Secret Prey

‘‘I been a cop here for four years; nobody in the department has been here more than twelve. Better you should go up and talk to the county clerk, she might be able to point you at some death records or something.’’
    ‘‘Second floor?’’ Lucas asked.
    ‘‘Yee-up,’’ the chief said.
    THE COUNTY CLERK WAS EVEN YOUNGER THAN THE chief, her hair dyed an unsuccessful orange: ‘‘Okay, twenty-four years. About this time of year, you say?’’
    ‘‘About this time.’’
    ‘‘Okay . . . We’re computerizing, you know, but all this old paper is hard to get on-line,’’ she said, as she dug through a file cabinet. ‘‘Here we go. George Lamb? Here it is.’’
    ‘‘You got anything in there on an Amelia Lamb? George’s wife? Four years after George?’’
    She went back to the cabinet, dug around, then shook her head. ‘‘Nothing on an Amelia.’’
    She straightened up, stepped to the counter, pushed a mimeographed form across the counter at them, said to Marcy, ‘‘I really like your hair,’’ and Marcy said, ‘‘Thanks. I just got it changed and I was a little worried about doing it . . . used to be longer.’’
    The death form was filled out on a typewriter, and signed by a Dr. Stephen Landis. Lucas scanned the routine report and asked, ‘‘Is Dr. Landis still practicing here?’’
    ‘‘Oh, sure. He’s over at the clinic, right down the street to Main, take a left two blocks.’’
    Marcy looked over Lucas’s arm: ‘‘Heart attack?’’
    ‘‘That’s what it says.’’
    ‘‘You know, Sheriff Mason would’ve been a deputy back then; I bet he would know about it,’’ the clerk said, reading the file upside down. She tapped a line on the file with her fingertip. ‘‘This address isn’t right in town—it’s out at County A—so they would have been the law enforcement arm involved in a death.’’
    ‘‘We just talked to a Chief Mason,’’ Sherrill said. ‘‘They’re not the same guy?’’
    ‘‘Second cousins, though you could never tell,’’ the clerk said. ‘‘Sheriff John Mason’s grandparents on his father’s side, and Chief Bob Mason’s great-grandparents on his father’s and grandfather’s side, are the same people, Chuck and Shirley Mason from Stephen.’’
    ‘‘Thank you,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘Where can we find the sheriff’s office?’’
    ‘‘Down the hall all the way to the end.’’
    As they left, Sherrill asked, ‘‘Are Chuck and Shirley still alive?’’
    ‘‘Well, sure,’’ the clerk said. ‘‘Hale and hearty. Course, they’d be down in Arizona right now.’’
    THE SHERIFF WAS OUT, THE RECEPTIONIST SAID, BUTIF it was a matter of importance, he’d be happy to come right back. Lucas identified himself, and the receptionist’s eyebrows went up, and she punched a number in her telephone. A minute later, the phone rang, and she picked it up and said, without preamble, ‘‘There’re some Minneapolis police officers here, looking for you.’’
    The sheriff was a chunky, weathered man, going bald; he wore an open parka and was carrying a blaze-orange watch cap when he stepped into the office five minutes later.
    ‘‘You want to see me?’’
    ‘‘Yes,’’ Lucas said. He introduced himself, produced his ID, and mentioned the death of George Lamb.
    ‘‘George Lamb? You mean about a hundred years ago, that George Lamb?’’ The sheriff’s voice picked up a hint of wariness.
    ‘‘Twenty-four years,’’ said Lucas.
    ‘‘Come on back,’’ the sheriff said. And to the receptionist: ‘‘Ruth, go get Jimmy and tell him to come back too.’’
    To Lucas: ‘‘You folks want some coffee?’’
    ‘‘That’d be fine,’’ Lucas said. They were passing a coffeepot in a hallway nook, and Sherrill said, ‘‘I’ll get it. Sheriff? Sugar?’’
    As the sheriff settled behind his desk, and Sherrill brought the coffee, Lucas said, ‘‘We’re sorta digging through the background on Lamb. The county clerk said you were around at the time, I don’t know if you’d remember it or not.’’
    ‘‘Yeah, I do. He used to be a mail carrier outa here, he had the rural route. Died of a heart attack. Why’re you looking into that? If I might ask?’’
    ‘‘We’ve got a case going on in the Cities, woman just shot her husband,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘She’s charged second degree, but that could get dismissed as self-defense. We’re looking into all the deaths that have been associated with her, and we