Trouble at the Red Pueblo (28 page)

“That’s a pretty high-class area to be squatting in the woods. Are you aiming to embarrass me?”

“Me embarrass you? You’re the one wearing little paper bootees.” She laughed as Spider leaned over and glanced at his feet. “And besides, you’re the one that fed me a thirty-two ounce soda.” Laurie unlatched her door as he turned into the station parking lot. As soon as he pulled into a parking space, she was out and sprinting for the restroom.

Spider pulled off the paper foot covering, put them in the litter bag, and then leaned back to wait for Laurie. Visual flashbacks of the ugly blunt trauma marks on Austin’s head kept flipping through his mind. Trying to divert his thoughts, he pictured Austin as he had last seen him, standing in the doorway, a sneer on his handsome face as he looked beyond Spider to the little orange car he was driving.

“Dang,” he said to himself. “I wish the Yugo would have survived.’”

Laurie opened her door. “Are you talking to yourself?”

Spider smiled. “Yeah. Austin didn’t like my choice of car. I was wishing it had survived.”

“So you could drive up to his house and say
neener-neener
?”

“Something like that.”

Laurie climbed in, closed the door, and buckled her seat belt. “Okay. Now I can concentrate. Tell me what Toby said, starting with when we pulled up, and he came to meet you. Don’t leave anything out.”

SPIDER AND LAURIE
drove to the museum the following morning. They had called Neva to tell her they had news, and she told them to come at ten when everyone could be there and hear it at the same time.

Cumulous clouds boiled up from behind the mesas to the north. Spider watched them in his rearview mirror. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t get another rain this afternoon.”

When they reached the museum, the only cars in the parking lot belonged to staff. Spider was glad of that. They had no idea the type of news he was bearing, and a houseful of patrons would be awkward.

He parked by Linda’s beat-up Kia. They got out, and as he and Laurie walked toward the building, his cell phone rang. Checking to see who was calling, he stood aside to let Laurie precede him through the entrance. “Hi, Toby. How goes the fight?”

He paused, listening to the deputy’s request. He checked his watch. “We can be there in two, two and a half hours. All right. See you then.”

Laurie was already greeting Martin and Neva, and he joined her in the lobby.

Isaac and LaJean came in from the Heritage Yard. “We heard you got something to tell us,” she said, eyeing Spider. “Hope the news is better than you look.”

Isaac frowned at her. “Mother! What kind of a thing is that to say?”

“Well, look at him. He’s got a shiner that won’t quit. How’re you doing, by the way?”

“Much better, thanks.”

Isaac clapped Spider on the shoulder. “I heard you stood up for Karam. That’s one fine fellow.”

“We took him to the airport yesterday,” Laurie said. “He said to tell you all good bye and that he’ll see you next summer.”

Isaac hooked his thumb in his suspenders. “I’ll look forward to that. So, Spider. Good news, you say?”

“I’ll let you be the judge of that,” Spider said, looking around. “How about Linda and Matt? Are they here?”

“They’re coming,” Isaac said. “They’re getting ready for a tour bus we got coming in at ten-thirty.”

Spider looked through the window into the office. “Can we all fit in there?”

“I’ll grab a couple more chairs.” Isaac picked up the two folding chairs that sat behind the reception desk. “There are already four in there.”

As Isaac carried the chairs into the office Linda came through the door from the yard and greeted Spider and Laurie.

“Is Matt coming?” Spider asked.

Linda looked behind her. “He was on his way, but don’t wait for him. He’ll be right here, I’m sure.”

“Let’s all come into the office.” Spider made a herding gesture with his arms, and everyone moved into the room behind the lobby and took one of the seats Isaac had arranged.

“I’ll stand, and Matt can stand when he comes in,” Spider said, looking around at the attentive faces turned to him. “Isaac and LaJean, I presume that you’ve been kept abreast of the events as they’ve happened.”

They nodded.

Spider leaned over, so he could see the door to the yard, checking to see if Matt was coming.

“Spider?”

He looked at Linda, eyebrows raised. “Yes?”

“While we’re waiting for Matt, I have some news.”

Spider stepped away from the front of the room. “Be my guest.”

Linda drew a folded piece of paper from her Levi’s pocket as she rose. “I was going to share this with Matt this morning, but I haven’t had a chance to…” She glanced through the window, too, obviously wondering where Matt was.

“What is it you have to share, dear?” Neva’s voice gently brought her back.

Linda came to the front of the room. “It’s an email. I don’t know if you know, but I went to the museum in Flagstaff for an interview last—” She wrinkled her brow. “I can’t remember when it was. It seems so long ago.” She dismissed the calendar problem with an impatient gesture. “Anyway, I was telling them what we had been doing here and about the cache. This morning I got this email asking if we’d be willing to let the cache go on tour. They’d negotiate the price with us, but what they’re offering is pretty substantial.” She handed the paper to Martin. “I got to thinking, if we let it go on tour for a couple years, we could end up with the money we need, and the museum would be in the black again.”

Linda’s eyes moved to the door and back, and Spider followed her glance. Matt had entered the room and stood silently at the back, behind his father.

Matt spoke, and his voice had an edge to it. “Did you tell them about the Lincoln Letter? Is that why they were interested in the display?”

Color rose in Linda’s cheeks, but she kept her voice calm. “No, I didn’t tell them about the Lincoln Letter. It would certainly enhance the exhibit and probably affect the price we— you— could ask, but I left that for you to disclose.”

Spider smiled as he moved to the front of the group again. “Thanks, Linda. I think all here would judge that to be good news.” He cleared his throat and waited for her to sit down. “Okay. So my news is that the bathroom injury suit was a fraud. Austin Lee was definitely behind it.”

There was an instant flurry of murmuring and sounds of surprise. Spider waited for the comments to subside and went on. “I know you’re wondering if you can get the money back. I don’t know. You’ll have to get some legal advice on that. The police have sworn testimony about it, so that should help. You’ll have to make a claim against Austin Lee’s estate.”

“His estate?” Martin and Isaac spoke together.

Matt was quiet, his face paper white.

Linda, too, went pale.

“Yes,” Spider said. “That’s the second part of what we’re here to tell you. Austin Lee is dead.”

Isaac, LaJean, Neva and Martin all erupted with questions. How did Spider know? When did he find out? How did Austin die? Both Matt and Linda sat stone still and quiet.

Spider held up his hands. “Austin Lee was murdered. Someone beat in his skull with a blunt instrument.”

“When?” Neva asked.

“They figure it was sometime Sunday morning.”

Martin raised his hand then asked the question without being called upon. “Do they have any idea who did it?”

Spider didn’t answer. Instead he watched as Martin’s son’s eyes rolled up in their sockets, and he slid down the wall, ending up in a heap on the floor.

The room erupted into chaos. Neva sat against the wall and watched the men bending over Matt, asking, “What’s the matter with him?” It was a question no one could answer. Linda joined her there and took her hand.

Martin loosened Matt’s collar, and LaJean scooted over closer, took off her oxygen tubing, and handed it to him. Martin fixed it around Matt’s face.

“There. He’s starting to get some color back,” Martin said.

“His eyes are open,” Isaac added. “Mattie. Mattie. You gave us a scare.”

Matt looked blankly from his dad to Isaac. He blinked and then turned his gaze on the other people in the room, ending up with Spider. “What happened?”

“You passed out,” his dad said.

Matt struggled to rise, but Martin held his shoulders down. “Wait a few minutes.”

Spider felt something against his leg and looked down to see LaJean sagging against him. “We have another crisis,” he said, grabbing hold of her substantial shoulders. “I think she needs her oxygen back.”

Matt ripped the tubing off his face and handed it to Isaac who put it on his wife’s face. Moments later, LaJean’s eyes opened. “Sorry about that,” she said. “It came on too fast to say anything.”

Linda stood. “The bus is here. You all take care of Matt and LaJean. I’ll go out and start the tour.”

Matt got to his feet. “I don’t need to be taken care of. I can help with the tour.”

LaJean held out her hand to her husband and, with his aid, struggled to stand. “Me too. I’m ready.”

“Okay,” Spider said. “It looks like we’re done here. We got a call from Toby. He wants us to come over to St. George to look at some CCTV footage, so we need to be on our way.”

“Thanks for coming by,” Neva said. “The fact that someone killed Austin is awful. Just awful. But I don’t think any of us will mourn his passing.”

LaJean seemed to be back in operational mode. “We’re glad your brush with him wasn’t any worse than it was. You’re doing okay?”

Spider patted her on the arm. “I look a lot worse than I feel.” He caught Laurie’s eye. “Are you ready to go?”

Laurie nodded and said a quick good-bye to Neva and Linda. On the way to the door, she whispered, “What’s going on?”

“I guess we’ll know when we get to St. George.” He held the door for Laurie and then relinquished it to the bus driver, who propped it open for his tour group.

When they were clear of the tourists, Laurie said, “I meant what’s going on in there? Why do you suppose Matt passed out?”

“I don’t know. You know the old saying, be careful what you wish for. Maybe he realized all of a sudden that he hadn’t been careful about what he’d been wishing for.”

Spider held the pickup door for Laurie, got in, himself, and they were soon on their way across the Arizona Strip, heading for St. George.

An hour and a half later, they met Toby in the lobby of the St. George police station. He ushered them into a small room where a technician sat at a computer in a dimly-lit room. Toby introduced him as Sam.

Spider took off his sunglasses and smiled inwardly at the way Sam avoided looking at the massive bruising around his eyes. “Glad to meet you,” he told the technician. To Toby, he said, “What’s going on?”

“That’s what we want you to help us figure out,” the deputy replied. “We’ve got gaps in the times that the gate was manned. The city has a web cam on that main intersection, and we’re going to check the download.”

“What for?” Laurie asked.

Toby pulled a side chair over in front of the computer and motioned for the tech to do the same. “To see if any of the people with a connection to Austin Lee came through it.”

Spider set his hat on a nearby table and pointed to the chairs. “You want us here?”

“Yes, please.” Toby pulled up a chair for himself, and they all clustered around the monitor. “I’ve never done this,” he admitted. “I guess we just watch and say
stop
if we see a car or passenger that we recognize. Right, Sam?”

Sam nodded, and with a few keystrokes, he set the footage rolling.

“So, what time is this?” Spider asked.

“We’ve started at nine o’clock,” Sam replied. “The gatehouse has an active log for this time, but I thought we should cover the window of time they’ve set for the murder. They said between nine and noon.”

Images of cars queuing up at a stop light and then spilling through the intersection ran in a continuous, monotonous thread. Spider had to keep blinking and squirming in his chair to stay awake. Surreptitiously, he checked his watch. Had it only been ten minutes since they started?

Laurie jumped up. “Stop.” She sat back down. “Can you go back a ways?”