The Associate

10

When Norm Chisholm walked into Ramon Quiroz's office two days later he looked excited. The detective sat across from the DA and handed him an affidavit signed by Aaron Flynn.

"I want you to write up an affidavit for a search warrant for Gene Arnold's house, his cabin near the Meander River, his car, and Melissa Arnold's car. You can use Aaron's affidavit to establish probable cause."

Quiroz looked puzzled. "What's going on?"

"You know that court reporters type a kind of shorthand onto a strip of paper in a stenograph machine while court is in session."

Quiroz nodded.

"Well, there's a computer disk in the machine that acts as a backup. When a lawyer needs a transcript, the court reporter puts the disk in her computer and uses a software program that translates the stenographic notes into English. Flynn needs to get started on Paul McCann's appeal. He called up Judge Schrieber to find out who's going to prepare the transcript of McCann's trial now that Melissa Arnold is missing. A couple of other lawyers had the same question about their cases because Melissa was their court reporter. The judge told Flynn that he'd arranged for another court reporter to prepare the transcripts, but she can't do it because they can't find the disks or Melissa Arnold's notes. They've checked her office at the courthouse and they called Gene. He says they're not in his house. The judge thinks they could be in Melissa's car, but the car is still missing. The notes are essential, right?"

"Sure. When you appeal a conviction the appeals court looks through the record to see if the judge made a mistake during the trial that could have affected the verdict. Without the record, there can't be an appeal."

"Okay. I want to search Gene's house and that little cabin he keeps by the Meander River for Melissa's notes. That will make the search legal because they're government property."

"Why don't you just ask Gene to let you look around?"

"I don't want to alert him. Gene's become a suspect."

"You're not serious."

"There's nothing concrete yet. The neighbors say that Gene and Melissa have been arguing pretty heavily recently. She may have been thinking of leaving him."

"You think he killed her and faked everything?" Quiroz asked incredulously. "Martin was there when he talked to the kidnappers on the phone."

"He was there when a call came in, but he didn't hear the other side of the conversation. Gene could have arranged for someone to call him, then he could have gone upriver to Angel Ford and rafted downriver to the drop."

Quiroz shook his head. "What if Martin had gone back to Gene's immediately, instead of waiting? Gene wouldn't have been there. It would have given the whole plot away."

"No. He'd just tell Martin that the kidnappers called, told him where to find Melissa, he drove there, and his wife wasn't where they said she would be, or something like that."

"So do you think that Gene was involved in the Alvarez kidnapping?"

Chisholm thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, that was Paul McCann, all the way. But Dobbs got everyone thinking that there was a third conspirator out there, and maybe that gave Gene the idea for his fake kidnapping."

"I don't buy it. I know Gene. He couldn't kill someone, and he worshiped Melissa."

"Ramon, you've been in this business long enough to know that anyone can kill under the right circumstances. Anyway, I'm not saying that Gene's guilty, but he is a suspect. Maybe this is a wild-goose chase, but I wouldn't bet on it."