“Front seat passenger side with your lighter,” Jemna said. “We need to stop and pick up a couple of cartons.”
“There goes the budget,” Elias said. He found his cigarettes, knocked a Winston out of the pack, fired it up, sucked up some smoke. “Ah: love the feel of those cancer cells crawling around my lungs,” he said.
Virgil: “What size shoes do your wear?”
Elias held up a foot: “Eleven and a half. Why?”
“Just wondering,” Virgil said.
Lucas said, “Look…”
“You look,” Elias said. “We gotta get out of here before those crime kooks start showing up. You got a DNA kit with you?”
“No.”
“Okay. Well, it’s out of our way, but we can swing by the BCA before we head north. Is it still in that building off Maryland?”
“Yeah, it is,” Virgil said.
“You might give somebody a call, tell them that we’re coming,” Elias said.
“We’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t leave town,” Lucas said.
“You can appreciate your ass off, but we’re leaving,” Elias said. “Unless you want to arrest me or get a court order or whatever you do. Here’s the facts of the matter: I slept with Doris—nice girl, and she liked my act—but I didn’t kill her. I’m willing to do the DNA. What else do you want? You can’t want me to stay around here so I can have a bunch of crazies parked in my driveway harassing us.”
“No, we don’t,” Lucas said. “We’ll take some pictures of your driver’s licenses and your rig and get out of your hair. We do want you to stop by the BCA—and if you don’t do that, we will come after you.”
“Great,” Jemna said. “Listen: there are a couple more big bags upstairs and a dog kennel in the kitchen packed with dog food and some bowls. Could you help us load?”
—
Lucas and Virgiltook care of the dog kennel, which weighed a hundred pounds with all the stuff packed inside of it. They were paced by the dog, which turned out to be as violent as a chickadee. While they were hauling it out to the garage, and away from the Johannsons, Lucas asked, “What do you think?”
“I believe him,” Virgil said. “He’s not worried enough.”
“Yeah. Hey: don’t tip the fuckin’ kennel, everything will fall out. We ought to find out where they’re going.”
—
They were going,Jemna said, to the Boundary Waters. Lucas and Virgil’s help modestly sped up the loading process, but not quite quickly enough. Two compact SUVs pulled up to the curb outside the house as Elias opened the garage door before rolling out.
Two women climbed out of the cars and immediately began filming the four of them. One of the women shouted, “Officers, are you going to let him escape?”
Virgil turned his back to them and said to Lucas, keeping his voice low, “Not a word, okay?”
“Right.”
Jemna asked, “What should we do?”
“Step back in the garage,” Virgil said. “Close the garage door.”
When the door was down, Virgil said, “There are only two cars outside. If you still want to leave, you should go, now, before more of them start coming in. I’ll call the Golden Valley cops and ask for their assistance in identifying the occupants of the two cars, who seem to be frightening you. Are they frightening you?”
Jemna looked at Elias, who shrugged and said, “If that would be helpful.”
“When the cops show up, we’ll get them reading IDs and checking license plates, and you can make a run for the BCA without somebody trailing you. Don’t slow down. And don’t skip the BCA unless you want to spend some time in an outstate jail.”
Jemna nodded: “Let’s do it.”
