Bill Crider - Dan Rhodes 09 - Death by Accident (17 page)

Rhodes thought about going out for a few words with Zach, but he knew talking to him wouldn’t do any good.  Maybe Zach really
didn’t
remember who had been with John West on that night.

West, Yeldell, and Overton, all in the same place at the same time.  And Yvonne Bilson was there too.

Not to mention Grat.

“You told me you’d never met West,” he said.

“We weren’t introduced,” Grat said.  “It wasn’t exactly a formal social situation.  I don’t know who was sitting at the table except for Yvonne and Yeldell.  I wasn’t paying much attention to anyone else.”

“What do you remember about that evening?” Rhodes asked Yvonne.

She glared at her husband. “I remember I was having a good time until
he
got here.”

“I was thinking more about John West.  Did he seem worried about anything?”

“No.  He was having a good time, too.  We were all having a good time.”  She paused.  “But anyway, Grat couldn’t have met John.  John wasn’t there when Grat came.  He and his brother left early.  You know his brother?”

Rhodes was a little disappointed to hear that Grat hadn’t met West after all, but he put his disappointment aside for the moment.

“I know Tuffy,” he said.  “What time did they leave?”

“It was before things really got going good, I know that much.  So it was before ten o’clock.  Probably closer to nine.”

“Was John with anyone?”

“Just Tuffy.  He was just drinking and having fun.”

Rhodes wondered about that.  And he wondered again about who had told Kara West that her husband was seeing other women.  But Yvonne wouldn’t know about that.

“And you don’t know where he was going when he left?” he asked.

“Home, he said.  He didn’t want his wife to worry about him.”

Grat laughed at that.  “He didn’t want his wife to know where he’d been is more like it.”

“I’m sure I didn’t ask him,” Yvonne said.  “It wasn’t any of my business.”

“Did you see him leave the building?” Rhodes asked.

“No.  I was having a good time, too.”

“What about Yeldell and Overton?  What did they do after your husband came for you?”

“If I was gone, I wouldn’t know, would I?”

“I thought you might have some idea.  Maybe they mentioned something to you.”

“Well, they didn’t.  I’m sure they stayed right at the table and had some more fun.”  Her eyes got a faraway look in them.  “Pep sure did know how to have a good time.”

Rhodes turned his attention to Grat.  “Did you go straight home?”

“Where else would I go?  I wanted to get somewhere that we could talk in private.  Not that we talked.  I put her to bed and she went right to sleep.  Or maybe she didn’t.”

Yvonne’s look went from faraway to nasty.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I slept on the couch that night, Sheriff,” Grat said.  “I can’t swear that my wife was in the bedroom all night.”

“You son of a bitch,” Yvonne said.

Grat ignored her.  “It wouldn’t be the first time she’d gone out the window.  If you’re looking for the person who killed John West, maybe it was Yvonne.  She could have slipped out the window and driven off in her car, and I never would have known it.”

“Was her car damaged the next morning?” Rhodes asked before Yvonne could express her opinion of Grat yet again.

“I don’t know,” Grat said.  “I didn’t look at it.  But I do know that it wasn’t there when I got home that afternoon.”

“Where was it, Mrs. Bilson?” Rhodes asked.

“I took it in to Bull Lowery’s body shop for them to look at,” Yvonne said.  “But not because I hit anybody with it.  Why would I want to kill John?  I’d just had a little fender bender, and I wanted to get it fixed up.”

“Is that right?” Rhodes asked Grat.  “About the fender bender?”

“Yeah.  She never could drive that car into the garage without hitting the side.”

“Did you get the car fixed?”

“No,” Yvonne said, looking over his shoulder again.  “The estimate was too high.  I didn’t think it was worth it.”

“I’d like to have a look at that car,” Rhodes said.

“Sure,” Grat said.  “Drop by anytime.”

Yvonne looked at him and opened her mouth, but this time she didn’t have a thing to say.

* * *

I
n spite of what he’d told Buddy, Rhodes did go back by the jail.  Hack was watching a late movie on his little TV set, and Rhodes looked over his shoulder to see what it was.

“
Mansion of the Doomed
,” Hack said.  “You ever seen it?”

There had been a time in the not too distant past — before his marriage — that Rhodes had watched more than his share of late movies.  Now, it seemed that he generally had other things on his mind.

“Richard Basehart?” he asked.

“If he’s the guy that used to be on
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
, yeah.”

“I’ve seen it, then.”

 “You sure?  He’s out killin’ people to get their eyeballs.”

“For his blind daughter,” Rhodes said.  “I’ve seen it, all right.  What’s been going on?”

“It’s Saturday night.”

“Nothing unusual, then?”

“Nothing since that ki —” Hack caught himself.  “Since that young fella’s grandma came by.  She didn’t get him out.  She thought it might be a good idea if he stayed here overnight.”

“She didn’t think he should have hit the man who was using the toothpick?”

Hack continued to stare at the TV screen.  “She didn’t mind that part so much.  She thought it might teach the fella a lesson.  But she says the front of a cafe isn’t the place to teach a lesson like that.”

“She’s right.  Anything else?”

“Just that riot I called you about.  I’ve already heard from Buddy about how he broke it up.” 

A commercial for a used-car dealer came on.  The dealer was dressed in chaps, a huge cowboy hat, and boots.  He was riding an elephant and screaming about making the biggest deals in Texas.

“You didn’t come by here to tell me about how Buddy did your job for you, did you?” Hack asked, turning around in his chair.

“No,” Rhodes said.  “It was something else.”

On the drive in from the County Line, he’d been thinking about the way Mack Riley had looked when Rhodes had brought up John West’s name.  The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that Riley had been hiding something.

“What is it, then?” Hack asked.

“I wanted you to do something with that computer of yours.”

“If you had one in the car, you could do it yourself.”

“Not this.  I want you to search some records.  Can you do that?”

Hack looked offended.  “I’ve done it plenty of times.”

“What I’m looking for might never have gone to court.”

“If a complaint was filed, it’s in there.  The courthouse is up to date, even if the sheriff’s office isn’t.  What was it you wanted to know about?”

“I want to know if there’s ever been trouble between Mack Riley and John West.”

“You don’t think Mack killed anybody, do you?”

“I don’t know.  I just think there was something between him and West that he doesn’t want me to know about.”

“Well, if there was, I can find it,” Hack said, turning to his computer.  “You just give me a few minutes.”

Rhodes went over to his desk to write up a report on his response to the County Line call.  He was still working on it when Hack said, “Here it is.”

Rhodes took off his glasses and put them in his pocket.

“Tell me about it,” he said.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

W
hat Hack had found was a record of a complaint filed against John West by Mack Riley.  It had been filed three years earlier, and in the complaint Riley alleged that West had assaulted him.

“Never went to court,” Hack said.  “Mack dropped the charges.”

“Why did West assault him?” Rhodes asked.

“That’s not in here.  Just the record of the complaint.”

“Computers can’t do everything, then, can they.”

“They can jab a fella’s memory,” Hack said.  “I know Mack a little, and I heard somethin’ about this little argument.”

“Tell me, then.”

“Well, as best I remember it, West owed Riley some money, maybe a good bit.  When Riley tried to collect, West threw him out.”

“Why didn’t it go to court, then?”

“I don’t know about that, but usually it’s because the money gets paid.  That generally settles things pretty quick.”

“Why would West owe Mack Riley money?”

“I don’t know,” Hack said.  “I can guess, though.”

Rhodes waited.  Hack turned back to the TV set.  After a minute or so Rhodes gave up.

“Tell me what you’d guess, then.”

Hack looked up from the TV.  “Well, you might not know this, but old Mack’s made a lot of money over the years one way or another.”

“I knew he had some money,” Rhodes said.  “I don’t know how he got it.”

“Speculatin’,” Hack said.  “Sometimes when people default on a mortgage, he’ll buy the house from the bank.  It’s usually in pretty bad shape, so he gets it fixed up cheap and sells it for a profit.”

Rhodes remembered what Riley had said about dealing with painters and Mr. Fix-its.  It hadn’t registered at the time, but now Rhodes knew what Riley had meant.

“And you think he did that with John West’s house?” he asked Hack.

“He might have,” Hack said.  “And if West got behind in the payments, that could’ve caused the trouble.”

It was too late to talk to anyone who kept normal Clearview hours, so Rhodes didn’t think it would be a good idea to talk to Kara West until the next day.  The County Line might be going strong, but there were still a lot of people who watched the ten o’clock news and then went straight to bed.  The news had been over for a while, but that was all right.  The going to bed part was still a good idea.  Rhodes told Hack good night and went home.

I
vy was sitting up in bed reading, her back braced by a thick triangular pillow.

“What’s the name of the book?” Rhodes asked.

“
Voodoo River
,” Ivy said.  “It’s about a private detective named Elvis.”

“Good name.  Can he sing?”

Ivy put a piece of paper in the book to mark her place, closed the book, and laid it on her nightstand.

“I don’t know.  It doesn’t say.  He gets very emotional, though.  Why is it that you never seem to get emotional about your work?”

“You know us Texas men.  We don’t like to show our feelings.”

“That’s what you’d like for people to think.  If you’ll go take a shower, I can get you to show a feeling or two.”

“You really think so?”

Ivy smiled and nodded.  “I’d be willing to bet on it.”

Rhodes smiled, too.  “Sounds like a pretty safe bet to me,” he said.

S
unday morning was cold and dry.  The wind had died down to nothing, and there were no clouds at all.  Speedo loved it.  He rollicked all around the yard, tossing his frog into the air.  Rhodes didn’t have time to play with him for more than a minute or so, but Speedo didn’t seem to mind.  He was having plenty of fun all by himself.

Which was just as well, since Rhodes didn’t think this would be a good time to introduce Yancey.  The Pomeranian was curled up on his tattered towel, awake but not yet ready to venture out into strange new surroundings.

Rhodes drove by the jail and checked in with Hack.  There were no special problems to deal with, so he went to pay a call on Kara West.  It was a little before nine o’clock when he got to her home, but she didn’t look as if she were dressed for housework.  Her hair was done, her make-up was perfect, and she was wearing a dress.

“Were you going to church?” Rhodes asked.  “I won’t keep you long.”

“I wasn’t going to church this morning.  With John gone, I just feel better when I’m dressed up a little.  I’ll be starting to work at the store in a few more days.  I’m going to learn the business from the ground up.  But right now I’m still trying to get adjusted.”

She invited Rhodes in and offered him coffee, which Rhodes declined.  He never drank coffee, preferring to get his caffeine in Dr Pepper.  They sat at the kitchen table, and she drank coffee from a china cup while Rhodes talked.  He noticed her braces again and wondered if they were uncomfortable, but he didn’t ask.

What he asked was about West’s run-in with Mack Riley.

“That was a long time ago,” she said.  “The business hit a bad patch, and we had to miss a payment on the house.  Mr. Riley came by, and he was a little upset about his money.  John didn’t blame him.  He said he’d try to get it soon.”

“I heard there was a fight.  Mr. Riley filed assault charges.”

Mrs. West took a delicate sip of coffee.  “There wasn’t any fight, really.  Mr. Riley said that John knocked him down, but John just bumped into him.  It didn’t amount to anything.  Mr. Riley filed those charges because he was mad about the money, but he dropped them when we made the payment.  We never had to miss again.”

“Mack’s a little touchy, all right.  I’m going to have a talk with him today, myself.  Do you think he could still be bitter about the misunderstanding?”

“I don’t see how.  It was a long time ago.  Mr. Riley and John got along fine after that.”

“What about Pep Yeldell?” Rhodes asked.  “Do you remember telling me that you’d never heard of him?”

Mrs. West’s hand shook slightly as she set her cup in the saucer with an audible
clink
.

“Yes,” she said.  “I never did, until he died.”

“I’ve found out that your husband knew him fairly well.  They seem to have spent some time together.”

“I didn’t know John’s friends.”

“You told me that,” Rhodes said.  “I guess you weren’t aware that John knew Randall Overton, too.”

“Wasn’t he the other man who died by accident?”

“That’s the one.  Did you know him?”

“No.  I just heard that he burned to death.”

“I think there’s some connection among all three deaths, and I’m trying to find it.  Who did you say told you that John was seeing other women?”