Lizardskin Read Online Free PDF Page B

from his office. His office had a window that opened onto the snack bar and cash area, which led out to the pumps. There was a large plate-glass window cluttered with oil cans and antifreeze bottles. There was too much inventory stuck in the window for Bell to see out into the pump area. So you couldn’t see the pumps from Bell’s office, just out intothe snack bar and the store. So when did Bell see the weapons?
    “What happened then?”
    “Bell backed the kid outside. Then he …”
    McAllister waited. She’d either say it or not say it.
    “Kid
did
have a knife, Beau.”
    “True.”
    “So that makes it self-defense, right?”
    Not exactly, thought McAllister. Something about this thing just hit him as strange. Bell had a shotgun over the kid. The kid was backing away. Any cop who used deadly force in that situation would be looking at permanent administrative leave and maybe even criminal charges.
    “Where were you standing then?”
    “Over there. By the door. I could see pretty good.”
    “Could you see both of them?”
    “Yeah … well, not really. I could see Joe’s back and see some of the kid. Joe’s a big guy, and the kid isn’t very big.”
    “Could you hear what was being said?”
    “Just Joe. Joe was being pretty loud. The kid was talking fast, but I couldn’t hear him over Joe’s voice.”
    “What was Joe saying?”
    “Threats, mostly.”
    “Where were the rest of them?”
    “The other ones? There was four of them, three big guys and a girl. The girl was in the cab. One of the guys was standing at the front of the truck there, checking his oil or his coolant or something.”
    “Odd thing to do during an armed robbery. What did they do when they saw Bell coming out?”
    “They kind of froze solid. The girl tries to get out of the truck, and the biggest Indian, he goes for the back but keeps the truck between him and Joe, and then Joe starts firing.”
    McAllister thought it over for a bit.
    “Okay, Marla. You tell it like you saw it, I don’t think Joe Bell will hold it against you.” McAllister thought she was the least of Bell’s troubles.
    “We’ll haveta see, won’t we?”
    “Yeah. You have a ride back to Hardin?”
    “Yeah. I got an old Riviera out back.”
    “Okay, Marla. We’ll have to talk again. You don’t worry about it, right? There’ll be a shooting board sometime in the next couple of days. We’ll need you to appear, tell the board what you saw.”
    “What’s a shooting board?”
    “Every time an officer in Montana fires his weapon, there has to be a formal inquiry. The DA and a couple of experienced detectives talk to everyone who witnessed the event, and then they decide whether or not the officer was justified in using his weapon.”
    “So it’s about you, and shooting Joe Bell?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Why did you shoot Joe, anyway?”
    Beau inclined his head toward the propane tank.
    “That tank. Bell was shooting right at it. If he’d punctured it, we’d all be dead.”
    Her eyes widened, and she sighed.
    “Hell of a day. Burned my dress, broke three nails, then we get robbed. You ever have a day like that, Sergeant?”
    “You’re looking at one right now, Marla. You take care of yourself.”
    Marla shrugged and walked back toward the kitchen. McAllister went into Joe Bell’s office. The first thing he saw was the phone on Bell’s desk. Bell had a business phone, a multiline with a board full of push-buttons and lights. The machine was howling. Beau recognized the electronic warning for a phone off the hook. He searched around the thing for a bit until he found a button that said SPK . It was lit up red. He punched it, and the light went out, and the noise stopped. He picked up the receiver and got a normal dial tone.
    McAllister sat down at Bell’s desk and flipped the dead man’s wallet out onto the top. The kid had died with … close to seven hundred dollars! And what was this? Gold American Express card in the name of Edward