Lalla Bains 02 - A Dead Red Heart

by Dahlke, RP

  I hit the talk button. "Base to Mad-Dog."

  "Mad-Dog to base, go ahead."

  "You checked your swath width?" I was asking because even though the calculations for the fifty-four foot wing span of the Ag-Cat was a standard number, the width of the sprayer was adjustable and could have been changed between jobs.

  "I checked. Sixty feet should be right on the money."

  I didn't want to talk about it over the VHF because it was an open airway and this was the way our pirating competitor, Junior Margrave, managed to weasel his way into Mrs. Warren's good graces. "See me when you come in for the next load."

  I went outside to check the pile of extra material we kept in the event that we went over the allotted amount. I stared at the extra bags of Comite for a few minutes then went back into the office and called Patterson's Chemical.

  Not long after, Mad-Dog walked into the office, got a cold drink of water then slouched onto the couch across from my desk.

  I said, "I wondered why Patterson's said they've got a grief factor worked into the price. They'll replace the extra Comite we used."

  "You want me to map it?" Mad-Dog asked. We're paid by the acre, and so are the pilots.

  "Too late for that, but I'll see that you get paid for the extra work." I was tapping my lip with a pencil while I thought about it. "Patterson's office manager said she forgot to mention why they always pad this customer's chemical order. Evidently, he's some big-shot Modesto lawyer, doesn't understand farming for beans, but he likes to figure out his own formula for the spray. Problem is, he's always short and threatens to sue when the bugs aren't dead."

  Mad-Dog noticed the far-away look in my eyes and grinned. "What're you thinking, Lalla?"

  "I'm thinking I'm going to let Margrave steal another customer."

  Mad-Dog's rather nasty smile reflected my own. "I'm fairly shivering with anticipation to hear how that turns out; but for now, I'm heading for the showers."

  The phone rang. It was Caleb telling me to wear something sexy tonight. "No bugs found anywhere in this house or on your cell. You can pick up your cell at my house. Tonight. Be there." He hung up, and happy to be wrong, I sailed to the house singing, "She works hard for the money, so hard for it honey …."

  At ten a.m. I was parked outside Del's condo when Jan pulled up in a red Sebring convertible.

  I hopped out and hiked over to watch her work the key into Del's lock. "Did you get Rodney to confess to killing Del?"

  "Better. You have to see this," she said, unlocking the door.

  "Okay, but what…"

  She opened the door and motioned me inside. "S'il vous plaít. Oh, I forgot to ask, how was Arny yesterday?"

  "You have a very nice son," I said evenly, waiting for the history of how she managed to keep it all a secret.

  A momentary look of nostalgia flickered in her eyes. "I didn't plan on having a kid so young, I was a kid myself, but I'm thrilled that his folks allowed him to come for the summer,"

  Her eyes twinkling, she said, "Come upstairs."

  Inside the bedroom, the covers on the double bed were crunched up into a mound in the middle. She wanted to show me Del's messy bed? I'd already seen enough of his poor housekeeping.

  Then, the mound began to rise. I gasped, my breath hissing in little rasping sounds as the covers slowly rose up. "What? Wha's…."

  The covers came off and somebody who looked an awful lot like Del Potts yelled, "Surprise!"

  The room backed up into dark corners and closed in on me until everything went black. The last thing I remember was the clear slap of hand against flesh and Jan screeching, "You idiot, now look what you've done!"

  Jan pressed a cold wet cloth to my head, and Del peered at me with a look of chagrin on his elfish face.

  I pushed the cloth away and struggled to a sitting position.

  "Which one's Del?" I woozily peered between Jan and Del. I was seeing double, the fall, a hit on the back of my head, all in two days. I was probably concussed. "One of you is Del, which means, Del isn't dead. What kind of dirty rotten bastard pulls a stunt like this?"

  "Sorry. Del's idea of cute," Jan said. "If it's any consolation, he was pretty close to dead when they put him in that ambulance. Fortunately, the EMT's found a faint pulse and got him all fixed up again. Didn't they, sweetums?"

  "Yup. 'S miracle I'm alive. Heatstroke, the doc said. If I hadn't been found when I was, it would've been adios Elvis. Which only goes to prove I am indestructible."

  I tried clearing my vision by blinking a couple more times. "Then where the hell you been for the past three days?"

  Del said, "Detective Rodney had me in the hospital under an assumed name, for my own protection."

  Jan, excited at the intrigue added, "They couldn't hold him, though. He got to a phone and I busted him out and—"

  "—I've been at her house ever since," Del finished.

  I looked from Jan to Del. "Then you can ID your attacker? Who was it?"

  "Sorry," said Del, his expression inscrutable. "Can't remember a thing. Doc said it'll come back, maybe."

  I screwed up my face, and holding my head between my hands, stood up. "Now what? Are you planning to give this story to the papers? And what about the police? They're looking for you, too."

  Del winked. "Since I took an unauthorized leave from the hospital, I thought it might be best to lay low for a bit longer. At least until we find out who killed my cousin."

  I said, "Sorry I didn't listen to you the first time."

  "That's okay, Lalla" said Jan, "but we thought you should know."

  "Yeah," said Del. "Mostly 'cause we figured Rodney wasn't going to let you in on the secret, and I see I was right again."

  So Rodney lifted my house arrest because he knew Del wasn't dead. But, had he told Caleb? No. Caleb hadn't said a thing, and he wouldn't agree to keep it a secret, not from me. Caleb wouldn't, would he? Maybe he would, if his job was on the line. This was the worst of it, after all my bad luck with men, to have developed my cynical suspicious nature and now it was playing havoc with my trust in Caleb.

  Del was watching the expressions somersaulting across my face.

  "Yeah, it's a conundrum all right. But look at it this way," he said, poking Jan in the ribs, this frees us up to work, heh, heh, undercover."

  She slapped his hands away. "Keep it up, and I'll take you back to that hospital."

  Del nuzzled her neck, "You wouldn't do that to your lovin' hunka man."

  She pushed him away again. "Not if you do any more stupid stunts like scaring Lalla out of her wits."

  "Oh, ba-aby, I'm all shook up." He did a knee knock that looked as much like an Elvis impersonation as it did a chubby kid on a new pair of roller skates.

  Jan did an eye-roll but with just the teensiest curve of a smile on her lips. "So, it's decided then?" she said. "We team up to look for Billy Wayne's killer?"

  I said, "Grace Kim is missing."

  "Told you," Del growled. "They're in on it together, Pippa and Grace."

  I shook my head. "Grace lied to the police about her involvement, but she also stayed to help me when she could have left me passed out on the ground or worse, let someone kill me. As for Pippa, she could've been fired for getting me into the evidence room, but she did it anyway."

  "Then it was Grace and that deputy, Byron Bettencourt, getting even. Thought it cute to stuff me in a hot trunk."

  I could see Byron cheerfully dumping Del into a garbage can, but not leaving me unconscious lying on the ground. At least, I didn't think he would. Of course, he wasn't that cute little ten-year-old I used to babysit anymore, either. I couldn't believe it of Pippa, either, even with the shadowed looks I got in the evidence room. After all the trouble I seemed to attract, she was more likely considering the probability that I was some kind of sociopath.

  Del tucked in his chin. "We're going stay under the radar. No help from the newspaper and no police. That means Sheriff Caleb Stone, too. You up for this, Lalla?"

&
nbsp; It would be like Del, diving into dangerous waters after coming back from the dead. "Look, you might be invincible, but I have no such armor, and I still have a lot to live for." I said, turning the engagement ring on my finger.

  Jan grabbed my hand. "Oh, you're engaged? Caleb Stone? You lucky girl!"

  "Yes, and engaged to the man you don't want me to talk to," I said. "Of course, my immediate problem is that I'm still without a driver's license."

  "We've already thought of that," Jan said. "Arny will be your chauffeur."

  And be glad to have some of his school chums there to see it. "Okay but first, Del, I want to talk to your mom."

  He looked down at his shoes and then up at me. "Can't. Sorry, Lalla."

  "Doesn't fly with me, Del. She told me you're hiding her. What does she know that makes you think you need to protect her?"

  "Look, we're closing in on discovering Billy Wayne's killer. If we haven't found the answer in two days, you can talk with her, will that do?"

  "You can see why I'm not thrilled with this, Del. If it looks bad to me, it's got to look bad to the cops. If you want me to be part of your investigative team without talking to my fiancé, you need to come clean with me."

  He shrugged, his bland expression indicating he'd already given that scenario a run around the block and was sticking to his plan. "I'm not making myself or my mom available to the cops until I find out who killed my cousin."

  Jan touched me on the shoulder. "What do you think we should do next?"

  I threw up my hands. "Alright, I'm in. Brad, being an addict, knew who killed Billy Wayne. Rodney's my best guess for it."

  Jan's eyes went wide. "You suspect Rodney?"

  I glanced from Del to Jan and wondered how much Del knew about her relationship with Rodney. Del gave me a shrug that said it all. Whatever their relationship, Del wasn't jealous of the detective.

  I said, "He's lazy and manipulative. At the very least, he's herded us into a corner so that we're committed to doing his dirty work, but if it's true, that he's neck deep in the local drug deals, then he's also Billy Wayne's killer."

  Jan squeezed Del's hand. "I got you out of that hospital just in time, snookums."

  "We've slipped his grasp for now, hunny-bunny."

  Before they got too chummy, I said, "I got a day job, so where will you two be so I can find you?"

  Too late. They'd already dissolved into a rubbery clinch. I made my way down the stairs, quietly closing the door behind me. They'd find me as soon as they came up for air.

  Chapter twenty-three:

  Our resident Irishman and balladeer was singing over the VHF, "They put a sulfur bag on the piece of land where my favorite runway used to stand. Before that I had a job in Colorado, if it was windy we'd just wait until tomorrow. But fearless leader called me on the phone, said I don't want to hear you bitch and moan. Get busy, stop your whining and get your lazy Irish ass to work."

  Last year a defective voice mike got all of us an ear-full of Fitz's warbling. It was also the fuse that ignited Brad's drug induced explosion. After that incident, I presented Fitz with a thumb-hold for his mike. Now when he sang, told jokes or recited trivia, at least he knew when he was on the air.

  As the radio clattered with ragged applause, I smiled, then picked up the phone and called Mr. Kim's.

  "I am sorry, Miss Bains," he said, "I do not know where my daughter is."

  "Mr. Kim, I'm very afraid for her safety. Will you call me if you hear from her? Tell her that I'd like to help her?"

  There was a silence on the other end of the phone. "If you will come about closing time, say nine p.m., I will speak to you then."

  He hung up before I could thank him. Add Mr. Kim to the growing list of people suspicious of telephones. I looked at my watch. Caleb was coming out for dinner. Was he going to tell me that he knew about Rodney's plan to keep Del under wraps? Or had Rodney convinced Caleb to keep it a secret, too?

  Another long hot day was slipping over the western hills and drawing a bright orange band across the tips. I closed the door on the office and made it back to the house in time to smell Juanita's cooking.

  My dad and Caleb were moving around the table, setting down plates and napkins. They looked up as I came through the swinging doors with the casserole in my hands.

  Caleb took it and put it on the table, then reached out to push back the wispy bangs on my forehead. "Sweetheart, you look beat."

  There was nothing in his comment that made me think he had anything to add.

  "Caleb, can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

  He nodded and followed me out to the front porch.

  "Do you have anything else you want to tell me?" I asked.

  "Sorry? You mean besides the fact that you look exhausted? I didn't offend you with that, did I?"

  I twisted the ring off my finger and held it out to him. "I think for now, you should take this back, at least until the investigation is over."

  "No… Why? No. Come on, Lalla," he said, waving his hands over the ring as if it were on fire, or perhaps fan it back to life again. "You're doing this because you think the stink will roll over onto me? If it didn't make a bit of difference last year, it sure as hell won't now."

  He wasn't getting it. If he loved me, trusted me, was on my side, then why did he let me go on believing that Del was dead? I was feeling too down to start up another fight. "I'm not going to argue about it now. If you won't take back the ring, then I'll put it away until after this is over."

  He jammed his hands in his pockets. "I won't take it back unless you give me a better explanation."

  "Let's just leave it and go back inside. Our dinner is getting cold."

  He turned away and, hunching his shoulders, clomped down the porch steps. At the last step, he turned back to me, his voice pitched low. "You're doing it again, pulling away from me. If we're ever going to make it together, Lalla, you have to learn to trust me. I'm not taking the ring back. You keep it and think about what I just said."

  I didn't say anything to keep him or bring him back. There was no way for me to white-wash the truth and it was breaking my heart. Somewhere along the line Caleb had decided where his loyalties lay, and they weren't with me.

  "Where's Caleb?" my dad asked between bites.

  "He... he had a call."

  My dad snorted. "You two had a fight again? Your mother and I had exactly two arguments in our eighteen years of marriage."

  "And look how well that turned out."

  The hurt in his eyes shot through me faster and quicker than a bullet through glass. He silently got up and took his dish to the kitchen where I could hear the water running in the sink, the dishes getting the worst end of his temper.

  Who was this spiteful woman who would say such things? I'd pushed away one and deeply insulted the other and my world was shattering around me, doing everything possible to destroy my previously happy home. But I was also tugged from two sides: Caleb, who wanted me to report to him so that he could report to Detective Rodney, and Del who wanted me to keep everything from Caleb.

  I felt my life breaking up, and I had to do something about it before I lost what good sense I had left. I had to find Billy Wayne's killer, and soon, before my entire world went spinning off its axis.

  I looked at the hall clock and, taking Jan's advice, dialed Arny's number.

  "'Lo?"

  "Arny? This is Lalla Bains."

  "Lalla? Hey, wha's shakin' pretty lady?"

  "I need a ride, please." I was down to this, getting a ride from a love-struck teenager instead of my love interest, or my now royally pissed off father. But then I really couldn't expect any help from either of my men, not after tonight.

  I stood on the porch and waited for Arny in the dark. True to his word, he arrived in under an hour. I buckled up, and once again he punched the accelerator, tearing up the gravel as we rounded the corner to the main road.

  "Go slow, will you please? I really don't want to get stopped tonight."
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  "Okay, sorry," he said, easing off the gas. "Gravel is so much more fun than pavement, you know?"

  I smiled at his youthful enthusiasm for my gravel. "It was either add gravel, or bump the headliner on all the pot-holes. Serious rad, huh?"

  "Yeah, awesome."

  "If it makes you happy, you can rad seriously when we come back."

  "Uh, no, sorry, it's only when you go from gravel to pavement."

  "Whatever. Okay turn here," I said as we came up to the Kansas exit. I pointed out the right-hand turn onto 9th, and then told him to park on J Street next to Mr. Kim's. "You have a cell phone with you?"

  "Do bunnies live in trees?"

  "Do… all right, I'll take that as a yes. Wait here for me. If I'm not back in half an hour, call this guy," I said, handing him Caleb's number. I got out. "And, lock the doors, Arny. This part of town isn't safe."

  He nodded, hit the door lock, turned up the radio and slouched down in his seat.

  The closed sign was in the window of Mr. Kim's, but the doorknob easily turned and I stepped into the darkened restaurant. I followed the sound of country western music into the kitchen.

  Under a bare bulb, Mr. Kim was slicing scallions with quick, deft motions into piles that he slid into a larger pile to his left. I noticed once again that he was left-handed. He looked up and, knife in mid-air, said, "Ah, Miss Bains. You found your way. Good, good. I am preparing for tomorrow's dishes. Will you have tea?"

  The evening was too warm for tea, but it would be rude to refuse. "Yes, thank you."

  There was no sign of Grace. "Mr. Kim, is Grace coming?"

  "All in good time, Miss Bains," he said. The light from the single bulb over a butcher block cast a cold light that didn't quite reach the corners. I felt a shiver of something pass over me as I looked at the row of knives lying side-by-side on the chopping block.

  "In Vietnam, we used to have a man come every day to sharpen our knives. Now I do it."