Mad River

see you, Virg.”
    •   •   •
    VIRGIL WALKED AWAY and heard her pumping excitement into her voice as she recapped the interview. He was back in his truck, getting ready to pull out, when she rattled up next to the driver’s-side window in her high heels and said, “Thanks. I owe you. And thanks for using my name.”
    “Remember to put the BCA phone number up,” Virgil said.
    “Would you tell me why you’re doing that?”
    “No.”
    “You’re trying to get Becky to call you, aren’t you?” she said. “You’re trying to get her to call, because . . . because you can track the cell phone tower, and then . . . Oh, my God! You’re so . . . manipulative.”
    “If you put that on the air, I’ll strangle you and throw your body in the Minnesota River,” Virgil said.
    “I won’t say a word, until you catch her,” Jones said. “Then I’ll say a lot of words.”
    •   •   •
    THE DAYS WERE GROWING longer as they moved deeper into April, but it was late enough in the afternoon that Virgil wasn’t inclined to start the road search he’d plotted out with the prison inmates. With Jenkins and Shrake running late, it’d be nearly dark before they arrived.
    And then, since every farmer within two hundred miles was now guarding his property with a shotgun in his hand, approaching lonely houses in the dark did not seem like a good idea. And if you weren’t killed by a farmer, you just might find Sharp and Welsh, who’d light you up before you knew what was happening.
    Virgil called Jenkins and told him to call Shrake, and that both of them should check into a motel somewhere close by. “Call me tonight and let me know where you are. We’ll head out on the road early tomorrow.”
    “How early?”
    “Right after it gets light.”
    Virgil looked at his phone for a minute, then dialed. He got John O’Leary on the second ring. “This is Virgil Flowers, with the BCA.”
    “You got the rest of ’em?”
    “Not yet. I’m glad I caught you. I need to talk to you.”
    “Come on over. We’re all here—the funeral’s tomorrow morning.”
    “I don’t want to intrude.”
    “Come on over, Virgil. I wanted to thank you anyway, for catching the first one of those little vermin.”
    •   •   •
    ON HIS WAY OVER, he called the Lyon County sheriff, in Marshall, and asked if McCall had gotten representation.
    “Yeah, he’s signed up with one of our public defenders, Mickey Burden. You need to talk to her?”
    “Yeah, and maybe the county attorney. Got the numbers?”
    He called the county attorney first, a Josh Meadows. “I talked to Mickey an hour ago. She’s a little pissed about that interview you did with Channel Three, and about the questioning of McCall, when you were driving him in.”
    “It was all aboveboard,” Virgil said.
    “That’s one of the things she’s pissed about. It’s all right there on the tape,” Meadows said.
    “You gave her the tape?”
    “No, but we described it to her, as a courtesy. We’re going to have to give it up pretty quick, though. She’s going for a court order right now.”
    “As a personal favor to me, and since she’s going to get it anyway, could you give her a copy now? Or let her listen to it?” Virgil asked.
    “I could, if you tell me why,” Meadows said.
    “Because I want her to hear that McCall was holding out a critical piece of information—and that if I don’t get it, that’s another strike against him. I’ve got another thing going here, which I will tell you about when I see you, but it’s complicated. I need McCall to talk to me.”
    “All right. I’ll talk to her, see what she says,” Meadows said.
    “I’m going to call her and make an appeal. Maybe it’ll help,” Virgil said.
    “Fine. Tell her to call me, then.”
    •   •   •
    HE CALLED BURDEN as he pulled up outside the O’Leary house, and sat in the street and talked to her.
    “You poisoned the whole jury pool when you said they’d had a sexual encounter,” Burden said, when she came up on the phone.
    Virgil said, “No I didn’t. He was bragging to me about it. What can I tell you?”
    “You should have kept your mouth shut,” she said.
    “I’ve got reasons for doing what I did, and if I were to tell you about them, which I won’t, I think you might approve,” Virgil said. “Anyhow, I’ve called to tell you that I asked Josh Meadows to release the interview tape to you, and he agreed. You can get it right