Trouble at the Red Pueblo (14 page)

Frank added some information, and Annie conveyed it to Spider. “That was about the time we bid on the job. Mary was head of our estimating department, and she worked up the bid herself. It was due at eight o’clock the next morning, and she stayed late working on it.” She held up the envelope. “You’ll find out when you read this that Austin was there that night with her. She explained the process to him and told him what Defrain was bidding.”

Spider looked from Annie to Frank. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Austin told our competitor what our numbers were. Their bid was fifty dollars less than ours. They got the job, and we were going under.”

“Let me guess,” Spider said. “You heard from Earnest Endeavors again. Offering less this time.”

“It just about killed me,” Annie said. “What we got for the development didn’t cover what we owed. We had to close down the construction company and sell off all the equipment.”

Frank said something, and Annie reached over to pat his knee. “Yes, Love. It came closer to killing you than me.” She pulled the note out of the envelope and gave it to Spider.

He opened it and read.

Dearest Mom and Dad,

By the time you read this I’ll be gone. I’m sorry to do this, but you won’t need me anymore in the company. What you don’t know is, I’m the reason you lost Defrain Estates and Defrain Construction. I was so head over heels in love with Austin that when he asked what we were bidding on the Black Canyon job, I told him. He told the other bidder, and that was that. He left the information as an anonymous tip— he didn’t know the people he told, so it wasn’t like he did it for a friend. He was only interested in gaining an advantage.

The thing is, he never was interested in me. He was bent on getting our development at a bargain basement price. It doesn’t matter whom you think you sold Defrain Estates to; I know in the end, he’ll be the one that owns it.

I think I could survive the shame of ruining my family financially. I could probably survive the mortification of being made a fool of by a smooth-talking man. But the two of them coming together are too much to bear.

My one small consolation is that I know he wants our house for himself. He plans to live here, so if I die here, I’ll be able to haunt him for the rest of his life. That’s my plan.

I’m sorry. I could say it a million times, and it wouldn’t be enough. Please don’t hate me.

All my love,

Mary

Spider looked up at Annie. “How did she kill herself?”

Frank answered, and Spider understood. “Carbon monoxide.”

“So you had a house in Defrain Estates?” Spider handed Mary’s note back to her mother.

“Yes. It was beautiful. Up on top of the cliff with windows all along the western side.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “I wish I had taken the chance to tell her that the house didn’t matter. Defrain Construction didn’t matter. She was what really mattered in our lives.”

“Was she your only child?” Spider asked gently.

Mary nodded. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.

“Was Frank’s— was it a stroke? Was it tied up in all this?”

Frank took the floor then, explaining what had happened to him. Spider nodded and made conversational noises in what seemed to be the proper places, but in the end, he knew no more than he had at the beginning. “I’m sorry,” he said, and he reached over to touch Frank’s paralyzed arm.

Looking at Annie, he asked, “Could you give me the address of your house in Defrain Estates? And maybe your phone number here, in case I have some more questions?”

“Certainly.” She stood and went to the kitchen. Taking a card from the phone stand, she wrote on the back. “This is one of the business cards for the development,” she said. “I’m adding the address and phone number you wanted.”

Spider stood as well. “Thank you so much for talking to me. I’m sorry to bring back painful memories.”

Frank mumbled something and reached out his hand. Spider grasped it and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Annie stood near the entryway. “I’ll see you out.”

Carrying his hat, Spider held it up in salute to Frank and then crossed to the door. Annie gave him the card and followed him out, pulling the door shut behind her. “Did you understand the last that Frank told you?”

He shook his head. “Afraid not.”

She smiled. “You’re very tactful. He was explaining that Austin moved into our house the day of the funeral. It may have been coincidence or not, but when Frank found out about it, it hit him hard. That night he had the stroke.”

Spider put on his Stetson. “So, when did all this happen? Was there a span of time between when Mary told Austin about the bid and when she died?”

Annie strolled with Spider down the ramp to the sidewalk. “Yes. It took several months for everything to wind down. Austin stopped calling right after the bid opening, and the combination of losing both him and the project sent Mary into a tailspin. She seemed to obsess about him, and she was constantly angry and depressed. It’s almost like—” Annie looked over Spider’s shoulder, as if she’d find the phrase she was looking for there. “—like someone had to die to make everything right for her, and she chose to kill herself rather than him.” She shook her head. “That sounds so horrible, but that’s the way it seemed. At least she’s at peace now.”

Spider took her hand. “How are
you
doing?”

She shrugged. “Oh, you know. I survive because Frank depends on me.” She squeezed his hand. “Thanks for coming by. I hope we’ve helped.”

“You have. I’ll be in touch.” He walked around to the driver’s side.

“I’m sorry for what I said about your car.”

He chuckled and waved to say it was okay, but she had already turned and was walking back to the house.

Spider found the address of Texas Capital Investment, Inc. and set out to locate it. As he drove, he played back in his mind the conversation with the Defrains. It might have been a mistake to visit them first. Feelings might run a little high when he finally came face to face with Austin Lee.

SPIDER DROVE SLOWLY
along the St. George arterial, trying to see the numbers on the office buildings clustered around parking lots all along the way. He had tried to work the GPS app on his phone but in the end gave it up, reverting to the old fashioned way— creep and peek. When he spied a number close to the one he wanted, he entered the parking area. Keeping a weather eye out for a parking place, he drove through and read the plaques on the sides of the building. 1342 Nephrology. 1364 Gynecology. 1386 Oncology. This seemed to be a medical complex. A very popular medical complex, as there were no empty spaces.

Ending up at the backside of the third building, Spider could see the neighboring complex and the address he needed. That parking lot was almost full, too, but he spied one empty space. There was no access from this lot to the other, but the curb was low. He saw another car heading toward the single vacant space, and he didn’t hesitate. Bumping over the curb, he traversed a sidewalk, a planter well, and another sidewalk before bouncing down onto the pavement and slipping into the parking space just as the other car rounded the corner.

Spider couldn’t help smiling at the small triumph. His smile grew broader when he saw a sign in metal letters reading
Texas Capital Investments
on the wall right in front of him. “Dang, I’m good,” he muttered.

Spider read the string of other names on the wall. Apparently Austin shared the building with two CPAs and a family counselor. Getting out, he pushed through the office door and entered a reception area with plush carpet and a few chairs in groups. A young woman wearing a headset and a nametag that said
Jennifer
was seated behind a desk. She looked up. “May I help you?”

Spider took off his hat. “I’m here to see Austin Lee.”

“Mr. Lee just left for the day.” She checked her monitor. “Would you like to make an appointment? He’ll be in on Monday.”

“Not ‘til then?”

“I can give you a ten o’clock.” Her fingers hovered above the keyboard as she sent him an inquiring look.

“Sure. Monday, ten o’clock. Name’s Spider Latham.”

“Spider? Like the…?” She put her hand, spider-like, on her desk.

He nodded, and she entered the name. “Would you like a reminder card?”

Spider noticed a holder with Texas Capital Investments business cards in it. “I’ll just take one of these,” he said, holding it up between thumb and forefinger. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Latham. We’ll see you on Monday.”

Spider strode out of the building, putting on his hat to shade his eyes from the sun. It was mid afternoon, and waves of heat radiated off the blacktop. He got in the Yugo and started it, rolling down all the windows and turning the AC to high. Handling the hot steering wheel gingerly, he backed out of the parking space and started threading his way to the exit.

The light on the street had just changed, and Spider waited behind a Toyota a few years younger than the Yugo as traffic streamed by. Ahead of the Toyota, a yellow Mustang had its nose out, waiting for a gap. One came, and as it turned right, accelerating in a cloud of dust and noise, Spider caught a glimpse of the vanity plate. It read
BRACES.

Spider was so surprised to see Jack’s car pulling out of this parking lot that he put on the brakes and stared. As the Mustang got smaller with distance, the car behind Spider honked. He waved to say
sorry
and concentrated on merging into traffic on the arterial. Jack was momentarily forgotten as he tried to decide what to do next. He didn’t intend to wait until Monday to see Austin Lee.

A stretch of road with shade trees lay ahead, and he pulled over in the shadow of one of them. Leaving the motor running, he took the card that Annie had given him and turned it over to look at the address of her former house in Defrain Estates. Acacia Drive. He had no idea where that would be, and he slowly dragged his phone out of his pocket. He needed the help of the GPS but was reluctant to be humiliated again.

He took a deep breath. “Don’t over-think it,” he muttered to himself, trying to remember how Daisuke had explained it this morning. As he punched icons, suddenly, the window where he was to enter the address popped up, and the rest was easy. Two minutes later he was on I-15 heading south.

Defrain Estates lay on the western edge of town, and Spider saw that one of the selling points would be its quick freeway access. Only one stop light on a busy arterial stood between the freeway off ramp and the road that swept up the side of a mesa to the houses. The gatehouse occupied the middle of the road at the bottom, flanking a huge brickwork sign with palm trees at each end.

He turned on Defrain road and stopped at the gatehouse. It was open but unmanned, so he continued up the curving ascent to the top. Driving through, it looked as if a third of the lots had been developed, and all the houses were large and impressive. Spider read the road signs as he passed, spying Acacia just after the GPS announced it.

Annie Defrain’s former home stood alone at the end of a row of four vacant lots. Spider stopped in front of the last house before open territory and walked to the edge of the mesa, thinking he might be able to see the bank of western-facing windows that she’d spoken of. A cinderblock fence surrounded the backyard, but he spied the ladder of a diving board sticking up above the wall. A dirt trail that looked like it had been used by ATVs traversed the flank of the mesa just before the house. Spider walked down the path a ways, pausing by a lone juniper tree and looking back to see the wall of glass. He scanned the western vista that Annie would have awakened to each morning and thought of the little, closed-in modular home she lived in now.

Spider went back to the Yugo and drove the block to the house. He still didn’t have any idea what he was going to say when he confronted Austin Lee, but he pulled into the driveway beside a burgundy SUV and got out of the car. As he approached the front door, he looked at the three garage doors, wondering behind which one Mary Defrain took her last, poisonous breath.

The front door was massive. Leaded glass sidelights pictured red rock arches and plateaus, echoing the sandstone facing that came halfway up the walls. Spider pressed the doorbell and heard rich tones sound inside. He waited, but no one answered. Loath to depart without meeting his quarry, he jabbed at the doorbell again, as if vehemence would make Austin appear.

It worked. Spider heard quick, confident footsteps and then the door opened. He saw the eyes widen slightly, flick over to the Yugo, and flick back. And he saw the corners of the mouth turn ever so slightly down into a quasi-sneer.

Austin Lee was everything that people had been saying about him. Tall and suntanned, with fashionably long, highlighted hair, he wore pressed chinos and a polo shirt that showed off a muscular physique. His eyes moved again to the Yugo and back. “Yes?”

“Afternoon. My name’s Spider Latham, and I work for the Red Pueblo Museum.”