by Susan Slater
“I don’t know. I’m sorry I don’t remember exactly what I saw. Mostly because that’s when I realized that someone was after me.”
“What do you mean ‘after you’?”
“Someone on an ATV started chasing me and I ran to an outcropping of rock to lose them and fell. I caught my foot and couldn’t move.”
“And then?”
Elaine shook her head.
“That’s all you remember?”
“Yes. They kept a blindfold on me and only came in once. There were two of them. I could see that from their shadows. But they left food and put an icepack on my ankle. It didn’t seem like they wanted me dead.”
“But it also appeared that they weren’t coming back. That was a lot of food but it wouldn’t have lasted forever.” Sheriff Howard added.
“But Doc Jenkins, wouldn’t he have gone into the storage unit at some point? I mean if he didn’t already know I was there.”
“Not sure he would have. It looks like the unit hasn’t been used in a while. The electric was still connected but the cooling unit isn’t working. I’m not sure he would have had a reason.”
“But the air was coming on—a circulating fan in the ceiling.”
The siren caught them all off guard, but the car barreling toward them up the drive had lights blazing and siren on full blast.
“What the—” Sheriff Howard jumped up. “Rookie…any freaking excuse to wind her up. Wait here.”
As the sheriff stomped down the driveway, Dan was glad he wasn’t that rookie. The sheriff could probably be a real bastard to work for.
“What are our chances of leaving here? A hot shower—cup of coffee even…just the two of us…we could finish the interrogation in the morning. I suppose they towed the Benz. We can pick it up tomorrow.”
Dan ducked the car comment. There was a lot of catching up to do. Some of it not very pleasant. How do you talk about a body swinging from a chandelier or a body burned beyond recognition in your own car? Not to mention that half of some very expensive diamonds from a certain necklace were removed and sold—more than likely without the knowledge of their owner. But just maybe with the knowledge of her daughter. He wasn’t looking forward to facing that probability. Elaine may have been gone for seventy-two hours, but the world had kept galloping forward.
Sheriff Howard excused himself to oversee the gathering of evidence and put them into the first squad car with the errant Rookie. But first he made Dan promise to take Elaine by the clinic in the morning—just a precaution but it would put everyone’s mind at ease about her ankle. They at least needed to get an X-ray to make certain there was nothing broken. Dan knew he was right. But he selfishly wanted some alone time with Elaine, too. And there would be more questioning, the sheriff reminded them. He’d call and set up a time to meet. Finally, the two of them crawled into the back of the cruiser making Simon move over.
“You’ve got to be famished.”
“Beyond.”
“About the only thing open in Wagon Mound is going to be the convenience store. Ham and cheese and some chips?”
“Perfect.”
Their driver seemed more than happy to act as chauffeur—probably happy to get out from under the sheriff’s scrutiny. If given half a chance, Dan knew he would have turned the siren on, too.
“I’ll just be a minute.” Dan opened the car door.
Even with the cop waiting in the car with Elaine, it was tough to leave her just to get a couple things. Life was fragile and fleeting. He seemed to think in clichés—sand running through an hour glass, or his fingers—all the images that say there might not be a tomorrow. He had to stop. She was here. She was all right. The nightmare was over…well, he hoped so anyway. He got out of the cruiser and walked toward the store.
Chips, milk, orange juice…he filled a basket. But finding a ham and cheese was a problem.
“’Fraid I’m out of packaged sandwiches. Sheriff was in here over the weekend and bought the last dozen or so in the case. I think he had a crew to feed, you know, bunch of guys pulled some overtime on that accident up the road.”
A picture of a stack of sandwiches in a walk-in cooler flashed through his mind. And it didn’t give him a very good feeling. But there had been a crew at the site of Elaine’s car. Damn. He wished everything didn’t seem to lead to more suspicions. He grabbed a frozen pizza instead. This should get a smile; a more fitting homecoming meal.
***
Finally, Simon was walked and only one slice of pizza was left—back to normal. Well, more or less. Dan stretched out on the bed and patted the place beside him. Elaine propped pillows behind her back and one under her ankle before she leaned against the headboard.
“This is more like it. Three nights on that cot and I may never be the same again.” She rolled onto her side and snuggled into him. “Next time I’ll leave a spare car key with you. It would have been so much easier to have just brought the car here. Do you know where it is?”
Dan cleared his throat. Now it was his turn to punch up a couple pillows and wad them behind his back as he sat up. “There’s probably some things we need to discuss.”
She pushed up to a sitting position, “Such as?”
“For starters, the car was burned.”
“Burned?”
Dan nodded then told her about Amber. How Amber’s body was first thought to be Elaine’s—how he met with the coroner and thanks to Jason’s birth, knew what he pretty much had sensed, Elaine was not the burned body they’d found in the car. He left out bound hands and feet and the fact that Amber had probably been alive when placed in the Benz. Some things were probably best left unsaid.
Then he mentioned the bank president’s death, the necklace now sans a quarter of its diamonds which had been miraculously found and was never missing in the first place, and how Chet Echols’ grandson’s former wife—
“Stop. I was gone seventy-two hours and all this happened?” Elaine was sitting up squarely facing him.
“It’s been busy.”
“And thanks to the removal of the diamonds—the theft of the diamonds, you’re back on the case?”
“Something like that. Look, I know it’s not what you want.”
“How do you know what I want? Obviously Chicago and New Mexico are a couple thousand miles apart and we have some decisions to make, but I’ve been giving this some thought. I want to throw another possibility in the mix.”
Elaine stared at the ceiling before looking directly at him and took a breath, “Dan, I want to work with you. I like trying to figure things out. Yes, I could do without being locked in a freezer but I’d like to be more involved.
I have nine more months on sabbatical. I’d like to put that time to good use.”
“What are you thinking of doing?”
“I could take a six month’s course of study online and take the national test for private investigators. We could literally work together.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I couldn’t be more serious.”
“Wow. Let’s talk, but that’s as good a segue as anything.” Dan put his feet on the floor, then turned and dropped to one knee. “Elaine Linden, will you marry me? Help me make that life together come true?”
“Amid all the craziness and chaos?”
“Amid all the craziness and chaos until death do us part.”
Dan thought she was taking overly long with an answer but then she was beside him on the floor, in his arms whispering, “Yes.” They would shop for a ring later. He’d ask the advice of the jeweler at Ortega’s in Santa Fe. It had to be special and this was something way out of his league—he’d need help.
“So what do you think about my idea? We could even hang a shingle together—Elaine and Dan Mahoney, Private Investigators.”
“You know what? I think that just might b
e a real possibility.” Dan suddenly wished he’d planned better. Champagne would have been nice or flowers or something…something commemorative. Rolling around on carpet that smelled like evergreen car deodorizer in a town called Wagon Mound wouldn’t have been his first choice for popping the question.
Then with her mouth still on his, he felt her unbuckle his belt, and unzip his fly. He had a feeling commemorative was just about to happen.
Chapter Fifteen
Sheriff Howard woke them. Seven on the dot. Must have been sitting at his desk waiting until what he considered a decent hour. He sounded chipper enough to have been up half the night. Could they be at doc’s place at ten? He wanted to walk Elaine through what had happened and hopefully talk with Doc Jenkins. “Talk” with Doc? “Hopefully”? What happened to warrants and arrests? Dan realized that at some level, he wanted someone or some ones held accountable. He wanted closure. He wanted to wring the necks of those who locked Elaine up—put her through hell. Put him through hell. Anger just below the surface threatened to bubble over.
First stop was an urgent care in Las Vegas. X-rays, reassurance that the ankle wasn’t broken, an ace bandage and some 800 mg Motrin with the admonishment to keep the ankle elevated. Yeah, right. He could see Elaine doing that. They needed to backtrack to the farm and meet with the sheriff. It wasn’t how Dan had hoped to spend the morning. But he guessed there was no getting out of it. The two of them met the sheriff in front of the gate at ten till. He expected the sheriff to show up with a search warrant and wasn’t disappointed. At least that was a start. It was obvious that the doc wasn’t too pleased. But Dan had the distinct feeling that he expected them. Who would have tipped him off? It even looked like someone had recently swept the front porch. And if anyone thought it odd that Penny Kennedy was already at work, she attempted to explain.
“Cataloging. That time of year.” She smiled broadly and gave Elaine’s hand a little squeeze, then waved expansively toward a table literally covered with glass vials and envelopes of seed. It appeared that she was matching the seed to a computer graphic of the plant it came from which she then printed, cut to a uniform three inches by three inches and pasted on the front of an envelope. Once it had been filled with seed and the flap glued in place, it was filed. Boxes with a single letter of the alphabet on the front were lined up underneath the table—most already half filled with seed packets. “These will go all around the world. Five hardy fodder grasses to South America—Chile, actually—and fifteen hybrids to Africa. A game preserve.” Her voice just bubbled with pride. “So many animals will survive and flourish because of this work.” A beaming smile at Doc Jenkins seemed to complete her little presentation.
Tough for Dan to equate this do-gooder with someone who might have been systematically stealing from her own mother. He needed to talk with the two of them together and soon. Yet, Dan had to admit what he was looking at was a pretty impressive operation and whatever Penny’s part was she appeared to be efficient and knowledgeable. But he didn’t think any of them, including the two deputies who were there to search the premises, wanted to stand around listening to a dissertation on grass seed.
Finally, Sheriff Howard hustled Dan and Elaine out the back door along with the Doc, leaving the deputies in blue latex gloves to begin their work. But what they might be looking for was a mystery. Contraband? But what exactly? He tuned back into the conversation between Doc and the sheriff.
“I left for Utah on Thursday morning. I don’t like flying out of Santa Fe but it’s a hell of a trip to Albuquerque. I usually stay overnight either coming or going. Or both, like I did this trip.”
“Reason for travel?”
“Conference on preserving our national monuments. I presented a paper on restoring the lesser grasslands of the Great Plains. It was well received, I might add.”
“I’ll need credit card receipts, air fare verification, proof of registration for both the hotel and the conference—”
“Not a problem. Penny can get those things together for you.”
For just doing a little filing on weekends, Penny sure seemed to have a finger on the pulse. Dan wondered if she had keys to everything too and if she ever spent time out here when the Doc was away. That could be worthwhile finding out.
Doc turned to Elaine, “Look, I just want to say how sorry I am that you were inconvenienced. When the sheriff called to tell me what he’d found out here—someone being kept in that old cooler…well, I was just shocked.”
Dan was having a hard time with the word “inconvenienced” and he bet Elaine was, too. Afraid for your life, cuts, bruises, swollen ankle—yeah, inconvenienced didn’t seem to sum it up real well. And when did the sheriff call? The element of surprise must not be very important.
“Was anyone here while you were gone?” Dan thought he might as well ask.
“Penny holds down the fort when I travel.”
“So you’re saying she was here through this morning?” At least Sheriff Howard was showing interest.
“As far as I know. The fall is the busiest time of year. We all turn into hunters and gatherers.”
“What do you make of the fact that Ms. Linden remembers seeing an eighteen-wheeler being unloaded, or possibly being loaded not too far from here?”
“ A delivery of fertilizer and grass seed.”
“I’m not following.”
“I was expecting a delivery toward the end of the week. I have two hundred acres under cultivation—that takes a lot of fertilizer. And I bring in grass seed from other projects. I fertilize and spread seed before the snows—gives me a head start on spring.”
“Who unloads?”
“The driver and a sidekick. Along with some of the hands.”
“And they all wear protective gear?”
“Have to. You can’t imagine the dust factor. Like working in a silo.”
“Who brings it up here?” Sheriff Howard’s wave of an arm took in the three barns at the edge of the clearing.
“I leave three or four ATVs hooked up to moveable pallets by the road when I’m expecting a shipment. My field crew brings the shipment up here and unloads.”
“Would I find any green cards among this ‘field crew’?”
“Probably not.”
“And if I wanted to interview any of them?”
“It’d be tough. Last week was their last work week for me. A number of them were heading north—Washington State. A cider plant up there picks up the slack when they’re through down here.”
Without a comment the sheriff started walking toward the cooler pulling on a pair of latex gloves. He slid back the bolt and opened the door, “Take a look inside.” He nodded to Elaine then stepped back so that she could lean in the doorway. “Everything like it was when you were here?”
“Not exactly. Someone’s removed the slop bucket and all the food.”
“Penny was afraid there’d be rats. Food attracts them in a heartbeat. One of our biggest problems out here. She told me this morning she’d tidied up. I assume your boys got everything they needed last night?” Doc had also leaned in to take a look.
“Looks like they better have. I wasn’t taking any tidying into consideration.” The sheriff looked ticked, Dan thought. “Why don’t we go back up to the house. I think at this point I’d like to talk to Penny.”
Doc suggested sitting around the dining room table, a rather grand hand-carved monstrosity in white oak. The dining room itself was knotty pine panels washed a light gray. Lids from old tureens many with pastoral scenes but most in blue-and-white dotted the walls. Seemed odd to Dan, but he bet it was right out of Better Homes & Gardens. Probably showed what he knew about home decor.
“Anyone for coffee?” Penny paused in the doorway to the kitchen. She was in her bobby socks best, all matching yellow sweater and pullover with an ankle-length brown skirt. Her head full of curls seemed barely under con
trol and was held in place this time by a yellow paisley scarf. Dan always thought of the fifties. A plain Dinah Shore with a Jag instead of a Chevy. There was no eye makeup or straightened hair today. Dress-up must be reserved for bank business.
“Don’t have time. I’d like to finish this up.” The sheriff flipped open a small notebook. “You were here Friday?”
“Yes, I came out after lunch. It was a regular work day for me—a half day because I was staying the weekend. Sperling Transport had called on Thursday to make sure everything would be set up for the delivery so I needed to be here. ”
“Did you meet them at the truck? Show them where to park? That sort of thing?”
“Yes, I always do.”
“And the truck was completely full with just your order? Fertilizer and seed?”
“Yes. Just under four tons to be exact. I contacted our field foreman to make sure we’d have the manpower to get the load put away in the barns before dark.”
“Do you remember how long it took to complete the unload?”
“Oh dear, an hour and a half…at least. I remember it was beginning to get dark—I hate daylight savings time. I can never get used to it. And I felt a few sprinkles. The last thing we needed was rain.”
“Did you go back to the barns with the field crew?”
“Normally, I would have but Bitsy had disappeared. She was with me and I had put her down on the ground for just a second. When I bent down to pick her up, she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere that I could see. Well, I absolutely panicked. She’d be a quick meal for any number of creatures.”
“Did you leave the site to try and find her?”
“I didn’t have to. She suddenly appeared.”
“And you went back to the house at that time.”
“Yes. I usually use an ATV to get around and I tucked Bitsy in my jacket pocket and followed the crew up to the barns.”
“And the driver and his helper in the eighteen-wheeler took off at that time?”
“Yes.”
“When did you leave?”