Bill Crider - Dan Rhodes 09 - Death by Accident (16 page)

“Stay right there, Mrs. Bilson,” Rhodes called.  “I want to talk to you in a minute.”

He looked down at the floor, and there was Grat, who was unconscious.  Rhodes didn’t know who had hit him, but he was willing to put money on Yvonne.

“If your husband comes to, tell him I want to talk to him, too,” Rhodes said.

He had been afraid the trouble at the County Line might knock him out of his chance to talk to any of the other people on his list, but there were Grat and Yvonne Bilson almost as if they’d been waiting for him.  They hadn’t, of course, and Yvonne obviously didn’t want to talk to him in the least, but he wasn’t going to let her get away.  He couldn’t tell about Grat, who still wasn’t conscious, but he figured Grat wasn’t going to want to talk to him, either.  It didn’t matter.  Rhodes was going to talk to him anyway.

First, however, he wanted to talk to Zach and find out how the fight had gotten started.

The bartender remembered Rhodes from his other visits, and to the sheriff’s surprise he reached under the bar and brought out a can of Dr Pepper.

“Were you expecting me?” Rhodes asked.

“Nope.  I was hoping I’d never see you again, if you want to know the truth.  But since you always ask for this stuff, I thought I’d be ready just in case.  I don’t like for someone to ask for a drink I don’t have.  Unless it’s one of those import beers.  I don’t mind not having those things.  But they make Dr Pepper right here in Texas.”

Rhodes reached into his back pocket for his billfold and heard the roar of a shotgun from the parking lot.

“I didn’t think he’d have to use it out there,” Zach said.  “I hope he didn’t have to shoot anybody.”

“Buddy wouldn’t do that,” Rhodes said, laying a dollar bill on the bar.  “He’s a trained lawman.”

Zach ignored the bill.  “The drink’s on the house.”

“Take the money,” Rhodes told him.  “I wouldn’t want to be obligated.”

Zach took the bill and put it in the cash register.  Rhodes popped the can and took a drink.  The Dr Pepper was icy cold, which was the best way to drink it if you had to drink it from a can.  Yvonne watched him drink, and Rhodes put down the can to smile at her.  She didn’t smile back.

Rhodes turned to look at the crowd.  Things were getting back to normal.  Tables were set upright and one couple was already on the dance floor.  The band was playing another old song that Rhodes recognized, “He’s in the Jailhouse Now.”

“Webb Pierce,” Rhodes said.

Zach, who was either too young to remember Webb Pierce or ignorant of his country music heritage or both, said, “Huh?”

“Never mind.  What got the fight started?”

Zach nodded toward Yvonne.  “She did.”

“You son of a bitch,” Yvonne said.

Rhodes tried to remember what Ty Berry had said.  Something about a limited vocabulary.  He had Yvonne pegged, all right.

“What happened?” Rhodes asked Zach.

“Nothing more than usual, at first.  She was in here dancin’ with some guy, when her husband came in.  He didn’t like it, and he grabbed her.  The guy she was dancin’ with didn’t like
that
, so he slugged her husband.  My bouncer got there about that time, and they both slugged
him
.  Put him out like a light.  I think he’s still on the floor out there somewhere.”

Rhodes looked back.  There was a small group of people standing over someone, trying to pull him to his feet.  His knees were rubbery, and he couldn’t quite make it.  Each time they got him to a standing position, he slid back to the floor.

“That him?” Rhodes asked.

“Yeah,” Zach said.  “He’s been hit before.  He’ll be all right.”

The shotgun boomed outside.

“Buddy must be getting serious with them out there,” Rhodes said.

Zach frowned.  “I hope he’s not sending them home.”

“That’s what he’s doing,” Rhodes said, “if I know Buddy.  And I do.”

“Damn.  I hate to lose paying customers.”

“They’ll be back,” Rhodes said.

Zach didn’t look convinced.  “Maybe.  People don’t like to be sent home.  It’s not good for customer relations.”  He sighed.  “Anyway, after those two flattened Roy, the whole place went crazy.  But at least no one drove any motorcycles through here this time.”

The motorcycle episode was one that Rhodes would just as soon have forgotten about.  He took another drink from the Dr Pepper can.

“A few of your customers have had some bad luck since then,” he said, setting the can on the bar.

“I heard about them,” Zach said.  “John West, Pep Yeldell, Randall Overton.  They were all good customers.  It doesn’t do my business any good to lose them.  I haven’t seen Tuffy in here since he left with his brother that night, and Pep and Randall won’t be back for damn sure.”

Rhodes wondered if Zach cared about anyone except as a customer.  He looked down at the floor where Bilson was sitting up groggily.

“All the ruckus you stirred up out here that time didn’t help much, either,” Zach continued.  “And we didn’t even go to the state play-off.”

Rhodes was suddenly tired of talking to Zach.  He said, “I don’t think I’ll need to make any arrests out here tonight, but I’d like to talk to the Bilsons somewhere in private if you have somewhere I could use.”

“You can use the office,” Zach said, pointing to a door between two pinball machines.  “There’s nobody in there right now.”

“That’ll do,” Rhodes said.  “I have to go out and check on Buddy first.  You make sure the Bilsons don’t try to leave.”

Zach wasn’t enthusiastic about that idea.  “I’m not your deputy.”

“No, but you could be my prisoner if I got upset with you.”

“All right, I get the point.  They won’t go anywhere.”

“You son of a bitch,” Yvonne said.

Rhodes was looking forward to having a conversation with her just to test her originality.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he told her.  “Why don’t you see about your husband?”

Yvonne leaned over and looked down at Grat, who was now leaning against the bar, looking dazed.  She didn’t make any move to help him, however.

“What did you hit him with, anyway?” Rhodes asked.

“Beer bottle,” Yvonne said, and she smiled for the first time since Rhodes had entered the building.

Chapter Twenty-Five

B
uddy had things under control in the parking lot.  He’d rounded everyone up and sent them on their separate ways.  Cars were pulling out of the lot, and white dust swirled through the light.

“I was just about to win ’em over in there before you showed up,” Buddy said.

Rhodes reached for the shotgun.  “I could see that.  You would have had them on your side in another second or two.”

“Less, if I’d carried my shotgun in there with me,” Buddy said, handing Rhodes his weapon.

They walked over to the county car, and Rhodes locked the shotgun back in place.

“You want me to stay out here, help you get things sorted out?” Buddy asked.

“I think I’ve pretty much done that.  There are a couple of people I want to question about something else, but I can handle that by myself.  You can go back on patrol.”

“You don’t want to double-team them?  Give ’em the old good cop, bad cop?”

“It’s Saturday night,” Rhodes said.  “You’d better get back on the road.”

“Right.  Thanks for getting out here so fast.”

“Johnny on the spot, that’s me.  That’s why I’m a highly-paid public servant.”

“The county’s going broke paying your salary, all right,” Buddy said.  “Will you be going back by the jail?”

“Not if I can help it,” Rhodes told him.

T
he County Line’s office was bare and utilitarian.  There was a cheap assemble-it-yourself desk that held a computer and monitor.  In front of it sat a desk chair, and against one wall there was a couch that sagged in the middle.  A mud-colored carpet remnant covered about half the floor.  The dark paneled walls were bare, except for a three-year-old Elvira calendar.  Over in one corner was Elvira herself, or at least a life-size cut-out of her.  She was holding a six-pack of Coors.

Yvonne and Grat sat on the couch.  Rhodes turned the desk chair backwards and straddled it, facing them.

“Now, then,” he said.  “Who wants to tell me what’s going on here?”

Neither of them said anything.  Yvonne yawned and tried to look bored, while Grat still looked a little glassy-eyed.

“I guess it’s up to you, Mrs. Bilson,” Rhodes said.  “Your husband doesn’t look quite ready to talk.”

Yvonne looked over Rhodes’s shoulder at Elvira.  “I don’t have anything to say.”

“She’uz runnin’ ’round on me ’gin,” Bilson said.

His voice was weak and his speech was slurred, but Rhodes could hear him all right.  So could Yvonne, who didn’t like what he said at all.

“I was running around on him again because he killed Pep,” she said.  “That’s why.”

That was the most interesting thing that Rhodes had ever heard Yvonne say.

“Why don’t you tell me about that,” he said.

Grat didn’t think that was a good idea.  “Don’t lissen to ’er.  She’s lyin’.”

“You son of a bitch,” Yvonne said, reverting to her favorite phrase.  “You’re the one who told me.”

“I think I gotta ’cussion,” Bilson said.  “Need to go to the ’mergency Room.”

Rhodes thought Bilson might have a point, but he wasn’t ready for a trip to the hospital, not while Yvonne was being so forthcoming.

“I’ll take you when your wife tells me her story,” he said.  “The sooner she gets it told, the sooner we’ll go to the Emergency Room.”

Yvonne looked at Rhodes, and then she looked at her husband.  She didn’t appear to think very much of either one of them.

“You don’t have a cigarette, do you?” she asked Rhodes.

“I don’t smoke.  Are you going to tell me about Pep or not?”

“What the hell,” Yvonne said.  “Grat killed Pep because he was jealous of him.”

“How do you know that?” Rhodes asked.

“Grat said so.  It was just after we found out that Randy Overton was dead.  He said he was glad of it, and he was glad Pep was dead too.  They were two of a kind, he said, and the world was better off without them.”

“Didn’ kill ’em, though,” Bilson said.

“Yes, he did.  Randy was with me and Pep that night John West —”

Bilson flopped around on the couch and tried to hit her, but he wasn’t successful.  He fell across her lap and lay there with his eyes closed, breathing quietly.  Yvonne didn’t try to move him.

“Like I was saying,” she went on, resting one hand on the back of Grat’s head, “Randy was Pep’s friend, and he was with us the night John West got killed.  That’s the last time me and Pep went out together.  Grat came after me that time, too.”

“When I asked you before, you said you didn’t remember the last time you saw Pep.”

“Well, I did.  But I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“We won’t worry about that for a while, then.  Let me see if I’ve got this straight.  You’d told Grat that you weren’t going with Pep anymore, but you were.  Grat found out and killed Pep.”

“That’s right,” Yvonne said.  “He’s always been the jealous type.”

“But why did he kill Randy?”

“He didn’t like Randy because he got to us on a remodeling deal, but I bet he killed him because he knew about Grat killing Pep.”

Grat pushed himself up slowly and moved back to his side of the couch.

“I didn’t kill anybody,” he said.  His short nap had done him good.  His eyes were clear and so was his speech.  “And I never said that I did.  She just used that as an excuse to come dancing.”

“What did you say, exactly?” Rhodes asked.

“Just what she said I did, that Yeldell and Overton were two of a kind and the world was better off without them.  It’s the truth, isn’t it?  They were both cheats and liars.  Yeldell was worse than that though.  He’s the one that tried to steal my wife.”

Rhodes wanted to get back to another topic, one that really intrigued him.

“What happened when you came after Yvonne the night John West died?”

“Not a thing.  There wasn’t even a fight that time.  I found him and Yvonne and took her home.”

“Pep would’ve fought you,” Yvonne said.  “But he and Randy had other things on their minds.”

“Sure,” Bilson said.  “Finding somebody else to screw out of a few hundred dollars.  Or finding a couple of women to dance with.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re jealous and a killer.”

This time Bilson didn’t swing at her.  He just sighed and said, “I didn’t kill anybody.  I took you home and put you to bed.  Then I watched TV for a while and thought about what I ought to do.  I didn’t do it, though.”

“Yes, you did.  You killed him!”

“That wasn’t what I was thinking about.  I was thinking about a divorce.”

“A divorce?” Yvonne was shocked.  “Why would you want a divorce?”

Rhodes thought he’d better interrupt before Grat tried to answer that one.

“What about last night?” he asked.  “Where were you then?”

“I was at home,” Bilson said.  “I’m always at home.”

“You couldn’t prove it by me,” Yvonne said.  “I was at my sister’s.”

Bilson sighed.  “That’s what she always says.  She wasn’t at her sister’s.  You can ask her sister if you don’t believe me.  She was here.”

“You son of a bitch,” Yvonne said.

Rhodes was going to ask her to come up with a new expression, but then he thought of something.

“Why is it that you remember being with Pep on the night John West was killed?”

“I thought you knew that,” Yvonne said.  “John was with us, too.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

R
hodes felt a surge of anger.  He hadn’t known that at all, mainly because no one had told him.  Zach, his only semi-reliable witness, at the County Line hadn’t been able to remember a thing.  But Yvonne remembered.  Rhodes had seen something in her eyes when he’d mentioned West that night at the Burleson cabin, and now he knew what it was.

“Sure,” Yvonne said.  “We were here at the County Line.  We were having a pretty good time until Grat the party pooper showed up.”