Longarm #399 : Longarm and the Grand Canyon Murders (9781101554401) (3 page)

Heidi had been feeding the ducks that frequented the creek and were so popular to the citizens. Children played, dogs barked and chased balls, and the sunset had begun to christen the highest western peaks. Longarm had been at loose ends, and so when he saw the strikingly beautiful young woman unescorted by any other
gentleman, he’d just naturally gone to her and struck up a conversation. And although they had nothing in common, things had gone so well that he’d begun to see her at every opportunity.

Now, as he stood at the door of her hotel room holding the chocolates, he wondered where they would go for dinner and what might transpire afterward. He would, of course, explain everything to her about having to leave on such short notice, and he’d make it clear that he wanted to resume their relationship as soon as he returned from the Grand Canyon.

“Ah, Custis,” she said brightly. “Good to see you again!”

“Likewise. I know that you love chocolates, and these are the best to be found in Denver.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Heidi said, ushering him inside. “Would you like something to drink before we go out to dinner?”

Heidi liked champagne and French Chardonnay wine, but she had started to keep a very good brand of whiskey on hand for his enjoyment. “Sure.”

She removed his hat and gave him a kiss on the lips, then hurried into her kitchen to pour them drinks. Longarm took a seat on an expensive but uncomfortable white couch and considered how he would broach the subject of his departure on tomorrow’s train. Should he tell Heidi right away, or would he perhaps be better off telling her at the tail end of the evening and hoping that she would be so distraught that she would throw herself into his arms and take him to her bed? Longarm considered this to be a difficult and dicey decision not to be taken lightly.

“Well,” Heidi said, bringing Longarm two fingers of Old Kentucky whiskey, “how was your day?”

“Not bad.”

“I see you got a fresh haircut and shave.”

“Just hours ago, Heidi. And how was your day?” Longarm took a drink, admiring how fine she looked in a pink silk skirt and satin blouse, with a matching ribbon in her beautiful blond hair. She was wearing a stunning gold necklace and a dinner ring of at least a one-carat diamond surrounded by blood-red rubies. The ring alone probably had cost Heidi more than Longarm’s annual salary. He took his eyes off of her jewels and asked, “What did you do?”

Heidi sipped her champagne and looked into his gray eyes. “I was offered a very good job at the big jewelry story on Colfax, only a block away from your office.”

“Johnson’s Jewelry?”

“That’s the one.”

“It’s where anyone with money buys their jewelry,” Longarm told her. “I doubt they carry anything in the store that sells for less than a couple hundred dollars.”

“I suppose that’s true. They want me to be a buyer and appraiser of precious stones.”

“Did you accept the job offer?”

Heidi pursed her full lips. “Actually, I was thinking I might take their offer and after a time learn enough about the business to open my own jewelry store next year. I feel that Johnson’s is overpriced for what they sell.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Longarm admitted. “I’ve never really been inside the place.”

“You don’t like jewelry?” Heidi asked with real interest and an amused smile.

“Oh, I like jewelry fine on a woman. But I’ve seen men that have worn two or three rings and that looks a little…ah, fey…to me. But I do appreciate a fine pocket watch and chain on a man.”

“Your watch and chain are very handsome,” Heidi said. “And if you would like to wear a gold or silver ring…I could do that.”

“Do what?” Longarm asked, not sure if he understood.

“Buy you a ring.” Heidi laughed. “It would be fun!”

Longarm laughed too, but it wasn’t all that funny. “I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t need to wear a ring.”

“Suit yourself,” Heidi told him, looking a little disappointed. “But that was why I went into Johnson’s Jewelry.”

“To buy
me
something?”

“Why not? You’ve taken me out to dinner several times, and now you’ve bought me a lovely box of chocolates. I wanted to repay you, Custis.”

“I could probably think of a better way to repay me,” he said, looking straight into her wide-set blue eyes. “And it wouldn’t cost you a thing.”

Heidi was in her early thirties and not a naïve woman. She smiled and sipped her champagne then turned her attention back to him and said, “I know what you want, and it
would
cost me something. Something perhaps more valuable than a man’s ring.”

“Your virginity?”

She blinked, and he immediately regretted the boldness of his question. But Heidi did not get angry or frustrated. “You know, Custis, I never told you that I was married very briefly to a man in New York City.”

“You were?”

“It was a sad and short-lived marriage,” she said. “The man I married was handsome and quite wealthy. Arthur came from a prominent family, and I thought we would remain husband and wife for many, many years…until one of us passed. Unfortunately, my love was also seeing
another woman…a married woman…and three weeks after we returned from our European honeymoon tour, he was caught in the other woman’s bed and shot by her husband, who was even richer than Arthur.”

“Arthur was your philandering husband?”

“Yes, the late Mr. Arthur P. Buckingham.”

“How come your name isn’t Mrs. Heidi Buck-ingham?”

“The Buckingham family was mortified by the circumstances of Arthur’s sudden and unsavory ending. Fearful of a terrible scandal and of their good name being tarnished beyond repair, they offered me a very sizable settlement and a lawyer to effect an immediate annulment of the marriage. In return, I had to sign away any rights to the Buckingham fortune.”

“So you did?”

“Not at first. You see, I had an astute lawyer who was paid on a percentage basis, and he squeezed out every dollar that he possibly could from the Buckingham family. I am, Custis, quite a wealthy woman.”

She swallowed her glass of champagne and went for a refill.

“I’ll also have another,” he called, draining his whiskey and trying to rapidly process the ramifications of what he’d just learned. He had, of course, known that Heidi had plenty of money, but he now realized that she was far wealthier than he’d imagined. So why was this rich and beautiful woman even bothering with a poorly paid federal marshal such as himself?

Heidi returned with his glass and sat down next to him. “You know, Custis, I didn’t intend to tell you about my past circumstances until we got to know each other much better.”

He understood her concern and was not insulted in
the least. “You mean until you could trust me not to be interested in your money instead of yourself.”

“That too,” Heidi admitted. “Men do go after women for their money.”

“True, but when the woman looks as beautiful as yourself, money is pretty much the last thing on their minds. Trust me on that one.”

She laughed. “And the foremost thing on your mind is us going to bed?”

“Actually, yes.”

“I love your honesty.” She placed her glass down on the end table and kissed his mouth, but when he tried to embrace her, Heidi slipped away, saying, “Let’s go out to dinner because I’m famished.”

Longarm nodded. “All right, but…”

“But what?” she asked.

“I have something important that I have to tell you, and since you made your past known to me so honestly, I’m going to tell you that I’m leaving Denver for the Grand Canyon on tomorrow’s train.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, smile dying.

“I’m afraid that I am. A prominent couple is missing at a place called Lees Ferry, which is on the eastern end of the Grand Canyon. Apparently, the couple planned to hire boatmen to take them through the Grand Canyon and they’ve completely vanished.”

“In the river?”

Longarm shrugged. “No one saw them leave. No one knows exactly where they went or how they disappeared. The couple is related to the President of the United States and they are extremely prominent in Washington, D.C., so my boss is under a lot of pressure.”

“And it has to be you who goes to solve this mystery?”

“I’m the best choice,” Longarm said. “And I can swim.”

Her eyes grew round with amazement. “Are you supposed to
swim
in the Grand Canyon?”

“No,” he said, “but I’m sure that there are some wicked rapids, and there is always the danger of being tossed into the water.” He took another taste of Old Kentucky and smacked his lips with approval. “Excellent whiskey, Heidi. As good as it comes.”

“Yes,” she said, “I want you to have the very best. But let’s get back to this issue of you leaving tomorrow and going into the Grand Canyon, which I understand is a wondrous and beautiful place but remote and deadly.”

“It is that.”

“Why don’t you refuse to go and stay here with me?” Heidi said, moving closer. “I think we could have something very special together if we had some time.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he told her, “but I have a job.”

“Quit the job! I’ll take care of you until you find something that you like better.”

“There probably isn’t anything I’d like better than what I’m doing right now.”

Heidi got up suddenly. “Do you really mean that?”

“I’m afraid that I do, Heidi.”

She shook her head, suddenly looking troubled. “Custis, I can help you become something much more than a federal marshal.”

This time he was insulted. “I’m proud of what I do, and if you—”

Heidi sat right down in his lap. She kissed his mouth and whispered, “Why don’t we talk about this some other time?”

“And go to dinner.”

She kissed his cheek, then nibbled at his earlobe. “I
just thought of something a little more…
physical
…than dinner.”

“Your bed?” he asked, hardly daring to believe how fast this conversation was turning first one way and then the next.

“Uh-huh.”

Longarm placed his whiskey down with a thump and scooped Heidi up in his strong arms. “I know where the bedroom is,” he said with a broad grin. “And as for the not being a virgin, I’m happy about that.”

“You are?”

“Yes.”

“But I thought…”

“Never mind what you thought,” he said, brushing through the bedroom door and placing her on the bedspread. “Show me how the very rich make love.”

“I’m sure we do it just like the poor,” she told him as she began to undress. “But perhaps a little slower.”

“I’m not going to be slow this time,” he confessed. “But I’ll be as slow as you want the next.”

“The next?”

“Yep.”

“And how soon do you suppose that will be?”

“It’ll be within the hour,” he vowed. “You could bet all your money on that!”

Heidi started peeling off that pretty pink dress, and it was a race to see who could get naked the fastest.

They made love with sudden urgency the first time. Longarm mounted Heidi and drove his manhood in deep. Her body was as perfect as her face, and she was a tiger during their coupling, raking his back with her manicured fingernails, moaning and bucking under his weight and desire. When they were finally through, both Longarm and Heidi lay panting and staring up at the ceiling.

“You are very good,” she said. “Arthur was quite controlled, and his…his willy was really very small.”

“His
what
?”

Heidi jabbed him with her elbow in the ribs and blushed. “He called it his willy, and so I did too, but you probably have a different name for a penis, and yours, by the way, is awfully long and thick.”

“Thank you,” he said.

She rolled over on her side and looked down at his shrinking manhood. “And does your willy think that your willy will rise again before dinner…or after dinner?”

“Before,” Longarm promised. “But my willy needs enough time to reload, and that is about as much time as it will take for you to refill our glasses and come back to bed.”

“Very good!” Heidi jumped out of bed and strolled into the kitchen, her hips moving in a way that his willy was sure to take note of. When she returned, they sat on the bed for a while and talked.

“Did you know one of the things that I want most to do in America is to see the Grand Canyon?”

“Do tell.”

“Yes,” Heidi said, “I want very much to see it, and the idea of taking a boat ride through the canyon is wildly exciting.”

Longarm heard alarm bells going off inside. “It’s a dangerous thing to do and I’m hoping it won’t be necessary.”

“But all the same,” Heidi said, “it’s something that I’d dearly love to do, and the idea that we’d be trying to find bodies and solve a mysterious disappearance makes the whole thing all that much more exciting.”

“Heidi,” Longarm said, placing his glass down on a
bedside table. “That would be a bad idea. It’s just too dangerous.”

“I’m sure that I don’t have to remind you that danger is the very spice of life.”

“No,” he said, “you don’t have to remind me. But all the same, this is official business and there could be some real danger and hardship.”

“I’m going with you,” she told him. “This is a free country, and you really can’t stop me, so why not make this easy and exciting for us both?”

“Heidi, please…”

But the woman wasn’t listening. Instead, she was climbing onto his body and rubbing her bottom back and forth against his wee willy. Only it wasn’t going to be wee for very long. And Longarm had the feeling that trying to stop Heidi Zalstra from doing what she wanted to do was an exercise in futility.

“It’s hard again,” she said. “And so very soon.”

“Climb aboard!”

Heidi eased herself down on top of him in a sitting position, knees forward, and then she threw back her head and laughed and bounced. Bounced and surged until their bodies became as wild as the canyon and the river that awaited them in the Arizona Territory.

Billy Vail came puffing up the loading platform. “Custis!” he called, waving his arms frantically.

Longarm leaned close to Heidi. “That’s my boss, and he looks to be all lathered up about something.”