Give First Place to Murder (28 page)

"What about Chovalo?” Something Wes had said returned. “What happened to his nephew?"

"In a minute," Dan said. "Let’s start with Wes and Linda. Turns out they have a record that goes back quite a way."

"That's why she was so worried about Wes's fingerprints," put in Susannah.

"They really know about the horse hauling business, but Wes’s been in jail half a dozen times and couldn't get a respectable job. When they heard about Bud's death, they faked some references, which Irma was in no shape to properly check, then moved in and took over. They started moving drugs almost immediately, let all Irma's old drivers do the runs that were clean, and Wes took the important ones. Linda used the books to launder the money. It all worked fine until the day Miguel found the hole in the floor of the van. He wanted to know about it. Wes gave him some excuse, and later gave the kid a Coke laced with enough meth to kill an elephant."

"You okay?" Dan looked at me anxiously. I felt sick. Partly because my head hurt and partly because of the story. What a tragic waste of a promising young life.

"I'm fine. Go on. I want to hear it all."

"Chovalo never believed Miguel would take drugs on his own. He thought Bryce was somehow responsible. He kept nosing around looking for some kind of proof. Only thing he succeeded in doing was make Wes nervous. In the meantime Rusty managed to get a job for the horse show with Bryce. He was one of Wes's contacts, a not very reliable one, so when he tried a little blackmail, Wes lost his temper and skewered him on the pitchfork."

Susannah shivered a little, remembering, and Aunt Mary reached over and patted her hand. "Such a tragedy. All of it," she murmured. I silently agreed.

"Why Bryce?"

"Bryce had quite a habit. Rusty had kept him supplied, at a price, of course." Special Agent Thomas took up the story again. "The sheriff’s Department and Dan here," he nodded toward him, "were looking hard at Gutierrez. I was leaning more toward Ellis. He was all over the country with the horses and his habit needed a lot of feeding. Which meant more money than I thought he was making showing horses."

"How about Stephanie? Speaking of another waste.”

"She kept getting in the way. She knew about Bryce's habit and evidently thought she could get him to stop. It wasn't until she found out about his, uh, other tastes that she backed off. I don't think she ever knew about Wes."

"Bryce did?"

"Rusty told him. Or told him enough. He tried to make a buy off of Wes Sunday afternoon, after Stephanie reamed him out. It was Wes who took him into the shower room, under the pretext of supplying him with more meth."

"That’s something I should have picked up on sooner." I sighed. "Stephanie told us that night that Wes pulled up while Bryce was there. But Wes said he never saw Bryce. It didn’t hit me until Susannah and I were in that barn, staring at the tack trunks."

"I should have picked up on it sooner, too." Dan scowled. “How I missed that--when I did it was almost too late. You and Susannah were already at the ranch, getting yourselves locked in the horse van. That’s something we are going to talk about." His grim face softened and he squeezed my hand. Too hard, but somehow I didn't care.

"Later?”

"Later.”

"Where did you disappear to?" I finally turned toward Thomas, who still leaned against the wall, watching all of us with a small smile. ”And how did you find us?” It was hard to think of him as Agent Thomas. He was still the pirate to me.

"I turned my lights off when I saw you following me, drove on past Irma's driveway, and parked. When you turned down Irma’s driveway, I figured I better find out what was going on. I have this aversion to getting shot, so left my car where it was and walked through the fields toward the barn. Do you know how many gopher holes are in those fields?" He grimaced, but I didn't feel sorry for him. I would have traded him his gopher holes for my head any day.

"I arrived in time to see Wes shoot Chovalo,” Pirate Thomas went on. “I got the license number off the van, alerted the sheriff on my cellular, and followed. The sheriff caught up about the time Wes pulled over. Great timing, don’t you think?”

He smiled, knowing there was only one answer.

“
Two minutes earlier would have been nice.” I put my hand carefully where hair used to be. “What happened to Linda?”

“
The sheriff sent a couple of deputies out to the ranch to pick her up. She’d already converted everything she could get her hands on into cash, including all of Irma's money, and wasn't planning on joining back up with Wes. Great gal, Linda. Guess she gave the sheriff's boys quite a time.”

He stopped for a second, then grinned. "The hardest part was keeping Dan from attacking Wes. He appeared right as you were being lifted into the ambulance, and if he'd had his way, Wes would have been riding on a stretcher right beside you."

"Not in Ellie's ambulance." Dan squeezed my hand again. "He’d have had to find one of his own."

What a shame I missed all that, I thought.

The pirate, or Agent Thomas, looked around the room, then down at me and winked. "That's about it. Any time you need a pirate, whistle. I'll come running. Speaking of which, I've got to catch a plane. Good luck." And he was gone.

"He sure is good at fading away." Only, I didn’t really care. I looked up at Dan, savoring the idea of his coming to my rescue, even if a little late.

"Hmm. Yes." Aunt Mary also looked at Dan, who still had hold of my hand. "Susannah, what do you say we do a little fading of our own."

"No, I want to tell Mom--oh.” She looked at Dan, at me, at Dan’s hand holding mine. “I guess it can wait. I think you get to come home later today, Mom. I'll tell you then. Maybe."

She dropped a quick kiss on my forehead, grinned at Dan, and left with Aunt Mary.

"Well." Dan sounded uncertain--whether to kiss or scold me? "You gave me quite a scare. I'd just as soon you didn't do, ah, something so, ah, damn it, Ellie. You almost got yourself killed.”

A warm glow filled me. Dan cared. Really cared. And, would wonders never cease, I cared that he cared. “Does that mean you haven’t given up on me?"

"I thought about it, but I seem to have gotten used to you. Think you could get used to me?"

"I might. We could talk about it."

"I'm probably not going to change much. But I'll make you one promise."

"Only one?"

"The only one that counts. I love you, Ellie. I don’t know why, and I’m pretty sure there’ll be times I’ll regret it. But I won't stop. I promise."

He leaned over and kissed me, gently at first, then with the same passion, the same intensity as last Saturday night.

"I thought I’d lost you. A thought I don’t like. Just as soon as you're better I'm going to show you how much--"

He loved me. I loved him too. So he would be a little over protective. I'd struggle against it, I'd scold him, watch his calories, do a little protecting of my own. I had a pretty good idea that it all might feel--right. Live to regret it, huh ? We’d see about that. I glanced at the door. Susannah had thoughtfully closed it.

"I think there’s too much talking going on." I reached out my arms to kiss him back.

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