“Because he had to get rid of it,” Black said.
“Why not throw it in the river?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.”
“Real close now,” Nic said. “Right here.”
Black pulled into the gravel lot and all three stared at the dark and deserted Neely Post Office. Nic fiddled with his iPad and said, “It’s actually right over there, in that blue drop box.”
“Of course,” Mancuso said. “Makes perfect sense.”
Black asked, “Who’s the damned postmaster around here?”
“Who’d want to be?” asked Mancuso.
Nic pecked away and said, “Herschel Dereford. Here’s his number.”
Herschel was sleeping peacefully in his small home five miles out from Neely when he answered the emergency call from a Sheriff Black. It took a few minutes for things to register, and Herschel was at first reluctant to get involved. He said he didn’t have the authority, under federal guidelines, to open “his” drop box and allow local authorities to pick through “his” mail.
Sheriff Black pressed harder and said that two men had been murdered that evening, not far away, and they were in pursuit of the killer. An iPhone tracking app had led them to Neely, to “his” post office, and, well, it was crucial to get their hands on the phone immediately. This frightened Herschel enough to agree. He showed up fifteen minutes later but was not happy to be called out. He mumbled something about violations of federal law as he rattled his keys. He explained that he collected the mail every afternoon at precisely 5:00 p.m. when he closed the post office. A truck from Hattiesburg picked it up. Since it was now pushing 11:00 p.m., he expected no other mail to be in the box.
Sheriff Black said to Nic, “Get your phone and film this. Everything.”
Herschel turned a key and the front door of the box swung open. From inside he removed a square aluminum box, which he sat on the ground. It had no top. Inside was a single mailer. Mancuso covered it with a flashlight.
Herschel said, “I told you there wouldn’t be much.”
Sheriff Black said, “Let’s go real slow here. Okay, I’m going to take my cell phone and call Mike Dunwoody’s number. Understood?”
The rest of them nodded as they stared at the small package. After a few seconds it began emitting a ringing noise.
Sheriff Black ended the call. He took his time and said, “Now, I’ll call Lanny Verno’s number, the one given to us by his girlfriend.” He tapped the number, waited, and from the envelope came the chorus of “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson. Just as the girlfriend said.
With Nic filming with his iPhone and Mancuso holding his flashlight, and with Herschel not sure what to do next, if anything, the sheriff calmly explained, “Now, we called both numbers, and it’s safe to assume both cell phones are in the mailer, about five-by-eight, here in the drop box.” He reached into a pocket of his windbreaker and pulled out a pair of surgical gloves. Nic filmed it all. Black said, “Now I’m going to retrieve the package, the mailer, but we will not open it here. The prudent thing to do is to give it to the state crime lab and let their experts analyze things.”
He reached down, gently took the envelope, pulled it up for all to see, and for Nic to film, then turned it over. There was an address label on the flip side, and printed in a weird font was: Cherry McGraw, 114 Fairway #72, Biloxi, MS 39503.
He exhaled, mumbled an “Oh shit!” and almost dropped the envelope.
“Who is it, boss?” Mancuso asked.
“That’s my daughter’s address.”
* * *
—
His daughter was upset but unharmed. She had been married less than a year and lived near her parents. Her husband had been raised in the country, was an avid hunter, and owned a nice collection of guns. He assured the sheriff that they were safe and taking no chances.
A deputy was dispatched to sit in the sheriff’s driveway. Mrs. Black promised her husband that she was safe.
Halfway back to the crime scene, Nic in the rear seat finally said, “I don’t think he intended to mail the phones to your daughter.”
Sheriff Black did not suffer fools, was otherwise preoccupied anyway, and not eager to hear theories from a college kid who could pass for a fourteen-year-old. “Okay,” he said.
“He knew we’d find the phones, plain and simple. There are about ten different ways to find a lost cell phone and he knew we’d track ’em down. According to the postmaster, the late Friday mail is not picked up until Monday after 5:00 p.m. There’s no way the package would sit there for seventy-two hours without being found. He had to know that.”