May There Be a Road (Ss) (2001)

by L'amour, Louis

  “You—you’re sure?” she pleaded.

  “Uh-huh,” he said carefully, “I’ve followed your every footstep for the last year; I would know. But I’ve an idea that Wachler told you something, didn’t he?”

  She nodded. “Both of them. It was—that second day. I was beginning to remember, but was all—all sort of hazy about it. I saw the calendar, and it didn’t make sense to me until later. They told me that I’d killed a man, that they were my friends, and they had brought me away to safety, and that if I did as they told me to, they would keep my secret.”

  “You didn’t believe them?”

  “Not really, but they showed me blood on my clothes. Afterwards, I thought it was from my cut head, but I couldn’t be sure. So I ran away. I stole a dress, and they had taken my watch off, but I stole it back. I pawned that and bought a ticket out of the state.

  “I didn’t know where to go, but this place was in Arizona, and Jim Buckle had owned it, so I came here. They traced me somehow, and I had to–

  I sent them money. It was all very hazy. They sent me some clippings about a man found dead, and I didn’t know what the truth was, and couldn’t imagine why that Brett Brule had struck me like that, so I was really scared they were right.”

  An ambulance arrived, adding to the flashing lights in the canyon. Questioning voices drifted up to them.

  He stood up. “Let’s go down below. Better to go to them before they come to us.” Catching the bound man by the coat collar, he dragged him after them. At the bottom, he said, “There’s another thing. What about Stukie Tomlin?”

  “Oh.” She turned sharply around. “I’d forgotten him.

  He came here a few days ago and said I was in danger. He told me that I was to inherit a lot of money, but that somebody was asking a lot of odd questions and that I should be careful. I didn’t know what to believe. But, you see, I’d met Stukie before—comwhen I was with Mr. Buckle.”

  Tomlin was awake when they came in; a medic was working on him, and he grinned weakly when he saw Darcy. Shannon dropped his burden on the floor, then looked down into the face of Watt Braith.

  “I thought so,” Shannon said. He turned to Darcy. “This is Brule, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “Yes…”

  “Hey, mister!” A deputy sheriff stepped forward. “You going to explain all this?”

  “Give him a minute and I expect he will, Hank.” Hualapi Johnny spoke up from the doorway.

  Shannon turned back to Darcy Lane, but he spoke for the others, too. “His real name is Braith. He was Buckle’s ………. lawyer. If anything happened to one of the heirs, that estate would be in his hands for five years. With five years and two million dollars to work with, a man can do plenty. So he decided to kill you, Miss Lane. He probably on sinking your body, but his blow knocked you over the side. You’d told him you couldn’t swim, so he figured was pretty safe.”

  “But Buckle was alive!” she protested.

  “Sure. He was alive for six months. You hadn’t showed up, so Braith went ahead and killed Buckle.” “You’ll have a time proving that,” Braith growled. “I can already prove it,” Shannon said quietly. twenty minutes after I left you yesterday, I knew it.”

  “That’s like I figured,” Tomlin interrupted.

  “I’d lent old man some tools, stuff I needed. I drove over here to get them back, and saw where he died. I prowled around found that slide might have been caused by somebody with a crowbar. I told the sheriff about it and we both looked around, but there was nobody around then who seemed to have a motive, so we dropped it.”

  “And then the will came out in the open?”

  “Yeah,” Hank said, “and the boss still couldn’t figure it. We all liked that old man. He was mighty nice. Potifer knew about the will. Buckle had told him, but he didn’t fit the other facts.”

  They picked Stukie Tomlin up and were carrying him out. He caught Darcy’s sleeve. “I saw him in town. I didn’t know what was up but I never trusted him so I thought I’d warn you.”

  Darcy touched his shoulder. “Thank you.”

  Shannon sat down and lit a cigarette. “I made some calls and checked into the guy. I found he had made a lot of money with real estate he had handled, and his success began with the death of Buckle.

  Then, I got in touch with the Mojave County sheriff, and he told me somebody else had been suspicious, also, and that he had checked all strangers in and out of the county at that time. One of them answered the description of Braith, here. He said if I could produce the man, he had the men to identify him. We know one of them is Tomlin.”

  “We’ll meet with the sheriff in the morning,” said Hank. “But it doesn’t sound like we’ll have to spend much time explaining what happened. You-all need to be here for that meeting, though.” He shoved the cuffed Braith ahead of him out the door.

  Darcy Lane sat, her legs still trembling from her ordeal on the cliffs.

  “You must have done a lot of work on this to locate me,” she said.

  “Uh-huh.” He grinned at her. “I even read your diary.”

  She blushed. “Well,” she protested defensively, “there was nothing in it to be ashamed of.”

  “I agree. In fact,” he added seriously, there was a lot to be proud of. So much that I often found myself wanting to meet you..” even if I couldn’t find you.”

  She smiled at him and laughed, and after a moment, he did too.