Lester
Lester was waiting anxiously. Taggart stepped in front of him, towering over him by a good eight inches.
“All right, Sheriff, they’re going to send the coroner down straightaway. Detectives should be here in a few hours as well.”
Lester shook his head. “What a goddamned mess. Sweet Christ.”
“Yeah. It is what it is,” Taggart replied coolly. He looked over to Johnny Knolls’s fallen body in the trailer doorway. “The father of the victim, did you know him well?”
“Yeah. Hell, everybody knows everybody around here.”
Taggart nodded. “He always carry a firearm?”
“Son, everybody around here always carries a firearm. Got one in our truck and a half dozen others back home. Way of life.”
Taggart grunted. “That may be, but this man’s dead because of it.” Taggart’s tone was flat and matter-of-fact. The way he intended it.
Lester let this roll off him. He needed help, and there was no good that could come from getting defensive.
“So you said you got the suspect in custody?” Taggart wasn’t wearing a jacket. If he was cold, he wasn’t letting on about it.
“Yep. Local boy. Big fella. Always thought he was more of a gentle giant,” Lester offered.
“Seems like that’s always the case.”
Lester played with the stubble on his head. “Yeah. Danny Bedford. Might be big as an ox, but he’s a few cards short of a full deck.”
Taggart gave him a look. “How so?”
Lester didn’t keep his gaze. Something about the trooper made him uneasy. “Had him an accident on a frozen pond when he was a boy. Five or six, if I remember correctly. The winter of ’49. The damn kid was underwater for near ten minutes. Suffered pretty severe brain damage as a result of it.”
“Guess he should have stayed off the ice or learned how to swim.”
Lester finally gave him a look. This state trooper fella seemed to be a bull in a china shop. Like a lot of city cops and state law officials, men like Taggart elbowed their way around life. “Lost both his folks in the same accident. Helluva thing.”
“You got him in lockup?” Taggart asked, ignoring Lester’s last statement.
“He’s laid up at the doc’s office right now.” Lester stopped himself. Thought about what he would say next. Wanted to be real careful. “Danny suffered a broken jaw when we brought him down.”
Taggart almost smiled. “I’m sure he did.”
Lester didn’t let the other man bait him. He continued on, also matter-of-fact. “Like I said, he’s the size of two of me, so it took all that my deputy and I could do to restrain him.” Lester hated lying, but he figured it was better not to raise any eyebrows when it came to Sokowski’s actions.
“I take it your deputy is with the suspect now? Has him under careful watch?”
Lester nodded and took out a pack of cigarettes. Tucked one in the corner of his mouth and cupped the match from the wind. He only had one cigarette left now. The state trooper looked at the pack, and even though Lester didn’t want to, he offered the man the last smoke. Common decency had it that you never took a man’s last cigarette.
Taggart accepted the smoke.
“Deputy Sokowski is there with him now. Just waiting to turn him over to the state. He’s in good hands.”
“I would hope so.” Taggart took Lester’s pack of matches and lit up. He gazed around the countryside. It was pitch-black, and beyond the trees there wasn’t much to see for miles. “You born and raised around here?”
“Yep. This has always been home. Never seen a reason to leave.”
Taggart looked at all the trees and rolling countryside around him with a bemused expression. “Never cared for the country myself. Too damn quiet. I’m a city boy. Would drive me nuts living out here with nothing to do.”
Lester kept smoking. “Guess it’s not for everybody.”
“Living out here would be a prison sentence for someone like me.” Taggart laughed at the thought.
“Suppose that’s true for some.” Lester was going to stop there but couldn’t help himself. “Then again, I think life in the city tends to suck a man dry of what’s important.”
Taggart gave the sheriff a look. “And how’s that?”
Lester knew he shouldn’t go on, but he did anyway. Something about Trooper Taggart provoked Lester and didn’t bring out the wisest part of himself. “Seems like city folks are always so busy rushing around with places to go and things to do that they forget what it’s like to take one day at a time and enjoy the small things in life.”
“That right? You sound like a Hallmark card.”
Lester shrugged. “Used to get bent out of shape when city dwellers rolled into town looking down their noses and laughing at our ways, all the while wondering how anyone would actually choose this life, but now I just feel sorry for them.”
Taggart seemed to consider the sheriff’s words for a moment. “I see what you’re saying. And I hope I’m not coming off that way. Not my intention.” The man exhaled, shook his head. “Guess you’re right, though. City life can be a grind, but it’s all I’ve ever known. For better or worse.”
Lester finally grinned at the man—part of the state trooper’s wall came down just a bit. “Life here grows on you. Hell, you spend another few hours out here in the fresh air, you might just be coming back for more.”
Taggart grinned a little himself. “Don’t know about that.” He flicked his cigarette to the snow and gazed over at Lester. “What I do know is that we’ll be needing another pack of cigarettes.”
Lester flicked his cigarette to the ground as well. “Hell. Ain’t that the truth.”
