OKLAHOMA CITY: AFTER THE BOMB : Town Is Obsessed With Case : Manhunt: Several business people in Kingman, Ariz., had contacts with prime suspect. Now they’re talking with investigators.

When composite drawings of John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2 first flickered across his television screen last week, gun dealer Joe Steinberger quickly searched his records to see if he had ever sold a firearm to the suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Likewise, Dennis Schroeder, a motel operator, suddenly remembered the face of a strange young man who helped him at the local lumberyard. And Carol Curtis began debating with herself whether to tell authorities about the two men dressed in Army fatigues whom she had seen loading unknown paraphernalia into a Ryder rental truck.

In houses and shops across this sprawling desert town about 75 miles south of Hoover Dam, many of the community’s nearly 14,000 residents are trying to recall anything that might be of value to bombing investigators and chatting among themselves about what they remember.

In fact, it would be fair to say that Kingman is now obsessed with the case. “We’re racking our brains, along with everybody else in town,” said Fred Paulson, co-owner with Schroeder of the Hilltop motel on Old Route 66.

And predictably, the competition to help investigators is beginning to set neighbor against neighbor.

Old rivalries apparently are being revived because of the prospect of a rich reward for information in the case. One man is said to be threatening to sue another resident for statements made to the FBI about him.

Not in anyone’s memory has tiny Kingman--known until now as the home of the late actor Andy Devine--seen so much commotion. It is here that bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh and possible co-conspirators are believed to have made preparations for the bombing attack that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19. And thus it is here that the FBI is concentrating its massive search for clues to the identity of those involved.

Just a few days ago, the FBI set up an official command post at the National Guard armory here. The town seemed to be virtually overrun with investigators and journalists. On Saturday, the armory was the center of activity in an otherwise sleepy community.

To be sure, residents seeking to assist in the investigation are largely motivated by a sense of civic duty when they pick up the phone.

But some of the would-be informants, such as Paulson, also admit that they have caught themselves daydreaming about the $2-million reward offered by the U.S. government for information that would solve the crime. Paulson said that he would be satisfied with even a fraction of the money.

The FBI has declined to comment on any tips received from Kingman residents.

*

Some of the strongest information provided to the FBI here came from Scott and Paul Shuffler, owners of a hardware store and lumberyard where McVeigh worked briefly; Linda Willoughby, clerk at the Mail Room, where McVeigh used the private mail center, and Schroeder, whose motel was home to McVeigh for a few days and who also remembered him from other encounters around town.

It was Schroeder who not only first told the FBI that McVeigh had stayed at the Hilltop motel but who also recalled seeing the suspect’s car parked outside the nearby Imperial motel, where he registered at a later date. Helmut Hofer, owner of the Imperial, apparently had not realized the connection until agents came to his office after talking to Schroeder.

From all appearances, the owners of the Imperial and Hilltop motels are longtime competitors and the prospect of a reward has intensified that competition. Paulson has confided to reporters that he fears Hofer--not Schroeder--will get whatever reward money might be granted for steering the FBI in the direction of the Imperial Motel.

Bob Ragin, who operates the Canyon West mobile home park, where McVeigh also lived for a time, told the FBI that he remembered the suspect as a heavy drinker who sometimes had violent quarrels with a pregnant girlfriend. But as it turned out, the man described by Ragin lived in Canyon West’s Unit No. 19, while McVeigh lived in Unit No. 11.

As a result, the man falsely identified as McVeigh is threatening to sue Ragin.

As for Steinberger, he seemed a little disappointed that McVeigh’s name did not show up among the records of people to whom he had sold weapons over the last few years. He acknowledged that the presence of FBI agents in the community has fostered suspicion among neighbors.

“It’s kind of odd,” he said, “but you find out sometimes that you don’t know who lives in your town--maybe even next door.”