A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge (28 page)

Borland licks his lips. “I don't know any Truly Bennett.”

“Black man. Keeping an eye on Jenny's horses. There's no way out of this one. Your fingerprints are there.”

“Somebody set me up. They got a pipe from my property that I'd been handling and took and put it there.”

Lyndall says, “Borland, everybody knows you hate anybody who isn't lily white. You're just the person to have done this.”

“How was I to know there was a nigger there?”

“So you admit you were there?”

“I don't admit nothing. What I was saying is like a hypothetical.” He smirks. “Either of you got a smoke? I could use a cigarette.”

I gesture toward his hands. “Looks to me like you've had enough to do with fire lately.”

“Is that all? ‘Cause I'm ready to be done talking to you.”

“No, there's one more thing I need go over with you again. You said you didn't have anything to do with Jenny Sandstone's car being rammed and run off the road. You sticking by that story?”

“You're damn right I am. I'm not taking a rap for something I flat did not do. I'm not saying I don't rejoice in it, and I think whoever did it is a hero, but it wasn't me. I might mess around with a person's belongings, but I'm not about to do anything that might get me an assault charge.”

“Except for Billy Hinton,” Lyndall says, referring to some case I know nothing about.

“That was different.” Borland frowns and glares at me again. “You've got to believe me on this. I didn't have nothing to do with Jenny Sandstone's car. And neither did my son.”

I think I believe him, so Lyndall and I decide that's all we need for now. I tell Lyndall I have something else I need to talk to him about. We go out for a sandwich and while we eat I lay out for him the history of Eddie Sandstone's two disappearances—first his daddy and then his first wife. And what led me to suspect that we'll find her body buried in the backyard of the house they lived in.

“I have to go along with you,” he says. “You have one person disappear on you, it's a shame. But a second person, you start to think maybe somebody's getting a little careless.”

“Problem is, all this happened a long time ago. I'm worried that the sheriff won't take this seriously. What do you think? We need to get a forensic team out to dig up the body. If the sheriff isn't on board, that could be a problem.”

“Let me talk to Sheriff Hedges. He knows I'm usually not one to be impulsive.”

I started out not caring for Lyndall much, but it turns out that it's his way to be cautious in the beginning. When we get to his office, he goes down the hall to talk to the sheriff and comes back with him.

The sheriff, Mike Hedges, is thin guy with a military haircut, mostly gray. He wears horn-rimmed glasses that make him look studious. I've met him a few times but don't know him well.

“Wally tells me you think you've got an idea where a body is buried. Things must be pretty quiet around Jarrett Creek for you to be looking for bodies in Bobtail.”

“I didn't go looking for trouble. One thing led to another.”

He laughs. “That's what we get in our business. Tell me how this came about.” He pulls a chair up, sits down, and crosses his legs with one ankle propped on the other knee.

I tell him what led me to think I've found where Eddie Sandstone's first wife, Estelle, might be buried, including my interest in Howard Sandstone's disappearance.

When I wind up, he nods a few times. “One thing at a time. We're not going to jump to any conclusions here, but it sure would be interesting to see what's buried on that vacant lot.”

“Might be somebody's German shepherd,” I say.

“You don't think that any more than I do,” he says, getting to his feet. “I'll call over to San Marcos and see if we can't get a forensic team here pronto.” He disappears back to his office. I go get coffee for Lyndall and me while we wait. Hedges is back in fifteen minutes.

“They're going to have somebody over here later this afternoon. You know how they are.”

We laugh. Any other law operation may have taken a while to send someone out, but the people who do anthropology forensics always seem excited by poking around in places where they might find old bodies. They drop everything for a good dig.

The first forensic man to arrive does a few bore tests in the soil and confirms there is biological matter somewhere down below. He says he'll have a team out tomorrow morning to start digging. He's like a hound dog on a scent, poised to go in for the retrieval. Sheriff Hedges and the forensic man discuss whether to set up crime scene tape overnight. Finally they decide they don't even know yet if there is a body or a crime here, and either way after all these years one more night without marking the spot won't matter.

I'm dog-tired when I get home and don't want to have anything to do with anybody. I don't have the heart to go to Jenny's tonight. If I did, I'd have to tell her that we might have found her sister-in-law's body, and I don't know how she'll react. I have to wait until I'm not so low about things before I break it to her. And by then there might be more to tell.

CHAPTER 34

I wake up the next morning with a question on my mind. Even if the body on the vacant lot is Estelle's, how is anybody going to prove who killed her? I remind myself that first things have to come first.

I spend a short time in the pasture and then I dress quickly, in my short-sleeved uniform and khaki pants. It's going to be hot today.

When I get to the dig site where the forensics team has set up, I have to park down the street and wade through gawkers. A team of three men is already at work. Yesterday the forensic man told me their procedure. It's tedious when they're considering historical remains. They have to document everything found in the vicinity of the body. He said you never know what might show up that will be used for criminal prosecution if it gets that far. And the longer the body has been there, the more tedious the work.

There's a tent set up over the suspicious area, but digging has not yet begun. First they photograph the area and gather all the artifacts. I know it will take hours before anything concrete emerges, but I've come to feel that I have some responsibility for Estelle Cruz, so I settle in to wait.

At noon they've just gotten around to digging when Lyndall comes by and takes me to get a sandwich. We kick around the situation with Scott Borland. It has been confirmed that the shed behind the property was being used to manufacture methamphetamine. Jett Borland was released from the hospital and immediately taken into custody, although the charges against him aren't as clear.

I'm relieved to get back to the dig site. I don't feel like I should be anywhere else right now. In the midafternoon they find the first bones. Human bones. Now the work proceeds more slowly, as they have to sift all the surrounding soil for anything that might give some answers as to what happened here. Within a couple of hours, though, they know that we are dealing with a young woman who was wearing a light dress when she was put in the ground. The fabric is almost rotted away, but there's enough of it to get the general idea. The flesh is gone, and all that remains are bones, still arranged more or less like a skeleton, and snatches of brown hair.

One of the diggers brings me over to show me the most important part of the find. “You see the skull?” He points to the back of it. “Somebody hit her hard enough to crack it.”

The easy part has been done. Now the remains and surroundings have to be taken to a forensic lab for identification. At least I'm able to supply a possible ID, which makes their job easier.

At the end of the day, Lyndall and I go back to his office, where Sheriff Hedges is waiting.

“We have to talk to Estelle Cruz's family and find out if we can get dental records or a DNA sample to make a positive ID,” Hedges says. “You know where I can find them?”

I tell him that Estelle's sister works at the pharmacy downtown. As soon as I leave his office I go to talk to her. I feel better telling Graciella myself that we may have found what happened to her sister all those years ago, rather than leaving it to someone she doesn't know.

Her reaction is muted, as you would expect after so many years of not knowing. “I think about poor Mamma wanting to know why Estelle didn't come and see her when she was sick. I don't know how we could have known, though.”

“Remember, they still have to identify her. It may not be Estelle.”

She shakes her head. “You don't believe that.”

“No, not really. The sheriff will be asking you for some DNA or dental records . . .”

“I have a box at home with her old things in it from when we sold the house after my daddy died. If there's anything like dental records, it will be in there. We'll have to see about DNA.”

The Bobtail police will investigate the crime, but that doesn't mean I can let go of it. I have questions plaguing me. This whole thing started when Vera Sandstone told me she wanted me to find two missing people. She also said she was worried for Jenny's safety. If she had never brought up either of these things, no one would ever have found Estelle's body. Did she have an idea that Eddie had done away with Estelle? And that brings me to Howard. Did she think Eddie had something to do with his disappearance as well?

The Bobtail police will wait until they have an ID in hand before they start their investigation. But I don't have to wait for that. And the first thing I want to know is if Eddie really was gone when his wife disappeared, like he says he was. Where was he, and is there anybody to corroborate his story?

CHAPTER 35

Eddie Sandstone agrees to meet me at Vera's house. I had forgotten that Nate Holloway was going to move everything out, and it's already done. Eddie is stunned.

“What the hell?” he says. “Jenny didn't even leave me a lawn chair to sit in. I thought she was still recovering from the accident.”

We're standing on the back deck looking out a Vera's garden, which is drooping without anyone to care for it.

“She hired someone to move things out. She didn't want to waste time. We could go to a coffee shop and talk, if you'd like.”

“No, let's sit on the back steps here.”

When I was driving over, it occurred to me that it was stupid to meet Eddie and confront him with what we found yesterday if no one knew where I was. Suppose he gets violent on me? I called Wallace Lyndall and told him my plans. He said he didn't think the sheriff would approve, but that he wasn't going to tattle on me.

“Now what did you get me over here for?” Eddie asks.

“I have a question to ask you. It's about your first wife.”

“Marlene?”

“No, I'm talking about Estelle.”

If I hadn't been looking for it, I wouldn't have noticed his flinch. “Estelle! I haven't thought about her in years. What about her?”

“At the time she left, you told people that you were out of town and when you got back she was gone. Can you tell me where you were?”

Color flares along his neck. “I was in Austin taking care of some business. What difference does it make?”

“Can anybody vouch for that?”

He looks outraged. “That was a helluva long time ago. How am I supposed to know whether anybody remembers seeing me back then? Why do you want to know?”

“There's been a body found in the backyard of the property you and Estelle lived in after you got married.”

Eddie's mouth falls slack and he pales. “What? Who found it? What were they doing digging around there? Have they identified the body?”

“Not yet, but it would be a big coincidence for some other woman to be killed and buried in the backyard the same time your wife disappeared.”

The red flush has reached his face. “I'll be damned. How was she killed?” Then he lets out a bark of laughter. “Wait a minute. I know what this is about.” He gets up and walks down the steps into the backyard and turns to face me.

I don't know what he's talking about, so I need to tread carefully. “What do you think it's about?”

He shakes his head, his mouth twisting. “After Estelle left, Jenny got this idea that I had done away with her.”

“You mean killed her? What would make her think something like that?”

“Jenny was always making up stories about me. She put it into Mamma's head, too. Is that what happened? You told Jenny there'd been a body found and she said she thought I killed Estelle?”

What happened is that Jenny told me she was away at college during this time, so I ignore the question. “If it is your wife, how do you think she died?”

He walks around a few paces, thinking, and then comes back to stand in front me. “I don't really want to say what I think.”

An odd statement. “You understand why I'm asking if anybody can vouch for your story that you were in Austin when she
supposedly
left?”

“You think I killed Estelle. That's crazy. I didn't have any reason to kill her. I loved her.” He has moved to stand over me, and I have to crane my neck to look up at him.

“Did you make any attempt to find her?”

“Of course I did. I called her sister and asked if she'd heard from her.”

“Graciella says that you told her Estelle had gone to Lubbock. What made you think that?”

“She left me a note!” He slams his hand down into his fist, agitated. “She said something like it was a mistake for us to get married and she was leaving. Said she was going to Lubbock and not to try to find her.”

“You know why she said she thought it was mistake to marry you?”

“We had a big argument. I was going hunting and she didn't want me to go. That's why I was in Austin, to firm up plans for the hunting trip. When I found the note, I thought she'd just gotten mad and gone off for a while. Never occurred to me that she wouldn't come back.”