THEY HAD TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT DAY BEFORE CHIEF BOWEN COULD even attempt to use the computer; it was still raining but at least the lightning seemed to have died down. They were at the police station early in the morning as he typed in the commands that he (somewhat embarrassedly) pointed out he'd had to write down.
"Kinnie's the one that's good with computers," he muttered as he typed in a password. Damien noted the word was BADMOON. "And Hawthorne, too. Probably about everybody in the station besides me. I sure hope Sinclair is standing by." He snorted. "I'd hate picking up some weirdo."
A message appeared on the screen; INITIALIZING SETUP. PLEASE STAND BY. Bowen sighed and sat back. "Yeah, I'll stand by."
"So what's it going to do?" Mulroy asked.
"Well, it's a visual linkup. Kind of like video conferencing. Sinclair installed it himself. He's the computer freak. Lieutenant Gardner suggested it so we could all keep in touch." [Note--yet AGAIN, recall that, at the time of writing this story, I had VERY LITTLE understanding of how the Internet really worked. Did they even HAVE video conferencing back then?? Well, I mentioned the term, so maybe they did? But likely not as advanced as in this story...]
"So why isn't Gardner the one running the show?"
"They've got more money and power in Bismarck. And Mandan's not too far away. We can pretty much learn what's going on in both places at one time."
The computer beeped and a blank videoscreen appeared. It hissed with static for a moment; Damien squinted but he sure as heck couldn't see anything.
Bowen frowned and hit a button on his phone. "Hello? Sinclair?"
The screen abruptly cleared. A policeman lunged forward at them, screaming, "EEEENNNNGGHHH!! Wrong number!"
Everyone jumped back. There was the sound of laughing from Bowen's speakers. The chief scowled and leaned back towards the computer; everyone else did, as soon as they realized it was only a joke. Chief Bowen scooped his phone closer with one hand, glowering at the police officer still laughing on his computer screen.
"Ha ha," he muttered. "Very funny."
"Aw, come on, Chief," the policeman said, grinning at him. "Thought you might be able to use that after all the doom and gloom last night."
"How about you? You been getting any doom and gloom down there?"
The cop shrugged and smiled. Damien felt a distinct chill. If his eyes had been a different color--they were green--and his hair lighter, he would have looked a lot like Officer Jenner.
"Not really," he replied. "Just a sprinkle now and then. Our river is behaving itself, unlike yours--tsk tsk."
"Am I coming through clear? You're a little fuzzy."
"Well--I did have one or two martinis last night--" The cop put a hand to his chest, feigning surprise. "Oh! You meant the reception. Well, I can see you just fine, but there's all these little guys standing behind you...."
"Oh." Bowen flushed, waving the group closer. They crowded as close as they could without pressing against him. "Officer Sinclair. I want you to meet a few people. This is Damien and his uncle, Father Damien; Detective Mulroy of the Michigan State Police; Puck Benteen and Dr. Leja; and these are Officer DelBora and Detective Kristeva. This is Officer Roger Sinclair." [Note--not that I intended it, but Sinclair becomes a moderately important character in later unwritten stories--MUCH more so than characters I HAD intended to become more important, Lieutenants Trevarrow and Gardner!]
"Pleased to meet you all," Sinclair greeted, waving a hand. Damien still wasn't quite used to the idea of talking to someone over a computer screen. The officer could have been sitting in the next room for all he knew. "If you can call this exactly meeting...."
"Have you heard from Gardner or Trevarrow lately?" Bowen asked.
"Lately? I hear from Lieutenant Trevarrow all the time." He rolled his eyes, as if with disgust. A grin crept up Detective Kristeva's face. "Gardner, however, is a more conservative person. I heard from him last week."
"You been having any 'problems' down there?"
"'Problems.'" Officer Sinclair's voice echoed the hint in Bowen's. "I'm not quite sure," he said finally, shrugging. "Not in Bismarck, at least. But as I said, I haven't heard from Gardner for a while...."
"There any way you can patch through to Mandan and see if anything's up?"
Sinclair finally seemed to realize what Bowen was getting at. "Hey, Chief, you getting any problems up there?"
"Maybe," Bowen replied. "Someone sent Kincaid a bomb in the mail." Officer Sinclair raised his eyebrows. "Nobody's really hurt but it ruined one of our squad cars. And last night somebody tried to kill a trooper."
"Kill?"
Bowen shrugged. "That's Kinnie's idea, at least. He was riding a horse down by the river checking out the road and nearly drowned. The horse was cut up. The trooper's got a bad head injury; the docs don't know if he's got any brain damage or not."
"Somebody cut up the horse?" Sinclair seemed genuinely surprised. Damien felt the slightest gnawing of doubt in the back of his head. The last time they'd been there, there had been someone else who had seemed so "innocent" of such matters--and had all the while been the one orchestrating them. He tried to shove Jenner out of his head. Paranoia wouldn't help any here.
Then again, would it?
Bowen nodded. "Across the throat. At first they thought Condry--that's his name--hit his head on something, but Kinnie thinks that if someone took the time to kill the horse they would have taken the time to try and do him in, too."
"God." Damien's suspicion lessened a little with Sinclair's saying that. "No, Gardner hasn't told me anything like that. I'm sure he would have if they had something...."
"Is there any way we could go down there?" Mulroy murmured to Chief Bowen.
The chief glanced up at him, frowning. "Why?"
"I thought we might visit--"
"They might have some information we need," Damien cut in. "That wouldn't be too easy to put over the computer." He was thinking of what Kincaid had told them earlier--As far as Bowen's concerned, Jenner doesn't exist. And I suggest that, when you're around him, you observe the same belief. Mulroy, realizing this, instantly shut up.
Bowen seemed to understand what he truly meant, for his eyes darkened. However, he didn't say anything.
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