Shock Wave

banana stand, if I were you.”
    “That’s what I’d do, too, but the boss might see one of those birdin-the-hand deals.”
    “So: see you at six,” Virgil said. “If you don’t mind, I want to tip Ahlquist off: I don’t want it to catch him with his pants down. He’s already been in the paper standing next to Pye.”
    She was hesitant: “He’s gotta keep his mouth shut.”
    “He can do that,” Virgil said. “We’ve worked together in the past, and he’s good at that, when he needs to be.”
     
     
    VIRGIL FOLLOWED HER toward the courthouse, but swung into a McDonald’s drive-through for a shot of calories, talked to Davenport about the Shepards, while he waited for the food, then went on to the courthouse. Ahlquist had just left, going home for dinner. Virgil got one of the deputies to call him, and Ahlquist said he’d come back.
    When he arrived, Virgil was finishing his cheeseburger while looking at the hundred and seven letters that they’d already gotten back from the survey group. Twenty-two had declined to participate, for reasons ranging from a lack of time to concerns about civil rights, leaving eighty-five lists of names. More were arriving every few minutes. They’d asked for ten names, and had gotten back as few as four, on a few lists, to as many as twenty-one on the longest list. Most were ten.
    Virgil had opened his laptop, set up an Excel spreadsheet, and started entering names. In the first five letters, he’d had three duplicates, a Lyle McLachlan.
    Ahlquist came in, looked over his shoulder, stole a couple of Virgil’s french fries.
    “McLachlan isn’t smart enough to pull this off,” he said. “He’s crazy enough, and violent enough, but he’s not the guy.”
    “Bummer.”
     
     
    “SO WHAT’S UP?” AHLQUIST ASKED. He took a couple more fries.
    “These rumors about the city council being bribed,” Virgil said. “Uh, they’re true.”
    “You say that like a cop,” Ahlquist said.
    “Yeah.”
    “Ah, shit.” Ahlquist dropped in a chair. “How bad?”
    “We got at least one, Pat Shepard. He’s gone, unless Good Thunder decides to flip him.”
    “Ah, man. He teaches civics up at the high school. How to be a good citizen.”
    “Yeah, well . . . I got Good Thunder to agree that I could tell you about this, on the basis that you not mention it to a single person,” Virgil said. “We don’t want Pye shoveling dirt on it, we don’t want people hiding cash in coffee cans out in the woods. When we move on it, we want it all raw.”
    “I can keep my mouth shut,” Ahlquist said.
    “That’s what I told her,” Virgil said. “I just thought you oughta know, so you don’t wind up standing too close to Pye.”
    “I appreciate that, Virgil. You’re a good egg,” Ahlquist said. “So how’d you bag him? Shepard?”
    Virgil filled him in on the details—the affairs, the probable divorce, the money, and the immunity agreement with Jeanne Shepard.
    “Ah, Jesus. I dread all of this, what’s going to happen,” Ahlquist said, when Virgil finished. “We’ll be busting old friends. Or acquaintances, anyway.”
    “It won’t be pretty,” Virgil said. “If you want, I can talk to my boss, bring in a BCA crew. Keep you out of it.”
    “That’d make it look like you guys thought I couldn’t handle it,” Ahlquist said. “Or maybe was involved.”
    “You can handle it, Earl, but the question is, do you want to?” Virgil asked.
    “I gotta think.”
    Virgil said, “We could fix it for you to make the announcement, along with the county attorney. You could say something like, ‘I’ve recused myself and the sheriff's department to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.’ ”
    He bobbed his head: “That might be the way to go. Once you say I can talk, I’ll tell Mary Alice about it, ask her what she thinks. She’s my brain trust.” Mary Alice was his wife.
    “We’ll probably move in the next day or two, so you gotta decide what you’re gonna do, and pretty fast. You think Mary Alice can keep her mouth shut?”
    “When she needs to,” Ahlquist said.
    “Then talk to her,” Virgil said. “Let me know tomorrow morning what you’re gonna do.”
    “I’ll tell you tonight,” Ahlquist said. “I want to see your final list, so I’ll be back anyway.”
     
     
    VIRGIL WENT BACK TO WORK on the list, pushing hard. Lyle McLachlan, he thought, must be an enormous asshole, because he was on about every other list. George Peck was on one list.