Ten-Gallon Tensions in Texas: A Kate on Vacation Mystery (The Kate on Vacation Mysteries Book 3) (12 page)

Kate let out a soft snort. “That’s pretty much what José said last night.”

Joellen shook her head. “They were part of the reason Sam and I split up. Constantly hangin’ around the house, drinkin’ our beer, acting just as stupid as they did in high school.”

“Some people never seem to get past that stage,” Kate said.

“Yeah well, nowadays I wonder if Sam ever did either. Oh, he seemed much more sophisticated, but he sure liked to soak up the attention from those two.”

“Joellen, do you think it was Sam who sabotaged Jimmy Bolton’s business?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t put it past him. What Sam wanted he figured he deserved, and he didn’t let nobody get in his way.”

“I’m kind of surprised this town could support two car dealerships to begin with. I’d think one of them would have gone out of business long before this. How many new cars can a few thousand residents buy?”

“Oh the car sales aren’t that important. It’s the service that pays the bills. And everybody needs their vehicle repaired now and again.”

“And one’s reputation would be even more important when it came to service.” Kate tapped her fingers against her lips. “But the rumors Suzanne mentioned, they were more about sales issues, not checking over used cars before reselling them and such.”

Joellen shrugged. “Who wants to take their car or truck for service to somebody who ain’t honest?”

“Good point,” Kate said.

“And then there was the sugar in the tanks of the cars in for service,” Joellen said.

Kate’s head jerked up. They’d all agreed to keep that under wraps.

The other woman quickly dropped her gaze to her now empty coffee cup.

Maybe Bobby Joe told her.

Joellen abruptly rose to her feet. “I’m gonna get some more coffee. You want some?”

“Sure,” Kate said, even though she rarely drank coffee past lunchtime.

While the other woman was gone, she tried to think of a way to draw her out about her ex-husband. The man had far more enemies than friends. But what had happened recently that might have driven one of those enemies to kill him?

Kate’s mind drifted back to her conversation that morning with Carolyn Beauford. Had Sam tried something else with her?

When Joellen returned with two steaming cups, Kate said, “Skip bought me a ladies’ Stetson yesterday, at Carolyn’s shop.”

Joellen looked up at the top of her head, as if to say,
Where is it?

Kate glanced around the room. Indeed a couple of the remaining female diners wore such headgear, but they also wore denim or plaid shirts and blue jeans. She was pretty sure she would never wear that Stetson without feeling silly in it.

“I got the impression that her husband and Sam were not on very friendly terms lately.”

Joellen shook her head sadly. “Haven’t been since before Sam and I were married. Way I heard it, some nasty words were said one night, at a family supper. You know how families can be.”

Kate decided to let that go. She didn’t want to give away Carolyn’s confidences. And something else had occurred to her.

“Carolyn’s awfully proud of her boys.”

Joellen nodded. “She’s got reason to be. They’re smart as whips. Their oldest, Pete, he just graduated from law school at the head of his class.”

Kate noted that Walt Beauford had named his eldest after his dead brother. She wondered how that had gone over with his parents. “So you had some contact with their family?” she said.

“Some. As much as I could get away with without Sam gettin’ mad. Carolyn was a few years behind me in school, but we were both cheerleaders.”

“Carolyn looks so young to be the mother of a grown son.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you start right out of high school. Pete was premature.” Joellen came down hard on the last word. “Born seven months after they got married.”

Did people still use that subterfuge for a child conceived before the marital knot was tied? Well, maybe not today, but in small-town Texas twenty-some years ago, perhaps.

Especially if
…

Kate’s thought was interrupted by the sight of her husband, looking vaguely frantic, stepping through the front door of the restaurant. A waitress approached him, shaking her head. He said something, his body language tense.

Kate raised a hand to catch his attention. He looked her way. Relief washed over his face.

Pushing past the waitress, he strode to their booth. “Where have you been?”

She stiffened at his demanding tone, then tilted her head at him. It wasn’t like him to lose his cool.

He reached for her arm. “Come on.”

Her back up, she considered resisting. But he wouldn’t be acting this way unless something was wrong.

She let him pull her to her feet. “Nice talking to you, Joellen.”

The woman gave Skip a curious look, but then nodded slightly. “Y’all have a good day.”

Skip hustled Kate out onto the sidewalk.

Once there, he steered her in the direction of Bolton Cars. “Willy and Sid are out on bail.” He sounded slightly out of breath. “José was trying to keep them locked up until Monday, but Sam’s lawyer showed up and posted bail.”

“Sam’s lawyer? Why would he do that? Sam’s not around anymore to foot the bill.”

“I don’t know. But I want you and the kids to fly home early, tonight if possible.”

Kate stopped walking. “That’s crazy, Skip. It would cost a bundle to change our tickets at the last minute, and your mother would never forgive us for taking her grandchildren away from her early.”

“She’d understand.” He skimmed his hair back off his forehead, then took her arm again and started them moving. “Let’s get out of downtown. I don’t want anybody to hear us.”

“Sweetheart, aren’t you being a tad paranoid. I know those two aren’t the brightest bulbs in the package but they wouldn’t be so dumb as to try anything again.”

He blew out air. “I don’t know. It doesn’t totally make sense that they came after me last night, especially with you there as a witness. Unless they got so liquored up they convinced themselves my coming home somehow caused Sam’s death.”

Kate gave that some thought as they walked. “If they thought that, they may be right in a way. Not that you being here triggered Sam’s murder, but maybe the reunion did.”

He let go of her upper arm and took her hand instead. “You may be onto something there. If somebody had been wanting to get rid of Sam, and there’s lots of folks who might, the reunion gave them a good opportunity. All kinds of people milling around, and lots of out-of-towners to confuse the issue.”

Kate slowly let out her pent up breath. He seemed to be steadier now. And his detective brain was in gear, finally. “What about the cocaine angle? Has José gotten anywhere with that?”

Skip shook his head. “He’d love to find out who Sam’s supplier was, not just to see if he knows anything about his death, but to put him out of business. No doubt he’s selling to more than just Sam’s cohorts.”

Kate stopped walking again and turned to face him. “Hey, I’ve got an idea.” No one was nearby but she dropped her voice anyway. “Maybe José could offer a plea bargain on the assault charges if Willy tells him who’s selling cocaine.”

He started to rub his jaw, winced, and poked gingerly at the slight swelling there. “Not sure I’m willing to let those bastards off the hook for jumping us.”

“Not let them off the hook completely. They plead guilty to a lesser charge. That way you won’t have to fly out here to testify when their case comes to trial.”

“That has considerable appeal. Let’s go check on Suze at the car lot and then find José.”

Kate glanced at her watch. Three-thirty. “You go check on your sister. I’ll meet you at José’s office. I want to check something at the courthouse before they close.”

“What?”

She hesitated. “I’d rather not say unless I’m sure it’s significant. It’s about something that was told to me in confidence.”

He tilted his head to one side, then gave a slight nod. “Watch out for Willy and Sid.”

They parted ways and she headed toward the courthouse, not sure what she was hoping she would find. She didn’t want sweet Carolyn Beauford to have a motive to kill her brother-in-law, but she also wanted this damn case solved so that Skip and his family could relax and enjoy the rest of their visit.

It didn’t take her long to find the documents she was seeking. As she’d suspected, Peter Beauford, eldest son of Walter and Carolyn, was born forty-one weeks after their graduation from high school. He was a healthy baby, weighing in at seven pounds, six ounces. Hardly premature. He came along seven months after his parents’ nuptials at the local Baptist church.

But what did that prove? Not much. Peter could be Sam’s biological son. Or just as likely, Walt and Carolyn were sexually active before graduation and had conceived their firstborn out of wedlock.

In the early nineties, the latter was actually
more
likely, even in a conservative small town.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Saturday dawned dry and bright. That vague restless feeling drove Skip out of bed early. He slipped out of the house and sat on the porch steps. The June sun beat down on his bare head. He wished he’d brought his hat out with him.

Back home the sun wouldn’t be this intense until late July or August.

When had he started thinking of Maryland as home? Even before he’d married Kate, he’d had no desire to come back to Texas.

He gazed down the road toward town. The heat created a mirage of dampness on the asphalt in the distance. A puff of warm air–nowhere near enough to be considered a breeze–stirred the grass along the sides of the road. Dust particles shimmered in the sunlight.

He’d tried again last night to convince Kate to go home early. Maybe she would have agreed if he’d included himself in the deal. But he felt the need to stick around, at least until Sam’s murder was solved.

His brother-in-law wasn’t even pretending to go to work anymore, and his sister was freaking out. The more she tried to make sense of her husband’s bookkeeping, the more she was realizing they were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Hopefully now that it was getting around town that Sam had been sabotaging Jimmy’s business, things would get better. People had kissed up to Sam Beauford because he was the richest, most powerful man in town, but they hadn’t liked him.

The screen door squeaked behind him. He turned his head. His wife crossed the porch and sat down beside him.

“You’re up early,” she said.

“Woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

She rested a hand on his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder. “So what exciting adventures will we have today in Beauford, Texas?”

He chuckled softly. “Are you implyin’ that my hometown is boring?”

She moved her head on his shoulder in a nod. “About as thrilling as watching grass grow.”

“Even with a murder to spice things up?”

“Yeah, that kind of excitement I could live without. Did you hear back from José about the plea bargain idea?”

“Yeah. Willy’s still refusing to admit that he knows anything about any cocaine dealers in town. But José was going to take another crack at Sid today. He’s even dumber than Willy. José may be able to trap him into giving something away.”

“Maybe Willy isn’t using coke.”

“Oh, yeah,” Skip said, “if Sam was, he was.”

“But maybe Sam supplied it.”

“That’s a distinct possibility.” He looked at his watch. “Bolton Car’s service department is open half a day on Saturdays. Bobby Joe should be gettin’ there about now. Let’s go talk to him.”

“What for, now that we know he wasn’t even at the reunion Friday night?”

He pushed himself to a stand and reached out a hand to her. “Beats sittin’ here staring at the scenery.”

Kate looked around at the hot, dry landscape. “True.” She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

Kate changed into her sneakers and retrieved their hats from the bedroom, while Skip wrote a note for his mother and left it on the kitchen table.

They walked to the car lot and found Bobby Joe in the service garage. The Rottweiler whimpered from where she was chained in a corner. Kate made a beeline for her blanket to pet her.

Bobby Joe shook his head. “Suzanne makes me keep her tied up in here when we’re open. She doesn’t want the customers figurin’ out that the dog’s a wimp.”

Skip shook the man’s hand, ignoring the grease streaks on it. “How’s it goin’?”

“Better,” Bobby Joe said, nodding a greeting in Kate’s direction. “Been a whole week now without any sabotage. And business is pickin’ up.”

“Good. You too busy to talk?”

“Naw, the boys can handle things out here for a while.” The head mechanic waved his hand in the general direction of two overall-clad butts sticking out from under open hoods in the service bays. “Come on in the office outta the heat.”

In the service department office, Bobby Joe plopped down into the chair behind his desk.  It squeaked in protest.

Kate took the sole visitor’s chair. She removed her hat and put it awkwardly on her lap. Skip figured he might as well give up on her getting used to wearing it.

He perched a bun on the corner of the desk. “Glad to hear business is better.” He rested his own hat on his knee. “My sister’s been kinda worried.”

“Me too,” Bobby Joe said. “I didn’t really relish the idea of goin’ back to fixin’ machinery at the plastics plant, that’s even if they’re hirin’.”

“Did you tell Joellen about the sugar in the tanks?” Kate asked.

Skip stared at her for a beat, wondering where that question had come from. She gave him a slight shake of her head.

Bobby Joe was also shaking his head. “I get along okay with my sister, but we’re not super close. We don’t talk all that often.”

“That was a nice present you got your nephew,” Kate said. “That baseball bat.”

“I try to pay some attention to the boy, since his daddy sure didn’t. At least not until recently. And now he won’t be around to pay attention to his son at all.”

“What happened recently?” Kate asked.

Skip gave his wife another searching look. For somebody who thought there was no point in talking to Bobby Joe, she sure was full of questions.