Trouble at the Red Pueblo (7 page)

Spider made the left turn into the museum parking lot. The Bakers’ SUV was still there, as was Matt’s red pickup and Linda’s beige Kia SUV. Spider pulled up beside two out-of-state cars. “I’ll introduce you to Isaac, and he’ll show you around. I need to talk to a couple other people.”

As they walked to the entrance, Spider noticed Linda and Matt in the Heritage Yard with a cluster of people around them. Matt was bent over a workbench, pounding on a rock while Linda addressed the group.

LaJean and Isaac were behind the counter when Spider and Karam pushed open the glass doors. She hitched up the canvas bag holding her oxygen bottle and said, “Hey, Stranger. That’s quite the rig you’re driving.”

“Just trying to impress the ladies.” Spider took off his hat and gestured toward his companion. “Let me introduce you to Karam Mansour. He’s interested in American History.”

“Glad to meet you, Karam.” Isaac offered his hand. “You’ve come to the right place.”

Spider indicated the knot of people around Matt and Linda. “What’s going on out in the yard?”

“Mattie’s demonstrating how to make an Anasazi ax head,” Isaac said. “It’s quite a skill.”

Karam took out his phone. “I would like to see it. May I take pictures?”

“Take as many pictures as you like.” Isaac motioned for Karam to follow him to the door that led out to the Heritage Yard. “You can even give it a try.”

When they were gone, LaJean cocked her head. “You don’t want to learn how to make a stone ax?”

“No, I’d like to talk to you about what’s been going on at the museum.”

“Well, you might as well come around behind the counter, so we can sit down.” She pulled the two folding chairs into a conversation position and sat. “What do you want to know?”

Spider took the chair opposite, his hat in his lap. “I want to know how word got out about the name on the Lincoln document.”

LaJean stared at Spider for a moment. She took the canvas bag from over her shoulder and set it on the floor beside her. “Who told you about the Lincoln document?”

“Martin showed it to me. He had another spell before I could ask him what I’m asking you, and Neva’s not doing well, either. I thought if I could get the information from you and Isaac, it might be better for all concerned.”

LaJean leaned forward and glanced through the side door at the group in the Heritage Yard. “Here’s what I know. There were six people who knew about the Lincoln letter.” She held up six fingers, lowering one each time she named a name. “Isaac. Me. Martin. Neva. Mattie. Linda.”

“So, who leaked the name?”

“I only know that Isaac didn’t, and I didn’t. We haven’t mentioned it to a soul. I’m almost as sure about Martin and Neva. There are lots of secrets here— where things have been found and such. They’ll probably take those secrets to their graves. Why would they spill the beans on this?”

“What about Matt?”

“Mattie’s like his father. He can keep a secret.”

“Which leaves Linda.”

“Yes” LaJean sighed. “Which leaves Linda.”

“Who would she have told? And why?”

“Who? I don’t know. Why? That old green-eyed monster. It makes people do things they never would if they were in their right mind.”

“Jealousy? Is that what you mean?” Spider looked at the two young people in the Heritage Yard. They were engaged in a common task yet they didn’t speak to each other, didn’t even look at one another. “Who is Linda? When did she come to the Red Pueblo?”

“Mattie brought her here last January. He knew her at the university, and when she graduated, he talked Martin into hiring her. She’s had a lot of great ideas for the museum, like the demonstrations and classes in the Heritage Yard. She teaches flint knapping—”

Spider broke in. “—which is?”

“It’s how you make arrowheads.” LaJean pointed at a tray in the glass case. “She made all of these. See how the stone is flaked away at the edges?”

“Is that what they’re doing out there now?”

“That’s another process called pecking and grinding. Check out that ax right there.” She tapped the glass case. “You just hammer away with another rock until you get it the shape you want, and then you grind it on a harder rock until it gets an edge to it.”

Spider bent forward and studied the stone implement. “That’s not much of an edge.”

“It’ll cut wood,” she assured him. “It’s been a big boost to the museum’s stature to have the classes, and it helps the people appreciate the Anasazi’s ingenuity. And, it’s all Linda’s doing.”

“Okay.” Spider sat back and stretched out his legs. “So she comes here. She’s an asset. Hard worker. Then what?”

“It was obvious to me when she came that she was in love with Mattie. They make a great team, and I think he saw that in her— saw them taking over where his parents will leave off some day. It seemed to me he made the decision to marry her more with his head than his heart, but that’s not a bad thing.” She lifted the green oxygen bottle out of the canvas bag beside her chair and looked at the gauge. “If you’ll open that cupboard beside you, there’s another one of these in there. Thanks.” She used a small wrench hanging on a chain around her neck to exchange bottles and gave him the empty one to put back on the shelf.

“Now,” she said, “what was I saying? Did it make any sense? Sometimes I don’t when I run out of oxygen.”

“You were telling me that Linda gave Matt her heart, and he gave her the museum in return.”

LaJean dropped the bottle in the bag and took out her knitting. “That’s one way to put it, though I think he’s fonder of her than he realized. It really hurt him when she took up with that fellow from St. George.”

Spider sat up. “Wait! What fellow from St. George?”

She looked up, needles poised. “No one has mentioned Austin Lee?”

Spider shook his head. “This is the first I’ve heard of him.”

LaJean leaned forward again to check on the status of the people in the yard. “Smooth as honey butter, he is. Handsome, in a California surfer kind of way.”

“How’s that?”

“Oh, you know. He’s got sun-streaked blond hair and broad shoulders. Of course he’s tall, and he dresses real sharp. Drives an expensive car. I don’t blame Linda for falling for him. If he’d come in and started paying attention to me, I might have fallen for him myself.”

Spider rubbed his jaw. “I need to visualize a timeline on this. Can you tell me the order that things happened in, from Linda coming and getting engaged— did Matt actually give her a diamond?”

“It was a turquoise ring that belonged to Martin’s mother.”

“Okay. When did that happen?”

“Memorial Day weekend. They announced it at the museum picnic.

“When did they break up? I take it Austin Lee entered the picture before that. And don’t leave out Tiffany Wendt, either. I’m assuming she’s the cause of the green-eyed monster.”

LaJean put down her knitting, hefted herself out of the chair and walked around the counter to get the guest sign-in book, trailing her oxygen hose behind her.

Spider peeked in the bag. “How long a tether you got on that thing?”

“About forty feet.” She returned to her chair and opened the guest book. “I can tell you the exact day that Tiffany Wendt showed up. And you’re right. I think if she hadn’t appeared on the scene, Linda wouldn’t have looked twice at Austin Lee.”

“So who called it quits? Do you know?”

LaJean snorted. “I think everyone in the county knows. They had an argument at about ninety decibels out in the yard.” She opened the visitor log. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. You wanted a time line.”

Spider waited while she paged through the book.

She finally stopped. “Tiffany visited for the first time on July third.”

“What’s her story? Is she local? Move-in? Married?”

“She’s a returnee. She went to high school in Kanab, and then her family moved away. She grew up and married the owner of a software company. He apparently had a roving eye, found something he liked better, and gave her a pile of money in a divorce settlement. She remembered being happy here and decided to move back.”

“I see. Did she know Matt in high school? Were they sweethearts?”

LaJean shook her head. “She was a cheerleader, prom queen, that kind of thing. Mattie was always out roaming the hills when he wasn’t in class. Roaming and thinking.” She tapped her temple. “He’s got a lot upstairs.”

“And Tiffany?”

“I think she’s smart, but in a different way.”

Spider raised a questioning eyebrow. “How so?”

“Oh, socially. Always knows the right thing to say and the right person to say it to. Never puts a foot wrong. Linda, on the other hand, doesn’t have a social grace to her name.”

Spider looked through the door at Matt and Linda. The group of people that had surrounded them, Karam included, had moved on to the dugout, and the couple stood, heads bent, working on shaping ax heads. “They’re a good-looking pair, seeing them like that,” he said, turning back to LaJean. “But let’s get back to the timeline. Engaged Memorial Day weekend. Tiffany shows up around the Fourth of July. What was that like?”

La Jean picked up her knitting again. “It wasn’t like anything. She came to see the museum. Visited with Martin and Mattie. Visited with Isaac and me. Visited with Linda. We all thought she was great.”

“All? Even Linda?”

“I told you, Tiffany never puts a foot wrong. She made Linda think she was her biggest fan. And I think she was sincere.”

“So what changed?”

“All I can tell you is what I think.” LaJean paused to count stitches. “Tiffany fell for Mattie, and she was determined to have him. She saw that his life is the museum, and she played to that. She offered to donate a sizeable sum to the Red Pueblo Foundation.”

“How sizeable?”

“A quarter million dollars.”

Spider whistled. “So he drops Linda because a gal with money comes along?”

LaJean pointed a knitting needle at him. “I hear the disapproval in your voice. You’re way off base. Mattie’s not like that.”

“So, tell me what he’s like.”

“He’s loyal and true, and he’d walk through fire to help his dad. Sure he’s paying attention to Tiffany. A quarter million dollars would go a long ways toward getting the museum back on its feet.”

“But she hasn’t given the money yet? Is that why he’s being so attentive and laughing at her jokes? Would that classify as walking through fire?”

“I think so, yes.” LaJean finished the row and jabbed her needles into the ball of yarn. “Let me finish your wretched timeline.” Her smile took the bite out of the comment.

Spider returned the smile. “Last thing on it was Tiffany’s arrival the first part of July.”

LaJean picked up the visitor log and scanned through the pages. “Here it is. Austin Lee showed up on July twentieth.”

Spider leaned over and looked at the name printed in precise block letters. “Do you remember anything about that day?”

“You mean besides having three tour busses stop at the same time?” Her eyes twinkled. “I’m kidding. I know what you mean, and yes, I do remember several things.”

LaJean’s brow furrowed as if trying to marshal her thoughts. While he waited, Spider glanced around the Heritage Yard. Isaac was talking, making sweeping gestures in the air, and Karam was listening intently to what he was saying.

“First,” LaJean said, calling Spider back to attention, “when Austin showed up that day, Tiffany was out in the yard with Mattie while he was demonstrating the making of ax heads for one of the tour busses. Linda was in here minding the counter with me.”

“Why does that stick in your memory?”

“Well, Mattie and Linda have always been a team— like today. They have a routine worked out that they go through, and all the tourists enjoy it.” She tapped the page in the book. “This was the first time that Mattie did the routine with someone else.”

“You say it was the first time. Does that mean he and Tiffany have partnered up other times?”

“Yes. Quite often.”

“Whose idea was it the first time? Did she volunteer or did Matt suggest it?”

LaJean‘s eyes crinkled at the corners. “I told you she was good. She made it seem like Linda invited her to work with Mattie that day.”

Spider nodded. “What else did you notice? You said ‘several things.’”

“I noticed that Linda couldn’t keep her eyes off Mattie and Tiffany and that every now and then, her chin would quiver.” She pointed to the oxygen bottle. “If my heart wasn’t already in such tough shape, I’m sure it would have broken to see her like that.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Yeah. There’s one more thing I’ve been wondering about. Say you’re a good-looking fellow, drive a fancy car, dress sharp. Say you’re the kind of guy that sets the ladies to swooning.”

“That stretches the imagination, but, okay. Say I’m that kind of guy.”

“You come into the museum, and you’ve got two ladies working here. One’s mousy and shy— not to mention red-eyed from crying. The other is good looking, dressed to the nines, and outgoing as all get out. Who are you going to try to spend time with?”

“You mean would I hang around Tiffany or Linda? Well, if I’m a fancy dresser, driving a car less than twenty years old and without flames all over the front of it, probably Tiffany.”

“That’s what I thought, too, but he didn’t even go out into the yard. He came in, looked at the displays, and then spent about half an hour here at the counter talking to Linda.”

“What about?”

“Anasazi stuff. She was telling him about the axes. She tried to get him to go out and see the demonstration, but he stayed in here. He ended up buying one but wanted to be sure it was one she had made.”

“Huh.” Spider took a moment to consider. “That was just over three weeks ago. What happened after that?”

“They started spending time together.”

“Linda and Austin? What kind of time together? Wasn’t she still engaged?”

“Officially, yes. But Mattie would take off with Tiffany, and Linda would be here feeling left out. Naturally she’s going to appreciate someone paying attention to her.” She marked her place with her index finger and closed the guest book, holding it in her lap. “I tried to tell Mattie that he was shooting himself in the foot. I told him that Austin was going to cut his grass, but he said that Linda understood what he was doing. He said she was ‘above jealousy.’” LaJean snorted. “Roaming the hills instead of going to dances doesn’t teach a young man anything about women.”