Ranger McIntyre: The Lawn Lake Murders by Work James C

Author:Work, James C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amateur sleuth historical murder cozy mystery; Colorado West U.S.; Rocky Mountain National Park system ranger; humor romance; frontier fiction; western historical fiction; 1920s history prohibition era
Publisher: Encircle Publications
Published: 2023-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

*****

“Dobbin didn’t see you heading for Leon Counter’s hut, did he?” McIntyre asked.

“No chance. I got Don Post to stop at Tiny’s store over to Beaver Point and ask Tiny would he phone and tell Dobbin how he thinks a bear might have tried to break in but he wasn’t sure. Dobbin hightailed it over there to give Tiny a lecture about hibernation and how to look for tracks, so I said I’d give Brownie some exercise. I rode her up to Leon’s.”

“And what did Leon have to say for himself?”

“He said one day, couldn’t pin down the exact day, he was over in the Fall River Valley. Said he was only lookin’ around, but it sounded to me like he was making a delivery, if you know what I mean. He heard engines, see? He decided to hang around, see who it was. Well, directly, here come two vehicles down the Lawn Lake road, the fancy Reo truck and, behind it, a four-door sedan. They were both driven by women! Two women, driving those two vehicles. They stopped at the chain, one of them got out and dropped it, they drove out onto the road, and guess what next?”

“They ate ice cream cones,” McIntyre guessed.

“Funny. No, a suitcase in the four-door. They took it out. Ranger, they each had a shotgun! Leon says, what are two women doing with shotguns and a truck? He says they took the shotguns apart—you know, how you can separate the barrel from the stock—and stashed them in the suitcase. Oh, and from Leon’s description, I’m one-hundred-percent sure they’re the same two women who’ve been hanging around town. But I don’t think they’re hunters. I’m thinking maybe they’re the ones what killed those two guys up to Lawn Lake.”

“Except those two guys weren’t shot,” McIntyre pointed out.

“Yeah, but maybe one held one at gunpoint while the other buried him, then held the other one at gunpoint and chained him up and dragged him into the lake.”

“How come they’re still hanging around town? If they killed the two men, wouldn’t they run as far away as they could?”

“Dunno,” Jamie said. “Does seem odd, don’t it?”

“You find any empty shotgun shells up at Lawn Lake?”

“Nope. A couple of .22 shells and a couple of .30-30 shells, but all old and tarnished. No shotgun casings.”

“Okay,” McIntyre said. “You’d better hang up and start working before Dobbin comes back to the station. Thanks for the information.”

He replaced the earpiece on its cradle. Lawn Lake again, he thought. I wish it would snow five or six feet deep and bury the darn thing. Maybe everybody’d forget it and let me work. I need to look at a hundred and fifteen pages from Washington and send “my” comments and suggestions back to them. But Lawn Lake. Can’t stop thinking about Lawn Lake. Two men alone up there, working on the dam, end up killed.

He stood up and went to the window, trying to imagine the scene the way Old Man taught him, trying to imagine the two workmen as animals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.