Eleven Little Piggies (25 page)

At the farm, there was one light on a tall pole in the yard, another beside the front door of the Kester house, and light streaming out of ground-floor windows. Doris came out of the house as we parked, carrying a big flashlight, and Charlie was waiting by the barn door with a battery-powered lantern. He turned on overhead lights that provided dim illumination in the aisles of the silent barn.

Most of the stalls were empty, Doris explained. ‘I turned out all the stock except the two horses we sometimes need to ride, and this one brood mare, because she's close to foaling.'

‘Isn't she a little out of season?'

‘Oh,' she made an embarrassed face, ‘she didn't take when I bred her in the winter, so I thought she was getting too old and didn't try the next month. Left her out in the pasture with some yearlings and one of them turned out to be a little . . . precocious. So Bessie's having a catch-colt, after all these years. My bad.'

We stood by the box stall where the dark mare stood quietly. ‘Doris and I were just back from milking at Dairy Farm,' Charlie said. ‘Late – but Henry had been working over there most of the day and he looked beat, so at about five we persuaded him to go home and let us finish up. Anyway, we finally got the milk put up ready to ship in the morning, Doris went up to the house to warm up whatever Aggie had left for her and Alan to eat, and I came in here to drop my gear and take Elmer home. He's lived in my house the last ten years, and my wife had supper ready.

‘I passed him in the aisle here as he was just going into Bessie's stall and I told him to be ready to go in ten minutes. He said, “All right, just going to check on Bessie's feed and water and I'm ready too”. He went in there humming one of them nonsense songs he sings to calm animals down. I was down at the end of the aisle there putting my tools away. Then I heard—'

I had been watching the mare while he talked, and also looking around the stall. When he didn't go on, I turned to look at him and was stunned to see that he was weeping. I said, ‘Oh, here' and reached out for him but Doris got to him first, supporting with her hands under his elbows, pulling a stool into place with her foot.

‘Sit here,' she said, and eased him down.

‘God, Doris, he was right here, and,' he pointed with a shaking hand, ‘I was right . . . down . . . there. Wouldn't you think I'd have brains enough to come up here and help him? But I just went on putting my tools away, my gloves in the drawer,' he looked around at all of us desperately, ‘as if any of that mattered more than saving Elmer,' he said, his voice getting all soggy and muddled now as the tears poured down.

The reality of this terrible week was all catching up with him at once. Right through the other deaths he'd been stolid and kept it all in, doing his job, helping where he could and making no waves, and now with the death of this kind old man he had reached the end of his very tough rope and was breaking down.

‘You didn't know,' Doris said, bending over him. ‘You did all you could.'

‘Charlie,' Ray said, ‘I know it's hard but can you tell us what you heard?'

‘I—' He choked, turned his face away, fumbled and found a handkerchief, swabbed his face. We all waited. When he could speak again he told us, ‘He was singing to the horse . . . and then he said – something. It wasn't very . . . it was hardly even a word. If it was anything, it was, “No”. Or maybe just, “Oh”. And then I heard a thump.' He thought some more. ‘So I said, “Elmer, you OK?” And when he didn't answer I said again, “Elmer?”'

He turned sideways on his stool, then again so he was facing down the aisle toward where he had been standing. I saw his shoulders heave a couple of times while he fought for control. When he had himself in hand he turned back to face us all, raised his hands and shoulders in a big sorrowful shrug and said, ‘About then I realized something was wrong and came running over here – and oh, Jesus,' he said, looking up into Doris's face, ‘you should have seen how that mare was behaving. All lathered up and rolling her eyes—'

‘
Bessie?
'

‘Yeah, Bessie, old Lady Placid. But boy, was she agitated. I thought maybe a snake – so I pushed her aside and got into the stall and there was Elmer—'

Ray asked him, ‘Can you show us?'

‘Sure.' He stood up, thought about it, and told Doris, ‘I believe I'd just as soon move the horse before I let all these people in there.'

‘I'll do it,' she said. The mare, very pregnant and clearly back in placid mode, waddled after Doris to another stall and began munching up a fresh serving of hay. Charlie carried out a couple of forkfuls of manure, said, ‘There now', and we all filed in.

‘Bessie was way up at the front of the stall and leaning on the gate like she wanted to get out. Which she never does – she's not a horse that fights the stall. And Elmer was right alongside of her, with his feet toward the rear of the stall and his head just about right here.'

We shined all the lights we had on the spot in the straw he indicated. Looking for dark spots that might be blood, looking for
anything
 . . . but there was only the nice, clean straw Elmer had been spreading. We pushed it carefully aside, looking for anything that shouldn't be there. There was nothing under the straw except dirt.

Winnie was looking up, asking, ‘His head was right here under the trapdoor?'

‘Mmm, yes.'

‘But the trapdoor's always closed, isn't it? Except when you're pulling down hay?'

‘Yes.'

‘How does that work?' Ray asked him. ‘Don't you run out of hay that's close enough to grab?'

‘It's a two-stage job. Somebody goes up once a day and loads the chutes. Twice a day somebody pulls a feeding down from here for any of the stalls that are occupied.'

‘Where do you go up?' Winnie asked. ‘Through the chutes?'

‘Hardly.' Too sad to laugh, he made a small ironic sound. ‘Well,
you
could do that, easily, but . . . Most of us would find it pretty snug. There's a stairway in the back that drops down.' He pointed. ‘You come back in the daytime, I can show you all this better.'

‘We'll do that,' Winnie said. And then, embarrassed by having spoken out of turn, asked Ray, ‘Won't we?'

‘Yup. Not much use trying for fingerprints on this rough lumber, I guess,' he was looking around, ‘but we could try swabbing for DNA maybe . . . I'll talk to BCA in the morning. Has anybody got any crime scene tape?'

‘I have,' Andy said, and went to get it.

‘I know I could just ask you to leave it alone,' Ray said, ‘but somebody else coming in . . .'

‘It's all right,' Doris said. ‘Business is pretty much at a standstill in this barn right now anyway.' Andy came back with the tape and he and Winnie wrapped it around the stall a couple of times.

‘That's probably about all we can do tonight unless . . . Who're you calling on the phone there?' he asked me.

‘Oh,' I folded it up, ‘the chief asked me to call after we got here. He's concerned about your safety,' I told Doris. ‘He wonders if you wouldn't like to move to town for a while.'

She was shaking her head before I finished. ‘I can't leave my place empty; I won't leave my animals. I'll be – we'll be – fine.' Her eyes darted to Alan as, I realized, they had been doing all evening, and he flicked his glance a little sideways – the nearest he could come, apparently, to making eye contact. One of the most amazing things about this indomitable woman, I was beginning to realize, was the calm and soothing way she cared for a child who desperately needed her but could not bear to be touched.

‘The security guys we hired will stay on patrol,' she said. ‘They're out there now; did you see them on the way in?'

‘One,' Jake said. ‘I think.'

‘Well, if you're not sure,' she said, ‘they're doing their job right.'

‘The chief is talking to the sheriff about this case,' I said, ‘and asking for his deputies to ride some extra night tours around here for a while.'

‘They can't patrol on city property, can they?' Doris said.

‘Well . . . not exactly but . . . we help each other out once in a while,' I said. ‘Since we're both short-handed,' I added lamely, justifying an old practice that went back through many eras. Come to think of it, when had we not felt short-handed?

It seemed wrong to leave, but everybody needed to rest, especially the two who were staying behind. Charlie had regained his rock-solid control but looked exhausted; Doris was calm but her beauty had lost some luster since I had first seen her. Only five days ago, could that be right?

Rolling out her long driveway behind the string of other car lights, I scanned right and left, but never saw a guard patrolling.
You better not be scamming her, you bastards
. The world was full of enemies tonight, all of them unseen.

 

By morning the weather had turned sullen, with a stiff, knife-edged breeze and full overcast of clouds that looked heavy with snow. BCA said they would respond to a demand for help if the autopsy indicated a strong likelihood of foul play. Lacking that, they said politely, they were always ready to help with advice.

Without denigrating the value of their counsel, I sincerely hoped Pokey's suspicious nature was in full play today. I told the chief I understood exactly how those dinosaurs felt so many years ago, when they realized this shiny black stuff they'd wandered onto was a tar pit.

‘Feels like we're up to our necks in this case,' I told the chief. ‘And any minute we're going to sink without a bubble.'

‘God, you can be a whiner,' he said. ‘I already said I'll take the old man off your back today – what more do you want?'

‘If I thought you were serious I've got a long list. But don't worry,' I said as he raised a protesting hand, ‘I just came in to tell you why Henry's coming to visit.'

‘His oldest employee getting killed out there last night. Yes, I suppose that did hit him pretty hard. But who's running the milking machines while he's in here talking?'

‘Well, Henry explained this morning that he put his foot down yesterday with his lawyer son, Ethan. Said it was by God time he earned some more of the money his shares were bringing him. Told him he had to get his butt out there to the farm and help out for a change. Said, “If I can do it you can do it”.'

‘Ethan tried protesting that he couldn't be spared from the law firm, but Henry checked with the uncles and they said, “Oh, sure, we can spare him for a few days”. So to stave off going back in the barn with Dad, Ethan went down to the unemployment office, found some Venezuelans with green cards sitting there all happy because their corn crops were in the silos and they were looking forward to getting on the dole for a while.'

‘Can they do that?'

‘I guess they can if they've been working long enough. These two won't find out though, because Ethan told the desk people there he had plenty of work – send me the next five guys who walk in, he said. Then he talked his father and the foreman at the farm into believing they can start the gauchos on mucking out and feeding, and they'll work up to running the machines in no time. I think maybe Ethan's ready to go into politics.'

‘Or anything else that keeps him from getting stuck in a stall with Dad again, huh?'

‘Right. Anyway, that gave Henry a much-needed day off so naturally he wants to come in and review the case with me. Which I have not got time to do so I said I have good news for you, Henry: the chief is going to go over the details with you today.'

‘How much does he know about that latest casualty in his barn last night?'

‘Doris told him all she knew, he said. So I hope you can show him some pity, Frank, because underneath all the bluster Henry's a pretty good old skate.'

‘Uh-huh. When he's not chewing on you. But now, tell me that the new victim got kicked by a horse, unless he didn't. Where are you with that? You went out to the farm last night?'

‘Yes.' I told him about it. ‘I'm depending on Pokey to deliver a verdict that's at least ambiguous enough to get BCA into the case, because I don't have any idea how to distinguish a horse kick from a blow on the head from a weapon I can't find.'

‘You haven't searched much yet, have you?'

‘No. Ray's sending a crew out there now. Speaking of searches, how are you doing with BCA? Any chance of speeding up some of that Maynard information we asked for?'

‘They said they'd try on the prints. I'll check with them again this morning. But your crew might find something in the barn on a daytime search, right?'

‘Yes. And Bo will be in pretty soon – he worked so late on the autopsy, he asked for an hour off this morning to get Nelly settled in her new school. You know he and Rosie are moving into a new house together? So – when he gets in here, we'll ask about the autopsy. Pray for horseshoe marks!'

‘Don't believe I've ever done that before. But the Lord is still merciful, as we know because my youngest daughter passed her math test yesterday in spite of those happy days on the slopes. Let me know what Bo says.'

My phone was blinking when I got back to my desk, and the message was from a number I didn't recognize. I called it and Doris answered in the middle of the first ring. She said, ‘Captain Hines, a strange thing – an unprecedented thing happened this morning.' Her voice sounded like tin pans banging in the wind.

I said, ‘Doris, do you need to take a breath before you tell me? You sound pretty excited.'

‘I am, but . . . I'm all right. I need to tell you this, will you just listen?'

‘Yes. Go ahead.'

‘My son Alan
talked to me
.'

She said that much and stopped, as if that statement was striking enough to stop traffic. I listened to her ragged breathing. After a few seconds I said, ‘You said he does that sometimes.'