have any enemies from your past that may be looking for you?"

"Not that I'm aware of, Jon. You know as well as I do, with my past, it's always possible."

"That's what I'm thinking. I think maybe we need to change our approach to this. Suppose it's not the church, but someone looking to get back at one of us for something in our past? I have been out of the Legion for almost six years, but you just retired a year or so ago. I think we both need to sit down and do some soul searching, and think about who would still want to do harm to either one of us. Carver, looking at it from that point of view, it makes more sense than the church being behind it. Damn, this is getting more and more complicated, and we still don't know what the church is after or why after all these years."