Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson

Author:Craig Johnson [Johnson, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-01-25T12:23:12.406000+00:00

14 6 CR A I G J O H N S O N

I looked up at the clock on my office wall and fi gured Vic would be back from lunch any time now. “What about the prostitution charges on the granddaughter?”

“First-timer, and she had the unfortunate, or fortunate—I guess it all depends on your point of view—experience of having her premier customer turn out to be an Orange County plainclothes deputy.” It was silent on the line. “It’s hard for some of these people to assimilate into a new culture, and if she was from the wrong side of the tracks . . .”

I stared at the name I had just printed on my desk blotter.

“Hey, Ned?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you check and see where this Ngo Loi Kim ended up?”

“I can do that.” It was silent again, the way it always was when men talked about things they’d rather not. “What makes you think this big Indian fella didn’t do it?”

“Just a hunch.”

I could hear him sniff out a laugh on the other end. “Sounds like he did a number on you.” I didn’t say anything. “You want that information faxed or do you guys have e-mail?”

“I am speaking to you now from a push-button phone and hope you are duly impressed.” I transferred him to Ruby, and he called me a dirty name just before I pushed a button, and the coast grew silent.

I sat there and watched the aspen leaves quiver in the slight breeze along Clear Creek; the sky was still cloudless, and we continued to need rain. I was getting that feeling, the one like an itch I couldn’t quite reach. There was something going on with all of this, something below the surface, and I had a notion that when I found it, it was going to be something pretty simple.

I got up and walked down the hallway to the holding cells A N OT H ER

M A N ’ S

M O CC A S I N S

147

where the big man lay with an arm over his eyes and where Frymire sat snoring in his chair. My dispatcher/receptionist appeared a moment later with Dog and a notepad. Dog leaned against my leg with all the grace of a pet Kodiak, and Ruby lowered her voice upon seeing that everyone else in the room was asleep. “Henry says that Brandon will be back from Rapid City tomorrow, and Lucian called.” I looked at her blankly.

“It’s Tuesday.”

I stared at her for a while longer, then shook my head and gestured toward the holding cell and whispered in return.

“Vic and Cady are going to Sheridan to pick up Michael at the airport, so it’s my night to sit Virgil.”

“He said he’d bring the chessboard over here.” She crossed something off of her list and then sighed, making a face at the notepad.

“What?”

“More of these garbled e-mails from the school WiFi system marked BPS.”

I pretended like I knew what that meant. “Call the school board.”

“I am.”

“Anything from Saizarbitoria?”

“No.”

“Vic?”

“Court duty, and that’s the second time you’ve asked.

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