Give First Place to Murder (5 page)

"So now what do you do?" The thought that Susannah had been anywhere near someone like that made me furious. I wondered what Irma would have said if she’d known ahead of time who Bryce was hiring.

“
What we always do. Put one foot in front of the other until we get to the end."

"That's not what I mean and you know it." I started, but Pat had a question of her own.

"I keep hearing about the methamphetamine stuff. What is it? Do you grow it, like marijuana?"

"You make it, and it's deadly," Dan answered. "We have a real problem with it in this county because there’s still so much open country, and we're close to big cities. LA to the south, the Bay area to the north, both only a few hours away. They’re huge, open markets for this stuff."

"What does open country have to do with drugs?"

"Lots. It only takes a week to ten days to brew up a batch of that poison, so the scum making it scout out old barns not being used, or they'll rent a mobile home on a ranch, or find a vacant one. Any place where they can set up shop for a while and visitors aren't too likely. They can, and too often do, have the stuff distilled, the powder packaged and are on their way before we even find out they were there. We know when they blow themselves up or set themselves on fire, but otherwise all we find is the mess they leave behind."

“
Then you think whoever killed the kid is somehow connected with making drugs and selling them?” I’d assumed Rusty’s murderer, like Rusty, was a stranger, but now I wondered. Could someone at Irma’s barn be involved?

“
I didn’t say that so don’t go jumping to conclusions.” Dan’s frown changed to a large grin as a heavy paper plate loaded with ribs, beans and limp salad was placed in front of his six foot four inch frame.

"We're going to have to make two trips." Neil told us as he charged back toward the Barbecue stand. Susannah slid a plate in front of me and set another down in front of Pat.

"I got you two the small plate. Is that all right? You can have some of mine if that's not enough." She looked a little anxious.

I looked down at my small plate. Enough! An entire dog sled team could have lived for a week on what was on my plate. Besides, I'd caught sight of the ice cream bars on a stick, the ones rolled in peanuts. Childhood memories stirred and I decided on a little dessert.

For a while, no one spoke. I expected Dan, Carl, and Neil to finish off the huge pile of ribs on their plates, but, as usual, Susannah surprised me. Slender, feminine Susannah could out eat a lumberjack.

I had one rib left, looked at the pile of bones on Susannah’s plate, and slipped it onto Dan’s.

The conversation started again, centered on the evening's events.

"Are you sure you don't want to watch the sheep dogs?" Carl looked at all of us forlornly.

"Positive." Pat placed her last nude bone in the trashcan and wiped her face. "I'm going to look at the quilts and I want to see who placed where in the wine making. I’m going to forget about murder, drugs, or anything connected with that awful stuff."

Dan looked a little apprehensive. It must have been the mention of quilts, because he brightened up when I suggested the livestock barn.

"Are you two going to the horse show?" I looked at Susannah, ready to block that idea if possible.

"Not tonight. No classes. Besides, I've had enough horror and horses for one day. We're going to the midway."

The only thing we all agreed on was that we would meet for the nine thirty Oak Ridge Boys show.

"Nine thirty in front of the fountain," Dan told everybody for the tenth time as we dumped our plates in the trash and headed our separate ways.

Dan and I wandered our way through the cows, sheep and goats, stopping often to chat with proud parents who pointed out their children's award winning 4H animals, or acquaintances who urged us not to miss something or other. Ladies Lead was starting.

“
Let’s watch.” I tugged at his hand.

“
Why do you want to watch decorated sheep?” Dan looked toward the beef cows and tugged back on my hand.

“
They aren’t decorated, they’re dressed up. To match the girls leading them. It’s a fashion show, showing how to use wool.”

Dan wasn’t impressed. He led me over to the next barn. “Now, that’s showmanship”.

A half dozen small 4H boys and girls were showing swine. Or maybe it was the other way around. The pigs were huge, the children weren’t, and the canes they used to tap the pigs in a desired direction didn’t always work. We watched long enough to see to a father jump over the rail with what

looked like half of an old door, shove it between two pigs who were clearly mortal enemies, and jump out again.

“
I’d call that a draw,” Dan said with a grin. We moved on toward the exhibits, and were standing before an enormous selection of portable spas, all churning away, when I saw him.

I clutched Dan’s arm. "Dan, look."

"I am." His eyes seemed glued on a blond woman in too tight black spandex pants who was demonstrating the bubble maker.

"Not her,” I told him scathingly. “Look. My pirate."

"Your what?" Dan, with more reluctance than I cared for, turned back toward me.

"My pirate. I ran into him today. He has a very rude parrot."

The pirate was surrounded by a growing group of people listening to his chatter, admiring his parrots. I pulled on Dan's arm and headed toward them. "Come on. I want to see this."

Dan smiled broadly but didn’t move any too fast. I practically had to push him forward into the circle where the pirate was showing off his birds, letting them hang upside down from his arms. He put birdseed between his teeth for one of the birds, the rude one I thought, to gently remove. A little girl, about ten, jumped up and down with delight and the pirate put his hand out to her.

"Here, girlie." His gruff tone didn't faze the child, but her mother reached out as if to snatch her back. The pirate pulled the child a little further into the center of the circle and offered her a bird. Awestruck, she put out her arm and the bird obediently hopped on.

"Want to give him a treat?" Before she could answer, or her mother grab her, the pirate had placed a seed between her lips. The bird gently reached for it, then squawked and flew back to its perch on the pirate hat. The crowd exploded with applause.

"How about the rest of you?" the pirate asked after the clapping subsided. "Any brave souls here?"

He started around the circle, offering the bird. When he came to us, he stopped.

“
How about you? Want to feed the bird?” He directed his question to Dan. Then he laughed. “Or maybe your girl friend’s the brave one.”

“
We’ll take a rain check.” Dan smiled but his eyes didn’t look too friendly. Dan had me by the hand and before I knew it we were on the outside of the circle, drifting away from it.

"Quite an act." Dan glanced down at me, then quickly away. "How did you say you met him?"

"I didn't. I ran into him this morning, right after I found Rusty."

"What do you mean, ran into him?" Dan smile lingered but I didn’t think there was much amusement in his eyes.

"Exactly that. I was watching the horses and didn't see him, and I ran into him."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" He thought that was funny. "And his parrot was rude to you."

"He was." I hadn’t thought it was funny then, and it was getting less funny by the minute

"And he was by the horse barns?” His glanced back at the pirate, his expression thoughtful.

"You know him, don't you?” I stopped and put my hand on his arm.. “Who is he? Why shouldn't he have been by the barns?"

"What makes you think I know him?" He turned his back and started to walk off.

"Don't try to get evasive with me, Dan Dunham." I grabbed his arm and tried to make him face me. "Where do you know that pirate from? Did you arrest him? You suspect him of something. What?"

“
Ellie, I guarantee you, I have never arrested that pirate, and the only thing I suspect him of is being more rude than his parrot. Come on.”

I glanced back at the group surrounding the pirate and stopped short.

“
Dan, look.”

Bryce and Stephanie were now part of the circle. Stephanie had substituted jeans for shorts and had tucked in her shirt. Her sunburn had faded, and her eyes sparkled. She was almost pretty.

Make-up. That was it, she’d tried a little make-up. It must have helped. She had a firm grip on Bryce’s arm, and he wasn’t brushing her off.

“
What do you suppose that means?” We continued walking.

“
That Bryce has interesting taste in women.”

We were almost at the horse barns, but neither of us really noticed.

"Dan." I tried to stop, but Dan just kept walking. "Do you think his being near the barns this morning could mean something? Could he have known Rusty? And how about Stephanie? Could she--Dan, answer me. What's the matter?"

The faintly amused expression on Dan's face had changed. Abruptly, he stopped.

"Isn't that Chovalo?"

A tall thin figure in boots, jeans, western shirt and black sombrero strode purposefully toward the barns. He disappeared as a fat lady trying to eat cotton candy pushed a stroller in front of us.

"So what if it is. He works there."

"Go get some ice cream.” Dan almost tripping over the stroller in his haste to follow..

"Where are you going?"

"I’ll meet you at the fountain in, oh, forty-five minutes.” He glared at the fat woman, stepped around the stroller and was gone.

“
Well!” She pulled off a long strand of gooey stuff and fed it slowly into her mouth. “Where’s he going in such a hurry?”

Exactly what I was wondering. He must be following Chovalo, and the only reason could be Rusty. That brought the murder closer to the barn, which meant closer to Susannah. So, ice cream forgotten, I followed Dan.

“
Do you see him?”

Dan had stopped in front of a closed stall door directly across from Irma’s barn. I tried to peer around him.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing? Didn’t I tell you to go get ice cream?”

He was irritated again. I chose to ignore it.

"Why are you following Chovalo? What do you care where he goes? There, he's stopped. Right in front of Irma’s barn, where he belongs. Satisfied?"

"No. There aren't any classes tonight. So I, ah, was curious, that’s all. What’s he doing back here?”

"Maybe he came to feed. Or give the horses water. Or kiss them all good night. Horse people have some strange ideas. Why are we skulking?"

"Police chiefs don't skulk. We observe. If you won’t go away, will you please be quiet?”

It looked like skulking to me, but I kept my opinion to myself and followed close behind Dan. He stopped again, and pulled me into the deep shadows of the quiet barn.

"If he's kissing horses good night, why isn't he putting on the lights?" Dan whispered into my ear as we crept down the line of closed stalls. Most of the barns were dark, the only sounds the occasional snort of horses, the rustle of straw. From a couple of aisles over came the blare of a radio. Someone laughed, clippers buzzed. We could make out a faint glow of light, but it didn't reach us or

Chovalo. The clop clop of hoofs froze us in place. A man rode by, whistling softly to himself, then disappeared around the corner of the barn.

"He didn’t come to feed." Dan nudged me and pointed toward the far end of the barn.

Hay bales, hurriedly brought from Irma's ranch to replace the inaccessible ones sealed in the feed room by crime scene tape, were stacked at the far end of the aisle. Sacks of grain and a couple of pails sat beside them. A single light burned over the hay, making only a small pool before it faded away again to darkness. Chovalo walked slowly down the aisle. He shone his flashlight on each door, paused at each tack trunk, but didn’t go near the feed. A burst of laughter from the workers in the next barn over made him pause and turn. He flashed his light across the barn aisle toward the shadow where we crouched. Dan pulled me tightly against him as we flattened ourselves against a stall door. The beam returned to Irma’s barn and became a warm glow. The yellow crime scene tape was still up, but now it cordoned off only the feed room and the grooming room where the pretty mare had stood. The tape moved a little, followed by the protesting squeak of a door. It evidently had not impressed our sombrero-hatted man with its importance.

"I thought so." Dan still whispered, but with what sounded like satisfaction. "He's gone into the feed room."

"But why?"

"Hush. He'll hear you. I don't know why."

"Yeah? Then why are you so pleased?”

"I’m not. Will you pipe down?”

“
He won’t hear me. You’re talking louder than I am. Are you sure it’s Chovalo?”

“
Of course I’m sure. He’s looking for something. Stay here. I’m going to try to get closer. I want a better look at him when he comes out.”

"Why not just arrest him? Isn't it against the law to break into a crime scene, or whatever?"