Something Borrowed, Something Bleu (21 page)

The back door was
indeed locked. I started toward the side of the house, but the crash of breaking glass stopped me dead in my tracks. Leaning around the corner, I saw father and son Dunners standing deep in a basement window well, clearing glass shards from around the sill.
Just because you lock a door doesn’t mean you have the key to get back in.
So much for weathering the storm in the basement. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be happy with my roommates.
Ray Dunner suddenly looked up, and for a split second our eyes met. The gun in his hand rose, and I ducked back. I was already fleeing when the second gunshot of the afternoon sounded. Back to the barn, and around the other side. Tabby urged the penultimate cow inside the structure. I grabbed the halter thingie on the last one and gave it a mighty tug. The big girl’s eyes rolled, but she trotted along willingly enough. Tabby met us and took over.
She peered over my shoulder, clearly expecting pursuit. “Which one is shooting?” I could hardly hear her over the howl of the wind.
“Ray Dunner. Don’t know about the first shot. But there’s a sheriff’s SUV in the parking lot. Come on, let’s get down there.”
But Tabby shook her head. “I have a few things to button up here. You get down to lower ground. I’ll be right behind you.”
The dark column reaching down from the clouds swayed and turned as if swinging its hips in a do-si-do. It was definitely closer, and on a direct line toward us. The house was on a hill; the barn slightly lower. The cheese classroom shed was the lowest-lying building on the dairy property.
“Are you crazy? Come
on
. I know you love these animals, but you can’t sacrifice your life for them.”
“They are my life. And my living. Don’t worry, I’ll make it down there.”
My fingers tightened around her arm. “I mean it. Don’t you dare die on me today, Tabby Bines.”
She shook me off. “Let me get to work, then.”
I hated leaving her again, but I wasn’t going to get caught out in the open by a tornado just because she was stubborn. “I’ll meet you at the classroom,” I yelled, and then took off like my hair was on fire.
The Dunners were temporarily out of the way, hiding in the house. I reached the parking lot and ran up to the SUV. It looked like the one I’d seen Sheriff Jaikes drive, but the man was nowhere to be seen. I reached in the Audi and grabbed my tote bag as if it were some kind of security blanket, muttered a curse at Ray for taking my cell phone, and headed for the squat, square building.
Jaikes’ head jerked up when I entered. He saw it was me and returned to his task. Positioned by the open back window where he could keep an eye on the approaching tornado, he was trying to fasten a towel around his arm.
I went to his side. “Shouldn’t we leave? We might be able to outrun the storm. Oh, God, is that blood?”
“Just a flesh would,” he said, all macho-like. “Help me out.”
Quickly I pulled the towel taut around the bloody wound on his upper left arm and tied it. Made me feel queasy, though it didn’t actually look too bad. “Who shot you?”
“Not sure—came from behind the chicken coop when I was still in the parking lot. Ran the plates on the vehicles out there; both Ray and Ogden Dunner are here.”
“I know. Ray shot at me. But Ogden has a gun, too. He killed Joe.”
His head jerked around. “How do you know that?”
“We overheard them talking. Listen, Tabby’s up at the milking barn, but she’ll be here any second. Then we can go.”
“Too late to outrun it,” he said. “We’ll have to hunker down.”
Hope of escape had lightened the panic that scrabbled for purchase in the back of my mind. Now the fear clawed its way back, and I had to clench my fists to stop my hands from trembling.
“Stay in here?” I gestured at the milk bottles stacked in crates against the wall. “That’d be suicide.”
“Be better to get up to the house.”
“Ray and his dad are already settled in there,” I said. “I doubt they’d welcome our company.”
Tabby ran in the door, and Jaikes’ hand flew to his gun. The holster was already unsnapped.
Without a word, she pointed out the window behind him. The tornado had halved the distance, and we could see how fast it was moving now. As one, we turned and dashed out the door toward the drainage ditch that ran along the driveway into the dairy. Jaikes slipped down the side and landed on his wounded arm, swearing loudly. I slithered down behind him, and Tabby followed.
Prone on our stomachs, we tucked our heads and put our hands over the backs of our necks. I squeezed my eyes shut and whispered disjointed prayers as the insanely loud rumbling of an approaching freight train bore down.

_____

An eternity later, quiet returned. I raised my head above the edge of the ditch and surveyed the damage. Pieces of fencing littered the parking lot. A metal barrel had shattered one of the windows in the classroom, and part of the chicken house roof had up and disappeared. But as I watched, a rooster strutted out and crowed his defiance at the receding storm. My old friend Billy the goat peered around a corner, already chewing on God-knew-what. But all the buildings still stood, whole and largely unharmed.
The twister had passed us by. Not by much, but by enough.
Relief flooded through me.
The sound of frightened cows echoed down from the barn. Tabby leapt to her feet and raced back up the hill. Jaikes yelled at her to come back, but either she didn’t hear him or didn’t care. The roar of an engine made us turn our heads. A car careened down the driveway toward us, dodging tumbleweeds and crunching over cottonwood branches. The door opened and Investigator Schumaker was out of the cruiser almost before it stopped.
Sheesh. Was this crazy afternoon ever going to end?
I was on my knees, still half in the ditch. The stiff dry grass poked into my skin, which was already sore from the hailstones. I wondered whether I’d have dozens of perfectly round little bruises tomorrow.
Tomorrow. There would be a tomorrow after all. That thought drove me to my feet.
Schumaker paused when he saw me, then immediately turned to Jaikes. “Everyone all right, sir?”
“Far as we know. The Dunners are holed up in the house. Apparently they’re both armed. One of them shot me.”
The investigator’s eyes narrowed as he took in his boss’ towel-wrapped arm. “How bad?”
“Not too bad. I’m functional.”
“Well, then. Let’s go get them.”
“So you already knew Ogden killed Joe?” I asked. “Forensic evidence? Blood spatter?”
Schumaker shuffled his feet. “Er …”
“We didn’t know,” Jaikes said. “I came out here to talk to Tabby Bines.”
“On your own time.” When Schumaker spoke, their eyes locked and something passed between the two men.
“I talked to Krista last night.” The sheriff frowned at me. “She told me you called her.”
“Yes.” And I wasn’t about to apologize for it.
The third gunshot of the afternoon reverberated through the air.
“Tabby,” I said in alarm. “I thought she went back up to the barn to check on her cows.”
“Stay here!” Schumaker yelled at me, and both men took off at a run.
Fat chance.
I slogged up the hill after them. And here I’d been complaining about not getting enough exercise in Colorado. Still, I’d specifically told Tabby not to die today, and I meant it. She still hadn’t answered my most important question about Bobby Lee.
The two men went to the back of the house, disappearing from my view. As I approached loud voices reached my ears, then a scream I recognized as Tabby’s. Unlike her scream of horror when she’d discovered Joe lying in a pool of blood and cream, this scream held raw fury. I slowed and carefully eased my head around the corner.
Tabby and Ogden Dunner were in the dirt, rolling and kicking and punching like twelve-year-olds on the playground. They seemed to be evenly matched, neither gaining the upper hand. Ray stood over them, pointing a wavering gun as he looked for an opening to shoot.
“Freeze!”
Feet wide apart, a sweating and disheveled Inspector Schumaker trained his own gun on Ray Dunner like a caricature out of a bad movie. And Ray froze.
I joined the group. Beside me, Sheriff Jaikes sighed, walked over to Ray, wrested the gun from his hand and put it in his pocket.
“Stop acting like kids and get up,” he said to the pair on the ground.
Tabby rolled off Ogden and got to her feet. Mud smeared her jeans and T-shirt and arms. A streak of it smudged her cheek. Grass stuck out of her hair, which had come loose from its ponytail and now curled around a bloody scrape on her jaw.
I joined the party. Other than a disapproving glance from Schumaker, no one seemed to notice.
Jaikes helped Ogden up, then held out his right hand. Sheepishly, the older man reached into his own pocket and gave him the gun. “I don’t even know how to use it.”
“Guess that means you’re the one who shot me?” The sheriff glared at Ray, who winced. “Hmph. And is that why you bashed Joe Bines over the head with a bottle of cream, Ogden? ’Cause you didn’t know how to shoot a gun?”
Tabby’s eyes blazed and she took a step forward. Jaikes shook his head without looking at her. She stopped. Waited.
Ogden Dunner slumped, and he looked down at the ground. After several seconds he straightened and raised his head. The heaviness seemed to lift from his shoulders. A calm settled into his eyes.
“If you’re asking if I killed him, the answer is yes.”
“Dad.” Ray took a step. Schumaker grabbed his arms and quickly cuffed his hands behind his back. The younger Dunner looked surprised for a moment, before his familiar angry expression returned.
“No, Son. This is best,” Ogden said. “Confession is good for the soul, and God knows my soul could use some good.” He held out his wrists to the sheriff.
“Is that necessary?” Jaikes asked.
“No.”
“Well, then: You have the right to remain …”
The sheriff Mirandized Ogden Dunner and then did the same to Ray Dunner. Ogden hadn’t seemed like a killer, but now I could see he possessed considerably more mettle than his blowhard son. Ray huffed and puffed and turned red in the face, while Ogden appeared to be almost relieved.
Jaikes finished, and silence fell upon the motley crew gathered behind the house. A few intrepid bovines exited the barn and ambled around to eyeball us with dull curiosity. Tabby must have opened the barn doors before stumbling on the Dunners exiting the house.
“Why did you kill Joe?” I asked Ogden before anyone could stop me.

The sheriff glared at
me. Schumaker opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again when Ogden nodded and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Son.”
“Shut up, old man.”
Resignation tempered Ogden’s obvious regret. “No. It’s time.” His gaze flicked from one face to another, settled on mine. “The night Gwen Miller died, Joe pulled me aside. He told me she hadn’t fallen in the river by accident. Ray had become angry and pushed her in, on purpose.”
“That’s a lie!” Ray said. Schumaker’s grip on his arm tightened, and he gave him a little shake. Ray ignored him. “You were always ready to believe the worst about me. You never took my side.”
Ogden’s eyes cut to his son. “I took your side more often than I should have.” He sighed and looked back at me. “Joe said he’d keep what he saw to himself if we’d leave him and Tabby out of the whole thing. I didn’t know what to think, but I agreed and made up a couple of runaways named Tom and Jane Smith.”
Something must have shown on my face, because he smiled. “I know. Not very original. But it wasn’t like I had a great plan to cover everything up. Just reacted to the circumstances. In fact, I wouldn’t have mentioned them to the authorities at all if I hadn’t heard Krista say someone else rescued Gwen when we got to the hospital. Then we had to scramble to get our stories straight, and to convince Krista to go along with it.”
Jaikes glowered at this mention of his daughter. “So Ray threatened to kill her? What kind of a preacher were you, getting your son to do that?”
“I guess I wasn’t a very good preacher, was I? But I didn’t know about any threats. Ray told me Krista went along with the story because she was afraid she’d get in trouble for drinking.” He cocked his head to one side and considered his son. “You threatened to
kill
her?”
“Of course not. See. There you go again, willing to believe anything anyone says about me.”
The naked anger shining in Jaikes eyes betrayed his own personal stake in Ogden’s tale. “Krista told me last night that she’d also seen your son push the Miller girl into the river. That was why he threatened her—to keep her from saying anything.”
Ogden rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m sorry he frightened her, Sheriff. I didn’t know.”
Ray made a sound in the back of his throat.
“I thought that was the end of it, but Joe came back,” Ogden said. “He wanted more after he found out Gwen actually died. I was afraid Ray would be convicted of killing her. I didn’t want him to go to prison, but I didn’t have any money. Joe told me he’d take this land in exchange for his silence. It couldn’t happen right away, though, or people might put two and two together. He was willing to wait for two years. I accepted the deal and thanked God for sparing my son’s freedom.”
Ray’s shoulders sagged, and he stared at the ground. Schumaker shuffled his feet and looked impatient. Tabby watched with a blank face as the lies she’d so carefully built her life upon came to light.
“But I didn’t know the full story, Sheriff,” Ogden continued. “I didn’t know your daughter had also seen Ray push that girl into the river. I didn’t know he’d threatened her into silence. And I didn’t know that Ray would probably only have been charged with manslaughter. He hadn’t tried to kill her; he’d only been playing around. Isn’t that true, son? It was actually all just an accident?”
I didn’t know whether he was trying to convince us or himself.
“I didn’t mean to kill her,” Ray said in a dull monotone.
“You didn’t kill her. The hypothermia did. In fact, I’m to blame as much as anyone because I didn’t take her straight to the hospital. If I had, they might have saved her. But I was weak. I wanted to keep the incident quiet, and I blame myself for that girl dying.”
“Is that another reason you gave the land away?” I asked as gently as I could. “To punish yourself?”
His lips turned up in a slight smile. “You know, Ms. Reynolds, I think that might be true, though giving up that land was easier than I thought it would be. The dream was gone. And it didn’t seem right to continue as pastor at my little church, so I gave that up, too. Took out a loan, and started the car lot.
“I filed the quit claim deed. When Ray found out, he told me he hadn’t meant to kill Gwen Miller. That it was an accident.”
Oh brother, I thought. Ogden might understand his son’s true nature, but he was still willing to protect him whenever he could.
“But it was done,” he continued, “and there was no way to reverse it. So I took it as God’s will, and we went on with our lives.”
“Until Joe called you again recently,” I guessed.
“Until he called and said there was more evidence, concrete evidence, that implicated everyone that night in the Miller girl’s death as well as your brother’s death. He told me to bring all the money I could lay my hands on.”
I shook my head. “Tabby, why would Joe think that? He hadn’t even seen the letter.”
“I don’t know. What did you tell him it said?” Accusation dripped from her words.
I tried to remember. “I said it was very revealing. He jumped on that, said Bobby Lee was a liar. But I never said anything about Rancho Sueńo or—”
Or any of the other stories I’d found in the newspaper. The rest of the puzzle pieces snapped into place with an almost audible snap.
Holy cow.
“—or anything else that could possibly be taken as incriminating. It was almost as if his guilty conscience took control. Ogden, did Joe want cash?”
He nodded. “As much as I could get within the hour. He said it would be just this once. Of course, I’d heard that twice before, so I didn’t believe him. But what was I going to do? So I grabbed all the cash we had in the store and withdrew a couple hundred dollars from the ATM. When I got here, he told me it wasn’t enough. Said he was going to the authorities, bring everything to light.”
“Including his own blackmail?” I asked. Another part of my mind was working out the timing. Ogden must have left the dairy mere minutes before Tabby and I came out of the house. If I’d left a little earlier we might have prevented his death.
If, if, if.
He closed his eyes and covered them with his hands. “I told him he would just have to go ahead, then. That I didn’t have anything else to give, and that he’d be revealing himself as a blackmailer. He was frantic. He pushed me against the wall. Said he’d kill me, kill my son if we said anything. Came right out and said that. Said he knew I could get more money, that he needed it now. He was acting like a crazy man. I panicked, grabbed the first thing that came to hand, and … I hit him with it.”
He swallowed and licked his lips. “I didn’t mean to kill him. But that hardly matters now, does it?”
Actually, it might make a very real difference in how he would be charged and sentenced.
I looked into Tabby’s clear blue eyes. “Do you have any idea why Joe wanted cash right away?”
Slowly, she shook her head. I held her gaze, though, and saw the awareness surface as she thought about it. She quickly turned her head and appeared to examine the devastation the storm had left behind.
“Because I think I do.” I turned to Jaikes. “He was going to run away and leave his wife to deal with all the fallout. Did your daughter tell you Tabby and Joe were at Rancho Sueńo the night Ray here pushed his girlfriend in the freezing cold river?”
The sheriff’s lips pressed together. “Why, yes. As a matter of fact, she did.” He walked over to Ray Dunner, who flinched at his approach. “You made my own daughter lie to me, on the most traumatic night of her life,” he grated out. “But now she’s willing to testify against your sorry ass. As am I.”
It was a good thing Inspector Schumaker was standing there, or else his boss might have flattened the suspect then and there.
I was proud of his daughter’s willingness to come forward after living in terror of Ray Dunner for so long. I wondered whether she’d called her father because I’d called her, or whether Schumaker had related what I’d told him in Zillah’s Café and Jaikes had contacted her. In the end, though, it hardly mattered which.
“Could I show you something, Sheriff?” I asked. “You, too, Inspector.”
“What?”
“It’s in the classroom. And Tabby? I think you’d better come along as well.”