Dark of the Moon

Laymon asked. She was sitting on the other bed, had been looking on in bemusement as Virgil and Jesse worked on the phone call.
    “Yes. Probably. But not for sure,” Virgil said. “If he shows up tonight, he could dig his own grave. Or, he might clear himself. Either way, I get rid of a major suspect.”
    Margaret looked at her daughter: “Told you. Pure cop.”

24
    W HEN THE OUT-OF-TOWN COPS had been milling around the salad bar, Virgil had spotted a deputy from Dodge County that he’d done some work with a few months earlier. When they got off the phone with Williams, he took Jesse along and introduced her to the guy, whose name was Steve Jacobs. Jacobs was chatting with another cop, a deputy named Roger Clark from Goodhue County. Virgil told them about the killings in Bluestem and introduced Jesse as one of the people under threat.
    “It’d be good if we could get her bodyguarded until this evening,” Virgil suggested.
    “I’d guard her body as long as she wants,” Jacobs said.
    “Me, too,” Clark said.
    Jesse said, “Ha-ha,” but she liked the attention.
    Virgil: “I’m a little serious, here, Jesse. I don’t want you running around outside. Todd’s a smart guy and until we figure out how to drag him down, you’ve got to be careful.”
    “Mom and I were planning to go shopping, and then come back here and watch some movies,” she said.
    “Don’t get alone,” Virgil said. “You should be okay—but just don’t get alone. I’ll be back by eight o’clock to get you wired up. If you get the smallest little crinkle of thought that something’s wrong, find Steve here, or Roger, or one of these other cops, and tell them.”
    “I’ll be okay,” she said Jacobs said, “We’ll keep an eye on her.”
    “Where are you going?” Jesse asked Virgil.
    “I’ve got an appointment at the fire department to learn CPR, and then I’ll poke around, see if I can spot Todd without being too obvious about it.”
    “CPR?”
    “It’s a lifesaving technique,” Virgil said.
    She frowned, then shook her head. “Whatever. Don’t get alone.”
    Virgil left her with Jacobs and Clark, headed back to Bluestem, stopped at the fire department. A big man with a handlebar mustache met him, took him back to an equipment locker, opened a door: “There you go,” he said.
     
    O N THE WAY back to Bluestem, Virgil called Joan: “Where are you?”
    “At the post office,” she said.
    “Then where’re you going?”
    “Mmmm. Might go home and watch television,” she said. “What’re you doing?”
    “Trying to contain my animal spirits.”
     
    T HE GREAT THING about daytime sex, Virgil thought privately, is that you got to watch. Women didn’t like to watch so much, which was understandable, because they were watching men, and men having sex wasn’t that interesting. At least, not to Virgil. Women having sex was. Which was why he liked daytime sex.
    And Joan said, “I gotta give this up and get something regular.”
    “You had something regular,” Virgil said.
    “You’re right,” she said. “Once a year is regular. Just not frequent. I need something regular and frequent. Not all over the goddamn place, morning, noon, and night.”
    “That would be ‘nooner.’”
    “You know, people haven’t used that term in fifty years,” she said. “You are such a small-town guy.”
    “I’ve heard it four times since I’ve been here,” he said. “Tends to stick in your mind.”
    “I’m not positive that you’ve got enough extra space, to collect small-town sayings,” Joan said.
    Virgil said, “Bite me.”
     
    S HE ROLLED OVER on her stomach: “So what’s the big mystery?”
    “I’ve got it worked out that Todd Williamson is going to hang himself tonight. Or, clear himself. I’ll take either one.”
    Her eyebrows went up. “How’re you gonna do that?”
    “That’s complicated and confidential. However, I will take either one. If I clear him…Hmm. Never mind.”
    On the way out to the truck, Virgil noticed a clump of multicolored paper sheets stacked on the kitchen table. “Crop insurance,” Joan said. “Everything the federal government touches, turns into quadruplicate or quintuplicate or something, and it takes days to fill it all out. And then, they do it all over next time.”
    Virgil looked over the forms: “Christ, I don’t even understand the words.”
    “I’m the party of the foreplay,” she said. “The government’s the party of the gang bang. See, it’s right