Chapter 6 Chapter Six

DeWitt nodded, and then said impatiently: "I've already said all this. Damn it, Sheriff, I went to that log cabin myself, and it's the evidence I saw with my own eyes." "Yes, you saw that cabin," said the sheriff, "but sometimes we don't always understand what we see... Now let's see. Mrs. Adrian, you are here Checked in at the hotel, and left some luggage. I think you'll take them when you're ready to go out." "Yes. Hank asked me to bring as few things as possible, just some daily necessities that I really need." "Hank told me you're not good at mountain biking."

"This is my first trip on horseback." "Well," the sheriff said to DeWitt, "I think you're right, the killer had to be picked up, which means it was a premeditated crime, he had an accomplice, and things went according to plan." "That's what I want to tell you," DeWitt said loudly. "It means a murder." "Yeah, but you overlooked something. Let's sort that out, like that photo postcard." "What's wrong with it?" "Notice the shadow above?" "Shadow! What has shadow to do with the murder of Frank Adrian?"

"These shadows are short," Catlin said, "and the photo must have been taken at noon, but even then, there's no way you'd have shadows that short in the Idaho area, except in summer. Oh, Tom Morton, that's The photographer who printed this photo printed it on postcard paper, and he said that the paper was used up by the end of July. The shadow also stated that it was July, and the postcard said it was October. How do you explain shadows and—” DeWitt laughed: "I don't even want to explain, Frank Adrian disappeared after September." Bill Catlin nodded, and continued calmly, "And this photo was taken with a folding camera with a small light leak in the bellows, which is why there's a little white blur in the corner of the photo. Now , I know you're annoying me, but you've got another thing to think about. Do you remember when the draft horse showed up and its back was scraped and healed?"

"For God's sake, you're not crazy, are you? I don't want to care about that goddamn horse," DeWitt said. "Well," the sheriff went on, "if you're going to work in the mountains, you've got to know the mountains. Of course, even if you're a good camper, you're going to get hurt sometimes The back of one or two horses in a pack horse team, but if you only have one horse carrying luggage and you're walking with it on a lead, it's generally slower than riding on horseback, as long as you have a little bit of travel experience on horseback Common sense, the back of a horse never hurts."

"Now, one more thing. When the murderer left, he wanted to make it easy for anyone who happened to step into the cabin. Everything looked in order, as it does when the hunter leaves at the end of winter. "But we have an unwritten rule in this part of the country. When a man leaves the cabin, he always leaves some dry wood and kindling by the hearth. That way, if he happens to come back in a storm or snowstorm, There would be dry wood for the stove, and if anyone else happened to come in and seek shelter, there would always be dry wood for the fire. "Well, I don't want to tell you all the local customs here, but this one is very special and has been strictly enforced. Do you understand now?"

"Know what?" DeWitt asked. "There were two men living in the cabin, one of whom was a novice, a tourist from the city, and the other a man familiar with the life of the forest. One of them killed the other and left. Whoever packed the cabin , washed the dishes, and made the house look as if the two had left, that man was definitely not the victim. Must have been the murderer." "It was natural," DeWitt said. "And," Bill Catlin pointed out, "in this case, it was the rookie who did the killing." The idea came as a sudden and powerful blow to DeWitt. "But you see," said he, "his wife did the autopsy, and there's a ring in—"

"Yes, yes, 'she did an autopsy,'" Catlin said. "Of course, the murderer intended to leave the ring there, waiting to be identified, and she would have made a positive identification in any case. .Remember what you said, that the murder was premeditated, and that someone must be in some suitable place on a definite date to meet the pack horses." Collis.Adrian pushed the chair away from the table suddenly. "You actually," she asked angrily, "wanted to imply that I was—" "Oh, take it easy, ma'am," the sheriff said, "I'm trying to help DeWitt sort out this case. One more thing, DeWitt, Hank told me, this letter came from behind a cupboard sticking out. I asked him if an experienced mountain man could easily see it and he said on the phone: 'God, Bill, even a tourist can see it.' Now you know .You see, Adrian was a little too impatient to make sure the letter was found.

"Well, I thought a lot about it when Hank called to tell me about the case and what he found, and then I went to the judge and got a warrant and searched Mrs Adrian's luggage at the hotel, And, no doubt, there was a 3-A folding camera with a fast rectilinear lens. Later, we took it to Tom Morton's darkroom, put a light bulb in its bellows, and the camera bellows The small pinhole is clearly visible... "Oh, don't interrupt me, Mrs. Adrian. You must be worn out after all this long ride and travel. Besides, you can't get anywhere in this part of the world if you wanted to. It's not like in the In the city, you can hide in the crowd as soon as you go out. You have to stay here and take some medicine. Just want to let you know that we people here are very chivalrous to the ladies. Although they will not release you, they will It will only make you an accessory or something that doesn't lead to the death penalty."

"You're crazy," she said. "You don't have any evidence. It's a perversion of justice by you rednecks." "I'm afraid we have plenty of evidence against you," said the sheriff. "You and your husband have been planning this for a long time. You two were prospecting in this area last summer, and found the cabin. It has long since been Abandoned but still new and undamaged. You guys even took that picture when you found the cabin, a month or two before your husband did the disappearance trick. You guys are crafty, years ago You're insured. It's all done in such a way that no one can catch it."

"Wait," said DeWitt, "Collis, let me take care of this... Sheriff, your reasoning is contradictory." "How to say?" "You admitted that the man who was the last to leave the cabin tried to make it look like hunters leave at the end of winter." "That's what Hank told me," said the sheriff. "However, Hank also told you that the letter was left in a prominent place so that anyone, even a tourist, could see it." The sheriff smiled happily. "Yeah, that's really interesting," he said. "It was this clue that Hank told me on the phone that caught my attention, so I gave it a little thought."

"I still don't see any evidence of that," said DeWitt, whose hostility is now evident. "Well," said the sheriff, "you'll have to think again. You'll have to put yourself in the killer's place to figure it out." "I'm afraid," said DeWitt sarcastically, "I can't think like you. I can't figure these things out. Maybe you can explain them to me." "Well," said the sheriff, "just imagine yourself the murderer. You don't want anyone to find the body until it's too decomposed to make a positive identification. You've buried the body in a shallow pit, You want it to rot in the pit for a while, and then you're ready for it to be found. Well, if it's found too early, you're screwed, oh, you can think about what that means, DeWitt." "What does it mean?" "That means the murderer, or an accomplice to the murderer, must return to the cabin at the right time, and leave the letter where it can be found. The idea is, take someone to the cabin, and when he gets there, have to let He can find the letter and the body, so the person who gave the letter hoped that the letter would be found. And Adrian could have put the letter there, as he said. But if Benton killed him, then Benton Don would have seen the letter and burned it naturally. There was no way a mountain man could not have read the letter—absolutely impossible. "So when Hank told me about the letter and how it was found, I asked him about the color of the ink. The ink still looked blue. Well, that's what you might expect the ink to be, and as far as I know, the ink There's a chemical in it that binds to oxygen and turns black when it oxidizes, and that's the final color of the ink. But before that oxidizes, people put a blue dye in the ink so that See what's written. That's why the ink is blue for a while and turns black when it's old. If you get someone who can see the finer points of color, he'll be able to tell handwriting very accurately Old and new. Hank said the handwriting looked fairly new. "Well, that got me thinking further, so I asked Hank on the phone how Mrs. Kerderian was doing and if she was riding well. He said that like most tourists, she rode She used short stirrups, with her knees between the horse's body and her back leaning against the saddle. So I figured it was unlikely she would make a quick trip back and forth to the cabin, drop the letter there, and then maybe Cut his own hand and left some blood nearby. So I guess, only one other person could have done it. "Well, I know quite well about Frank Adrian, thanks to a forwarded letter from my friend Ed Havel. So I figured that if he was going to sneak into the cabin and put the letter there, He would have to pass either through the Forest Watch Station or across the Salmon River tributary, but it would be hard work, for he too was a novice, and it seemed unlikely that they would risk another man for the operation. However, lately the folks here are bringing in some aircraft and there is now a Forest Service emergency landing field about 5 miles from the cabin. "So I was on the phone for a while, calling the cities around that had charter flights, asking if they had picked up a man with certain characteristics on that landing pad in the last month or so. Turns out, I did A lot of important things were discovered." "What did you find?" DeWitt couldn't help being interested. "Well," said the sheriff, "a guy charters a plane and has to give a lot of information about himself. Of course, this guy is using a pseudonym, and he's currently working in an auto repair shop, and probably thinks he's perfectly safe and won't Somebody was going to bother him. Well, I called my friend who was the sheriff there, and we got him. "When I found him, I spoke to him on the phone and told him his wife had gotten that insurance money and ran off with a dude named Gridley. I was a little ahead of schedule. He said what was on her mind. Perhaps this method was a bit mean, but it was extremely effective. Adrian was very irritable, and seemed to really lose his temper, and began to confess. Obviously, he had heard of Gridley This guy." "So now, Mrs. Adrian, I hate to do this, but I have to put you in jail. I've contacted the hotel, got your luggage back, and you Can get some clean clothes and—oh my God!" said Bill Catlin, his voice tinged with sympathy. Let's see if we can wake her up, shall we? There's a bottle of whiskey in that drawer. "Miss Benton, I thought you might have a drink too. Your brother is very unfortunate, but that's better than him being a murderer. "As for Ed Havel, DeWitt, I've called him and told him we've closed the case and the killer's in custody. "Now, if you like, we'll put Mrs. Adrian in place, and then I think we can go and have something to eat. I've been up almost all night on this case, and I'm not as young as I used to be. When I stay up late, I always have to eat a lot to refresh myself. "DeWitt, I told Javier that you detective did a great job here and Javier couldn't be more proud. Of course, I told him that we rednecks did some odd finishing touches too. .Just because it’s in our county, you know, and voters are counting on us to make things work. But I told him, you do most of the work.” "Okay, Hank, call the guard, and then we'll go down and see what we can find. The deer season is on now, and a friend gave me a venison loin, which I took to the De Collins, and tell him to get ready for a good venison meal as soon as we arrive." "Oh, by the way, one more thing. The insurance company that Mrs. Adrian insures her husband is very grateful to us, and Ed Havel told me that they would like to donate a little money. So I think, on the whole, we Not a bad day, guys, what do you think?"