Excerpt from The Reverend Finds His Calling

Rough hands

dragged Tony from the bed and cuffed his hands behind his back before he woke

fully.  He thought about protesting, but Kelly beat him to it.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"Just stay

out of it, ma'am," an agent said.

"No, I won't

stay out of it.  Why are you treating him like a suspect?"

"Because he is a suspect, ma'am."

"That's ludicrous.  Don!  Can't you talk sense to them?"

Don's red face contrasted sharply with his white beard.  He glared at Agent Garret.

"I tried to tell the idiot!  Anyone in town would make a better suspect than Tony.  Hell, I'm more likely to kill somebody.  Tony, keep your mouth shut.  Tell 'em you want a lawyer.  I'll send someone."

"You're impeding an investigation, Storm," Garret said.

Don snorted.

"You're wasting your time on in innocent man.  So that makes you the one impeding the investigation."

Tony felt dizzy.  Suspect?  I'm a suspect?  They think I could kill somebody like that?  The agents shoved him into the back seat of a car and left town.  How could they think that?  The agent in the passenger seat read him his Miranda rights.

"Do you understand these rights?"

"Yeah.  Yeah.  I guess so."

The car turned south in the dark.  The clock on the dash read 4:20.  He became acutely aware of his arms behind his back.  I'm not wearing a seat belt.  There are a lot of deer through here.  His concern suddenly struck him as funny and he laughed out loud.  The agent stared at him.  This whole ordeal is crazy.  Tony could not stop laughing.  They must think I'm insane.

"Knock it off!"

"I'm sorry.  It must be sleep deprivation."

"Go to sleep then."

"I'll try."

Tony lay on the seat.  Too uncomfortable to sleep, he continued to giggle off and on until the car stopped.  He sat up, noticing that they were in a city, in a parking lot with numerous highway patrol and police cars.  The driver dragged him from the car and prodded him along to a building.

After passing through two doors, they waited for a third to slide open.  When it closed, they removed his handcuffs.  He loosened his shoulders.

"Empty your pockets.  Remove your outer clothes and shoes."

He followed orders, no longer amused.  A man in uniform gave him an orange jumpsuit and slippers.  The same man took his fingerprints and pictures, then asked for name, address, and a few other questions.  Tony answered them, seeing nothing incriminating in the information.  Then they left him alone in an interrogation room.  He rested his head on his arms on the table.

He woke to the sound of Glen Roberts swearing.

"I need some time to confer with my client."

Tony raised his head.  Glen wore a suit jacket over faded jeans and a T-shirt.

"Hi, Glen."

"You look like hell."

"So do you."

"Don called me at four a.m.  When I finished cussing him out, he filled me in.  I got dressed in a hurry.  Before I left the house, Ryan called.  He said he was taking up a collection to pay my fee."

"That's awful nice of him."

"You've done enough nice things for other people.  The town will be ready to lynch FBI agents when they hear this.  Have they told you the charges."

"No.  But they think I killed the hiker."

"I talked to Don on the drive down here.  The guy had to be killed between Friday morning at ten and Tuesday afternoon when you rode up the trail.  The horses definitely walked through the blood trail on the way up.  We need to account for your whereabouts that whole time."

"I worked until four on Friday, mowed Ethel's lawn and had supper with her Friday evening.  Saturday morning, I left early on a hike.  I didn't get home until almost one."

"Did anybody see you?"

"No.  I avoid people when I hike."

"That's bad.  Go on."

"in the afternoon, I tilled Anna Hathaway's garden.  I had supper alone and read a book.  Sunday morning, I ushered at church."

"And?"

"Sunday afternoon and evening I spent with my son."

"Your son?"

"Yeah.  Didn't know I had one until Sunday."

"You've had quite a week."

"No kidding.  Monday I worked."

"So the only time you really don't have an alibi is from Friday night until Saturday at one.  That would technically give you time to do the deed.  Hopefully, they can narrow down the time of death to exclude you, but I understand the body's in pretty tough shape."

"Yeah."

"What makes them suspect you?"

"You know those key rings Gil makes?"  Glen nodded.  "I lost the antler off mine.  They found one like it at the initial crime scene.  But they must have something else.  That just got them interested."

"Everybody in town has those key rings."  Agent Garret entered and dropped a file on the table.  "I'm Glen Roberts, representing Mr. Wagner.  What are the charges against my client?"

"He's being held as a material witness in the murder of Ted Richards."

"He's an upstanding member of the community.  No flight risk.  Release him to my custody."

"He's a summer employee with no permanent ties to the community."

"Because he's a seminary student the rest of the year."

"Seminary?"

"Yeah."

"We're not releasing him."

"Then you'd better tell me what you got."

"We have Mr. Wagner's finger prints on a carved chunk of antler found at the site where Richards was first shot."

"He admits losing it.  Anyone could have planted it there."

"Convenient.  Last night, we executed a search warrant for his apartment and the property it stands on, which led us to the murder weapon, hidden in the woods behind his apartment."

"I understand your basis for a warrant to search his apartment.  But his landlord's property?  You know that won't stand up in court."

"Oh, I think it will.  We received an anonymous tip that we could find the weapon there."

"Anyone could have put it there.  Probably the anonymous tipster."

"We found Mr. Wagner's hair on the gun."

Tony knew better.

"You couldn't have DNA results yet.  You have no proof that's my hair."

"We will soon.  We've put a rush on it.  It's the right color."

"Now he's guilty because he's blond.  If that's the case, you could arrest the sheriff too."

"We didn't find the sheriff's prints at the crime scene or the murder weapon near his residence."

Glen waved a hand.

"Circumstantial.  That DNA test will take at least another 24 hours.  My client is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around."

"We have enough evidence to hold your client."

"When was Richards killed?"

"The medical examiner still has the body."

"My client has people who can swear to his whereabouts for most of this weekend.  He is not available for questioning until you have TOD.  In the meantime, he's suffering from sleep deprivation.  If he isn't fed and allowed to sleep, I'm calling a judge."

Garret gathered his folder and left the room.  Tony sighed.

"Will that work?"

"Should.  If they don't let you sleep, I can challenge anything you say during questioning.  I'm going back to Spruce Lake.  And you aren't talking without me here.  Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Just let them give you room and board for a day.  We'll get you out of this.  I'd sure like to know who's trying to frame you.  Nobody would buy you as a murderer."

"The FBI does."

"M-m.  Try not to worry."

"If I start to worry, I'll just pray."