by Janet Dailey
“Marie had no reason to ram Prescott’s car unless she was following orders,” Beau said. “What we really want is to get the person behind those orders—and behind a lot of other things. I’d say we give Marie some rope, let her work her way into Stella’s organization. As long as she doesn’t know we’re onto her, she could slip up again. Meanwhile we can look for ways to prove she shot Jasper and murdered her brother.”
“So if we wait, there’s a better chance she’ll get what she deserves.” Sky was still skeptical. He wanted this mess over and done.
“More than that,” Beau said. “If she knows she’s looking at years behind bars, she’ll be more apt to make a deal—and give us Stella.”
CHAPTER 17
So far Marie had managed to keep out of Stella’s way. Last night after the wreck, she’d stayed away from the Blue Coyote until she was sure Stella and Nick had gone. This morning she’d spent a couple of hours at Haskell Trucking, hosing, wiping, scrubbing, and vacuuming every fingerprint and every trace of paint, dirt, and gravel from the semi, including the tires. There wasn’t much chance the woman in Prescott’s car had survived, and even less chance she’d gotten a good look at the truck. But why risk it?
Now it was time to report back to work and face whatever had to be faced. She’d have little choice except to tell the truth. Letting Stella catch her in a lie would be a bad idea.
She walked in to find Stella, looking sour and suspicious, waiting at the bar. Nick was nowhere to be seen.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked in a voice that was like the purr of a cat about to pounce on a sparrow.
Bracing herself, Marie feigned a shrug. “I picked up the signal a little after dark. Prescott’s Cadillac came by the diner a few minutes later. I followed it to a spot with a good, steep shoulder and rammed it from behind. It crumpled and rolled down into the barrow pit.”
“And?” Stella’s eyes narrowed and sharpened, as if she already knew the truth.
“When I walked down to check, it wasn’t Prescott. It was a woman with long red hair. She was alone in the car.”
“Prescott had a red-haired daughter. Probably her. Was she alive?”
“I couldn’t tell for sure. She was unconscious, hanging by the seat belt, bleeding from her head. I figured if she wasn’t dead, she soon would be.”
“So you left her that way?”
A rivulet of cold sweat trickled down Marie’s back. “Somebody was coming. I could see the headlights. I figured my best bet was to get out of there before I got caught.” Marie could feel herself beginning to crumble. “Give me another chance. This time I’ll find Prescott and finish the job, I promise.”
Stella’s laughter exploded. “No, you won’t, dearie.”
Marie stared at her, her stomach curdling.
“I heard the news on the radio driving in,” Stella said. “Garn Prescott died yesterday in the hospital—of a heart attack.”
Marie’s legs buckled. She sank onto a chair. “So he was already dead last night when I . . .”
“That’s right—not that we knew it at the time. At least you showed willing. But I’d be happier if you’d made sure his daughter wasn’t going to wake up. Since nothing’s been on the news, I’m guessing she survived. Do you think she got a look at the truck?”
“It was dark. But the parking lot at the diner has overhead lights. She could’ve seen me as I pulled out. I cleaned up the truck this morning. There’s nothing on it that could link it to the wreck or to me.”
“Well, I’ve learned not to take chances. A friend in Lubbock is looking to buy a truck like that. I’ll discount the price if he picks it up today.” Stella’s green eyes narrowed. “So why are you sitting there? No thanks to you, Nicky and I were short-handed last night and didn’t have time to clean up. The floor needs sweeping, and the bar and tables need polishing before we open. Get to work!”
Marie grabbed a broom and dustpan from the hall closet and began sweeping under the tables. For now, at least, it was business as usual. All she could do was wait for Stella to play the next card.
After what had happened to Lute, she knew better than to turn her back on the woman. With the Harley gassed, pistol loaded, and backpack handy, she’d be ready to cut and run at the first sign of trouble.
But she wasn’t ready to give up yet—not as long as there was a chance to move up in Stella’s world of wealth and power. For all Marie knew, it could be the only chance she’d ever have.
Sky worked the horses till after sundown. He’d climbed out of the shower, about to dress and drive back to the hospital, when his cell phone rang. It was Lauren.
“Hi.” He tried to sound casual, but concern for her had dogged him all day. “Sounds like you talked the nurse into giving your phone back. I was just getting ready to come see you.”
“That’s why I called. You looked dead on your feet this morning. If you haven’t slept, I don’t want you nodding off on the road. Stay home.”
“You’re giving me orders now?”
“You’re darn right I am. And don’t worry about me. I’m still hurting, but the scan showed no bleeding on my brain. The doctor wants to keep me through tomorrow night. After that, if all goes well, I can go home the next morning and get ready for the funeral.”
“You’ll have a lot to deal with,” Sky said. “Are you sure you’ll be up to it?”
“I can manage—especially if you’ve got my back. But you won’t be much help if you’ve crashed and burned. You can come get me when I’m ready to go home. Meanwhile, for my sake, if not yours, get some sleep.”
“You’re sure you’ll be all right?”
“Stop babying me. I’m supposed to be a big girl, remember?”
After a moment’s good-natured banter, Sky ended the call. Lauren’s good news had lifted a dreadful weight. But as he pulled on his sweatpants and a worn T-shirt, the disappointment was there, too. He’d looked forward all day to being with her. But she was right. He was tired to the marrow of his bones—too tired to be driving on the highway. He needed a good night’s rest.
Wandering barefoot onto their shared porch, he found Jasper in his rocker, the dog sprawled at his feet. Sky had yet to corner the old man long enough to ask for the full story of Bull and his mother. Maybe now was as good a time as any.
Pulling his chair over to Jasper’s side of the porch, Sky sat down. With the sun gone, the twilight breeze felt almost cool on his damp face. The rim of a waxing moon had risen above the rolling plains to the east. The lights were on in the big house.
“Feels good to be off my feet,” Sky said. “How about you?”
Jasper stirred with a little snort, as if he’d been dozing. “Hellfire, I’m goin’ stir-crazy sittin’ around here. Can’t get very far on my feet, and Will won’t let loose of the key to the ATV. I been goin’ and doin’ all my life, Sky. I wasn’t cut out to sit on my butt like a damned toadstool.”
It wasn’t the response Sky had expected. Maybe another time would be better to ask the old man for answers to his questions.
“You did make it into town today,” he said.
“Runnin’ errands with Bernice? That wasn’t much better than sittin’ around here. She wouldn’t even let me drive the truck. What I want is to be out on my own. I want my ATV back. I want to have a gun and go out huntin’ like I used to afore I got shot.”
“I guess you still can’t remember everything, can you?” Jasper shook his head. “Don’t suppose I ever will. Heard the gun, felt the bullet, and then the blasted ATV wouldn’t steer. That’s all I remember. If I got a look at the lowlife that shot me, I still don’t recollect it. But if it was that cousin of yours, the one they found dead in the bog, the varmint got what he deserved. Worst of it was, he took my good bird gun.”
“Tell you what,” Sky said. “I’ll bet Will would let you take the ATV out if somebody was with you. I’ll get the key tonight. Tomorrow morning, before it gets too hot, we can take my shotgun and go out
for an hour or two. Maybe you can even shoot us a wild turkey for Sunday dinner.”
“You’d do that for me?” The old man’s voice shook with joyful amazement, then took on a note of suspicion. “Guess I’d better ask what’s in it for you.”
Sky laughed. “Nothing much. But if you’ll tell me what you know about Bull and my mother while we’re out there, I’ll call us even.”
Jasper’s grin lit the twilight. “I’ll do that with pleasure. It’s about time you asked me. I’ve been half-fearin’ you’d make me take the story to my grave.”
Will had no problem with giving Sky the key to take Jasper out hunting. “Just don’t let him get too tired, Sky,” he said. “We don’t want the old man back in the hospital.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Sky said. “Believe it or not, I worry as much about him as you do.”
“How’s Lauren, by the way?”
“Better. They’ll be keeping her another day. Then I can drive her home.”
“Damned sorry for all that girl’s been through,” Will said. “First her father, then this accident, or whatever the hell it was. If she’s not up to being alone, she’s welcome over here. We’ve got a couple of spare guest rooms in the house, and it’s not like she’s a stranger. She’s more like family, even if she is a Prescott.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that more than you know.” Sky chose not to question Will’s motives. The disputed land might be on his mind, but Will did have a kind and generous heart. Sky would give him the benefit of the doubt.
The ATV was a side-by-side model with a bench seat and a roll bar over the top. With Jasper driving, they set out across the brush-dotted plain toward the seep. In this drought, the meager water supply was the likeliest place to find good bird shooting.
Even at first light the day was warm, with a dry wind sifting across the flat. The streaks of cloud in the east painted the sunrise with slashes of flame and crimson. Startled by the sound of the ATV, a golden eagle flapped off the ground and soared into the dawn.
Jasper parked the vehicle on a low rise overlooking the seep. Sky handed him the loaded shotgun. The old cowboy balanced it across his knees and settled back to wait. Quail piped their calls from the underbrush. But Jasper wasn’t here for quail. Sky knew he was waiting for a wild turkey.
For the first few minutes they sat quietly. Sky waited for Jasper to speak, not wanting to push him.
At last Jasper broke the silence. “So, what do you already know about your parents?”
“I know what you told me about Bull,” Sky said. “And I know my mother worked as a maid for the Prescotts. She’s part of a group photo I saw in their dining room.”
“And your mother didn’t tell you anything?”
“Not that I remember. I was only three when she died.”
“What about money?”
“What money? We were so poor we had to live with our relatives. There wasn’t even money for a doctor when my mother got sick. If there had been, she might have lived.”
“You’ve got a lot of anger in you, boy,” Jasper said.
“Can you blame me? My mother was a good woman. Bull Tyler got her pregnant and tossed her away like an old shoe. He didn’t give a damn about her.”
“So that’s what you think, is it?” Jasper settled against the back of the seat, his far-sighted eyes watching the birds that flocked around the seep. “It’s about time you decided to hear the truth.”
Sky waited for the old cowboy to begin, part of him still braced against the pain of knowing. But Jasper was right. It was time for the truth.
“I was with Bull the first time he saw your mother,” Jasper said. “It was the day Ferg Prescott’s wife, Edith, was buried. You know Bull and Ferg never did get on. But when there’s a death in the family, it’s only common decency to set bad blood aside and pay your respects. It’s what Bull was doing that afternoon, and he’d asked me to come along—most likely to watch his back.”
“So my mother would’ve been serving at the house.” Sky filled in the brief silence.
“That’s right. And Lord Almighty, she was the most beautiful woman I’ve seen to this very day. Even in that dog-plain maid’s uniform, with her hair in a bun, she was a queen. I reckon every man in the room was givin’ her sideways looks. But she wasn’t lookin’ back. Not till she locked eyes with Bull.
“By then Bull’s wife, Susan, had been gone a few years, and Bernice had come to cook and help out with the boys. I know for a fact there was a gal in Lubbock that Bull paid now and again to see to his needs, but there was no love in it. He was still visiting his wife’s grave with flowers every Sunday. I don’t think he ever meant to remarry. But when he set eyes on your mother, and she looked back at him . . . it was like seein’ him come to life again.”
Jasper raised his binoculars to scan the brush around the seep, lowered them, shook his head, and then continued. “I saw the two of them talking in a corner that day. After that I never saw them together. But I knew they were findin’ ways to meet up. And I could see that, for the first time in years, Bull was happy.
“One day she took that old car she drove and left without a word. Bull never was much of a one to share, but I could tell how bad he’d been hurt. I know for a fact he really loved the woman.”
Jasper paused to lift the canteen to his lips and wet his dry throat. “A day or two later, Bull got a call from Ferg Prescott. It seemed Marie had written Bull a letter before she left and put it in the mailbox by the Prescotts’ gate. When Ferg came out to mail something else, there was the letter, waiting for the mailman. Naturally the bastard took it. But that wasn’t all. The low-down skunk steamed the envelope open and read every word.”
Too stunned to curse, Sky listened in silence. No wonder Bull had hated Ferg Prescott. And no wonder Jasper had nothing good to say about the man and his family.
“Ferg offered to make a deal,” Jasper said. “He would give Bull the letter and swear not to make a copy on condition that Bull deed him that little piece of canyon land where the Spanish gold was supposed to be hid. Otherwise, he’d keep the letter and use it any way that struck his fancy, maybe even send a copy to Bull’s sons when they got older.”
“Did Bull know what was in the letter?” Sky was still struggling to wrap his mind around what he’d just heard.
“Ferg wouldn’t tell him. He just hinted that it could do some damage if it came out. Bull would’ve done anything to keep his boys from bein’ hurt, and he was plumb frantic to know why your mother had left. In the end he gave in to Ferg’s blackmail and signed over the land. I signed as witness to the contract Ferg drew up. That’s how I know all this.”
“Did you ever read the letter?” Sky asked.
The old man nodded. “Bull showed it to me before he burned it. Said he wanted somebody else to know, in case somethin’ ever happened to him. He made me swear I’d never tell his boys or anybody else. But now that he’s gone, I can’t help thinkin’ he’d want you to hear this.”
“So what did it say?”
“About what you’d guess. Your mother was in a family way. But she was a proud woman. She knew how people would talk if Bull married her, and how they’d treat her and their children. She didn’t want to put him and his family through that kind of shame. She made it clear that Bull wasn’t to come after her or to ever try and get in touch with her. But she told him not to worry, their child would be raised with love.” Jasper gave a slight shrug of his bony shoulders. “That’s about all I remember.”
“So Bull just let her go?”
“Your father was a better man than that. He hired a private detective—gave the man a letter sealed in an envelope, with a check made out to her, for fifty thousand dollars. The detective was to give it to her when he found her. The detective came back a couple weeks later, said he hadn’t found her so he’d left the letter with her brother. The man had promised to give it to his sister.”
Sky groaned out loud. “I’ll bet that check was cashed, wasn’t
it? With a signature on the back that looked exactly like my mother’s.”
Now it was Jasper’s turn to look stunned. “I saw the cancelled check myself. The handwriting on the back looked just the way I remembered from her letter. When she didn’t answer the letter or even send a note to thank him for the money, Bull had to accept that it was over between them. He never tried to contact her again.”
“My uncle was a thief and his wife was a master forger,” Sky said. “I can guarantee my mother never saw the letter or a cent of that money.”
“So those were the two buzzards that gave birth to Lute and to the rascals that shot me.” Jasper shook his head. “It all makes sense now. But to cash a big check like that at a bank—wouldn’t somebody have to show their ID?”
“My aunt could fake anything. Believe me, ID would have been no problem. I’d guess she opened an account as my mother, deposited the check, and then took the cash out.”
The two men sat gazing toward the seep. Sky’s thoughts were focused inward on the story he’d just heard. It was still sinking in, the way things had happened. At least he knew that Bull had loved his mother and that he’d tried to do right by her. But Sky couldn’t help wondering about the paths not followed. Would Bull have married his Marie if she hadn’t left him? Or, if her brother hadn’t stolen the letter and the fifty thousand dollars, would his own life have been different?
Sky had few memories of his mother. But when he’d run away at fifteen, he’d recalled her mentioning Blanco Springs and the Rimrock, so that was where he’d headed. Bull Tyler had taken one look at him, asked about his parents, and hired the scrawny, ragged teen as a stable hand. Bull would have known who he was from the first day. But in life he’d never acknowledged his secret son nor shown him the slightest affection. Now, at least, Sky could begin to understand his reasons.
The question that remained was the most urgent one of all. Was what he’d learned enough to justify his asking Lauren to be his wife?