“I had just talked to her about Maya. She’s the one who told me to talk to Owen.”
“Still doesn’t mean he knows anything,” Rocky said.
“Then he hauled ass out the creek road past his old man’s place. He talked to a tatted-up dude in a double-wide trailer stuck out in the brush.”
“So what? The guy probably works for Mike. Most of that part of the county is Bauer land. There’s three or four older brothers and a bunch of cousins scattered around out there.”
“I think Owen knows where Maya went.”
“Things have changed since we went to school.”
“What d’you mean?”
“All the new folks moving into the county. Twenty years ago, we knew everybody that came through that gate.” He pointed to the ticket booth. “Now, I don’t recognize half of them.”
“I still saw a lot of folks I know,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s ’cause you’re famous. Everybody wants to shake your hand.”
“What’s this have to do with Maya?” I asked.
“Things have changed is all I’m saying. In the old days, our families ran the place. It’s not like that anymore. If you’re thinking of staying on at your grandpa’s place, you need to know that.”
“I haven’t decided whether I’m gonna stay or not. Right now, I wanna find Maya.”
Rocky drank the last of his beer. I could see him searching for the right words to tell me something. His lips closed over his buckteeth. I knew him too well. That was a sign he was serious.
“Owen Bauer is my star player. The kid’s a natural. Reminds me of you before you threw it all away to go shoot terrorists.” He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in close to me. I got a strong whiff of hops and German sausage. “I don’t want anything to happen to him. We got a good chance of gettin’ to regionals this year, if not further.”
“Congratulations,” I said. “Tell him to come clean about Maya, and I’ll leave him alone.”
“Damn it, Nick. I’m askin’ as a favor. The kid’s sensitive. If he’s worried about you followin’ him around, he’ll fuck up in the game next week. I can’t have that. We’re playin’ Boerne. They’re tough this year.”
“All I want is the truth,” I said.
“Still the same hardheaded German. I swear to god, I never met anyone as stubborn as you.”
“I’m talking about a missing girl. Helmut’s granddaughter. You’re talking about your football season.”
“All right. Let me talk to him. Will you do that? You come on like Rambo. Hell, the kid’s shittin’ bricks.”
“He’s got nothin’ to worry about if he tells the truth.”
The girls elbowed their way through the crowd. Both held a cup of beer in each hand.
“I didn’t think we’d ever get through the line,” Gwen said, handing a beer to Rocky.
He quickly exposed his buckteeth and slipped back into happy-go-lucky coach mode. “Thanks for the beer, baby,” he said and planted a sloppy kiss on her lips.
Kelly handed me a beer.
“To old friends,” I said.
“Prost!” we said together and tipped our plastic cups to the full moon.
“The band’s playing again,” Kelly said. She pulled my hand toward the tent.
“Don’t take too long,” I said to Rocky. “I need some answers.” I waved at Gwen. “Nice to meet you, Gwen.”
Rocky closed his lips over his buckteeth. “I’ll talk to him.”
Chapter Ten
Kelly and I walked back to my pickup under a full harvest moon. Tired couples, some carrying sleeping kids, some following grandparents, dispersed toward side streets looking for their own parked vehicles. We’d spent the last thirty minutes dancing and watching a grandmother teach her four grandchildren how to polka. They were all under ten years old, wearing traditional costumes, and didn’t seem the least self-conscious. I’d learned to dance the same way.
Kelly squeezed my hand when we reached the passenger door.
“You’re thinking about your grandfather,” she said. I don’t know how she knew.
“This was his one social event of the year.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet him,” she said.
We drove in silence back to the motel. My chest and arm were sore from dancing and shaking hands with everybody I knew.
I parked in the back of the full motel parking lot and went around to open Kelly’s door. We leaned against the fender, looking at the moon that had just cleared the oak trees. I felt her breath and her heartbeat all at once.
“You gonna be all right?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’ll take a while. He was my father, mother, and grandpa for a long time.”
“Wouldn’t hurt you to let it all out. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
She tilted her face up and kissed me on the lips.
“Remember the first time that happened?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said. The first time we kissed was in Lubbock while we were waiting for her lab to run a DNA test. The process took three hours on the state-of-the-art, Rapid DNA testing equipment. While we waited for the results, she had invited me out to dinner. Afterward, we made out in the parking lot until the call came about the positive DNA match.
“Did you really leave me that night because of the case?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure which answer would get me in more trouble. If I said I left her in the parking lot so I could pursue the case, she might think I would always choose work over her. On the other hand, if I told her I left her because at the time I still thought I could work things out with my girlfriend, she might think I wasn’t completely committed to her. I had never been very good at negotiating the dating world.
“It took all my willpower to walk away from you that night,” I said.
She smiled. “Good answer.”
Maybe I was learning.
“There’s nothing holding you back tonight,” she said, and kissed me again. We made out for another minute. A family of four with teenage kids pulled into the empty parking space beside us. I opened my eyes and could see the two young boys in the backseat of the minivan pointing and giggling. Their mother said something to calm them down, but it didn’t help. The product of too much cotton candy. It would be a while before they went to sleep.
This time, we managed to get to our room with most of our clothes intact. Kelly wanted to show off the new undergarment she bought for the occasion. It looked like something I’d seen in a Frankfurt strip club, but I didn’t tell her that. The material was shear, except for very small German flags in strategic places. I was impressed. It was enough to distract me from thinking about Grandpa and Maya Chavez for another hour.
When we had showered and lain back down on the kind-sized bed, we could hear the hyperactive kids bouncing off the walls in the next room.
“Are we always going to have to stay in a motel?” she asked.
“Of course not. I’m gonna give Helen a deadline.”
“I didn’t mean that you should kick her out. You have more than one room at the ranch house.”
“I’d rather not have to put up with her interruptions while I’m with you,” I said.
“I wouldn’t mind. She seems nice.”
“Yeah, well, we have issues. She almost walked in on me in the bathroom this morning. She wanted to check my bandage.”
“She’s your mother. That’s sweet.”
“Not exactly the way I would put it.” I didn’t want to talk about Helen. Owen Bauer’s trip to the country had me wondering what or if it had anything to do with Maya.
“What else is bothering you?” she asked, snuggling beside me. I was quickly learning that Kelly wasn’t going to ever let me cut her out of my thought process. In the short time we’d been together, she seemed to be able to read me like an open book. “You’re thinking about that girl, Maya Chavez, aren’t you?”
I admi
tted I was and told her about my conversation with Rocky. “Rocky seemed more interested in Owen’s performance on the field than getting any information on her disappearance.”
“A girl’s missing and he’s worried about his football season? The guy sounds like a real piece of work,” she said.
“I promised him he could talk to Owen, but I didn’t say I would stop looking for Maya.”
“What’re you thinking?”
“That trailer I followed Owen Bauer to out in the country. He met a guy with a ponytail and a chest full of tatts.”
She slipped off the bed and started getting dressed.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“You think Maya’s out there. If I don’t go out there with you, you’ll go on your own.” She pulled on a pair of jeans and sat on the bed. “We need to know tonight.” She slipped on a pair of tactical boots and laced them up. Kelly not only knew what I was thinking, she was willing to go along.
Chapter Eleven
The full moon made the narrow gravel road easy to follow at night without headlights. The dangerous part was avoiding the herds of deer and wild hogs grazing along the fencerow. Kelly was holding my hand across the console in the dark pickup cab. It was an odd sensation. Kelly caught me looking at our hands linked together.
“What?” she smiled. “You don’t like holding hands?” She tried to pull away, but I held firm.
“No. I like it.” I smiled back. “I was just thinking that I’m not used to PDA.”
“Well, get over it.” She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Besides, we’re in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road without headlights. Whatever we do out here wouldn’t be considered a public display of affection.”
“I see your point.”
“I’m starting to think you brought me out here just to take advantage of me.”
“If I wanted to do that, I’d have kept you in the motel room.”
“If we don’t find what we’re looking for, can we get naked in the backseat?” she asked.
“Deal,” I said.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Mr. Fischer.”
“That’s something I never do.”
I pulled to the side of the road at the cattle guard where Owen Bauer had crossed that afternoon. There were lights in the brush and muffled music. The night was still and warm. We unrolled the windows and listened to a barn owl hoot his preparation for the night’s hunt. The pulsing music didn’t seem to bother him. I pulled out my binoculars and swept the brush around the trailer.
“I don’t hear any polka music,” Kelly said.
“Not much dancing going on either.” I spotted two bodies standing by the door of the trailer. They both had shaved heads and wore sleeveless jean jackets. I guessed they were guards, and I wondered what they were guarding. There was a fire burning in a fifty-five-gallon drum about twenty feet away from the trailer. It was cut in half and lying on its side. “I see two thugs by the door watching a barbecue pit. The brush is too thick to make out anything else.”
“Let me see,” she said, and took the binoculars. “It’s a stash house.”
“You’re sure?”
“It’s hidden out in the brush. The windows are closed. Couple of guards outside. Couldn’t be a better place to hide a shipment of drugs or whatever’s goin’ on with those women.”
“I forgot you were a policewoman. What was Owen Bauer, star quarterback for the Battlin’ Billies, doing here?” Despite the warmth of the October night, a chill ran down my spine. Something in the back of my memory was tapping at the front door of my brain. The sensation gave me an uneasy feeling. That afternoon I remembered the shootout near here that had killed my dad, but there was something else that happened here. Something older. Something that reminded me of Maya.
“What is it?” Kelly asked, staring at me in the moonlight.
“Something happened here that reminded me of Maya. It’s been bugging me since we crossed Palo Alto Creek.” I stared at the moon for a full two minutes before I realized what it was. “We’re hunting a missing girl within a few miles of where Anna Metzger was abducted by Indians and her sister was murdered.”
“I didn’t think there were any natives left in Central Texas.”
“It happened in 1864.”
“Oh, some of your ancient history again. I was getting worried.”
“The girl survived nine months in captivity. Her fourteen-year-old sister was murdered on the spot. They shot her with arrows, stripped her clothes, and scalped her while her little sister watched.”
“Wow, no wonder you were thinking about her.” She crossed herself.
“What was that for?”
“Keeps the ghosts away.” She smiled. “You said a girl was murdered.”
“You’re afraid of ghosts?”
“There are some things a pistol won’t protect you from.”
“Like evil spirits?”
She nodded. “What happened to the girls?”
“They had gone to visit their older sister at the Nimitz Hotel on Main Street. It was February, and there was snow on the ground. They were on their way home at dusk when they spotted riders on the road. They thought it was someone they knew and waved, then realized too late that the riders were a Kiowa raiding party. One of them grabbed Anna and strapped her on the front of his horse. The older sister resisted.”
Kelly chewed her bottom lip, waiting for the rest of the story.
“When she fought back, they shot her full of arrows. Anna watched the men strip her sister’s clothes and scalp her blond hair. Her family found her body the next morning.”
“Oh, my god. What happened to Anna?”
“The Kiowas rode north for twelve days, stopping only briefly for river crossings. Anna wrote about it later. The story also came out in the Austin newspaper. The only food she was given was raw liver. She said her tongue got so swollen from lack of water she couldn’t speak.”
“And she survived?”
“Yep, survived nine months in captivity. She lived to be eighty-one years old. Married and moved down the road to Mason. The first settlers were a very tough bunch.”
She crossed herself again. “You think Maya was kidnapped?”
“The thought did cross my mind. I’m starting to think she didn’t leave on her own.”
I pulled my Springfield XD .45 pistol from the glove box and checked the magazine. I had a spare that held thirteen rounds.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked.
“Let’s go do a little recon,” I said.
She pulled a SIG Sauer P226 pistol from her purse and clipped it on her belt. “Dating you is going to be interesting.”
“So… We’re dating? Is it official?” I asked.
“Are you kidding? We already danced the polka and made love in a Best Western. It doesn’t get any more official.” She leaned over the console and kissed me. “Let’s go see what’s going on in that trailer.”
We hopped the barbed-wire fence and made our way through the brush toward the lights of the trailer. The moon provided plenty of light to avoid major rocks and the spiny cactus. Pulsating music rattled the aluminum on the trailer. A coyote yipped, followed by a dozen or more. They were on the hunt tonight too.
We crept to within fifty feet of the trailer. The two skinheads were still outside. One was tending to a large piece of meat on the barbecue pit. The other sat in a folding chair drinking a beer. There were two tricked-out Super Duty pickups fitted with chrome roll bars and a new black Jeep Grand Cherokee with oversized mud tires parked in the driveway.
“What do you think?” I asked Kelly.
“I’d like to know what’s going on inside.”
All the curtains on the trailer were closed. There was the added noise of a diesel generator creating the power for the lights and the air conditioner mounted on the top of the trailer.
While we listened to the noise and watch
ed the skinhead turn the meat, the tattooed guy I saw with Owen stepped out of the trailer. He had his shirt off and his hair in a ponytail, just as he did earlier. Even in the dim firelight, I could see the distinctive dragon tattoo across his chest. “That’s the guy I saw with Owen Bauer.”
“Looks like a gangbanger,” Kelly said.
“Yeah. What the hell’s he doin’ out here?”
“Drugs, most likely. Whose land is this?” she asked.
“I’m pretty sure it belongs to Mike Bauer, Owen’s daddy.”
A young girl stepped out of the trailer and onto the wooden pallet used for a porch. Her cutoff jean shorts were tight, and she wore a black tank top. I guessed she was in her early twenties or was small and skinny for her age. Her hair was dark and stringy and clung to her head like she hadn’t washed it in a week. The girl lit a cigarette and stood looking down at the meat on the barbecue pit.
“What d’you think you’re doin’?” The guy with the tattoo said.
“I just came out for a smoke,” the girl answered.
“Do it, then get your ass back in the trailer and finish business,” he said.
“He stinks. Besides, I’m done. He’s passed out.”
The guy with the tattoo laughed at her. He was six two or three and probably tipped the scales at around two forty without an ounce of fat. He was definitely the man in charge.
“You stink.” He grabbed the lit cigarette from her lips and tossed it in the barrel. “You’re done. I don’t want you seen out here.”
The girl hesitated. Tattoo raised his hand as if to strike her.
I took a step forward. Kelly grabbed my arm.
“Wait,” she whispered.
The girl cringed as if she expected to be hit, but Tattoo didn’t swing. The girl retreated into the trailer.
“If you go over there, somebody’s gonna get hurt.”
“That’s the idea,” I said.
“You’re forgetting about the hole in your shoulder.”
“We need to look in that trailer. Maya may be in there.” I wanted to slap some sense into Dragon Tatt after watching the girl’s reaction, but I understood Kelly’s point.
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