Tax Assassin (18 page)

“
What if he’s holding them
hostage?”

“
They could be in
counseling or something,” Seth said.

“
Counseling?” Ava
asked.

“
Or he could have killed
them in October. How long does it take to dispose of a
body?”

“
For a high school science
teacher?” Ava asked. “With Lye or Drano over the body and in this
heat? Maybe a week on the outside. That would contaminate the
ground water.”

“
Why wait until August?”
Seth said.

“
Because they’re not dead
yet.” Ava gave an involuntary shiver. Clara lifted her head from
the back seat to see if Ava needed her.

“
You okay?” Seth
asked.

Ava scooted over to sit next to him.

“
Do you mind?” Ava
asked.

Seth smiled, and she rested her head on his
shoulder.

TWENTY-ONE

They drove the rest of the way to Trinidad
in silence. At the motel, they took Clara for a walk around the
perimeter to shake off their gloom. When they returned to their
room, Ava ducked into the bathroom. Clara jumped onto the bed, and
Seth went to the desk where the yellow message light blinked.

“
There’s someone here for
you,” the motel manager said.

“
Who?”

“
Sheriff’s deputy,” the
motel manager whispered. “Been waiting for you.”

“
We’ll be right there,”
Seth said.

“
Who is it?” Ava
asked.

“
Deputy sheriff,” Seth
checked his handgun and put it back in the holster but didn’t snap
it in.

“
Something going
on?”

“
No way to know,” Seth
said. “We’ve been stirring the pot in a small town. It’s best to be
prepared.”

Ava nodded and put Clara in her crate. They
went down the hall to meet the deputy sheriff. They stopped in the
entryway to the breakfast area and lobby. From behind the counter,
the manager pointed to a man sitting with his back to them.

“
Sir,” Seth
said.

The deputy looked up. Seeing them, he stood.
The deputy sheriff was tall and thickly built. He had the look of
an aging quarterback and the large, light-gray felt Stetson of a
southern Colorado rancher. He gave Ava a quick once-over before
turning his full attention to Seth.

“
You O’Malley?” the deputy
asked.

“
Seth O’Malley,” Seth shook
the deputy’s hand.

“
You must be Amelie Vivian
Alvin,” the deputy said. He didn’t offer her his hand.

“
I am,” she
smiled.

“
I’ve followed your work,”
the deputy said. “Both of you. O’Malley, you’re a legend. I drove
the wife crazy with all the details of the Cigarette Killer. For
the life of me, I didn’t see that coming. And Saint Jude! Bastard
who killed all those kids was a child psychiatrist?”

Uncomfortable, Seth looked around the room.
Except for the motel manager, they were alone.

“
And you!” The deputy
turned to Ava. “You found the treatment for that First Responder’s
thing. Got an award from the president. You mind if I call you
Ava?”

Ava shook her head.

“
I’m Deputy Sheriff James
Thatcher,” he smiled. “Everybody who rides in the front calls me
Jimmy. Those who ride in the back usually call me ‘son-of-a-bitch.’
But you’d know all about that.”

He nodded to Seth and Seth smiled.

“
Nice to meet you,” Seth
said. Ava shifted closer to Seth.

“
It’s a great honor to meet
you,” he said.

“
What can we do for you?”
Seth slipped his arm around Ava.

“
We got a call from Denver
PD that you were here,” Jimmy said. “They asked if we would check
out the science lab of Hoehne High School for a shooting up in
Denver. Buddy of mine said you’re looking into the
Blooms.”

His tone was neutral, but the deputy’s
posture indicated his intense interest.

“
Do you know them?” Seth
asked.

“
Sure,” Jimmy said. “My
family and theirs, we’ve been in Piñon Valley for a century or
more. I went to high school with Hill-three.”

“
Hill-three?” Seth
asked.

“
That’s what we called him,
‘Hill-three’. Lots of us have family names so we’re all, Cody-four,
or whatever. I’m just Jimmy.”

“
Why’s that?” Seth
asked.

“
My family isn’t so
interested in pure blood lines and crap like that,” Jimmy said. “My
mom’s from Michigan.”

He gave Seth a big smile.

“
Why are you looking into
Hill-three?” Jimmy asked.

“
We’re wondering if he’s up
to something,” Seth shrugged.

“
Nah,” Jimmy shook his
head. “Magic O’Malley doesn’t come all this way in the middle of
the night to see if some high school science teacher is ‘up to
something.’”

Seth scowled at the deputy.

“
We can always go into the
office and talk,” the deputy said.

Seth’s expression didn’t change. The deputy
looked at Ava.

“
Damn, I can’t even last a
couple of minutes under the famous O’Malley scowl,” Jimmy beamed.
“What do you want to know?”

“
When was the last time you
saw Bloom’s wife?” Seth asked.

“
Meldy?” the deputy looked
surprised. “Meldy isn’t around much.”

“
Marriage problems?” Ava
asked.

“
She works in Albuquerque
at Sandia National Labs,” Jimmy shrugged. “Only comes home on the
weekends. Why?”

“
She’s been on leave from
her job since early last summer,” Seth said. “Family medical
leave.”

“
Oh right, Hill-three’s
s’posed to be sick,” Jimmy nodded.

“
Supposed to be sick?” Ava
asked.

“
Oh, he had that thing when
we were in high school,” Jimmy said.

“
What thing?” Ava
asked.

“
I don’t know what it is,”
Jimmy said. “Some kidney thing. Made him sick and
sterile.”

Jimmy nodded to Seth.

“
Sterile?” Seth
asked.

“
Yeah,” Jimmy gestured to
the motel manager behind the counter. “Delores, isn’t Hill-three
sterile?”

“
That’s what he told
everyone,” the motel manager said. “I don’t believe anything that
man said. Ever.”

“
He used to brag about all
the girls he bagged because he couldn’t get ‘em pregnant,” Jimmy
laughed.

The motel manager gave the deputy a
disgusted look and went into the back.

“
What about the kids?” Seth
asked.

“
They’re not his,” Jimmy
said.

“
Whose kids are they?” Ava
asked.

“
His brother’s,” Jimmy
said. “Strangest thing. About ten years ago . . . no
. . . I guess it’s more like fourteen now, because my
Dakota turned fourteen last week and their Ginny is the same
age.”

“
What happened fourteen
years ago?” Seth asked.

“
Right,” Jimmy said. “It
was the damnedest thing, but Hill-three’s brother was shot. They
were living in Las Cruces and working at White Sands.”

“
They?”

“
Howard – that’s
Hill-three’s brother – and Meldy,” Jimmy said. “It was a big deal
because they never found out who killed him. They work on these
hush-hush government projects, so they figured he was killed for
what he knew, or whatever.”

“
Late nineties?” Seth
asked.

“
Yeah, that’s right,” Jimmy
said. “How’d you know?”

“
We’re tracking unsolved
murders around the country,” Seth said. “There were a few of them
in Las Cruces that year.”

“
You think Hill-three’s a
serial killer?”

“
Murder-for-hire,” Seth
glanced at Jimmy to see what he thought of that.

“
Sure, I bet you’re right,”
Jimmy nodded. “I could see that. Probably to pay his
taxes.”

Jimmy’s belly laugh echoed around the glass
walls of the breakfast area. When Seth and Ava didn’t respond, he
stopped laughing.

“
You’re serious,” Jimmy
said.

TWENTY-TWO

Seth nodded.

“
Crap,” Jimmy said. “His
daddy too?”

“
Just an idea,” Seth
shrugged. “You were telling us about Meldy Bloom. When did she
marry Hill-three?”

“
She was pregnant with
Ginny when Howie died,” Jimmy said. “Devastated. She’s my cousin so
she and the girls stayed with us for a while. We helped out as much
as we could but . . . She wanted to sell her share
of the ranch and get away, but . . .”

“
Imelda Thatcher was my
best friend in high school.” The motel manager said as she walked
toward them. “She and Howie started dating in junior high. His
daddy didn’t like it because the Thatchers aren’t pure Piñon Valley
like Jimmy told you. But Howie didn’t care. They went away to
college together at Texas Tech. No one was surprised when they got
married. When Howie died, she was destroyed. Her girls were just
more than babies. There she was with a belly full of baby, and that
Hillery wouldn’t leave her alone. He was relentless, but you know
why, right?”

“
Why?” Seth
asked.

“
The Bloom land belonged to
Howie’s mother,” Delores nodded. “When his momma died, she willed
the land to the boys with the stipulation that their father could
live out his life there. Two equal shares – the ranch land for
Hill-three, and the hunting land around the Apishapa Wilderness
Area for Howie.”

“
Hill-three loves to
ranch,” Jimmy said.

“
There’s more money in
hunting,” Delores said. “Showing tourists around and the like. It
didn’t surprise me when Hill-three ended up owning all of it.
Didn’t surprise me one bit.”

“
Why did she marry
him?”

“
She didn’t know what else
to do,” Delores said. “He was sweet to her and the girls; said they
were family, and on and on. She’d been with Howie so long that
she’d basically grown up with Hill-three as an older brother. And
he really turned on the charm. I’ll tell you, she regretted it
right after.”

“
How do you know?” Seth
asked.

“
She told me,” Delores
said. “She took the job in Albuquerque to get away from him. She
and the girls would commute back and forth.”

“
She took the girls with
her?” Seth asked.

“
That’s right,” Jimmy
nodded. “Until they wanted to stay here. My Melody and Ginny are
close. The oldest, Hillary? She was a favorite of Hill-three’s dad.
She started going to school here when she was in junior
high.”

“
They pumped the child up
with stories of how their family were heroes in the Civil War,”
Delores said. “Meldy was horrified, but there wasn’t much she could
do about it.”

“
Did the other girls go to
school here?” Seth asked.

“
Not until high school,”
Jimmy said. Delores nodded.

“
When was the last time you
saw Meldy?” Seth asked.

Jimmy and Delores looked at each other and
shrugged.

“
The girls?” Ava
asked.

“
I saw them at graduation,”
Jimmy said. “All of them were there when Hillary, the oldest,
graduated.”

“
And their mom?” Seth
asked.

“
Hill-three said she was
doing some testing or something secret for the government,” Jimmy
shook his head. “I thought it was weird. I mean, Meldy loved those
girls but . . . Did you see her?”

Her eyes filled with worry, and Delores bit
her lip and shook her head. Seth sensed that she wasn’t telling him
everything.

“
Anything you want to add?”
Seth asked.

“
If there’s anything,” Ava
said. “Every detail helps us figure out what’s going
on.”

Delores glanced at Jimmy.

“
I’m not gonna tell anyone
anything, Del,” Jimmy said. “You know I won’t.”

“
She used to come here with
a man from work,” Delores said.

“
A man?”

“
She said that she and
Hill-three were getting divorced,” Delores said. “She was waiting
for the divorce to be final, and Hillary to graduate high school. I
saw them in the pool . . . uh . . .
the two younger girls and her guy. They were having a great time.
They seemed really, really happy. And Meldy, for the first time
since Howie died, she actually seemed at ease.”

“
When was that?” Seth
asked.

“
I’d have to look,” Delores
said. “Sometime last year.”

“
Last summer?” Seth
asked.

“
No. Meldy, the younger
girls, and her guy spent most of the summer on an island off
Vancouver,” Delores said.

“
She’s on family medical
leave from Sandia,” Seth said. “While her husband was in the
hospital.”

“
Who’d you hear that from?”
Jimmy asked.

“
Hoehne principal, I
guess,” Seth said.

“
He must be going for
disability,” Jimmy said.