10 ELIMINATING THE IMPOSSIBLE

One after the other, the strangers slipped into Osage County.

The former sheriff showed up, in the guise of an elderly, quiet
cattleman from Texas. Then the talkative former Texas Ranger
appeared, also presenting himself as a rancher. Not long afterward,
the onetime insurance salesman opened a business in downtown
Fairfax, peddling bona fide policies. Finally, Agent Wren arrived as
an Indian medicine man who claimed to be searching for his
relatives.

White had counseled his men to keep their covers simple so
they didn’t betray themselves. The two operatives acting as
cattlemen soon ingratiated themselves with William Hale, who
considered them fellow Texas cowboys and who introduced them
to many of the leading townsfolk. The insurance salesman
dropped by the houses of various suspects, under the pretense of
hawking policies. Agent Wren made his own inroads, attending
tribal gatherings and gleaning information from Osage who might
not otherwise talk to a white lawman. “Wren had lived among the
Indians...and had gotten away with it in remarkable shape,” White
told Hoover, adding that his undercover men seemed to be able to
“withstand the rigor of the life.”

It was hard for White to know where to begin the investigation.
The records from the coroner’s inquest into the death of Anna
Brown had mysteriously vanished. “My desk was broken into and
the testimony disappeared,” the justice of the peace in Fairfax said.

Virtually    no  evidence    had     been    preserved   from    the     various