Long Range (Joe Pickett Book 20)(79)

Patterson shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He looked toward the window as if there were something out there. Anything to avoid Joe.

“Then there’s Dennis Sun,” Joe said. “I thought he might be our suspect at one point, so I went out to his ranch and saw that state-of-the-art long-range shooting facility. At the time, I didn’t even think to ask who else he let use it, so I asked him that question tonight.

“Mr. Sun said he only let a couple of locals use his range because he didn’t want things to get out of hand. He knows what a big deal long-range shooting is and he didn’t want folks knocking on his door all the time. I think you know what he told me.”

Patterson cleared his throat and asked, “What?”

“Mr. Sun said he allowed his two local hunting guides to use the range. He said he did that because he wanted to keep them happy and sharp when they went on hunting trips. But there was one other: Dr. Thomas Arthur. Sun said he wanted to accommodate the new doctor and help keep him around, so he encouraged him to use his range whenever he wanted. He even gave Dr. Arthur the code to the front gate and a key to the facility so he could use it when Sun was in Albania shooting a horror movie, or something like that. I’ve never seen any of his movies.

“Then I asked Sun if Dr. Arthur arrived with a spotter. He said he did. And he said it was you.”

Patterson sat back in his chair with his legs splayed out. He rubbed his face with both hands and moaned.

Joe leapt up from his chair and snatched the burner phone from the couch before Patterson could react. It had been used moments before and the screen had not yet gone to sleep, for which Joe was grateful. Getting the password out of Patterson at that point might be difficult.

“Give it back,” Patterson pleaded.

Joe ignored him as he scrolled through the apps and found the one he was looking for.

“VoiceAlt,” he said aloud. “This is the app Marybeth told me about. If you open it before you place a call, it alters your voice so it’s unrecognizable. And here it is.”

Then Joe opened the file for calls sent and received. All of the received calls were from a single number, 307-360-2247. All of the placed calls were to the same number except for one: 911.

“So you used this phone yesterday morning to call the emergency dispatcher,” he said. “That’s when you left the message about locating a rifle in Nate’s mews. You knew they wouldn’t recognize the number, but you made sure they didn’t recognize your voice, either.”

Patterson looked away.

Joe asked, “So the question is why the two of you took a shot at Judge Hewitt. Or was Sue the target?”

“God no,” Patterson said sharply, as if offended by the question. “I loved her. I really loved her.”

Joe tried to keep his face slack, but a chill ran over his skin beneath his clothing.

“Did she love you back?” Joe asked softly. “She must have thought highly of you to visit you at work all those times and give you her club access code.”

“I think maybe she did,” Patterson said. “At least, she almost said it a couple of times.”

“Almost?”

“It wasn’t like we were having some kind of torrid sexual affair,” Patterson said. “Sue would never do something like that. But she was lonely and she said she loved my company. We had long talks, that’s all. She was starved for friendship, is how she put it. I told her things I’ve never told anyone in my life, and I made it clear to her that she was the one for me.

“But she wouldn’t leave him. He treated her like crap and ignored her, but she couldn’t make herself leave him. It was like he had some kind of sick hold on her and she couldn’t break it. As long as the judge was around . . .”

Patterson’s voice trailed off.

Joe said, “So you figured if you killed him and pinned the blame on someone else that she’d eventually be with you.”

Tears filled Patterson’s eyes. His shoulders heaved with sobs. Joe judged the man to be genuinely remorseful. It wasn’t an act. He was as upset as he was delusional, Joe thought.

“He just ignored her,” Patterson said haltingly as he cried. “She was the loveliest person I’ve ever met. She genuinely cared for people—even him. She was so lonely, and she’d suffered a lifetime of neglect. You know how he can be. You’ve seen how he’s treated me over the years.”

“He also fought for you to be named county attorney,” Joe said.

“That’s just so he could manipulate me,” Patterson said bitterly. “He knew that if I owed him, I’d do what he said. He liked to hold that over my head.”

Joe knew it to be true.

“Was Sue aware of the plot?” Joe asked.

“Of course not,” Patterson said. “She was a wonderful person. I never told her what I planned to do. I knew she wouldn’t go along with it. But I did it for her, Joe. She needed someone to break the spell he had over her.”

Patterson’s face suddenly morphed into an ugly mask as he said, “She served him dinner every night. She told me that. He sat there at his table and stared out the picture window and waited for her to serve his dinner. This wonderful, beautiful woman . . . served him. So I knew where he would be that night. Waiting to be served.”

“How did you convince the doctor to be involved?” Joe asked. “Or did you pull the trigger yourself?”