Tax Assassin (25 page)

“
And your daughter?” Seth
asked.

“
Hillary, oh God, poor
Hillary.” Hill-three sobbed into his hands. Ava put her hand on his
shoulder to steady him.

“
They’re going to be here
any minute,” Seth said.

Hill-three nodded.

“
What happened to Hillary?”
Seth asked.

“
When he freaked out and
killed Phillip, he didn’t remember anything about moving, nothing.
He declared that we’d all stay there and he’d train Hillary to take
his place, but she . . . she’s just a sweet girl. She
called me after . . . She was hysterical. I thought she’d
kill herself, throw herself off the building. I think she would
have if her mother hadn’t been held hostage, and her sisters. You
know what he made her do?”

Seth nodded.

“
Someone beat Meldy really
badly,” Ava said. “The young girls were assaulted. Was that
you?”

“
No way,” Hill-three said.
“But I was there. Hillary too. He tied us up, too – made us watch.
He killed Phillip and his brother in front of all of us. Ground up
their bodies and . . . We were horrified, absolutely out
of our minds with terror.”

Hill-three dropped his head.

“
You don’t know what he’s
like,” Hill-three’s voice was a whisper.

“
Why make the Army wait
until August to take possession of the land?” Seth
asked.

“
Hillary is a counselor at
summer camp,” Hill-three said. “We wanted to let the kids have one
last summer in the valley before moving to Albuquerque. Of course,
they went to move Howie right after school was out and Dad caught
them. He dragged Hillary and me to the cabin and started
. . .”

Fat tears rolled down Hill-three’s blood
stained cheeks.

“
Hill-three?” Delores’s
voice came from the door. “Seth? Ava? The sheriffs are almost here.
Can I come in? I have ice.”

“
One more question,” Seth
asked.

Hill-three looked up at him.

“
Phillip was your lover?”
Seth asked.

“
How did you know?”
Hill-three asked.

“
Only closeted gay guys
brag about how many women they’ve bagged,” Seth said. “Even in high
school.”

“
That’s me – closeted, gay
man,” Hill-three nodded. “I thought I could cover it up. Meldy, she
was so kind and loving, but she’s never going to love anyone other
than Howie. She wanted me to be happy. And our kids didn’t care. I
met Phillip through her. She pretended he was her lover, so I
. . . so I . . . We were going to sell the land
and live in Albuquerque all together. We’re a family, a real
family, and my Dad even agreed. He agreed. But then like a switch,
he forgot everything and . . .
and . . .”

“
Seth?” Sheriff Jimmy
Thatcher’s voice came from the door. “We’re going to break down the
door if you don’t open it. That’s a big expense for the hotel. You
. . .”

“
You ready?” Seth
asked.

Hill-three nodded and Seth went to open the
door.

“
Thanks for coming,” Seth
said. “He needs to see a doctor. I’d like it if you and Deputy
Robinson took him to Denver to see his wife and kids.”

“
He’s not under arrest?”
Jimmy asked.

“
Protective custody,” Seth
said. “We don’t really know who’s behind all of this, so I’d
appreciate it if you handle the situation carefully.”

“
Didn’t he try to kill
you?” Jimmy asked.

“
I was just reminding a
friend about hand grenades and horseshoes,” Seth smiled. “This is
one of those cases where
almost
doesn’t really count. Ava?”

“
He’s been through enough,
Deputy Thatcher,” Ava said. “It’s time to let this family
heal.”

Deputy Thatcher nodded and came into the
room. For the next couple of hours, Seth and Ava stood to the side
while the Las Animas County sheriffs worked the crime scene. Around
midnight, they were released to go with a warning to be available
if they were needed.

“
Home?” Seth
asked.

Ava nodded. They packed up their few
belongings and grabbed Clara. They stopped for gas and coffee and
hit the highway.

“
So that’s it,” Ava
said.

“
That’s it,” Seth
said.

“
Can you explain it?” Ava
asked.

“
Sure,” Seth said. “Once
upon a time, a Confederate assassin named Hillery Bloom moved to
the Piñon Valley.”

“
Once upon a
time?”

“
I don’t know the exact
date,” Seth said. “Sometime before 1913.”

“
Okay. Go on,” Ava
said.

“
The problem with this
ranch is that the water was contaminated with lead and probably
other heavy metals,” Seth said. “As you know, heavy doses of lead
cause antisocial behavior. Although, given that this guy was a
Confederate assassin, there wasn’t far to swing. Just before the
Great Blizzard of 1913 hit, a tax man named Paul Bradley came to
talk to them about paying property taxes. The Confederate assassin
killed the tax man, but not before fixating on an important bit of
information – the state of Colorado didn’t care how they got the
money to pay their taxes. I can almost hear Paul Bradley saying, ‘I
don’t care if you kill to get the money; you’re going to pay your
taxes on this land.’”

“
Ooooh,” Ava said. “Bad
words of advice for an assassin. You sure?”

“
Evelyn found something in
the old records that all of the tax agents said something like
that. It was a tough time. The state was floundering and really
needed the money.”

“
It seems kind of
reckless,” Ava said.

“
It was the wild, wild
West,” Seth said.

“
Hmm,” Ava said. “Go
on.”

“
Hillery Bloom must have
been a very literal person, because he took the tax agent at his
word. He started killing people to pay his taxes. Hillery Bloom
beget Hillery Bloom Jr. or, as I like to think of him, Gramps, late
in life. Gramps goes with his pappy on killing adventures around
the country. The number of murders equals the amount of money they
needed for property taxes.”

“
Ok, that’s just weird,”
Ava said.

“
Weird is a word for it,”
Seth said. “Gramps married the lovely Mrs. Houghton-Bloom and moved
to the Houghton family ranch on the north side of the valley. At
some point, Hillery Bloom retires from the murder-for-hire business
and Gramps takes over. Eventually, the lead-filled Bloom ranch is
imminent domained by the Army, lots of pent up frustration, yada,
yada, yada.”

“
I always like the
yada-yada parts,” Ava smiled.

“
I know you do,” Seth said.
“Gramps continues to make the tax money by murdering people. When
he has two sons, also later in life, he figures they will follow
him into the business of murder.”

“
But they don’t,” Ava
said.

“
They aren’t the type.
Maybe it’s the lack of lead in the water or a mother’s love or just
random genetics,” Seth said. “But those boys are not murderers.
Gramps kills their mother and Howie, and keeps up the land and
family business. Come last fall, Hill-three is sick again.
Hill-three and Meldy decide to sell the land and live in town.
Gramps realizes the game is up and agrees. The girls are in school,
so they wait out the school year. Phillip and his brother come for
a visit, probably to see Hillary graduate, and Gramps loses
it.”

“
Cancer takes over his
brain and he forgets his agreement,” Ava said.

“
Right,” Seth said. “He
does a lot of horrible things.”

“
With that type of cancer,
he could have easily forgotten everything and gotten fixated on
something,” Ava said. “Like the land.”

“
Right. He’d lost a ranch
to the Army. He wasn’t about to let that happen again.”

Ava smiled.

“
He took this big contract,
we have to assume, in order to buy the land from Hill-three and
Meldy,” Seth said.

“
Or buy it back from the
Army,” Ava said.

“
Maybe, but remember
Hill-three said he didn’t remember anything,” Seth said. “It’s more
likely that he was trying to buy it from Meldy and
Hill-three.”

“
And the
fracking?”

“
Hill-three and Meldy had
already sold the ranch to the Army. Gramps had to do something to
make the land unusable. There was nothing Hill-three or Meldy could
do to stop him.”

“
That’s almost a kind of
brilliant madness,” Ava said.

“
In a psychopathic way,”
Seth said.

“
There’s also the problem
of getting someone to take his place in the murder-for-hire tax
payment plan.”

“
Right. He’d probably spent
the last forty years mulling over what to do. Once the cancer sets
in, his obsession returns. He kills off the lover, kidnaps the
‘cause of all his problems’  . . .”

“
Meldy and the
girls.”

“
Right,” Seth said. “Tries
to toughen everyone up and get the oldest granddaughter, Hillary,
to take his place in the family business.”

“
Which she
does.”

“
Which she’s forced to do,”
Seth said. “I doubt any court will convict her.”

“
I agree,” Ava
said.

“
Gramps kills Bella and
your father with the experimental guided bullets he stole using
Meldy’s access,” Seth said. “Hillary kills the marshals. Gramps
goes after Éowyn and is killed by Switch. Hill-three is supposed to
kill your mom, but leaves before he gets a shot off. In the car, he
hears a voice message, delayed by the Grant County cellular gloom,
and comes to kill us.”

“
Good job,” Ava said. “You
found the men responsible for your friend’s unsolved mystery and
got a killer off the streets. Will you tell McGinty?”

“
After I sleep,” Seth said.
“There are a few unresolved details.”

“
Like what?”

“
Like how Hill-three got to
Trinidad in under five hours,” Seth said.

“
Plane ride to Denver; car
to Trinidad,” Ava said.

“
How did you
know?”

“
I heard the sheriffs
talking,” Ava said.

Seth laughed.

“
What else?” Ava
asked.

“
Where are the horses?”
Seth asked. “Delores said they kept horses there.”

“
I know the answer to that
too,” Ava said. “Since they didn’t live there after Mrs. Bloom
died, they sold the stock to Meldy’s cousin.”

“
And Gramps didn’t
mind?”

“
He didn’t care about
horses,” Ava said. “Or that’s what Jimmy said when I asked him.
Horses are a Houghton and Thatcher thing, not a Bloom
thing.”

“
Ah,” Seth said. “A
Houghton and Thatcher thing.”

“
Anything else I can help
the great detective with?” Ava smirked.

“
Why did Meldy sell when
Howie is buried on the land?” Seth asked.

“
Well, that
is
interesting,” Ava
said. “That’s actually one of the reasons I was in the cabin so
long. Turns out Howie was cremated. His remains were placed at his
favorite place on the land.”

“
The cabin?” Seth
asked.

“
The cabin,” Ava
said.

“
That’s what Hill-three
meant when he said, they went to get Howie,” Seth said. “Makes
sense. Gramps captured them there rather than hauled them there. I
wondered how he pulled that off by himself.”

“
Right. He killed Phillip
and the brother there.”

“
And ground them up?” Seth
asked.

“
There,” Ava said. “He put
them in the garden beds because...” Ava shrugged.

“
He’s a madman?” Seth
asked.

“
Something like
that.”

“
Thanks,” Seth
said.

“
You bet,” Ava smiled. “Who
do you think was behind the contract on my family?”

“
I don’t think we’ll ever
know,” Seth said.

“
Will they come for
. . . us?”

“
I doubt it,” Seth
said.

“
Why?”

“
Because your father is
dead. He was the real target,” Seth said. “But I can ask around if
you’d like.”

“
I’d like that,” Ava
said.

Seth glanced at her and smiled. She reached
over to hold his hand. They lapsed into comfortable silence. After
a few miles, Ava laid her head on his lap and fell asleep.

Seth kept his speed steady as he drove
through Pueblo on I-25. With each passing mile, he knew he was
driving closer to the moment when Ava would leave.

He ran scenarios in his head. Every
possibility ended with her leaving for good. He thought about
stopping the car just to get another few hours with her. But Seth
was never one to avoid his fate. He slowed through Colorado
Springs, but got back up to highway speed for the rest of the trip
to Denver. He pulled up to his father’s house around five in the
morning. Although it was still dark, the light of sunrise had begun
to peek at the edge of the horizon.