“Your dog has a personal interest in firearms?”
“He didn’t exactly find it. I let him
out early the next morning, and he wouldn’t come when I called him. I found him sniffing around the fence that separates the highway from the property where we’re camping. I went to take hold of his collar, and I stepped on the gun.”
“How close to the fence?”
“I don’t know, six or eight feet, maybe.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“What for?”
“The gun didn’t belong to you. Why didn’t you turn it in to us?”
“Look, man, it was a free gun, you know? Finders keepers. I had no idea who it belonged to.”
“You like guns, do you?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so.”
“What other guns do you own?”
“I’ve got a little six-shooter, a thirty-two.”
“And where is it?”
“In the van, maybe.”
Wallace spoke up. “We found the thirty-two Smith and Wesson in the glove compartment of the van; it’s going to the state lab this morning. They don’t have a license for it, and there was a little over a gram of cocaine powder hidden under a seat.”
“Tell me about when you got back to your camp, after changing the tire,” Hurst said.
“We didn’t go straight back to the camp. I drove down A1A and left our flat tire at a filling station to be fixed. The Texaco station.”
“The station was open that late?”
“No, I left the wheel on his doorstep with a note. I went back there yesterday afternoon and picked it up. I know the guy. We buy our gas there.”
“We’re checking out that story right now,” Wallace said.
“And what time did you get back to your camp?”
“Must have been eleven-thirty.”
“They just missed the shooting,” Wallace said. “Very convenient.”
“Look, man,” the suspect said, “I’m tired. I haven’t had any sleep, and I don’t know what this is about. I’m sorry I didn’t turn in the gun, okay? Is it a crime not to turn in a gun you found? What’s going on here?”
“Okay, I’m going to let you get some sleep, and we’ll talk about this later.”
“What’s going on, man? This isn’t about a lost gun, is it? There’s something else going on.”
“You tell me, Sammy,” Hurst said.
“Tell you what?”
Hurst spoke to the policewoman. “Put them in the lockup.” He got up and left the room. A moment later, he walked into the observation room, where Wallace and Holly were. “They did it,” Hurst said. “I know it.”