Revenge at the Rodeo

by Gilbert, Morris

  There was the sound of a cord being pulled, and the outboard roared into life, churning the water and sending the smell of burning oil across to where they sat. Clyde kept it revved up, then throttled back. He put the light on Dani and Luke, announcing, “Here we go.” He eased the boat out into the black water, and at once the power of the river took it.

  “Strong current here,” Lockyear remarked. “Used to fish here a lot. Long time ago, but it’s still the same.”

  Dani smelled the rank odor of the river and felt Luke’s body pressing against her. She knew that he was struggling wildly to free his hands. No hope of that, for her own wrists were fastened as if they were in a vise, and Clyde would have been much more careful with Luke.

  The waves slapped the prow of the boat, the combined weight of Dani and Luke keeping it low. As they rocked up and down like a seesaw, Dani felt the Beretta pressing against her leg, but the light in Clyde’s hand was steady, centering on her and Luke.

  “Why did I do it?” Lockyear queried suddenly, his voice rising over the sound of the outboard. “I really don’t know.” He sounded rather puzzled. “I suppose I must have enjoyed seeing the big heroes squirm!”

  The bank they had left was now a vague, shapeless mass, and Dani could see the glow of the lights of Baton Rouge over the levee. Suddenly Clyde opened up the throttle, and the boat lunged ahead.

  Luke said, “Dani, he’s going to drop us in the middle of the channel.”

  “I know.”

  Luke pressed against her. “I’m sorry. Wish I’d played it different.” Then he acknowledged, “Good thing we stopped at that little church. It makes a big difference.”

  Dani started to answer, but suddenly the outboard was throttled back. This is it leaped into her mind. She was certain Clyde would stand up to shoot them, and there would be one moment when she could act—that moment when he was getting to his feet.

  The engine shut down completely, and Dani flexed her hands. She would have only one chance to draw the Beretta and no time at all to think. She sat there waiting.

  Clyde piped up, “Well, I hate—”

  Dani could not see him, for the light was in her eyes. But she felt the boat shift as he came to his feet, and the light moved down to the bottom of the boat.

  With one motion, she reached down and thrust her right hand into the boot, and the handle of the weapon seemed to leap into her hand. She came up with it at the same moment that Clyde got his balance and swung the light upward.

  He must have seen the gun, for he cried out, “What—?”

  Whatever he might have said was drowned by the sharp, flat reports of the automatic.

  Ben had warned when he’d given her the Beretta. “It’ll take more than one shot, Dani. I knew a vice cop who had to use the twenty-five he carried strapped to his leg as a hideout. He emptied it into a pusher, and the guy took every slug—then pulled his own gun and shot the cop in the chest.”

  The air seemed filled with the sharp, angry splatting sounds the small gun made. Dani pulled the trigger as rapidly as she could, but most of the bullets went out over the water, for one of the first slugs had caught Lockyear, knocking him backward. He made a tremendous splash as he hit the water.

  He was not dead, for as Dani dropped the Beretta and drew the filet knife, she heard the gurgling cries of the wounded man. She turned and cut the rope that bound Luke’s hands, crying, “Cut me loose! He’ll drown!”

  Luke cut her loose, and Dani made a dive at the flashlight, which had fallen into the boat. Sweeping it up, she shone it over the dark waters, spotting Lockyear at once. The boat was drifting away from him, and she could see his arms thrashing the water. She was not good with engines, but she was an excellent swimmer.

  Time to find out if all those Red Cross lifesaving courses were any good! she thought. She threw the light on Luke, who was cutting his feet free, then called out, “Luke—here!” She tossed him the light, then kicked off her boots.

  “Hey—” Luke cried out in alarm. He juggled the flashlight, almost losing it, then surged to his feet. “Dani! Don’t do it! This river is treacherous!”

  Dani dared not think about it. She jumped over the side, and the warm waters covered her head. At once she felt the power of the current but stopped to listen. She heard Lockyear’s thrashing and threw herself into a strong crawl. Almost at once, she heard the sound of the outboard start up, and at the same moment, her hand struck Lockyear. He grabbed at her, pulling her down, but she doubled up and kicked free by driving her feet into his chest. Somehow she made him out as he came up and grabbed him from behind. “Be still!” she shouted. “We’re all right!”

  Those courses did work, after all! Dani thought as she kept the two of them afloat. It would have been hard to swim, but all she had to do was keep their heads above the surface. Lock-year lay still now. Whether he was dead or just letting her keep him alive, she didn’t know.

  Then the boat came drifting close, and the light flashed in her eyes. Thankfully she felt Sixkiller’s strong hands. “Take Clyde first,” she told him, and Lockyear’s body was hoisted as if he weighed nothing.

  She heard the body fall into the boat; then she held up her hands and at once was pulled out of the grip of the river. Dani would have fallen, but Luke held her, putting both arms around her.

  “We’d better see about Clyde—” Dani suggested, but he didn’t release her.

  The boat was rocking slightly, and he finally observed, “Well, I read somewhere if you save somebody’s life, you’re responsible for her as long as you live.”

  Then he laughed and so did she. “It would be a full-time job, I’m afraid!”

  Luke had released her and was starting to bend over to examine Lockyear. But he paused, gave her a serious look, then retorted, “That would be just about right!”

  20

  “What Could Be in His Heart?”

  * * *

  All right, let’s have it quiet!” Captain Amos Little’s voice shut down the babble of voices that filled the room, and the group sitting around the large walnut conference table turned to where Little stood, at one end.

  Dani, sitting at the other end, beside Luke, glanced to her left where Boone Hardin, Ruby Costner, Hank Lowe, Ruth Cantrell, and Fran Lockyear were ranged. They all looked bewildered, as did the four who sat across the table from them—Clay Dixon, Tom Leathers, Bake Dempsey, and Bill Baker. Ben sat in a chair along one wall, next to a man named Edgar Dalton, one of Little’s men.

  “What’s this all about, Captain?” Clay Dixon demanded. “You can’t pull a man out of bed and drag him to the station without a warrant!”

  Little gave him a sudden hard look. His eyes were red-rimmed, and fatigue put more lines in his face than nature had. Dani saw that his temper had not improved since she had left him two hours earlier. She had called him as soon as she and Luke had gotten Lockyear to a hospital, and he had flown from Houston in his own plane at once. Getting in at two, he had grilled Luke, Ben, and Dani for hours, then sent Ben and Luke to get anyone they could find who’d been paying Lockyear.

  “I can arrange a warrant,” Little grated, his eyes fixed on Dixon. “You can spend a few days in the tank as a material witness.”

  “Hey, wait!” Dixon broke in. “You don’t have to do that.”

  Little considered Dixon, obviously weighing some dire plan for the cowboy, then ordered, “Keep shut.” He looked around the table. “I’ve got no jurisdiction in this state. The chief of police has allowed me to come, and I wanted you here. Some of you have been paying extortion money to Clyde Lockyear. Before he’s charged and extradited to Houston, I wanted a hearing. A few things need to be cleared up. Edgar, go bring him in.”

  The man sitting beside Ben rose and left the room. Fran Lockyear stared at Little, her face pale under her makeup. “There must be a mistake, Captain,” she complained. “My husband has been paying money himself. I know! I handle the cash, and he’s been paying big money for months now. I was even there whe
n he gave it to Tom Leathers to be delivered.”

  “Mrs. Lockyear, if you’ll just wait, you’ll have a chance to ask questions.” As Little said this, Dalton came in with Clyde Lockyear. “Just have a seat, Lockyear,” Little directed, indicating a chair beside him.

  “You can’t do this!” Lockyear sputtered. He was wearing the clothing he’d gone into the river with, and it was limp. He glared at Dani. “You can’t force an injured man to go through this!”

  Fearing the worst, Dani had sat in the emergency room of the hospital while they worked on Lockyear. Blood had covered his left side, and it was the greatest relief she’d ever known when the young doctor had come out saying, “He’s not hurt much. Bullet hit a rib and plowed some meat off his side. Just a bad scratch.” Luke had held her steady when her legs had gone weak, and even now she was still filled with wonder at how minor the wound was.

  Ben had found them there, heard Luke describe the shooting, and then had grinned. “I told you, Boss, those popguns won’t do. If you’d hit him dead center with three or four of the bullets, he’d still be alive and kicking.”

  Now, looking at Lockyear, Dani thanked God that he was alive. He looked smaller in his wrinkled clothing, and a thread of fear laced his voice as he argued loudly with the captain that he had a right to call a lawyer.

  “You’re not under arrest, Mr. Lockyear,” Captain Little explained, a smile tugging at his lips. “As soon as this meeting is over, you will be arrested, and then you can have your call.”

  “I don’t understand why we’re here, Captain.” Bake Dempsey had a puzzled look on his face. “I mean, you’ve got the goods on him, haven’t you? I hear you found enough evidence in his trailer to prove that he’s the man who’s been clipping all of us.”

  Little shook his head. “There are a couple of angles I want to bring out. But for the moment I’m going to ask Miss Ross to say a few words. She’s been working with my department on this matter, as one of my assistants.”

  Luke pressed his knee against Dani’s, and she knew he was laughing inside. Little had been livid when he found out what had happened, promising to have her license revoked. It had taken a lot of explaining and a promise that Lockyear was going to be tied up like a Christmas turkey for him to take back to Houston before he’d grudgingly agreed. Dani returned the pressure, realizing that if she didn’t come through, Little would bury her.

  Getting to her feet, she smiled at those around the table. “Thank you, Captain Little. First, let me say Captain Little must be credited with apprehending Clyde Lockyear. I’ve been around to carry out his instructions, but he deserves all the credit.” Ben and Luke exchanged sly winks; both of them wanted to smile at Little, who was lapping it up as a cat drinks cream.

  “And I want to apologize to those of you I’ve had to deceive. Going undercover means fooling everyone. You’ll never know how often I wanted to confide in some of you—” At this point Little snorted, and Dani quickly continued, “But you do deserve to know what’s happened. That’s really what this meeting is for.”

  “How long have you known it was Clyde, Dani?” Ruth interrupted. “I thought you said you got a call from the Creep while you were actually with Clyde. He couldn’t have called you if he was with you, could he?”

  “No, he couldn’t.” Dani gave Clyde a slow look, then shook her head. “That’s what threw me off. I suspected most of you at one time or another, but since I was with Bake and Megan at the table, and Clyde was singing when the call came, I crossed them off my list.”

  “Did he have somebody working with him?” Bake asked, then shook his head. “But that couldn’t be,” he said in a puzzled tone. “Because you always said it was the same voice that called you before.”

  Dani looked at Ruth, then said, “It wasn’t Clyde who called, and it wasn’t someone he hired to help him. It was the first Creep.” A murmur ran around the table, and Dani announced, “It was Clint Thomas who called.”

  “No! He was with me!” Ruth was staring at Dani, her face gone perfectly pale.

  “Not all the time, Ruth,” Dani contradicted her. “Remember what happened?”

  “Well, I went to the rest room,” Ruth recollected. “And when I came back he wasn’t there. But he’d gone to the rest room himself.”

  “No, he was making the call to me,” Dani told her. “It only took two or three minutes.”

  Hank Lowe spoke up then: “Wait a minute, Dani. It couldn’t have been Clint. I’ve gotten calls since Clint died. The same guy, no doubt about the voice.”

  Others began nodding, but Dani demanded, “What’s Clyde’s one great talent?” Several said something about Lockyear’s singing but Dani shook her head. “Not just singing. He’s a great impersonator. He can sound like just about anyone he wants to.” Then she asserted, “I’ve suspected Clint for some time. Ever since his horse Tarzan was killed, to be specific.”

  “Why did you suspect him?” Ruth demanded angrily.

  “Because of something he said. It didn’t register at the time, but later it came to me. You see, Luke found a blackjack close to where Clint was supposed to have been slugged. But he didn’t give it to the police.” She ignored an angry grunt from Little. “You heard Clint, Ruth. He said, ‘I’ve been hit on the head with a blackjack.’ Later he asked Lieutenant Stark, ‘Why don’t you start looking for the guy who sapped me?’” Dani gave Ruth a sympathetic look. “Don’t you see, Ruth? Clint couldn’t have known what he was hit with. He had to have tossed that blackjack down himself.”

  “I remember that blackjack,” Ruby chimed in. She nodded, adding, “We got a pair of them, just for a joke. I’ve still got mine somewhere.”

  “But—who broke Tarzan’s legs?” Ruth asked.

  “It had to be Clint himself,” Dani explained.

  “But why?” Ruth wondered. “Why would he do that? He loved that horse!”

  “He needed money, Ruth,” Dani spelled it out. “He kept pretty good records, which Captain Little confiscated earlier this morning. Clint made a lot of money—but not as much as he lost gambling.”

  Little broke in suddenly, “We found one note from a big-time gambler for twenty thousand. And it said if Thomas didn’t pay up, he’d take a ride to the cemetery. It’s pretty clear that he was milking you people to try and avoid that.”

  “What about the rough stuff?” Bake asked. “Clint couldn’t have done all that, could he? It took a real roughneck to ruin Tilman Yates. And what about Ben?”

  “We got that from Thomas’s records, too,” Little nodded. “He hired the rough stuff done. Never paid for the job though. He had the goods on a guy who was dealing some dope as a sideline, so he made him do the dirty work in exchange for keeping quiet.”

  “Who was it?” Ruby asked.

  “Rocky James. You all know him.”

  “Rocky—!” Hank Lowe exclaimed. “I knew he was on dope, but I didn’t know he was dealing!”

  “He’s a pretty rough one.” Little nodded. “But he won’t be dealing now, not for a few years.”

  “I thought I’d know Clint’s voice anywhere. But it was always sort of muffled and pitched a lot higher. He fooled us all, I guess. So after Clint was killed,” Ruby confirmed slowly, “Clyde took over his racket. Sounds like something he’d do!”

  “We’ve got enough on him to convict.” Little nodded with satisfaction toward Clyde. “Found all Thomas’s records in his trailer.”

  “You had no right to search my place!” Lockyear shouted.

  “I had a search warrant,” Little said. “But I want a little more than an extortion conviction.”

  Lockyear suddenly shut his mouth. He glared at Dani and Luke, then stated loudly, “You’re looking for a fall guy to take the rap for killing Clint Thomas and that woman. But you won’t pin that on me!”

  Dani saw a half-doubtful look in Little’s eyes, and quickly suggested, “Let me go over a few things. Who did kill Clint Thomas and Megan Carr? To be frank with you, almost everybody in this ro
om had some sort of motive.”

  “Aw, come on, Dani—!” Hank Lowe protested. “Thomas was no bargain. He was a womanizer and would ruin his best friend to win. But that’s not the same as saying we’d knock him off.”

  “That’s right!” Boone Hardin’s face was twitching, and he looked very young as he added, “I guess I hated him plenty. He abandoned my mother and never acted like I was alive. But even if I killed him, I couldn’t have killed that lady!”

  Dani saw several nodding agreement and pointed out, “Most of you had a motive of sorts, and you all had the opportunity. Thomas’s motor home was close enough to the arena for any of you to go there, kill the two of them, then go back and be seen.”

  “Take a pretty hard nut to do that, Dani!” Hank Lowe protested.

  “You’re right, Hank. A hard nut is what we have to deal with.” Dani’s face clouded, and she seemed lost in thought. Then she shook her head. “Somehow I’ve always felt that whoever did the extortion killed the two victims. But I couldn’t pin the Creep down! That is, until yesterday.”

  “How’d you do that, Dani?” Bake asked. “You didn’t follow Tom when he made a drop of the money.”

  “It was in the note I gave you.”

  “The note for Ben?”

  “Yes.” Dani pulled a slip of paper from her pocket, and read it: “Ben, Luke and I have got the physical evidence we need to wrap this up. And it won’t be for extortion, but for murder one! I’ll hang onto the evidence, but you get Little and some of his men here tomorrow. I’ll hand the evidence over to him, and he can nail him. But warn them to be careful. He’s killed two people and has nothing to lose.”

  “Well, I gave it to Ben,” Bake told her slowly. “So how did that solve anything? How did Clyde know you were on to him?”

  “Why, you gave me a note for Ben, too!” Tom Leathers volunteered in surprise, and several others piped up, “Me, too!”

  Dani looked at Clyde, who was glaring at her. “I was pretty sure that it was one of you, but I didn’t know which one. So I gave the same note to every single one of you. You got the note, Clyde, and then you knew what you had to do.”