The Bodies Left Behind

and she found a large number of legal immigrants were union members—proportionately a lot higher than in most locals around the country. From that, somebody started the rumor that I was selling them forged papers. All their green cards, though, were legit. Issued by the U.S. government.”
    Brynn considered this. He seemed credible. But who knew?
    “Why?”
    “To break the union, that’s why, pure and simple. The rumors start going around that I’m corrupt. That Local Four-oh-eight is a front for terrorists. That I’m encouraging foreigners to take our jobs . . . Bang, everybody votes to drop out and go open shop.” He was worked up. “Let me explain exactly why I’m being persecuted here. Why people want Stanley Mankewitz out of the picture. Because I don’t hate immigrants. I am all in favor of them. I’d rather employ a dozen Mexicans or Chinese or Bulgarians who come to this country—legally, I’ll add—to work hard, than a hundred lazy born-here citizens any day. So I’m caught right in the middle. The employers hate me because I’m union. My own membership hates me because I promote people who aren’t Amurican. ” He drawled the last word, a good ole boy. “So there’s a conspiracy to set me up.”
    Brynn sighed, having lost all interest in her soup and the soda, which had been flat to start with, probably as bad as the coffee, though it didn’t stink.
    Mankewitz lowered his voice. “Did you know I saved your life on April seventeenth?”
    Her attention swung fully to him now. A frown. She didn’t want to show any emotion but couldn’t help herself.
    Mankewitz said, “I sent Mr. Jasons there to protect my interest. I knew I didn’t kill Emma Feldman and her husband. I wanted to find out who really did. That could lead me to who was trying to set me up.”
    “Please . . .” she said, giving him a skeptical glance. Her cheek stung and she rearranged her expression.
    Mankewitz looked over her shoulder. “James?”
    Jasons joined them at the bar, toting a briefcase. He said, “I was in the forest, near that ledge you and that woman and little girl were on. I had a Bushmaster rifle. You were throwing rocks and logs down on those men.”
    She asked in a whisper, “That was you?” Jasons didn’t look like he could even hold a gun. “Shooting at us?”
    “ Near you. Not at. Only to break up the fighting.” Another sip of soda. “I drove to the house at the lake. I said I was a friend of Steve Feldman. I followed your husband and that other deputy into the woods. I wasn’t there to kill anybody. Just the opposite. My orders were to keep everyone alive. Find out who they were. I broke up the fight but I couldn’t track them down to interrogate them.”
    Mankewitz said, “We have reason to believe that the rumors about my alleged illegal involvement came fromsomeone in a company called Great Lakes Intermodal Container Service. Mr. Jasons here managed to find some documents—”
    “Find?”
    “—some documents that suggest that the president of the company was in bad financial shape and trying desperately to kick out the union so he could cut wages and benefits. The head lawyer of Great Lakes provided us with some documents that prove the president was behind the rumors.”
    “Did you tell the prosecutor?”
    “Unfortunately, this documentation—”
    “It was stolen.”
    “Well, let’s say it isn’t discoverable under the Federal Rules of Evidence. Now, here’s the situation. Since I have never sold any illegal papers, nobody can prove that I did. So eventually the charges will be dismissed. But rumors can cause as much damage as convictions. That’s what the Great Lakes Containers and the other union shops are hoping for—to ruin me by destroying my reputation and break the union. So I need to stop as many of those rumors as I can. And my number one priority is convincing you that I didn’t kill Emma Feldman.”
    “In police school they teach us not to give up when a suspect says, ‘Really, I didn’t do it.’ ”
    Mankewitz pushed the coffee away. “Deputy McKenzie. I know about the shooting seven years ago.”
    Brynn froze.
    “Your husband.” He looked at Jasons, who said, “Keith Marshall.”
    Mankewitz continued, “The official report was accidentaldischarge, but everybody believed you shot him because he attacked you again. Like he did when he broke your jaw. But since he was wearing his body armor and survived, he could testify that it was