Sometime later, at the police headquarters: Peterson, Trooper Captain Fred Edwards, Cliff the Police Lab Man, and another trooper, Kitz. All now know Blackburn was attacked.
EDWARDS: . . . and with all this stuff, we only know that the car and trailer was owned by a guy named Alan Ellison from Chicago.
PETERSON: Yea, that's all.
EDWARDS: Look Ben, stop blaming yourself for whatever happened to Ed Blackburn. It wasn't your fault. Somebody had to stay at Johnson's place, so it happened to be Ed.
PETERSON: Yea, I know.
EDWARDS: We'll find out who killed him . . . if he is dead, along with Gramps and this Ellsion family, so come off it. You get a report on the fingerprints sometime this morning. That will tell us more.
Edwards picks up the print mold and turns to Cliff.
EDWARDS: Have you figured out what this print is?
CLIFF: No.
EDWARDS: Great. . . Kitz, run down all of Gramp's personal stuff and records. I don't think he had an enemy in the world, but somebody might have . . . oh no wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. If somebody wanted to knock off Gramps, why tear down half the building to do it?
PETERSON: Yea. . . I put in a call to check all mental institutions. Everything seems to indicate a homicidal maniac. I mean, there's no money stolen, violent wreckage, just sugar taken.
EDWARDS: That's being checked, but it's a waste of time too. We would have been notified if there was a loony killer on the loose.
Edwards picks up Gramp's destroyed rifle.
EDWARDS: On top of that, Gramps got off four shots from his 30-30 before the killer did this to the gun. And Blackburn was a crack shot, he could hit anything he could see. So unless you're a maniac that's armored like a battleship, there's no maniac in this case.
PETERSON: Yea, you're right.
EDWARDS: I want every available man scouting the desert. If our two planes aren't enough to cover the areas the cars can't reach, I'll ask permission from the Chief to hire a couple more. . . Ben, get yourself something to eat, and grab some sleep. I don't want you wearing yourself out so that when something happens, you fold up on us.
PETERSON: I got a little score to settle.
EDWARDS: We all have.
A trooper comes in with a message.
TROOPER: Report from Washington, Captain.
EDWARDS: Allright, thanks. . . . Finger prints on the trailer check out real good. Mr. Ellison was a FBI agent on an extended two months vacation with his wife and two children. Call the local FBI office. They got a stake in this case now. Tell them that Mr. Ellison's vacation looks like it's been extended indefinitely.
Sometime later, Peterson meets with FBI agent Robert Graham from the Alamogordo FBI office. He brings him back to Edward's office.
GRAHAM: Glad to get off that desert, it must have been a 110 out there today, at least.
|