A Killing in the Valley (26 page)

“I didn’t know you believed in God, Keith.”

“I don’t. But that don’t mean He don’t believe in me.”

She laughed. “Come on back down. You need to go out to Lompoc to collect your wife. I hope your own house made it.”

“Six of one, half a dozen of the other,” he answered stoically. It wasn’t his property. “Esther got out her precious keepsakes. If we have to, we can put up a double-wide until you can build us a new one.”

The static was getting worse. She could barely hear him now. “Drop Steven off here on your way to Lompoc,” she requested, raising her voice so she could be heard. “He can’t leave the property.”

For a moment, there was no sound. She thought the connection had been broken. “Keith?” she asked. “Are you still there?”

He came back on. “I thought Steven was with you.”

Her throat constricted. “No, he isn’t.” A vein started pulsing in her temple. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“I don’t remember,” he answered, the static almost drowning out his voice. “After the fire passed us…I thought.”

Juanita shut her eyes, trying to recall the scene. They had all been celebrating when they realized they had turned away the inferno. She was sure Steven was there with them, whooping and hollering it up with all the rest. It had been so chaotic, and at the same time, so draining.

“He must still be back at the old house,” she said, trying to force conviction into her voice.

“I’ll go back and check,” he told her over the bad connection.

“I’ll meet you there.”

Steven wasn’t there. There was no sign of him anywhere.

Juanita stood in the middle of the gravel driveway. Around her, in every direction, the effects of the fire were devastatingly manifest. All the old grapevines, the fruit trees, the arbors—gone. In a few places, a charred remain of a tree or bush stuck out of the black ground like a wounded sentry standing watch over a bloody battlefield. The ground was still hot—heat waves shimmied in the now-still air. Here and there, an ember glowed on the ruined earth. Tendrils of smoke drifted up from the burning, and the smell of burnt vegetation was heavy in her nostrils.

Keith pulled up in his truck and got out. “Anything?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Where do you think…?” He stopped.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to do about this,” she said.

“He was here with us when the fire passed by,” Keith said. “I remember that clearly.”

“I do, too,” she agreed. She looked around. “So then…” She tailed off.

He put voice to what she had been thinking: “Are you going to call the police?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I mean, I don’t know if I want to do that yet.”

Keith spread an arm. “Well, he ain’t here. I guess we should go back to your place and look around there some more.”

Juanita’s ATV was gone.

“Are you sure you parked it back by the stable?” Keith asked her. Steven’s problems with the law were none of his business, but he had to ask. Ordinarily, he didn’t probe into Mrs. McCoy’s personal affairs, but she had wrangled him into this. And he knew what a toll this situation with her grandson was taking on her.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Juanita answered. She was starting to get a headache. “This is all messed up,” she moaned. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. “I need to think about what might have happened to Steven. And what I’m supposed to do about it.”

That evening, a little after seven, Luke got the call at home. “Mrs. McCoy!” he exclaimed. “How are you up there? We’ve all been worried.” He glanced over at Riva, who was hovering anxiously near the phone.

There had been no communication with anyone in the valley for the past two days, since the phone lines had gone down. Not being able to find out what was going on up there had everyone freaked out.

Juanita, sitting at her kitchen table, looked out the window at the empty barn and the silent fields. “I’m all right,” she said. She was tired and she sounded like it. “We managed to save our property, including the old house.”

“That’s wonderful!” Luke cried out. He gave Riva a thumbs-up. “The fire didn’t come to your property? I thought you were right in the path.”

“We were,” she said. “But we staved it off.”

“You stayed and fought it?”
What in the world?

“I’ll tell you all about it later, when I see you,” she said. “That’s not why I called.”

“Okay,” he said slowly. “As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

He liked this old lady. The more he knew her, the more he cared for, and admired her. She was full of gumption. And she was soulful. Standing up for her grandson, when it was clear that his own parents weren’t going to be able to, had been a true act of love and devotion. And courage. Not every seventy-six-year-old, living out in the country on her own, would have been willing to take on such a difficult assignment.

“Yes,” she affirmed. “I’m safe.”

There was a lull. Luke filled the void. “You had a reason for calling,” he reminded her. “What is it?”

Her hand that was holding the phone was shaking. She propped her elbow on the table to steady it. “I can’t find Steven.”

Oh, fuck, Luke thought. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“This afternoon. About six hours ago.”

“Where was he?”

“With me. He was helping me fight the fire. He was right there with me and the firefighters, shoulder to shoulder.”

This will be some tale to hear, Luke thought. But that wasn’t the issue now. “And then what?”

“I don’t know. It was a madhouse out there. We fought off the fire that was coming right for the old ranch house. Right for it!” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Afterwards, everyone was at their wit’s end. It was very emotional, let me tell you.”

“And where was Steven in all this?” he asked, nudging her back on track.

“Well, like I said, he was with me,” she answered. “And then, he wasn’t. I thought he had gone with my foreman back into the property, to start seeing how much damage the fire had caused. Because by then the fire had burned its way through whatever part of the ranch it was going to burn. Do you understand?” she asked. She was talking rapidly, her mouth barely able to keep up with her brain.

“More or less,” Luke answered. This was too confusing without knowing where all the pieces of the puzzle were. He would have to get filled in on that. But first, there was this problem.

Riva, standing near him, mouthed “What is it?”

“Trouble,” he mouthed back. Into the phone: “So you have no idea of where he might have gotten to.”

“Not a clue.” Her voice rose in pitch again. “That fire is raging all over,” she cried out. “He could be in danger.”

Or dead, Luke thought. That was chilling. “It’ll be all right,” he said. He sounded more optimistic than he felt. “If he does show up, call me immediately, no matter what time it is.”

“I will,” she promised.

Another thought: “Have the police been checking up on Steven? Do they know he’s missing?”

“No,” she answered. “They haven’t been in touch since the fire started.”

That’s one good thing, Luke thought. He could finesse this until tomorrow, or maybe longer. Everyone’s attention was on the fire; the whereabouts of a kid out on bail, even for murder, was on the back burner. And Steven had been checking in with his handlers every day, so there was no reason for suspicion. Not yet.

“I’ll come see you early tomorrow morning,” he told her. “Do you have someone up there to be with?”

“I’m all right,” she reassured him. “It’s my grandson I’m worried about.”

Luke picked Kate up at seven the following morning. He had asked her to come with him. She had a calming influence on Juanita McCoy. That might come in handy, because this meeting wasn’t going to be pleasant.

They were at the ranch by eight. There was little traffic going in their direction—the stoppages and congestion caused by the fire had eased, now that it had moved away from the immediate area.

Juanita sat them down at her kitchen table, offered them strong coffee and homemade boysenberry strudel, and told them the saga of how she saved her family’s ancestral home.

They listened in astonishment as they bit into the strudel, which was delicious. “That’s incredible,” Luke said. “You’re an amazing woman, Juanita.”

“Truly amazing,” Kate seconded with a mouthful of light, flaky pastry. Was there anything this woman couldn’t do? She felt blessed that Sophia had Juanita as a grandmotherly role model. She hoped that when this was all over, they would be able to maintain their relationship. That would hinge on what happened with Steven, both now and in the future.

“I did what I had to do,” Juanita said modestly. “In hindsight, I suppose it was crazy. I wasn’t thinking, it was pure reaction.”

“Well, congratulations,” Luke said. “You’re probably the only person in the valley who’s going to have a happy ending from any of this.”

“If Steven shows up,” she said, bringing them back to earth with a thud.

Kate sighed. “No word yet?” she asked.

“Nothing. I’m so worried about him. He could be injured.” She hesitated. “He could be dead.” She covered her face with her hands, which were shaking.

Luke pushed his coffee and cake to the side. This was not the time for tea and sympathy. “Mrs. McCoy.” He took her hands in his. “I don’t think he’s injured. And I don’t think he’s dead.” He made her look at him. “I think he’s gone.”

She looked confused. “He’s missing, of course I know that.”

He shook his head. “Not missing.” He glanced at Kate before saying the condemning word again: “Gone.”

“You mean on purpose?”

Luke nodded. “If your vehicle was here I’d have a different feeling about this. Who else would have taken it, except Steven?”

“I don’t know,” Juanita answered. “Nobody, I guess. Do you think he might have run away?” she asked them.

“I don’t know what to think,” Luke answered. “All I know is, he isn’t here, and that ATV is missing. I’m not going to pussyfoot around, Juanita. This is bad news. Have the authorities tried to contact him, since we talked last night?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s one thing in our favor,” he said. “For now. Because pretty soon, they’re going to. And if he isn’t here to talk to them, he’s in it up to his neck.”

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. She had been in denial, common in circumstances like this. The reality is too fraught to face, so you don’t, you emotionally bury it. “We can’t go to the police about this,” he told her, as Kate nodded in agreement. “We have to stay low to the ground for as long as we can. We’re going to have to hope he shows up before they try to contact him again.”

He stood up. “I’m in a ticklish position here. As an officer of the court, I’m required to obey the law, even if it means going against the interests of my client. By rights, I should let the sheriff’s office know Steven isn’t where the stipulations of his bail say he has to be. If it gets out that I knew he was gone and that I hadn’t reported it, I could be sanctioned. I could even have my license to practice law suspended. Kate could lose her license, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Juanita told both of them, shaking her head in misery. “I should have paid more attention to where he was.”

Luke put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You have no blame in this. It’s on him, all of it. He knew what was required, and he’s blown it off.”

“If he took off,” she said, still holding out hope that Steven’s disappearance could be explained in an acceptable manner.

Luke finished his coffee and motioned to Kate to do the same. “We’re going back to town. Call me if you hear anything. If the police do call, stall them and then let me know, immediately. Use the fire as an excuse if you have to.” He shook his head in frustration. “I didn’t tell you that, by the way. I wasn’t even here this morning, and I haven’t heard from you that Steven’s flown the coop. We’ll deal with all of that later—if we have to.”

Luke was in a sour mood as he pushed the GTO over the pass on the drive back to Santa Barbara.

“I can’t believe what an idiot Steven is,” he fumed, downshifting as they careened through a hairpin curve. “What could he be thinking?”

“You’re sure he’s skipped,” Kate said, pushing her feet against the floorboards to keep from sliding out of her seat. She, too, had a pit in her stomach over this.

“What other reason could there be?”

“I don’t know,” she answered. “There could be a plausible reason,” she said, with little conviction.

“What?” he asked impatiently. “Come on, Kate.”

“Hey, don’t yell at me. I’m just a fly on the wall.”

“Sorry. And you’re not, you’re in this as deeply as any of us.” Luke rolled through another turn. “If you have a good explanation, I sure would like to hear it.”

She thought about that. “What if he thought they were being evacuated and he went to a shelter voluntarily, assuming Juanita would be there.”

“And when he found out she wasn’t, he didn’t get in touch with her? No.”

“Okay. Well, what if he took off with the fire crew and is fighting the fire somewhere else.”

He looked at her like she was nuts. “Why would he do that?”

“To pay them back for helping save the old house?”

Luke laughed mirthlessly. “So now he’s an altruist? That’ll be the day.”

She slumped in her bucket seat. “I tried.”

“None of it washes. The missing ATV proves he took off.”

She knew he was right. “But why would he, knowing it makes him look even more guilty than he already does?”

“Sheer panic. Everything becomes magnified, even survival. Like how they could all have died in that fire. A rational person could claim that Juanita was reckless, and put lives in danger.”

“She said she had an escape exit,” Kate reminded him. “The fire chief was there.”

“Exits get blocked. And you know how she is, she’s an immovable force, impossible to stand up to.”

Kate smiled. “Tell me about it.”

“What I’ve worried about all along is that even if
he
knows he’s innocent, when no one else does, and most everyone thinks the opposite…”

“He submitted to the DNA test voluntarily,” she reminded him.