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By that time, they had pulled up in the parking area in front of the swamp’s entrance. “We’ll have to walk from here,” Beau said.
Johnny and the other two officers, Greg Walkens and Larry Sampson, followed Beau as he walked along the edge of the swamp. They didn’t walk for too long before he stopped and pointed into the junglelike landscape. “It’s right there,” he said.
Johnny looked into the tangled growth and finally spied part of the bumper of the trailer. It was obvious the thief had tried to hide it and had done a pretty good job.
“Don’t touch anything,” Beau advised. “We haven’t gotten a chance to process it yet. If you walk around to the back of it, you can see that it’s still locked up.”
“How on earth did you find it?” Johnny asked.
“We didn’t. A man named Stump Marchant found it and called it in,” Beau explained.
“I know Stump,” Johnny replied. Louis Marchant had been a gator hunter for most of his long life. Then one day he had an unfortunate encounter with a big gator that bit his arm off at the elbow.
“Then you know he’s out and about in the swamp at all times of the day and night. Anyway, he’s the one who stumbled across it.”
“So, what happens now?” Johnny asked.
“I’m having it towed to the police station garage, and there we’ll go over it for any kind of evidence or fingerprints that might tell us who stole it,” Beau replied.
“And how long will that take?” Johnny asked.
Beau frowned. “As long as nothing else comes up, we should be finished with it by sometime tomorrow. I’ll call and let you know when you can pick it up. I just wanted you to see where it was left.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Johnny replied.
“You ready to open it up and see what’s inside?” Beau asked.
Johnny looked at him in surprise. “I’d love to open it up.”
“We’ll go over it all at the garage, but I don’t think it will hurt anything if you want to open the back now.” He handed Johnny a pair of thin latex gloves.
“I’m definitely ready to check it out.” Johnny pulled on the gloves and got his keys out of his pocket. He located the one for the trailer padlock, and then they walked in, fighting with the tree limbs and tangled vines that were thick around the vehicle.
They finally reached the back of the trailer and just like Beau had told him, the padlock was in place. With a deep breath, Johnny unlocked it and opened the door. He stared inside. The tools were all still there. “Thank God. Guess I’ll need to cancel my insurance claims,” he said.
“At least one thing is going right today,” Beau said. “Does it look like they’re all there?”
Johnny carefully checked. “Yeah, it appears they are all here.” Even though he had bought some tools just to get by, there were some power tools in the trailer he was definitely grateful to get back.
“So, we can assume nobody has been inside the trailer,” Beau said.
“That’s the way it looks.” Johnny closed the door and relocked the padlock, then took off the gloves and stuffed them in his pocket to throw away later. “Do you want the key to the padlock?”
“Yeah, I should probably have it,” Beau replied.
It took Johnny a minute to get the key off the ring, then he handed it to Beau.
“I’ll wait for your phone call tomorrow letting me know when I can pick it up,” Johnny said once Beau dropped him off back at the jobsite.
“Let’s hope I get something off the trailer that helps us identify the bad guy,” Beau said.
“I have a feeling if we find the trailer thief, he will be the same man who’s guilty of attacking Mimi,” Johnny replied, his gut burning as it aways did when he thought of the man who had hit her.
“I have a feeling you’re right,” Beau agreed.
Johnny watched as Beau pulled away and then he went back to work, hoping like hell Beau and his men found something to identify the culprit.
Frustration ate at him all the time. He desperately wanted the man who had attacked Mimi identified and arrested. A slow burning anxiety was his companion because he knew it wasn’t over yet. Somewhere out in the swamp somebody was plotting their next move. What that might be, Johnny had no idea. But it definitely worried him.
