Shadow of the Wolf Tree by Joseph Heywood Read Free Book Online Page A

you aware of a group called Let Fish Live Free?”
    â€œHeard of them. Pulled some stunts in some resort communities.”
    â€œViolent?”
    â€œNot that I’ve heard. Not real effective, either. Out here in Colorado we have some flaming environmentalists who know how to play the game and shake up the establishment, and I’m talking seriously hard-green. LF Two isn’t one of the ones with real crust. What’s going on?”
    â€œI’ve got someone setting a meeting for me with Lidstrom.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œSee if he knows anything about the anti-fishing movement.”
    â€œEven if he does, he won’t talk. He’s sorry for what he did, but he won’t rat on anyone. He’s a nice guy who has seen the light.”
    â€œIt’s worth a try,” he said.
    â€œI wouldn’t waste my time,” she concluded. “But let me know if I can help in any way.”
    She sounded like she meant it.
    Service drove over to del Olmo’s house and threw his bags in the spare bedroom. He’d bunk here until the case was done. Tree would stay at Slippery Creek, where he’d left his vehicle. Eventually his friend would head over to his camp in Chippewa County, or home to Detroit when he felt up to it. Operating from del Olmo’s would put him within fifteen miles of the Iron River office and make his life easier and cheaper than staying in a motel.
    Elza Grinda was in the kitchen, looking blankly into the refrigerator when he came in. When she turned, he saw that the bruise on her head had changed colors.
    She grinned. “I think of it as a beauty mark.”
    â€œYou talk to your drug team friend—what was her name, Jenks?”
    â€œThey have a couple of individuals in mind.”
    â€œYou working with them?”
    â€œNot directly. They’re keeping me in the loop.”
    â€œKeep me in it too, okay?”
    â€œCool. Simon is in a canoe on the Fence River today. He won’t be back until late. Just you and me for dinner. We’ve got our choice between leftovers and leftovers.”
    â€œLeftovers are my favorite,” he said.
    â€œYou meet the other detectives yet?”
    â€œToday.”
    â€œImpressions?”
    â€œCould be interesting, “he said. “You ever heard the name Shigun?”
    She laughed. “It’s unique . . .”
    â€œApparently not in Nigeria.”
    â€œDid Nantz ever tell you that you are an odd man?”
    â€œRegularly. What do you think she meant?”
    â€œThink about it.”

8
    Tunis, South Baraga County
    FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2006
    Detective Friday had so far determined that there were eight major razor wire manufacturers in the United States, all of their output contracted to the Defense and Homeland Security departments since January 2004, which suggested the wire had been acquired before then, or stolen since. The state crime lab had analyzed the chemical composition of the blackening agent: red oak bark mixed with carbon. Apparently some unnamed, hush-hush military units used the same process to blacken wire, but end-uses and units were classified. Friday was now talking to manufacturers to determine if there had been thefts since the government contracts took effect. Predictably, none of the manufacturers were in Michigan. The state had once been a world center of major and minor manufacturing, but those times were long past, and unlikely to ever return; and with gas prices rising steadily, the tourism industry was tanking.
    Next, Tuesday Friday would go to DOD and DHS, which Service suspected would be an empty exercise on her part. Unless there had been a major theft, small quantities of all kinds of things had a way of walking out the doors of factories and businesses, not to mention government agencies at all levels.
    Mike Millitor had traced the shotguns, minus serial numbers (no surprise), to Blunt Dog Arms of New Haven, Connecticut, which produced the model between