Before She Dies pc-4

by Steven F Havill

  “Mr. Sanchez said he can’t talk with you now.”

  “Ah, busy night, huh,” I said. The girl nodded, her face brightening with the hope that I wasn’t going to be as cranky as I looked.

  I stepped past her and walked down the hall toward the kitchen. The hostess didn’t object or offer to present me to his highness. She murmured something to Estelle and then vanished into the bar to deal with customers she understood.

  The kitchen smelled of Saturday night’s fajitas, grilling hamburger, and cleaning compounds. Victor Sanchez was working at the cutting board, chattering the celery into slivers with the knife. He looked up and saw Estelle and me standing in the doorway. He stopped cutting.

  “I said I was busy.”

  “I see that,” I said.

  Sanchez was a squat man, beefy through the shoulders with short, muscular arms, thick wrists, and powerful, stubby-fingered hands. He tipped the board of celery into a bowl and turned toward the stove.

  “You want something to eat?”

  “No, thanks. I guess not.” I did, but Sanchez was fixing something that looked and smelled like chicken soup, and as far as I was concerned, that was health food.

  “Y tu?” he asked Estelle. I knew about ten words of Spanish, just enough to be surprised at the familiar greeting.

  She shook her head. “Queremos unos pocos minutos de tu tiempo, senor,” she said.

  Sanchez banged the bowl down on the table and turned to glare at us. I knew the look-I’d used it myself many times in the marines when conversing with idiot recruits.

  “You know how many people I talk to today, querida?” Estelle’s face remained impassive. He took a step closer and shook a stubby finger in her face. “All day long, in and out, in and out. Like flies. They ask, what’s this, what’s this, what’s this?”

  “What do you expect?” I said quietly when he paused to take a breath. “One of our officers was killed just down the road. Do you think we’re going to wait until there’s a lull in your bar traffic to talk to you?”

  Sanchez dropped the knife on the cutting board and wiped his hands on his clean, starched apron. “What does this place have to do with what happened?” he demanded. He turned back to Estelle and hunched his shoulders like an old bulldog. His words came machine-gun fast, and I guess maybe he thought Estelle would flinch. She listened impassively. “Nada pasaba aqui. Nada. Ni siquiera una persona vio nada. Ahora, quita de medio.” He chopped the air with the edge of his palm.

  “He said nothing happened here, that no one saw anything… and to get out of his way,” Estelle said to me. Victor grunted.

  He waved a hand in my direction. “He knows damn well what I said, chinita. All these cops, you drive away my customers. You cost me money.”

  He turned back to his celery and dumped it into a stainless steel cooking pot on the stove. The tidbits disappeared into the bubbling soup and my stomach twinged a little with anticipation.

  “Victor,” I said using my most conciliatory tone, “one of your customers might remember something. In a case like this, we don’t have much to go on. Any little detail that someone might remember. It could help us. Anything that happened that was even a little unusual.”

  Several pieces of chicken were spread out on the cutting board as Sanchez went to work with the big knife, deftly separating skin and excess fat. He studiously ignored the two of us. As far as he was concerned, the conversation was over.

  Estelle stepped close to the table and leaned over so that she was talking within two inches of Victor Sanchez’s ear. I saw one of his eyebrows rise a little.

  “He oido decir que alguien cerca de aqui sabe mas,” she said, her voice husky. “Con tu ayuda…”

  Victor Sanchez straightened up slowly, the knife motionless on the cutting board. He looked at me and grinned, at the same time nodding his head toward Estelle as if to tell me he knew he’d almost stepped in it.

  “You tell your compadres, senor, that if I think of something I’ll let you know.” He pointed directly at Estelle. “Tu, chinita, solamente.” He pointed then at the door behind us. “Now leave me alone to my work. You want something else, you bring a warrant.”

  Estelle ignored Sanchez’s dismissal and instead pulled out a small notebook from her purse. She leaned against the prep table and leafed through the pages.

  “Senor, you told one of the deputies earlier that Francisco Pena came in at twelve minutes after eleven and shouted that there had been a shooting.”

  Sanchez grunted something I didn’t hear. “How did you happen to know it was twelve after eleven?” Estelle asked.

  “Because I was standing at the bar and happened to be facing the door.”

  Estelle flipped forward a page in her notes. “And there is a clock right by the door, sir.”

  Sanchez looked up sharply at her. “Basta, you think I didn’t tell the truth…”

  Estelle shook her head. “I need to make sure that the deputy who told me was correct, senor. You told him that Francisco busted in like maybe he had an accident or something. And then?”

  “You know the story as good as me,” Sanchez muttered as he hacked at the chicken.

  Estelle dutifully continued. “After Francisco settled down enough to tell you what was wrong, you called the state police. The nine-one-one relay connected you with the Sheriff’s Department. Most of your customers went outside, and at least four of them drove down the road to the scene.”

  “Six of them went outside. I told ’em no toquen alguna cosa…nothing,” Sanchez said. He wagged a finger. “Don’t touch nothing.”

  “All right. So…” I turned to Estelle quizzically.

  “Mr. Sanchez said that last night he had no patrons other than those known to him. I have a list here, if you want to see them.”

  I shook my head. “So, no strangers in the place all evening?”

  “That’s right,” Sanchez muttered.

  “And there were no disturbances of any kind that amounted to anything, no luchas?” Estelle prompted.

  Victor Sanchez dumped a pile of hacked chicken into the soup pot and walked over to a refrigerator to collect a package of baby carrots. He took a deep breath as if becoming resigned to our presence.

  He spilled the carrots out on the board, slicing each one lengthwise and then across, building a mound of perfect little carrot quarters. After processing about ten, Sanchez shrugged. “Pat Torrance, he drank too much. It looked like he was going to puke, so I asked him to go out back before he made a mess of my bar.”

  “And that’s all? One drunk cowboy?”

  “Es todo.”

  “It appears that it was a pretty quiet night up until then, sir,” Estelle said to me. “No strangers, nothing unusual.” She closed her notebook and slipped it back in her purse. “Mr. Sanchez, when was the last time you spoke with Sergeant Torrez?”

  For a moment, Victor Sanchez’s face was blank. Estelle folded her arms and leaned against the table. “The deputy who arrested Tammy Woodruff, sir.”

  Sanchez’s eyes narrowed. “Conozcolo, senorita.” Estelle ignored the emphasis Sanchez placed on the jibe at her age and appearance. True enough, Estelle Reyes-Guzman was far from matronly.

  She smiled faintly. “Bueno. Cuando estaba el tiempo ultimo cuando hablaba con el?” Sanchez shot a sideways glance at me. I raised an eyebrow as if I understood Estelle perfectly and was waiting for an answer.

  “I spoke with him Friday night only.”

  “Not since then?”

  “No.”

  Estelle looked down at the growing pile of carrots. “Did someone mention to you last night…after Francisco and the others left and the police came…did someone mention to you which patrol car was involved in the shooting? Did someone mention who the deputy was?”

  It was Sanchez’s turn to look puzzled, and if he was faking it, he was a great actor.

  “Nobody said nothing about which one, senora. I found out that it was Paul Encinos only after Pat Torrance came back and t
old me that is who it was.”

  “Torrance was recovered by then?”

  Sanchez shrugged and almost smiled. “Podria andar. But he did not go down to the place. He said he heard from someone else out in the parking lot that it was Encinos. I know him, you know. I know his family.”

  “Encinos, you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “But no one said anything about which patrol car was involved?”

  Sanchez cocked his head and frowned at Estelle. “No. What difference does it make?”

  She didn’t answer but pushed away from the table as Sanchez collected the last of the carrots for the soup.

  “Sir, thank you. If there’s anything else, I’ll be in touch.”

  Sanchez shook his head and started toward the refrigerator again. “No mas, chiquita, no mas.”

  We stepped outside. Beyond the circle of the sodium-vapor light in the parking lot, the prairie stretched away into the chilled darkness of that February evening.

  “He’s got all kinds of pet names for you, doesn’t he?” I asked. “What’s chinita mean?”

  Estelle smiled wearily. “Around here, you’d translate it about like, ‘little half-breed darling.’”

  “Cute. He’s a sweetheart, isn’t he?”

  “He’s known my family for generations, sir. He knew my Great-uncle Reuben. In fact, Reuben built one of the fireplaces in the barroom for him. Years ago.”

  “I should have known. You asked about the patrol car. You don’t seriously believe that the killer thought that Paul Encinos was someone else? Bob Torrez told me earlier that he was thinking the same thing.”

  Estelle shook her head. “No, sir. I don’t think anyone would notice the number on a patrol car. I just wanted to see the look on Victor Sanchez’s face. That’s all.”

  “No connection?”

  “No connection, sir.”

  I sighed. “You want to go down to the hospital with me for a bit?”

  “If you’ll stop on the way for something to eat, sir.”

  I laughed. “I didn’t think you ever stopped to eat, drink, sleep…”

  Estelle grinned. “No, sir. You need something to eat. I saw you watching that soup. And I want to show you something.”

  My spirits lifted. Earlier, while parked behind the highway department’s gravel pile, Estelle hadn’t just been ruminating about Victor Sanchez. There was something else brewing in her mind.

  Chapter 12

  I was too tired and depressed to care much about eating, and that alone said something about my condition that evening. Because she wanted to talk on the telephone privately with her husband, Estelle suggested we meet at her house.

  Francis Guzman’s aunt met us at the door. She frowned hard at Estelle and muttered something in Spanish that I didn’t catch. I recognized the word that had something to do with sleep, and true enough, we both had ten-gallon bags under our eyes. But that wasn’t unusual. The entire department would be operating on fumes if something didn’t break quickly.

  Senora Tournal wore a tailored blue suit of casual cut, the white blouse fluffed and lacy at the throat. Her black shoes were mirror-perfect. She was not the image of the perfect nanny. Rather, she looked like she was waiting for a tardy junior partner to arrive so that she could begin a board meeting.

  Sofia Tournal had no children of her own. I wondered if, behind that handsome face that registered only concern for her niece, Mrs. Tournal really enjoyed being corralled as a baby-sitter.

  As if she could read my mind, Sofia Tournal glanced at me and offered a half smile. “The kid is asleep, Estellita.”

  Estelle nodded. “We’re going to be in and out. I’m sorry.”

  “No tengas lastima,” Sofia said, and ushered us toward the dining room table-Estelle’s office.

  “No tu invitamos para ser nana para el nino, Sofia,” Estelle said, and hugged the older woman.

  She waved a hand in dismissal. “Por un dia o dos.” Sofia Tournal may not have minded baby-sitting the kid for a day or two, but spending those days near a hot stove wasn’t in her plans.

  Her favorite solution to immediate food problems was American fast food-and her particular passion was fried chicken, the higher the cholesterol the better. She didn’t even cast a second glance at my girth as she vanished out the door, Estelle’s car keys in hand, headed off to fetch a barrel of the crunchy stuff. She knew where my heart was.

  I settled in one of the chairs near an uncluttered spot on the table and heaved a sigh.

  “Are you all right?” Estelle called from the kitchen.

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said, not convinced.

  She reappeared and set a tall glass of orange juice in front of me. I grimaced. “You got anything to put in this?”

  She grinned and ignored my request. Instead she opened her briefcase and drew out a large, clear plastic evidence bag containing what looked like a streamlined socket wrench with no handle. “I found this off the shoulder of the highway,” Estelle said, and handed it to me. While I looked at the wrench, she fished a piece of graph paper from her briefcase. “Right here.”

  She had drawn the deputy’s patrol car and then labeled everything else with distance flags. The wrench had been lying sixty-five inches from the edge of the pavement, thirty-five feet in front of patrol car 308.

  “You want to tell me how anyone missed this?” I asked. Estelle shrugged and I added, “We all walked through that area a hundred times. This thing is what, about a foot long?”

  “Nestled in a clump of rice grass,” Estelle said. “The way it was lying, it was obvious that it was dropped recently.”

  “How so?”

  “Nothing on top of it. Not even dust.”

  I held the bag by the zipper lock and turned it this way and that. “It’s brand-new.”

  “Just a few scratches. Do you know what it is?”

  “Sure. It’s a lug wrench…or part of one. The ratchet part. And you’re right. No dust, nothing. You could have one of these stowed in your vehicle for years, and never use it. But it would collect dust and dirt with the passage of time. This one is clean as a whistle.”

  “Brand spanking new,” Estelle said.

  “So, you found a lug wrench,” I said. “Or half of one. This part fits over the lug nuts…or the jackscrew.” I made little twisting motions with my hands and the tiny crow’s-feet at the corners of Estelle’s eyes deepened ever so slightly. “There’s another part, the actual ratchet handle, that slips over this end.”

  “General Motors has been using those since about 1988,” Estelle added. She pointed with the tip of her pencil. “There are a few marks on the black paint where the handle was attached, sir.”

  I frowned. “So…we’ve got half of a lug wrench. It may have been dropped recently. It’s from one of the major manufacturers, which means that we’ve narrowed the vehicle down to one in a couple billion.”

  Estelle nodded. “Since we’re starting with nothing, this,” she said tapping the bag, “is more than we had.”

  “I won’t argue that,” I replied. “You’re going to run it for prints?”

  “Tonight.” She leaned forward. “Sir, this might be connected.”

  “It might be.”

  “If someone had a flat tire and stopped to change it, it’s easy to imagine that in the dark, one piece or another of that wrench could be dropped, or kicked, or misplaced somehow. If the person was unfamiliar with the equipment, it’s even more possible. If that person was in a hurry, or nervous, it might be even more likely.”

  I leaned back in my chair and Estelle watched me, as if what I would have to say might make a difference. I reached out and toyed with the glass of orange juice. “The shots came from across the highway, Estelle.”

  “I think there were two vehicles involved.”

  “Two?”

  “Yes. I think that Deputy Encinos parked behind what he thought was a disabled vehicle.” She nodded at the wrench. “It was disabled. It’s too desolate out the
re for it to be coincidence, sir.”

  “All right. You’ve got a vehicle stopped.” I gestured at the wrench. “Flat tire. The deputy comes along. Yes, he would stop. It’s automatic.”

  “Automaticc” Estelle mused.

  “That, too,” said. “And the second vehicle?”

  “Either across the road…”

  “Facing east, back toward town?”

  “I have no way of knowing that, sir. It could have been. Or it could have been parked with the disabled vehicle, and the killer could have ducked across the highway when he saw headlights coming.”

  I frowned. “Or just passing by at the wrong moment. I don’t buy lying in wait. That seems a little far-fetched. As Paul’s car approached, the killer would have no way of knowing it was a cop, in the first place. And to dart across the road and hide, deliberately waiting, would mean that he had reason to believe that a cop was in fact coming and would have reason to be suspicious. And we know that he didn’t know Paul was coming, because Paul never said anything on the radio after he left Bustos Avenue. Other than that, someone with a scanner wouldn’t have known much about the deputy’s location.”

  Estelle gazed at me from across the table, her chin resting in her hand. She slowly shook her head from side to side, as confused as I was.

  A car pulled in the driveway and the few rapidly evaporating gastric juices I had sprang into action. “She’s back,” I said, and grunted to my feet. I opened the door and saw not Sofia Tournal with fried chicken but Sheriff Martin Holman, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear.

  “I got it,” he yelped, and bounded up the steps.

  “Come on in,” I said as he charged past into the house. I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

  “Gayle said you’d be here, so I figured that I’d…”

  “Good, good,” I interrupted him. “Come on in.” I directed him to the dining room. “Now, what have you got?”

  “The tires,” Martin Holman said. He straightened his shoulders, pleased with himself. “The cast taken in front of the patrol car? Easy as can be.” He dug a paper out of his pocket. “LT235/85R by 16E all seasons.”