There was no response, and a depressing thought crossed my mind. “You fellows mind if I ask you a question?” Nobody voiced an objection, so I continued. “It’s a school day; how come none of you are in class?”
“We don’t go to school no more.”
I glanced around at them—they looked about Cord’s age. “None of you?”
Eddy, obviously the spokesman of the group, shook his head. “Nope, we all graduated, and now we’re the First Order, guaranteed seats in the Celestial Kingdom.” He looked out the window and went into a now familiar autospeak. “We guard the perimeter of the Apostolic Church of the Lamb of God, keeping the faithful safe: the shepherd unto his sheep.”
“Baaahh . . .”
He turned and for the first time made eye contact with Vic, the one emitting animal noises. “Are you an unbeliever?”
Vic sighed. “Don’t fuck with me, kid. I’m a recovering Catholic, and we owned most of the known world when your bunch started promising people planets and wearing funny underwear.”
Thankfully, Eddy interrupted the theological debate by raising his hand and pointing to a T in the road just beyond a plastic-flowered cross, the kind that marks vehicle fatalities—I’d seen enough of those, especially on the highways to the Rez, to last me into eternity. At the other side of the turnoff there was a girl, looking fragile and unprotected in a homemade prairie dress and bonnet, who was sitting behind a card table with what looked to be baked goods. “You take a right here.”
Thinking it had been quite a while since I’d had some homemade baked goods, I slowed the truck. The kid must’ve misunderstood my change of speed. “Umm, you can just drop us off here.”
I looked down the rutted dirt road and could see that it stretched to the horizon. “That’s okay; I think I’d like to make sure we get you all the way home.”
“There’ll be trouble.”
I swiveled my head to look at him. “For whom?”
He glanced around at his buddies. “For us. They’re not going to be happy about us wrecking the truck, getting our guns taken away, or bringing . . . you, to the inner circle.”
Vic raised an eyebrow. “What, you’re going to lose your celestial folding chair and have to stand for all eternity?”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “What happens if we drop you off here?”
“We walk back, or we’ll catch a ride if somebody comes along.”
“The gist being that you’ll have your weapons and won’t have introduced us to the inner sanctum?”
Henry’s voice rumbled from the back. “Two out of three.”
Eddy nodded and then looked at his lap.
“On one condition.” He looked at me. “If you answer a few questions, then I’ll let you out here, but you have to answer them and you have to be truthful.” I eased the truck to the side of the dirt road across from the baked goods table. “And I’ll warn you that I’m an expert in knowing when people are lying to me.”
He turned in the seat, glanced at the others, and then nodded. “Okay.”
“Have any of you ever heard of a woman in your group by the name of Sarah Tisdale?”
No one said anything.
“A blonde woman with blue eyes, roughly thirty years of age?” I pulled the school picture that Eleanor had given me at the bar from my shirt pocket and held it up for them to see. “She would be about seventeen years older than this photo.”
Still nothing.
I pulled the truck’s gear selector down.
“Wait.”
The voice had come from the back, and I turned and looked at one of the boys, the driver and Eddy’s half-brother, Edgar. I held the photo out for him to see. “You know her?”
He glanced at the others, and Eddy was quick to speak. “Shut up.”
I started turning the wheel to pull us back onto the road.
“Not Tisdale.”
I stopped and turned to Edgar, after giving Eddy a strong look. “She may have another name?”
“Lynear.”
I rested my face in a hand; of course, it had to be. I waited a moment and then opened the door and climbed out. “Edgar, why don’t you and I take a walk?”
Walking around the back of the Bullet, I waved at the girl at the table, who looked to be may be ten. Henry and Vic had allowed Edgar to get out of the truck and now corralled the rest of the boys by the grille guard.
Steering the skinny youth to the side of the road a little away from both the Bullet and the girl, we pulled up at the floral cross, victims of our upbringings and unwilling to walk on the symbolic grave.
“Do you know where she is?”
“No, sir.” He paused and looked over at the others. “She was cast out.”
“From the Apostolic Church of the Lamb of God?”
“Yes, sir.”
I brought my face up from the marker and turned to look at him. I still couldn’t see any family resemblance between him and his half-brother. “When?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “About a month ago.”
That would’ve coincided with her appearance at the Butte County Sheriff’s Department when she’d been looking for her runaway child. “Why did she get kicked out?”
“Because of her son.”
“Cord?”
“Yes, sir.”
I studied the floral cross adorned with blue plastic lilies and chrysanthemums. “Was he kicked out, too?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
“He was found wanting.”
I was getting tired of the coded churchspeak. “What does that mean?”
“He wasn’t selected as one of the three sons of the One, Mighty and Strong.”
I sighed. “And who is that?”
“Roy Lynear.”
I massaged the bridge of my nose, attempting to rid myself of the headache that was trying to grow roots there, and thought about the domineering and obese man I’d met the other night in the back of the fancy pickup. “So, Sarah Tisdale was married to Roy Lynear?”
“Yes, sir.” He paused for a moment and then lowered his voice. “Cord is in line for the inheritance of the mantle of celestial supremacy in the Lord’s true church but committed apostasy and turned away.”
I knew there was a reason I liked the kid. Here he was attempting to get out of this loony bin, and his mother was excommunicated for looking for him.
What a world.
I studied the teen in front of me and thought about all the good that religion could do and all the bad. “Do you mind if I ask you another question?”
“Nope.”
“If all of you are related, then why do none of you look alike?”
He glanced around, embarrassed. “We are lost boys—were kicked out of the communities in Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Arizona; and Eldorado, Texas. Mr. Lynear adopted us and gave us a place to be.”
Somehow that was a notch in Roy Lynear’s favor, but I still wasn’t convinced. My reveries were suspended as he looked down the road at a spiraling dust cloud that approached from the straight-as-an-arrow distance to the horizon.
“Oh, no.”
I followed his gaze. “Somebody you know?” I walked the boy back to the truck and joined the small group at the grille guard.
Henry, never one to miss anything from near or far, was looking down the road and called out to me. “We have company.”
“Hmmm.” I thought I’d left the others as I walked across the dirt road to where the young woman sat in the chair by the card table, but when I got there, I noticed that Edgar had followed me. I studied the array, which was indeed full of plastic bags of cookies, cakes, and an amazing assortment of pies.
The girl looked up at me from under the shade of the bonnet, where I could see her Mongoloid features. Her face looked like a full moon in a night sky; when she noticed the young man standing beside me, her voice was an excited croak: “Hello, Edgar!”
“Hi, sis.”
She was already up and aroun
d the table when he closed his arms around her and ushered her back to her chair. “Have you been out here all day?”
She clutched his hand and answered, her voice breaking, “All . . . All day!”
When she turned to me, I could see that her lips were chapped, and when I glanced around I couldn’t see a blanket, a cooler, a bottle of water, or anything with which the child might’ve been supplied.
“Would you like to buy some cookies?”
A tide of emotions attempted to draw me under as I was reminded of Melissa Little Bird, a young woman I knew, a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and the daughter of Lonnie Little Bird, the chief of the Northern Cheyenne. “Yes, um . . . Yes, I would.”
She recited the prices of the individual items in a long list and then smiled up at me, her rounded cheeks almost completely hiding her eyes.
I dug my wallet from my back pocket. “Are you thirsty?”
She thought about it and then looked at Edgar for approval.
The young man smiled and nodded. “You can answer for yourself.”
She looked back at me. “Yes?”
I motioned to the Bear, who was still standing in the center of the road. “Hey, Henry? Could you grab me one of those pops from the little cooler under the backseat?”
He did as I asked, still keeping an eye on the approaching vehicle, and then tossed the Coke across the road to me. I stuffed my wallet under my arm and caught the can, tapped the top in order to disseminate the carbonation, and then gently pulled the tab and handed it to her.
She looked at the pop and then to Edgar.
The young man glanced away and then up to me. “We’re not supposed to have soft drinks.”
I motioned toward the can in the girl’s hands, now noticing that she had no fingernails.
“I think in this case that you shouldn’t worry about it.”
He smiled and gestured for her to drink, which she did.
I have relished numerous beverages in my life, from the Rainier beer I discovered in my teens and still drank, the Tiger beer I slugged to support my sweat habit in Vietnam, to the Pappy Van Winkle’s twenty-three-year-old Family Reserve I drank from the bottle hidden in the corner cabinet of my old boss, Lucian Connally, but I’m sure that I’ve never enjoyed a sip of anything as much as that girl enjoyed her first taste of Coca-Cola.
“It makes my nose tickle!”
Her brother and I smiled at her, but the young man’s face sobered at the arrival of a late-model maroon Suburban with tinted windows. We both watched as the dust from the vehicle blew past us and down the road like an ill omen.
I watched as four men got out of the SUV and stood by the doors, their attention divided between Henry, who was still standing in the middle of the road in front of them, Vic, with the other boys at the side of my truck, and the three of us at the bake sale table.
The man who got out of the passenger side was tall, with a dark suit and with hair in a reddish pompadour that swept up the sides of his head and around his enormous ears. The driver was darker, bigger, older, bearded, and heavyset, in a dress shirt with a straw cowboy hat that looked like white plastic. Out of season.
I stood there with my wallet in my hands and waited.
One of the other men was middle-aged, in a black polo shirt—he had exited from the driver’s-side backseat and was careful to keep an eye on the Absaroka County undersheriff and Henry Standing Bear of the Bear Society, Dog Soldier Clan, still standing in the middle of the road.
The one with the hair and the one in the plastic hat ignored Henry and started toward me along with the fourth man who was also in a black polo shirt and chinos. Unless I was mistaken, he was the muscle.
The tall, red-headed man was the first to talk, and he did it slowly, as if it tired him to speak with mere mortals and so that, with our limited faculties, we would be able to understand and obey. “Hello, I’m Ronald Lynear. Is there some sort of trouble?”
I waited until they were next to me, keeping my head in my wallet, pretending to count out bills as I kept my attention on young Edgar and his sister. “Nope, just buying some baked goods.”
Lynear glanced across the road at the stars on my doors, making a point of looking around the Cheyenne Nation, who now stood facing us with his muscled arms folded across his chest. Ronald put out his hand, feminine with long fingers and manicured nails, in an attempt to press down my wallet. “There’s no need for that; I’m sure we’ll be happy to make a donation to . . . the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Department.”
He left his hand on mine until I looked up at him. “No need.”
He shot a look at the huge man beside him and stuffed both hands in his pants pockets. “This is my friend and spiritual advisor, Earl Gloss.”
I glanced toward the Bear, still standing in the road with a slight smile on his face. “That’s mine.”
Ronald Lynear waved at Henry and then turned back to me. “He’s Native American?”
“Northern Cheyenne, to be exact.”
He nodded and called out. “We will look forward to Lamanite assistance in the apocalyptic wars to come with the dark-skinned children of Satan.”
Henry’s grin broadened and his voice, even though it was low, carried in the wind like a scythe. “I would not count on it.”
Lynear’s eyes hardened a little, but he disguised it by turning back to me. “Where, exactly, is Absaroka County; if you don’t mind my asking, Sheriff?”
“Wyoming.”
“Oh, and what brings you to our fair state?” He gestured toward the table and the two young people still standing in his presence. “Besides the baked goods?”
“I’m looking for a woman.”
He didn’t look surprised. “And how can I help you?”
“Her name is Sarah Tisdale, and I have reason to believe that she is a member of your group.
He turned to confer with the older man. “Earl, have we heard of this woman?”
Gloss was quick to speak up. “Not that I am aware of, Mr. Lynear.”
I gave the two of them a nice, long stare. “Strange, because she made inquiries at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office concerning her child, Cord. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of that person either?”
Lynear turned again, and I was starting to get the impression that he was a pirate talking to the parrot on his shoulder. “Earl?”
The bearded man shook his head. “No, never heard of him.”
I stared at Gloss. “Funny, I didn’t say anything about it being a him.”
He looked past me at Edgar, who still stood by his sister, now clutching the can of pop to her chest, both of them keeping their eyes to the ground. “Edgar, where have you been and where is your truck?”
I interrupted. “There’s been an accident; no one was hurt, but their truck was dumped in a creek bed up near one of your gun towers.”
It was his turn to pause and then emphasize, “Observation towers.”
I glanced at Edgar, still studying the few sprigs of grass at his feet, and then turned back to Ronald Lynear. “And what is it you’re observing?”
“The Lord rewards those who are prepared.”
“I’m afraid I ran the boys off the bridge, but I’ll be happy to pay for the damages. We were just giving them a ride home.”
“I’m sure that also will be unnecessary, Sheriff.”
I kept my eyes on him but spoke loudly enough for them all to hear. “I am an honest man, Mr. Lynear, and pay for my mistakes. Besides, we’ve got the room for the children, and I’d kind of like to get a look at your place.”
“We’re a private people, Sheriff—I’m sure you’ll understand if we don’t offer you an invitation.” He gestured for Gloss to retrieve the children and, legally, there was little I could do, and he knew it.
The big guy bumping my shoulder as a parting shot smirked as he went around me, but then made a tactical mistake by pushing his luck just a touch too far. He shoved Edgar toward his so-called father and then reached down
and viciously slapped the can of soda from the girl’s hands. “We don’t allow our children to drink such trash.”
Henry said later that the man might’ve fared better if he’d had any idea what it was that was about to happen next. The Bear said he might’ve even been able to stay on his feet, but I doubt it. As it happened, when my clenched fist struck the side of his head and sent him reeling into the ditch, he slapped against the ground like a poleaxed steer.
The Cheyenne Nation, always aware of what I was going to do before I did it, had already stepped out to block the other backseater, and I could see that Vic had unsnapped the safety strap on her 9mm and was looking eye to eye with one of the polo shirts before he turned to study me.
The scouring of wingtips grazed the inside of my lungs and the coolness overtook my face as my hands grew still. I faced the two remaining men with my knuckles resting on the card table and thought about how Edgar’s sister had been sitting out here all day without supplies, and how she was likely to be left behind until there was nothing more to sell.
“I haven’t bought my baked goods.”
6
One of the best ways I have discovered to get back in the good graces of your staff is to show up with a couple of boxloads of desserts and deposit them in the communal area near Ruby’s desk. I had done so and was now brooding in my office over a tepid cup of coffee that resided in my old-school Denver Broncos mug with the chip on the rim.
It was resting on a couple of magazines, and my forearm was lying flat on the desk with my chin propped on it as I slowly turned the mug by the handle and studied the chip, stained and grimy-looking from coffee residue.
“You could get a new one.”
I continued staring at my sole piece of office drinkware. “I don’t want a new one.”
The Cheyenne Nation leaned in my doorway, drinking a mugful himself. “Then what do you want?” He noticed the magazines under my arm. “Do you mind if I ask why you have the 1972 January edition of Playboy magazine on your desk?”
“I’m thinking of taking up airbrushing.” I waited a moment and then asked a favor. “Hey, do you think you could take Mr. Rockwell out for a walk long enough for me to talk to Cord about his mother?”
A Serpent's Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery Page 10