by Austin Davis
“All right, now,” said Wick, “if that’s true, then why didn’t Pulaski just choose remains of seven more horses from his morgue the night he discovered the evidence was missing?”
“Because no other horses would have matched the descriptions on the original dec sheets,” I replied. “The case had become so smelly by then that he knew we would hire our own pathologist to verify his findings. When our pathologist’s report didn’t match his, things would have gotten even more embarrassing.”
“So the insurance money reimbursed you for the bogus quarter-million loan from Scales,” Stroud said to Bevo.
“Right. Only, like I say, there wasn’t no quarter-million loan from him, since there wasn’t no horses. I was supposed to pay Nyman fifty thousand out of the settlement, when I got it.” Bevo winked at me. “I don’t think I’ll do that now.”
“And the money you borrowed from the Farmer’s Branch Bank, you’ve had that money stashed all the time?”
“Yep. That’s another quarter mil.” He laughed. “If only I could have found a way to snooker you out of your fee, I’d have walked off with the whole pot. As it is, I made close to nine hundred thousand on the deal. Not bad, considering I never even had to burn any horses.”
“A little more effort went into it than that,” I reminded him. “Don’t forget, Deck Willhoit almost gelded you that night in Dallas. And you came close to going to prison.”
“You lying little rat’s ass son of a bitch!” Wick said, a note of awe in his voice.
“It’s the principle, Mr. Chandler,” Bevo explained. “You get a plan, you stick with it. That’s what I done, and it sure as hell worked.”
“With a little help from us!” Wick said.
“I don’t want you boys to think I’m not grateful,” Bevo said, starting the car’s engine. “I’m reserving an emu egg for each of you, soon as I get the ranch started. You know what an emu egg’s worth?”
“That’s fine, Bevo,” said Stroud, “we could use the protein.” The old man gave a little shrug. “I just hope you’ll still be grateful when you get the 1099 form we’re sending to the IRS to let them know you got all this money.”
Bevo’s smile disappeared. “What?”
“The law imposed that duty on us when the check came to this firm.”
“Are you fucking nuts?” Bevo cried.
“Ask Mr. Parker here,” Stroud said. “He’s our tax man.”
“That’s right, Bevo,” I said. “Principle, you know. And the firm doesn’t want to pay the tax on the money it pays out to you.”
Bevo slammed the Lexus in gear, rocketed out of the parking space, and ringing curses on our heads, sped away down Main Street.
Wick watched him go and shook his head. “Think he’s still going to give me an emu egg?”
“If he does,” Stroud said, clapping him on the shoulder, “you can sit on it. And when it hatches, you can give it to Mike Starns to replace the bird you lost for him.”
We had not noticed Paul Primrose leaving the bank, but now, as he passed us in his car on his way back to Mule Springs, he made a universal gesture toward us with his hand.
“There you have it, Mr. Parker,” the old man said. “The elected district attorney, the highest peace officer in Claymore County, a lay preacher, no longer waves at us with his entire hand. What does that say to you?”
“I think it says, 'Welcome home,’” I replied as we headed for the office door.
AUSTIN DAVIS is a native Texan. This is his first novel.
Copyright © 2003 by Steve Garrison and John Alexander.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-4521-2502-2
Designed by tom & john: a design collaborative
Composition by Suzanne Scott
Cover photo by Petography
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
About the Author
Copyright