‘Don’t flatter yourself. Jay filed a report about a shooting incident near here. I’m checking it out. Besides, I figured you wouldn’t want anyone to know the police were questioning you. You don’t want your name in the papers again, do you?’

‘Oh, I don’t really care. If people think I shot Jay, they might give me a medal for it.’

‘Did you?’ she asked.

‘What, shoot him? No. Unfortunately, I don’t have much of an alibi for last Friday. Sorry.’

‘What were you doing?’

‘I was sick. Flu. I spent the evening alone in my apartment.’

‘Did you go to a doctor?’

‘No.’

‘Can anyone confirm that you were home that night?’

‘I had a Sammy’s pizza delivered,’ he said. ‘The driver will remember me. She was cute.’

‘What time was that?’

‘Too early to make a difference,’ he said. ‘I still could have gone out later and blown Jay’s head off. But I didn’t.’

‘When did you last see Jay?’ Maggie asked.

‘See him? When his face was at the other end of my fist at the Saratoga last April. After that, he took out a restraining order, so I stayed away from him. Look, my gun is in my truck. If you want to test it, feel free. I didn’t shoot him.’

‘Okay,’ Maggie said. ‘Go get it.’

Nathan looked surprised and annoyed. He climbed down from the Avalanche, kicked through snow back to his pick-up, and retrieved a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver with a wooden grip from his glove compartment. He emptied the cartridges and shoved them in his pocket. When he returned to the Avalanche, Maggie held an open evidence bag, and he put the gun inside.

‘How long do you plan to keep that?’ Nathan asked.

‘Until the test is done. Few days. Couple years. Somewhere in there.’

She shoved the evidence bag with the gun into her glove compartment, and Nathan swore under his breath. She grabbed a print-out from her dashboard of one of the photographs taken from Jay’s camera. She showed the picture of the man in camouflage to Nathan.

‘Ever seen this guy around town?’ she asked.

His blue eyes squinted at the paper. ‘Nope.’

‘Either on the force or after?’

‘Like I said, no.’ Nathan checked his watch. ‘Are we done here, Maggie? I’ve got a shift starting soon. Nothing like minimum wage and no benefits. I live the glamorous life.’

‘Where do you work?’

‘Wherever they send me.’

‘Yeah, we’re done here,’ Maggie said.

Nathan stalked back to his pick-up and drove off with his tires spinning. Maggie watched the truck disappear northward toward Interstate 35. She knew the test would come back negative on Nathan’s gun. He wouldn’t have offered it up if it were the murder weapon. Even so, the streets of Duluth were a little safer with him disarmed.