Trouble at the Red Pueblo (33 page)

“Yep. She thought she was protecting you, hiding it in plain sight. But an overzealous cop playing a hunch undid that plan.”

Matt put his face in his hands. “You know, just once I’d like to do something right. What a mess!”

“You’ve done a lot of things right. We’ll get you through this some way. Mind you, Linda won’t get away with carrying off evidence, but any education costs something. If you two learn to trust one another, the price you pay will be worth it.”

The officer in the room looked at his watch and held up two fingers. “Two more minutes.”

Spider nodded to the guard and turned back to Matt. “All right. One last question. What did you do after you saw Linda go by on her way to Austin’s?”

“I spent a miserable twenty minutes waiting for her to come back. When she finally did, I drove home and went hiking in the hills until suppertime. I spent the whole time picturing them together, and it just about did me in.”

“But you said he wasn’t home— or at least you thought he wasn’t.”

“I knew he wouldn’t answer the door to me. I thought he probably answered when she came to the door.”

“Oh, Matt. You’re almost a lost cause.”

“Yeah. And when I got home at suppertime, she was there.”

“Yes, and remember, she thought you had killed Austin.”

“No wonder she wouldn’t look at me. I thought it was because she and Austin had made up.”

The officer gave the high sign, so Spider picked up his hat and stood. “You’ve got lots to think about. I know you didn’t kill Austin. Brick Tremain and your dad are working on getting a lawyer for you, and Marshal Thayne and I are going to see what we can do about proving you didn’t do it.”

Matt stood, too. He grabbed Spider’s hand and shook it. “Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Learn the lesson. Grow some confidence. And, you might tell Linda you love her.”

Matt grimaced. “You’re asking a lot.”

“You told me once she was like water to a thirsty man. Can you tell her that?”

Matt looked at the floor. “I’ll do my best.”

Spider watched the guard walk Matt out the door and down the hall. Stepping out of the room, he spied Marshal Thayne standing by the exit door and joined him there.

On the way out, as they walked through the locked and guarded door, Spider reported on his conversation with Matt. Arriving at the lobby, he said, “I wonder if you could do a couple things for me.”

“What do you need?”

“Could you get a copy of the gatehouse log, beginning the day before, say four in the afternoon?”

The marshal raised an eyebrow. “You think maybe someone came and stayed the night?”

“Could be. And here’s another thing. I need a line on a truck driver, name of Wendell Wendt. He lives in Modesto California.”

The marshal had his phone out, tapping in notes. “Yeah? What do you need to know?”

“I need to know if he was working last Sunday. And I need to know if he’s left handed.”

LATER THAT DAY
at a picnic table outside the Subway shop, Laurie unwrapped her sandwich. “Tell me again why you’re sure Matt didn’t kill Austin Lee?”

Spider adjusted the umbrella to maximize the late afternoon shade and then sat down opposite. “Several reasons. First, he didn’t deny it until I told him there was no way that Linda could have killed Austin.”

“I don’t understand. Why is that a reason to believe him?”

Spider took out his sandwich. “He thought she did it. He was trying to protect her by letting them blame him. He couldn’t have done it if he believed she did it.”

Laurie cast her eyes up as she chewed, obviously going through his logic. “Okay. But why did he believe she did it?”

“Because he knew she had gone to Austin’s house the morning he was murdered. Remember when I told them Austin was dead?”

“Yeah. He passed out. I thought that was kind of wussy.” Laurie licked some mayonnaise off her fingers.

“He had just put two and two together. Austin was dead, and she had been to his house the morning he died. Boom, over he goes.
Add to that the murder weapon appearing at the museum, and he knows he didn’t put it there.”

“So, he thinks she did it, and she thinks he did it?”

“Yeah. She knew he was mad as hell when he found out that Austin tried to rape her.”

Laurie almost choked on a bite of sandwich. “What? I didn’t know about that. How do you know it?”

“She told me. That’s when she called it quits. Austin didn’t dump her; she dumped him.”

“So how did Matt find out that Austin tried to rape her?”

Spider finished chewing before he answered. “When they were sitting with me Sunday morning, he told her he was sorry about the Tiffany thing and that he was a dope. Since they were clearing the air, she told him about Austin. He didn’t take it well.”

“I don’t imagine he did. So he went to St. George to give Austin a knuckle sandwich, and she followed him there?”

“Yeah.” Spider opened a bag of chips. “She didn’t see Matt in St. George, but she was pretty sure that was where he went. So when she went into Austin’s house and found the body, she thought he did it. Especially since the weapon was an Anasazi ax.”

“How do you know she couldn’t have done it?”

“Whoever hit Austin that first blow was left handed.”

Laurie was silent a moment. Then she sighed. “Is Jack right or left handed?”

Spider crunched one of his chips. “I don’t know. What hand did he flip the hamburgers with?”

“I can’t remember. What about Amy?” Laurie considered. “Is she big enough? She’s stout but not very tall.”

“She’d need the element of surprise for the blow to the temple,” Spider said. “After that, he’d be down, so it wouldn’t matter what size someone was while they were bashing in his skull.”

“What about Tiffany?”

“Motivation?”

“I don’t know.”

Laurie wrapped up the second half of her sandwich. “I can’t eat this right now. Let’s go up to Jack’s and get the whole thing out in the open.”

“All right.” Spider loosely rolled his sandwich in waxed paper and picked up his soft drink. “You drive. You may not be able to eat right now, but I’m hungry.”

They got in the pickup, and Laurie drove while Spider finished his sandwich. He crumpled up the paper and put it in the litter bag as she pulled in beside Jack’s yellow Mustang parked in front of the house.

“Looks like he’s home,” Spider said. He took a hasty swig from his Pepsi, got out, and waited for Laurie. They walked together to the front door, and Spider rang the bell. There was no answer, and they could hear no movement inside.

“Maybe he went somewhere in the pickup,” Laurie said.

“Maybe he hasn’t come home from wherever he went on Sunday.”

Laurie peeked through the sidelight into the living room. “We don’t know it was him there on Sunday. It could have been Amy.” She tilted her head. “Listen. Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Shh.” She held up her finger. “Did someone say, ‘Come out back?’”

“I don’t know. We can try it and see.” He looked one way and the next. “Which way do we go around?”

“This way.” Laurie led him across to a covered breezeway separating the house from the triple car garage. Tiles on the breezeway floor melded into the hardscape that covered most of the back yard, and they walked across it to the covered patio where they’d had lunch a week ago.

“Jack?” Laurie looked around the shady area.

“Over here.”

They both looked toward the sound. Jack lay on a chaise lounge under a light fleece blanket. His eyes were sunken, and his skin had a grayish tinge to it. “Hello,” he said, holding out a trembling hand. “I didn’t know if you could hear me or not.”

“Jack!” Laurie sat in a chair beside him and took his hand in hers. “Are you all right?”

Jack moistened his lips with his tongue. “I could do with a drink of water.”

Laurie looked up at Spider. “Here. Hold his hand. I’ll go get it.”

Before Spider could volunteer for the errand, Laurie grabbed him, pulled him over, and sat him down in her place. Then she placed Jack’s limp hand in Spider’s.

“I’ll be back in a minute.” She spoke over her shoulder as she trotted to the door to the living room.

Spider looked at the hand he held and then looked at Jack, lying with his eyes closed.

“You’re a good man, Spider,” Jack murmured. His eyes opened, and his lips curved into a half smile. “I was just yankin’ your chain every time I called you Spencer.” His eyes closed again, and the smile faded. “I’m glad to have some time alone with you. I’ve seen that you’re a good man to have around in difficult times, and what I’ve done is because of that, not because of Laurie.”

Spider frowned. “I don’t understand. What have you done?”

Jack licked his lips again. “Were you going to get me some water?”

At that moment, Laurie came through the kitchen door carrying the soft drink cup that had been in the pickup with the rest of Spider’s Pepsi in it. “I rinsed it out,” she said to Spider as she carried it by. To Jack she said, “I thought it would be easier for you to drink out of a straw.”

“You’re an angel,” he said, letting go Spider’s hand to take the cup.

Spider took the opportunity to slip out of the chair. He motioned to Laurie to take the seat while he moved to one farther away.

Laurie took the cup when Jack had taken a sip. She set it on a nearby table and smoothed back his hair. “What happened, Jack? Did you get sick?”

“It’s a bad spell.” He spoke in a reedy voice, just above a whisper. “I get them every now and then. Part of the old problem.”

“Who’s taking care of you?” Laurie looked around. “Where’s Amy?”

“She’s not here.”

Spider sat forward. “She didn’t perchance take the pickup and horse trailer and drive over to St. George on Sunday, did she?”

Jack slowly rolled his head from side to side. “I did.”

Spider scooted his chair closer. “You drove the pickup and trailer on Sunday? You musta been feeling better then than you are today.”

Jack nodded. “It just about finished me off, but I made the trip to Vegas and back in one day. It’s hotter than the hubs of hell over there.”

Spider and Laurie looked at each other. “Wait,” she said. “You weren’t going to St. George? You were going to Las Vegas?”

“Yeah.” Jack reached for the water, and Laurie gave it to him. He lifted his head and brought the straw to his lips with a shaking hand. “I stopped for gas in St. George, but then I kept on going.” He lay back down but kept the cup, resting it on his stomach.

“Why did you go to Las Vegas?” Laurie asked.

Jack’s eyes rested on Spider. “Because of something Spider said to me Saturday morning after the pancake breakfast.”

Laurie looked at Spider, and he raised his shoulders in an I-don’t-know gesture.

“He said I needed to protect Amy from Austin Lee.”

Spider’s heart sank. Oh, geez. What do you do when someone who’s dying confesses to murder?

Laurie had the presence of mind to ask the next question. “How did you do that, Jack?”

“I took her over to a mental health facility in the mountains outside of Vegas. Very posh. Very earthy. We took Taffy, and she’ll go out riding every day. They’re going to look at adjusting her meds, and they’re going to talk to her about healthy relationships.” Jack paused and took several shallow breaths. “I figure she can stay there a month or two, and by that time, Austin will have moved on to someone else.”

Laurie took Jack’s hand. “Austin is dead. Someone killed him on Sunday.”

Jack blinked. The half-smile returned to his lips. “Is that what the questions were about?”

Spider wasn’t sure whether Jack was putting on an act or not. He certainly looked like death warmed over. If he had made a ten hour round trip three days ago pulling a horse trailer, he had gone downhill in a hurry. Or maybe he hadn’t been in the truck at all. Maybe that was Amy. Maybe Jack knew Amy had killed Austin, and he was trying to deflect blame. “What’s the name of the place where Amy is now?”

“Mountain Hollow Residential Care.” Jack waved a weak hand toward the kitchen. “There’s a card with the information on the counter.”

“Will they be able to vouch for the time you arrived?” Laurie asked.

“They’ll tell Spider,” Jack rasped. “His name is listed as someone they can give information to.”

Spider’s eyebrows shot up. “Me? Why?”

Jack closed his eyes and didn’t answer. Spider waited a moment and then went to the kitchen. The business card was on the counter. Alongside it was a card for Lucky’s Horseshoeing in Hurricane. There were also cards for Southern Utah Hospice, Fordham Mortuary, and Major Smith, attorney at law.

Spider took out his phone and bent over to read the Mountain Hollow information. He dialed the number, and a crisp-voiced receptionist answered. After giving his name, he asked what time Jack Houghten and Amy Scott arrived on Sunday. The receptionist put him on hold for a moment and then said that they arrived at noon on Sunday.

Spider did some calculation from the time they were at the intersection. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or not to find that Jack’s story held up. He slid the card to the back of the counter by the others, and on an impulse, slipped the farrier’s card in his shirt pocket.