Bobo had nodded again.

The sheriff waited for more explanation, more reaction, more anything. But Bobo had only said, “I didn’t kill her.”

“There aren’t any prints on the gun,” Smith told him, with no inflection in his voice. “We’re waiting for the medical examiner’s final report on the cause of death. I’ll be back. But you know, Mr. Winthrop, it doesn’t look good for you if the medical examiner’s report shows Mrs. Lowry died of a gunshot.”

“Yeah,” Bobo said. “My ass will be toast.”

“I’ve checked into Buffalo and Eagle’s allegations.” Smith took a step closer. “At least five members of this group have told me that two Men of Liberty, Seth Mecklinberg and Curtis Logan, came over here to talk to you. They were very vague about what these two gentlemen had to say to you, or why they came from Lubbock instead of the Marthasville branch of MOL. My guess would be so you couldn’t recognize them, as you might recognize someone from Marthasville.”

“I did not do anything to those men, and I don’t know why they’d think I did,” Bobo said. “I have no idea what happened to them.”

“Since no one has filed a missing-person report on them, they’re not part of our investigation at the moment,” Smith said. “But if they really are missing and we find someone to say they saw those two men in this area, you know this is going to get much worse for you.”

“I understand,” said Bobo. He stood up. He was several inches taller than the sheriff, but at the moment he felt that Arthur Smith was the larger man.

18

Olivia had had some mysterious business to take care of, and she had to uncover the name of the man who’d been beaten by Zane Green. According to Fiji, Olivia had great computer skills and a lot of knowledge and connections in the lawyer community. Evidently Olivia was able to exercise one of her talents, since Fiji called Manfred after a day to tell him that they’d go on their “field trip” (as Manfred privately called it) to the Cartoon Saloon that night.

Olivia, the only one who’d already been there, said that the saloon lay between Midnight and Marthasville, but much closer to the larger town. “I promise you a sight worth seeing,” she promised them as they piled into Manfred’s car.

“Wow,” said Manfred, when he parked by a huge cutout of Yosemite Sam. “Cool sign. But weird.”

“Hmmm,” said Fiji. “Interesting.”

Olivia just smiled broadly. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” she said. “By the way, we’re looking for a guy named Deck Powell.”