“I love you, too.”
Bonnie chuckled dryly. “That was my line. Mister Mouse, I need a favor.”
“I have no moment but to await upon your pleasure.”
“You sweet talker. I’ll take you at your word. Fasten your seat belt.” For the next fifteen minutes she delineated the chronology of death and destruction that had strode across East Plains.
Armen listened with only the barest of comments until she finished. “I’m not sure what you need here, Bon.”
“I need you to help me save a boy’s life.”
A long moment passed before Armen responded. “That’s a tall order. I’ll do what I can.”
“I know you will.” Bonnie took a moment to let her thoughts arrange themselves into a semblance of order. “It all begins with Sophia Kovalevskaya.”
“The Russian mathematician?”
“Uh-huh.” She gave Armen the short course on Sophia, emphasizing the final months of her tragic life.
“That’s sad.”
“That’s what Beatrice Archuleta said.”
“Who?”
“Never mind. The thing is that on my way home from class, I let my attention drift to my lecture notes.”
“While you were driving?”
“Now is not the perfect time for the safety sermon, Callahan. If it helps, picture me stopped at a traffic light.”
“Strangely enough, it does. Please continue.”
“How Sophia came to her heartbreaking end at that railway station in Stockholm opened my eyes as to what had really happened that night on Squirrel Creek Road. Both Sophia and Seneca were strong women, used to getting their way, and not averse to manipulating the men in their lives when they felt it would serve their purpose. Each lost the great love of their life because of unreasonable demands placed upon the relationship.”
“Hold on. I thought Leo broke it off when he came out of the closet.”
“I don’t think so. Leo’s homosexuality redefined their relationship. No longer was this shining knight her destined soul mate, her timeless lover. As far as Seneca was concerned, Leo was lost to her. I’m sure she blamed Leo and certainly she blamed Jason Dobbs, but in the end I would wager Seneca Webb couldn’t accept her new role as trusted friend and severed the tie.”
“I’ll have to take your word for that.”
Fair enough. “Fast forward to two months ago. Two events changed the status quo. First, Jason Dobbs cuts Leo loose.” She ran down the skinny on the youth pastor and his decision to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Armen whistled. “Three years seems a long time to wait for anybody. If you ask me, Leo should have moved on.”
Bonnie shrugged. “Love makes fools of us all. Regardless, following on the heels of this revelation, Leo contacts Seneca.”
“Who’s now married to Caleb Webb.”
“Whom I’m certain she loved only nominally. And here’s where our story heats up. Like I told Byron, I believe Seneca saw this happenstance as a fortuitous opportunity to set things right. I’m betting liquor was involved, but in any event, Seneca gets a mixed-up Leo Quinn to play heterosexual, at least for five minutes.”
“And now she’s pregnant.”
“And now she’s two months pregnant.”
“I’ve got to say, Bon. I see a problem with this theory. The Caleb Webb you painted for me wouldn’t take kindly to being made into a cuckold.”
Bonnie tugged at her ear. This aspect of her theory had troubled her as well. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to put off discussing Mister Webb until later. He’s a study in perversity all by his lonesome.”
“We can do that. Lead on, MacDuff.”
More than anything, Bonnie wished she could reach out and squeeze this sweet man’s hand. “Now, move our tale to Saturday night. Not only were Furby, Witherspoon, and Trotter out on Squirrel Creek Road, but I claim so were Seneca and Leo—the latter to discuss the miracle of gestation.”
“And what Leo’s response should be to the news he was an impending father?”
“You betcha. Now, according to Trotter, they spotted Leo walking along Squirrel Creek carrying a gas can. If we believe him, the simplest explanation is that whatever vehicle Leo or perhaps Seneca was driving ran out of gas.”
“Makes sense. And that’s when Leo was accosted by Witherspoon and company, stripped naked and tied to the fence.” Ten seconds stretched into twenty before Armen spoke again. “Why wasn’t Seneca with Leo?”
Good question. “For some reason, she must have opted to remain with the vehicle. She was close but not so close that Witherspoon and the boys knew she was there. Whatever the particulars, she became aware of Leo’s situation.”
“And came running in time to see the Trans Am take off.”
“Not exactly. She must have skinned it a little nearer than that. For the rest of this passion play to work, she needed to arrive in time to identify exactly who Leo’s assailants were. This information would be crucial when she returned home to Caleb.”
“But they couldn’t have seen her. Otherwise, when the killing started, Witherspoon would have dropped a dime on her.”
“Wow, Callahan. Four days on the East Coast and you’re already sounding like a Soprano. But you’re right, until my phone call with Byron, her name has never been linked with the incidents on Squirrel Creek Road.”
“Now we have a pissed-off Seneca Webb and a naked homosexual tied to a barbed-wire fence.”
“Don’t forget she is in possession of a nine-millimeter pistol. At first glance this seems strange until you realize that a significant fraction of East Plains travel about armed, either with a loaded rifle hung on the racks of their truck or with a concealed weapon on their person. In any event, armed and angry, she comes upon a trussed-up Leo Quinn.”
“And shoots him?”
“Not immediately. What I see happening is that, for some reason or another, she revisited their discussion, and Leo tried to tell her he could never be the husband she wants. Angry words ensue, and she loses control.”
“Seneca must have regretted her actions. She folded Leo’s clothes.”
Bonnie didn’t like the sympathetic undertone in Armen’s assertion. “Not so repentant. I see her drying her tears quick enough to concoct a story to tell first Caleb then Rattlesnake. Once she’d set that homicidal machine in motion, she had no qualms about letting an increasingly unbalanced Rattlesnake and an already-screwy hubby take out Furby and Witherspoon.”
“But why try to kill Jason Dobbs?”
“I think it has a lot to do with why dogs lick themselves.”
Armen chuckled. “Because they can?”
“Uh-huh. Seneca had already been part of the murder of one innocent, although I’m sure in her mind, if Furby hadn’t accosted Leo she wouldn’t have found it necessary to shoot her lover. Regardless, she had created in her hubby an ideal killing machine. Why not use him to eliminate the man who had stolen her Leo?”
“But Rattlesnake wasn’t entirely on board for this killing.”
“Not entirely. I’m sure he was no big fan of the young pastor once Seneca slyly let slip that Jason had been Leo’s erstwhile love interest. Still, that’s hardly a sufficient reason to take a sniper rifle and blow him away.”
“So Rattlesnake had to go.”
Bonnie felt something catch in the back of her throat. She pictured the man patiently introducing round-headed children to a visiting math teacher.
Ladies and gents, this here is Missus Bonnie Pinkwater. She’s one of the teachers at East Plains, and if you ask me, the best of the bunch.
“Bon?”
Armen’s voice snapped her back to the present. “I’m okay. Just woolgathering. You’re right, of course. Rattlesnake became a liability when he developed a conscience. Caleb couldn’t let him live.”
Now you’ve said it out loud. Move on. “Which brings us to today.”
Armen cleared his throat, evidently uneasy about what he had to say. “Bon, I don’t
need to tell you that the dynamic has changed. Up until now, Seneca worked assiduously to shift blame away from herself, to use others to do her dirty work.”
Bonnie heart sank. “But now that she’s abducted Gabe Trotter, she may be beyond caring.” In other words, Gabe Trotter is probably already dead.
“Truth is, Seneca may have crossed that line yesterday,” Armen said. “You stated Caleb Webb killed Dwight Furby and Moses Witherspoon outright, no finesse, no hesitation.”
Of course! “But Caleb had no intention of killing Gabe. Caleb was bringing Gabe home for the little woman.”
Across Bonnie’s synapses, a scene from Dracula played out in Technicolor. The king of the vampires in the spirit of gift-giving extracted an infant, chubby with blood, from a carpetbag. Then, with smiles all around, he presented this tasty morsel to his three vampire brides. The scene ended with the ravenous fanged beauties descending on the wailing child.
Except in Bonnie’s conception, all three brides wore the hungry visage of Seneca Webb. “If Wilma hadn’t caught sight of Caleb and Gabe on that motorcycle—”
“More than likely we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and Gabe Trotter would be singing tenor in the heavenly choir.”
Bonnie shook herself free from a descending cloud of despair. “I can’t think any of that right now, Mister Mouse. To keep my sanity, I need to believe Gabe is still alive.”
“So, the circle brings us back to the million-dollar question. Where has Seneca Webb taken him?”
The circle! The words hadn’t left Armen’s lips before Bonnie knew the answer.
CHAPTER 25
AN ORANGE AND MOLTEN SUN WAS SINKING ONTO PIKES Peak by the time Bonnie drew up the courage to drive out to Squirrel Creek Road. She crested a shallow hill and spied the diminutive form of Seneca Webb standing in the shoulder. No doubt the girl had already spotted Bonnie’s Subaru, or at least the cloud of dust that accompanied it.
That’s right, dear girl. It’s just your old math teacher. No need to go postal.
This particular stretch of Squirrel Creek Road wasn’t familiar to Bonnie, but she had no trouble finding it. Hell, the location of Leo’s murder had been burned into her psyche over the last six days. She could have told a blind man how to get there.
Or a deputy sheriff.
Bonnie had debated whether or not to even call Byron. If the police came screaming to the scene, lights flashing, sirens wailing, the outcome would be a foregone conclusion. Seneca would dispatch Gabe without a second thought. And then likely die in a summer shower of bullets.
Along with Leo Quinn’s baby.
The flip side of the argument was that to not clue Byron in to her intentions was a foolishness that would qualify her for The Guinness Book of World Records. She’d gone that route more than once and had no desire to repeat the high-wire-without-a-net experience.
Even lab rats learn from their mistakes.
In the end, she’d opted for a compromise. En route she’d phoned Byron only to discover that he and his limited staff were occupied. Deputy Wyatt, playing receptionist, had informed Bonnie that the East Plains sheriff’s contingent were either heading down to Memorial Hospital or were at the Webb residence hoping to find Seneca there. Wyatt promised to relay Bonnie’s information to Byron, and let him decide what to do with it. The unspoken implication was that he might do nothing.
What Bonnie should have done was to wait. That would have been the wise thing to do.
One of these days, Pinkwater, you’re going to have to purchase a little of that wisdom stuff. Time for the high wire.
As she approached Seneca, Bonnie could see the girl had been busy. A naked Gabe Trotter was spread-eagled and secured nicely, both arms and legs, to a section of barbed-wire fence. The scientist in Bonnie was perversely curious as to how Seneca had accomplished this feat and just how much Gabe himself had cooperated. After all, Seneca Webb was an attractive female even with her head bandaged. Perhaps the young man thought nude bondage was a prelude to even more kinkiness.
Imagine his surprise when Seneca pulled out a pistol.
Once again, Bonnie’s curiosity kicked in. This weapon certainly couldn’t be the infamous nine millimeter that had wreaked havoc over the last six days. That gun had been confiscated from Caleb’s dead fingers on Friday. And yet, here was a duplicate, albeit no noise suppressor affixed to the barrel. No doubt, also compliments of Alf Rattlesnake Quinn.
Bonnie was forced to admire Seneca’s adherence to detail.
“That’s far enough,” the girl shouted when Alice was about five meters away.
A wide-eyed Gabe Trotter looked on the verge of apoplexy. “She’s crazy, Missus P. She means to kill me.”
You think, Einstein?
“Shut up.” Seneca waved her pistol, indicating Bonnie should exit her car. “Real slow, Missus P. I don’t need to tell you, no surprises.”
Hands raised, Bonnie emerged from her car. “It would have been more dramatic if you’d waited until dark to set the scene.”
Seneca looked west to the setting sun, as if she was considering Bonnie’s suggestion. Her eyes had an almost unfocused look to them. “Close enough.” She pointed airily with her gun toward Gabe Trotter. “You can’t have everything perfect.”
The girl shuddered and momentarily squeezed her eyes shut.
You should have stayed in the hospital, my dear.
Bonnie, her hands still raised, took a step forward. “Sure would have been a whole lot more convenient, if Caleb hadn’t been spotted delivering the goods yesterday. The two of you could have driven Gabe here and waited until midnight.”
A dreamy look came over Seneca’s countenance. “That would have been sweet.” She sent an admiring half smile Bonnie’s way. “You figured the whole thing out, didn’t you? You are as clever as they say.”
To her shame, Bonnie felt a flush of pride at the girl’s compliment. “Thank you. Can I lower my hands?”
Seneca nodded in acknowledgment. “I have to admit, I was a bit panicked when Caleb told me he’d blown it. But he knew what he had to do. We’d planned a dual exit strategy since the beginning. He just made his escape first.” She pointed with her gun to Gabe. “I’ll follow along when I finish up here.”
A macabre portion of Bonnie’s brain objectively regarded this young woman who could talk so cavalierly about her husband’s choice to die.
Seneca stroked the barrel of the pistol against the side of her bandaged head. “The toughest thing was to convince him he needed to brain me so I wouldn’t immediately go down the crapper with him.” She chuckled and winced again. “In the end the moron damn near killed me.”
Bonnie felt like smacking the smug girl. A man had died trying to save her, and she was making light of his sacrifice. Moreover, when she murdered Gabe, Seneca would render that sacrifice meaningless.
Swallow your indignation, Pinkwater. It won’t help anyone right now. “So what was yesterday’s plan after doing Gabe? Were you going to go after Jason Dobbs again?” The surprised look on Seneca’s face almost made the stupid risk Bonnie was taking worth it.
“Oh, my, clairvoyant as well as clever.” Seneca leaned in as if she and Bonnie were coconspirators. “If Caleb would have been a little more careful, no one would have suspected us. Finally nailing Jason would have been a breeze. Hell, we still had the sniper rifle, and this time I’d be the one taking the shot.”
“Rattlesnake taught you well, didn’t he?”
The look of amusement on Seneca’s face evaporated. She chewed at her lip. “Yeah, both me and Leo growing up, but I was always the better shot.” Her lips became a tight line. “I’ll miss that old man.”
Bonnie could feel her Imp of the Perverse pushing the unwise question out of her mouth, and she was powerless to reel it in. “So why did you kill him?” Bonnie held her breath expecting Seneca to explode.
Instead the girl spread wide her hands as if she needed Bonnie to see she was a reasonable person. “We had to. It was on
ly a matter of time before he started bragging about the killings. He was growing more and more unstable.”
Unlike you and Cowboy Caleb who were rock solid citizens. “Then there was the business of Rattlesnake not completely copasetic with killing Jason Dobbs.”
This time Seneca did get angry—her face grew stormy, her eyes dark slits. “And how the hell do you know that?”
Bonnie told about Pastor Dobbs hiding in the bathroom.
“I’ll be damned.”
Very likely.
Seneca made an exaggerated show of scanning Squirrel Creek Road in both directions. “You know, Missus P, it wasn’t very smart, coming here alone. Did you really think you could talk me out of killing what’s-his face here?”
Bonnie reddened. “That was the plan.”
Seneca waggled a finger as if to indicate Bonnie should have come up with a better plan. “What’s to stop me from shooting you, then blowing away angel boy for an encore?”
Two-handed, she sighted down the long barrel at Gabe Trotter’s exposed testicles. “Ker-pow.”
“Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit,” Gabe whimpered.
Bonnie reached for the first thing she could think of to distract the girl. “Did Caleb know the baby was Leo’s?”
Seneca turned a smiling countenance back to Bonnie. “It’s none of your business, but Caleb did not know of”—she hesitated, then cleared her throat—“the baby’s paternity. Let’s just say he wouldn’t have taken the news with grace.”
“Do you mind my asking why you married him?” Bonnie had no desire to revisit the topic of Seneca blowing anyone away.
The young woman cocked her head and regarded Bonnie. “Stalling for time isn’t going to change anything. But since nothing you or the cops can do will stop me from sending this loser to hell, I’ll answer your question. I’m not sure you’ll understand.”
“Try me.”
Seneca drew in a long breath. “Leo’s big announcement did a number on me, screwed me up good. I didn’t eat. I got sick. I should have talked to Leo, but I hated him.”
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