Vengeance is Mine (17 page)

Chapter Thirty-three

Something kept nagging Ned about Tommy Lee's murder, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His mind kept going back to his conversation with Wade Reidel on the day Tommy Lee's body was found. He decided to visit Wade or Karen Ann. Either would work for the moment. Ned picked up the microphone. “Cody Parker.”

A moment later, Cody's voice came through the little speaker. “Go ahead, Ned.”

“Where are you?”

“Leaving the courthouse. I dropped off a prisoner.”

“You want to run by Bill Adkins' house and talk to him about Tommy Lee?”

Cody knew exactly what he meant. Bill spent a lot of time rubbing bellies with Karen Ann in the honky-tonks across the river. “You bet. I been planning to go over there anyway.”

“Good. I have a stop to make. I'll meet you there in an hour.”

“Ten-four.”

The nearly twenty-year-old ten-code always annoyed Ned to no end. He preferred to talk in plain English. “All right, then.”

Passing the Plaza Theater, Ned traveled west to a neighborhood of tired frame houses not far from the red brick train station. The splintered boards on the railroad crossing rattled as his tires rolled over the tracks.

Though many of the houses were tired and needed mowing, the neighborhood itself was tidy. Most porches had chairs or swings. A few were occupied by folks who either watched him with suspicious eyes, or old folks who waved whether they knew him or not.

Checking the address scribbled on the Harold Hodges Insurance notepad, Ned steered to the curb in front of a cheaply constructed Texas bungalow that probably looked worn out ten years after it was built. The eaves drooped and the yard hadn't felt a lawnmower blade at any time during the summer.

Ned slammed the car door and studied the house for a moment. A rusty, unsupported water cooler sagged from a window on one side, actually pulling the wall out of plumb. An even rustier screen leaned against the peeling shiplap. The porch contained two chairs and a dead washing machine.

The wooden steps creaked underfoot as Ned stepped into the shade. He opened the warped screen and knocked loudly on the front door. He squinted through the dirty windows. The interior was surprisingly neat. The living room contained an overstuffed sofa, a chair, an upright piano, coffee, and end tables. Each of the tables wore a white doily.

He hammered the door again with his fist, but by that time, Ned was sure nobody was home. He didn't expect Bill Adkins to be there at that time of the day, but he figured he'd give him a try anyway. A minute later he stopped at the top of the steps to think.

“Bill ain't home. He has a job, you know.”

The statement came from a tiny gray-haired woman on the porch next door. Her home was the exact opposite of Bill's rented house. The green yard, blooming plants hugging the foundation, and a variety of hanging and potted plants gave it a cool, jungle feel. “You know Bill pretty well?”

“Who're you? The Law?”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Well, walk over here. I don't aim to holler across at you.”

Trying not to grin, Ned took a moment to cross the yard. He paused halfway up the steps, still not invited all the way onto her porch. “I'm Constable Ned Parker.”

“I can see that, now. My eyes is getting cloudy and I can't make out things from a distance like I used to. I've seen you before. I've lived here all my life.”

“Yessum.” Ned removed his hat and wiped his head with a soft handkerchief from his back pocket. “I'm looking for Bill Adkins. They say he rents that house.”

“Sure 'nuff. Been living there for nigh onto twenty years, and he ain't struck a lick at that yard the whole time.”

“I can see that. Yours looks nice, though.”

She sat as straight as her age would allow. “Thank you. It don't take much more than some water and a handful of fertilizer ever now and then. I scatter my morning coffee grounds on the yard and in my flower bed, too. You ain't asked me my name.”

“No, I haven't.”

“Don't you want to know it for your report?”

“Well, I don't reckon I'll make a report on this visit, but I'd like to know who I'm talking to.”

“You should. I'm Olivia Rose Owens. My husband was the late Walter Cooley Owens. He was the ticket master for the railroad. That's why we lived right 'chere, 'cause he could walk over to the depot each morning after breakfast. He only had one cup of coffee a day, too. You shouldn't have anything to excess.”

“No ma'am. Did he know Bill?”

“Oh, no. Mr. Owens was called to glory near thirty years ago.”

“You been living here by yourself all that time since? I'll vow you're a strong woman.”

Her eyes twinkled. “Strong enough. Now, question me so I can get back to my sewing. I see better this time of the day, and I don't want to lose the light.”

“I'm trying to find Bill Adkins.”

“Answer me this. Is it about that bank robbery I read about in the paper?”

“I can't say, but it ain't about the robbery.”

“Are you married?”

Startled by the sudden conversational shift, Ned was for a moment at a loss for words. “Yes, ma'am.”

“Oh well. I like them blue eyes of yours. Bill works down the street at Mack's Garage. You can generally find him there during the day, but you'll play the devil catching him here. He comes home to scrub off some of the grease, and then heads north across the river nearly every night to them honky-tonks. I hear he likes the Sportsman and the Texoma Club the best.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Sometimes he brings one of them low-class Oklahoma hussies back with him.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Sometimes they're even Indian. I can tell by them cheekbones and that black hair jist a-shinin'.”

Ned felt his face redden and wondered what she'd say if she met Miss Becky. “You don't say?”

“I do, and they don't make no bones about it in the mornings when they come-a struttin' out of the house, pretty as you please, to go back across the river.”

He wondered how she knew the names of the joints across the Red River. “Mack's tarage.”

“Yep. Constable, you're as good as that ‘Dragnet' feller Sergeant Friday that I used to watch back before it went off the air.”

“Thank you. I hear it's coming back on again next year.”

She brightened as if that was the best news she'd heard in years. “Is that a fact?”

“It's what I heard, and took it for the truth.”

“Well, I hope you're right. There ain't nothing on the television set anymore, except a lamp and a bunch of silliness.” She expelled what she felt was a girlish giggle.

Ned replaced his hat. “Thanks for the information.”

“Don't you let that man drag you down to his level. He's as sorry as the day is long.”

***

Bill was under an International pickup in the garage bay when Ned lightly kicked the sole of his shoe. “You Bill?”

“Uh huh.” Bill continued to work. “I'm kinda busy here. I got a bolt all boogered up and I need to get this sonofabitch fixed before dark.”

“I need to talk to you now, and I ain't got time to wait. C'mon out so we can both get back to what needs doin'.”

Bill rolled out from under the truck on a creepy crawler and squinted upward. “You the law?”

“I am.”

“I ain't done nothin'.”

“Didn't say you did. I have a couple of questions.”

Bill sat up and rested his greasy hands on the knees of his blue work pants. “Go ahead.”

Ned wasn't sure if there was more grease on his hands, or in his unwashed hair. “Do you know Tommy Lee Stark?”

“I did. Somebody killed him, I believe. If you're here about that, it wasn't me. I's with somebody then.”

“You don't know when he was killed, and neither do I.”

Bill's eyes drifted down to Ned's badge, and the .38 on his hip. “Well, I mean if I ain't here, I'm gen'lly with somebody.”

“I've heard. Sometimes it's with somebody's wife.”

“Ain't against the law.”

“No, it's not. But didn't you get in a fight a while back over some other man's woman?”

Bill stood quickly, expecting Ned to back away, but the old constable stood his ground. His lack of response took some of the wind out of Bill's aggression. “That was across the river. Do you have some kind of warrant from Oklahoma?”

“I already told you, I want to ask a couple of questions. Have you been running around with Karen Ann Reidel?”

Bill's eyes were answer enough. “Why?”

“Well, she's married to Wade Reidel, ain't she?”

“What of it?”

“She was also running around with Tommy Lee, too.” Ned hadn't heard any such of a thing, but he wasn't above a little white lie every now and then to jolt somebody into spilling a little information. “Y'all didn't have words over her, did you?”

Once again, Bill's eyes gave him away, and this time they got him off the hook. “I didn't know she was having anything to do with Tommy Lee. But I can promise you this, I wouldn't kill another man over a woman like that. What she has ain't that special.”

Ned watched another lead fizzle out and he completely lost his spirit. “All right.” He started to go, and then faced Bill again. “By the way, do you have a rifle?”

“A twenty-two.”

“Not a deer rifle?”

“Nope.”

Ned studied him for another moment. “If I's to get a warrant right now and go to your place, I wouldn't find a two-seventy, or a thirty-thirty, or a thirty-aught-six?”

“You'd find a twenty-two, like I said.”

“All right. Now, if I's you, I'd stay away from Karen Ann. Her husband came by to see me here a while back about her and them honky-tonks, and I don't want any trouble over it.”

“There won't be none.” Bill absently scratched his cheek, leaving a black smear of grease. “She's done moved on to somebody else.”

“Who?”

“I ain't tellin'. She may come back sniffing around again, and I don't want to make her mad.”

“Even though what she has ain't special?”

“It ain't bad, neither.”

Chapter Thirty-four

Cody was already parked in front of Wade's house and leaning against the El Camino when Ned pulled in behind. “What are we doing here?”

Ned jerked his head toward the house. “I didn't tell you, because it didn't make much difference until now, but Wade came by to talk to me and John…and O.C. the day they found Tommy Lee's body. Wade said Karen Ann was running around on him, and Tommy Lee was one of them at one time or another'n.”

“I knew that. I see her at the Sportsman every now and then, or hear tell of her over at Pop's club.”

“Joints. They're joints, and why didn't you tell me?”

“What difference does it make? There's always folks he'n and she'n across the river. That's the point of a honky-tonk to begin with, to sell beer and dancing.”

Ned reddened. “That's why you need to get shut of that place.”

“I don't want to talk about it right now out here in the sun. What I meant is Karen Ann's been over there with more folks than you can shake a stick at. So we're here because you figure Wade decided to kill Tommy Lee out of that whole crowd?”

“I won't say he did, and I won't say he didn't, but he wouldn't be the first man to kill a feller for fooling around with his wife.”

“I can see your point, but why Tommy Lee in particular?”

Ned started for the door. “I don't know, but I intend to find out.”

“Why am I here? Wade ain't no dangerous man.”

“You need the practice.”

Wade must have been watching through the window, because the door opened as soon as they stepped up on the porch. He spoke softly. “Y'all come on in. Good to see you Cody, Mr. Ned.” He moved back to let them in. “What can I do for y'all?”

Both constables removed their hats when they stepped through the door. Ned glanced around the empty living room. The house was silent except for a clock ticking in the kitchen. “Karen Ann here?” He matched Wade's soft voice.

Wade smiled. “Yessir, she's in the bedroom.”

“Can you get her out here?” Cody asked.

“Why, she's asleep, but I reckon I can wake her up.”

“Hang on a minute.” Ned held up his hand. “Let's talk for a little bit, then we might let you go get her.”

Wade settled easily in a blue chair. “All righty. Y'all set.”

Ned placed his hat upside down on the coffee table and sat on the bedspread-covered couch. “Wade, you came by the courthouse to see me not too long ago.”

Wade continued to smile, but the corners slipped. “Yessir.”

The room was silent for a long moment. The ticking clock filled the emptiness.

Cody rested an elbow on his knee. “You had something to tell Ned that day?”

“Well, yeah, me and Karen Ann were having some troubles, but that's all cleared up now.”

“How so?”

“Well, Mr. Ned, she stays home more than she did, and when she leaves, she usually goes over to her mama's house, or spends the night with first one girlfriend and then another, you know, to talk girl talk, I suppose.”

It was all Ned could do not to shake his head. “She still spends a lot of time away from home like that?”

“Oh, it ain't what you think. She's not gone on the weekends anymore. We made up. She only goes when I have to work the third shift, 'cause she don't like being home alone. See, we don't have a television set, yet, so she gets kinda lonesome with nothin' but the radio to keep her company.”

Ned and Cody exchanged looks.

“How often do you work third shift?”

“Oh, couple nights a week, I reckon, more if they want me to. See that's why I do it, I work second, and when they offer third, why, I take it 'cause we're saving for a color Zenith.”

Cody glanced around the living room and saw only a waist-high wooden Philco radio. He jerked a thumb toward the street. “You only have the one car?”

Wade smiled. “Right now. We're saving up for that, too.”

“How does Karen Ann get around when you're at work?”

“She usually drops me off. That way she can have the car. And the good thing about that gal is that she's always waitin' in the parking lot when I get off, or if she ain't there, she has someone take her home and leaves the car with the keys. I'm working second
and
third again tonight, so she'll take me then.”

“When did she settle down?” Ned asked, softly. He felt so sorry for Wade that his eyes were stinging.

“It wasn't but a day or so after I came and talked to you, Mr. Ned. I kinda figured you had something to do with it, that maybe you talked to her and made her understand.”

It was so pitiful that Cody couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. “Wade, you ever hear of Tommy Lee Stark?”

“No, why?”

The constables traded glances once again, knowing Wade was telling the truth.

“Do you get the paper?”

“No. It costs.”

Ned wondered how anyone could be so innocent, so simple when it came to women and the facts of life.

“How about Bill Adkins?”

“Sure, Cody. If it weren't for Mack's Garage, I wouldn't be able to keep that car rolling. I've knowed Mack for years, and he cuts me a lot of deals. Shoot, he even gave me the set of tires out there, because he took 'em in trade, but said they didn't have enough tread to sell, so one day I went by there and he put 'em on for me and all I had to do was clean up the shop for him.”

Ned stood and picked up his hat. “Why are you still up? You need to get some sleep or you won't be able to work.”

Wade shrugged. “I don't want to go in and wake her up. I was just ginnin' around for a little bit, and I'll lay down on the couch there in a while. She says it sleeps pretty good. Y'all still want to talk to Karen Ann?”

Cody waited for Ned to answer. “Naw, we wanted to drop by and make sure everything was all right for you, after you came by that day and talked….” He drifted off to allow Wade to answer.

“We're good now, Mr. Ned. Thanks for listening, and for what you've done for me.”

They shook hands, and left.

Outside by the cars, Cody looked back at the house. “You didn't have much to ask.”

“Didn't need to. That poor feller didn't kill Tommy Lee.”

“I'm not so sure. He said things quieted down, and that was right after Tommy Lee died. He might-a done it.”

“Nope. You have to learn to look in a man's eyes to see the truth. I'god, I wouldn't be surprised if someday they come up with a way to tell when somebody's lying by looking at their eyes, or the way they act. I know for a fact that man wouldn't hurt a fly.”

“Why didn't you drag Karen Ann's ass out of the bed and question
her
?”

“Because I got no reason to suspect she killed Tommy Lee, either, and things are good for Wade right now. It won't last for long. He oughta be happy for as long as he can, and besides, you're gonna question her the next time she rolls into your…club.”