The Hen of the Baskervilles(43)

“I have jurisdiction over the fair,” I said. “And while I don’t know precisely how long it would take to pack up every single booth and ride on the Midway and move them across the line to Caerphilly—”

“We could manage it in five, six hours, tops.” One of the Shiffleys. “Have it done by the time the fair opens if we start now.”

“I’m sure it can be done rather easily,” I finished. “And if you insist on touching that body or doing anything else before Chief Burke gets here, I’ll have it done. And you can say good-bye to all the really big sales tax revenue from the weekend.”

The sheriff blinked. I’d only met him a few times before, but I’d figured out rather easily that he hadn’t gotten his job with his brains, his charm, or his knowledge of law enforcement techniques. But he was street smart enough to realize I was serious, and afraid I had the power to do it.

“I’m sure once Chief Burke gets here he’ll agree with me on this situation,” he said, finally.

“We’ll ask the chief when he gets here,” I said.

“Ask me what?”

We all turned to see Chief Burke standing behind us. For all I knew, he could have been standing there for a while.

“Sheriff here wants to haul the body away,” Vern said.

The chief squatted down near the body.

“Has a doctor certified the death?” he asked.

“‘Certified’?” the sheriff said. “No need to certify—it’s obvious he’s stone-cold dead.”

Chief Burke ignored him.

“No, sir,” Vern said.

“Has either county’s medical examiner inspected the body to give us a preliminary cause of death?” the chief asked.

Vern shook his head.

“Has a forensic team examined the crime scene?”

Vern shook his head again.

“Then moving the body is premature, don’t you agree, Sheriff Dingle?”

“We need to get him out of here before a whole lot of people show up to gawk,” the sheriff protested.

“I think our officers can handle crowd control,” the chief said. “At least I know mine can. If we each deploy a few officers to set up a perimeter on our respective sides of the fence, we should have no interference from gawkers.”

“Fine,” the sheriff said. “Go take care of that, Billy.”

“Yes, sir.” Plunkett answered briskly enough, but he continued to stand at his boss’s side.

“And then once you’ve done all your newfangled things, I’ll have my officers take him down to the Clay County Morgue,” the sheriff went on.

I stood by for a few minutes, fuming, as Chief Burke and the sheriff carried on the same argument Vern and Plunkett had. And the chief wasn’t making any more headway than Vern had. I finally got fed up. Should I play the Midway card again? Actually, I had a better idea.

“Chief,” I said, “may I talk to you for just a moment?”

The look he gave me was pure frustration, and I could tell he was counting to ten before telling me, as politely as possible, to stay out of this. Then I saw his expression soften a little. I hoped that meant he realized I was trying to help.

“Yes?” he said. He took a couple of steps away from the sheriff. I walked over to his side. I glanced at the sheriff and plucked the chief by the sleeve to pull him another step or two away.

“Let them have it, Chief,” I said in a stage whisper, as if trying not to let anyone else hear.

“I beg your pardon?” He was also stage-whispering. And I could tell he was about a hair’s breadth away from a furious bellow.

“The investigation. Let them have it. Remember what happened last time?”

“Last time?” he repeated. He was frowning again, but sounded more puzzled than angry.

“The last time we had a homicide case.”

Now he looked purely puzzled.

“The expense!” I said, out of the corner of my mouth. “You know what it did to the county budget. All those expensive tests the state crime lab insisted on running—on our tab. And then the trial! How much did that set the county back? We’re still digging ourselves out of that hole.”

I shook my head as if still appalled at the price of justice.

“What’s this now?” the sheriff asked.

I saw the chief’s mouth quirk into a quick smile, and he took a few seconds to put a serious look back on his face before turning to answer the sheriff.

“Ms. Langslow is pointing out that a high-profile murder case can be a substantial drain on a county’s resources,” the chief said.

“We’ve had a few murders in our time, little lady,” the Sheriff said. “Didn’t cost that much.”