Decker nodded.
“How . . . was doing what . . . what you did?” she asked.
“I never want to do it again.”
“So what now?”
“Bogart hasn’t gotten back to me. If we can’t get at her past from the Bureau’s side, we need to try from another angle. She was here a year. Someone might have seen or heard something suspicious about the lady.”
“So, we talk to people? But we already did that.”
“I think some of the people we’ve talked to have been less than forthcoming. And Colonel Sumter was stonewalling us the whole way.”
“But how do we get him to talk? He has the DoD behind him. He has to follow orders.”
“I’m not sure. So for now we keep pushing ahead on other paths. We met one local titan with Stuart McClellan. Maybe we should meet the other.”
“Caroline’s dad? I guess he might know something useful.”
“Well, for one thing, he was the one to hire Hal Parker to get the wolf that had killed his cattle. So the body was presumably found onhisproperty.”
“Do you think he knew Irene Cramer?”
“That’s one of the first things I’m going to ask him.”
* * *
They got Kelly to join them and he gave directions to Hugh Dawson’s estate.
Kelly eyed Decker, who sat in the front seat next to Jamison. “So why the interest in Dawson? You never said.”
“We’re just trying to get the lay of the land at this point.”
“Okay, that really tells me nothing.”
Jamison added, “We’re not trying to play coy, Joe. We’re looking around for some traction on this case. We’ve talked to the military and the Brothers and people who knew Cramer. We talked to Caroline Dawson and we ran into the McClellans, so we’re rounding it out with Hugh Dawson.”
“When did you see the McClellans?”
“At the restaurant at our hotel,” replied Jamison.
“Both of them?”
He sounded so puzzled that Decker turned to look at him. “Yeah. Why? Is that unusual?”
Kelly shrugged. “Stuart, as a rule, doesn’t frequent places owned by Hugh Dawson.”
“And the son?” asked Jamison. “Shane McClellan looked to me like he was head over heels for Caroline.”
“Shane’s a nice guy. Not what you would call an intellectual, but he’s got a good heart.” He added in a more subdued tone, “And you’re right, he’s got it bad for Caroline. Has since we were kids.”
“But that would be a problem, considering the fathers are business rivals,” noted Decker.
“Sounds like Romeo and Juliet,” interjected Jamison.
“Or the Hatfields and McCoys,” replied Decker.
“I think you might be closer to the mark with that one,” said Kelly. “But though they don’t get along, and they are sort of in a pissing contest like Ida Simms said, they’re not exactly true rivals either. Hugh’s businesses service Stuart’s workers. That actually helps both of them.”