“Don’t hold your breath on that, Leona.”
“I suppose not. But we have good lawyers, too, don’t we. What fun they’ll all have.”
Estelle’s phone rang, and she picked up the receiver, holding up a finger so that Leona wouldn’t leave.
“Guzman.”
“Ah, good,” Frank Dayan said. “I was hoping I could catch you.”
“How are you, sir?”
“Just fine. Any chance?” She knew exactly what the newspaper publisher meant.
“What works for you, sir?”
“How about right now?”
“Here or there?”
“I’ll be right over.”
Estelle hung up. “Frank’s chance,” she said. “He’s finally going to scoop the big metro papers.”
“He lives for that, the dear sweet man. Has Mr. Prescott explained himself? I mean, my goodness, if there is an explanation for what he did?”
“Eddie Johns was infatuated with Christine, Leona. He made crude remarks to Gus on a number of occasions-enough to get his fatherly blood boiling. Prescott was going to Waddell’s property to work on the road, and Johns was there, so excited that he’d managed to shoot a cat so old, tired, or sick that he couldn’t run. He crowed about being able to sell the carcass in Mexico…apparently there’s a market.
“That led to an argument, and one thing led to another. Gus says that Johns was talking a blue streak about what he was going to do…with the cave he’d just discovered, with the cat, with the Mexicans who’d pay a fortune for the carcass, with the stargazers facility he and Miles Waddell were planning, and sure enough, even with Gus’ daughter.
“He crawled into the cave a bit, and Gus was right behind him. The handgun’s butt was right there near at hand, Johns was in an awkward position so that he couldn’t react, and that was the opportunity. Gus took it. That’s his story. He was really, sincerely, worried about Christine.”
She reached out and tapped one of the folders. “If you read Christine’s deposition, you’ll hear some scary things about Johns. She was easy with it all, but her father overheard enough. Christine remembers her father telling her at one point that she wouldn’t have to worry about Johns any more. She didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“How terribly sad.”
Estelle held up her hands in surrender. “Too much drink, too much lots of things. The trouble is that Gus panicked when it was all over, and then combined that with trying to be too clever. After the shooting, he had Johns’ truck to contend with. He drove it home, stripped what he could use or sell, and crushed it by rolling it with that big old grader of his. Then he burned it to make it look old. Our interest in the cave discoveries prompted him to be just too clever…again. He’d been planning to sell the junk vehicles to make some money to fix the grader, but he hadn’t gotten around to it-until the story about Freddy broke. And then he thought that he’d better get rid of the remains of Johns’ truck.”
She shook her head. “If he’d left it alone? If Johns’ truck hadn’t been on that load, if Padrino hadn’t seen it, we might never have known.”
“Oh, my dear, I have faith you would have made the discovery somehow. When people get too clever for their own good…”
“That’s what we have to always hope,” Estelle replied. She heard steps out in the hallway, and Frank Dayan appeared behind Leona.
“Good morning, you handsome devil,” the county manager greeted, and Frank’s blush was intense. He ducked his head and looked beyond the county manager as if the undersheriff was somehow going to protect him.
“Got a minute?” he asked.
“Come in, Frank,” Estelle said. “Leona, I’ll let you know when our hires sign on the dotted line.”
“Just wonderful.” Leona waved a cheery hand. She squeezed past Frank, which deepened his blush even more. She squeezed his arm. “Aren’t you the lucky one, though.”
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Double Prey pc-17 Page 31