Trinity Trio (The Bill Travis Mysteries Book 14)

by George Wier

  “Jiminy, Bill! Why don’t we get a bullhorn and just announce ourselves?” Hank stated. He opened the door and was out it.

  “We’ll do that next time,” I rejoined, climbing out into the brightness of day.

  A hole opened in the passenger door of my car as I came around, and we heard the report an instant later.

  “Don’t shoot!” I shouted. “Texas Rangers!”

  “Bullshit!” a woman shouted.

  A corner of a broad sheet of plastic was peeled back from one of the broken-out windows, and I could see the barrel of a rifle sticking out and a pallid face beyond. The woman looked mad as a hornet.

  I reached down, unclipped my badge and held it up in the air, making sure she saw that my other hand held no weapon of any kind. “No sudden moves, Hank,” I whispered.

  “Who’s moving?” he asked. “I may have been born in the morning, but it wasn’t this morning.”

  Hank had his hands up, and he was decidedly frozen in place.

  “See?” I called out. “Silver star in a circle. Texas Rangers. We’re here to help, I promise you.”

  There was another voice in there, which I took to be that of Tanya Holdridge.

  “All right,” the woman with the rifle shouted. “Come around to the back door. It’ll be open. You come in with your hands up and no guns. One at a time. Any tricks, and there’ll be two dead men coming back out feet first. Under plastic.”

  “Message received and understood,” I said. “We’re walking around back, now. Slowly. We’ll keep our hands in the air.

  “You do that,” the woman called.

  “And by the way,” I said, “when this is done, you’ll be paying for the hole in my car.”

  She laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

  The building was an old one and it was mostly gone to wrack and ruin. It was of cinderblock construction with a patchwork roof—part composition shingle with the tar paper showing through in many places, and part rippled tin—and there were cracks in the walls following the seams of the bricklayer’s cement. The place carried the foul odor of desiccated crickets and slithery things, and I had little doubt the interior would appear no better off. We would, however, soon find out.

  We walked around back and saw a pink Cadillac with the Mary Kay symbol on the trunk and the passenger door. The car was parked so close to the building that the driver would’ve had to scootch out the passenger side.

  Weeds poked up everywhere in the gravel lot, some of them chest-high.

  The rear door—its paint so long gone that the bare wood was now gray—stood open to the yawning darkness within.

  “I’ll go first,” I said to Hank.

  “Damn right you will.”

  I stepped inside, still holding up the silver star.

  Someone stepped up from out of the shadows and took it from my hand so quickly that I didn’t have time to stop them. As my eyes adjusted to the interior gloom, I could make out the woman. She was pretty, in a high-fashion sense and cloying perfume sort of way. She wore a smart, chic red dress with padded shoulders, low cut such that I could make out a hint of cleavage held high with an expensive bra.

  “Mrs. Simon, I presume,” I said.

  “I don’t know you,” she replied, “but Tanya says your name is Bill Travis. She told me you didn’t identify yourself as a Texas Ranger when you came to see her. Why is that?”

  “Because, I wasn’t activated at the time. The badge says ‘Special Ranger,’ if you’ll read it. But it’s a little dim in here. The Ranger Captain in Austin activated me when I told him some little of what was going on.”

  “And then he deputized me,” Hank said.

  She still had the rifle under her arm, but it was pointed at the floor between us, or possibly at my legs. Her finger, however, wasn’t near the trigger. I wasn’t about to press the matter.

  “Why are you here?” Mrs. Simon asked. For the life of me, I had forgotten her first name. The last I had heard it was in the interview room with Tanya.

  At that moment, Tanya Holdridge stepped into the room. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and an out-of-season sweater with vertical pink and white stripes. I put two and two together and figured that they were an emergency set of clothes from a bag in the trunk of Mrs. Simon’s car. Women like her are always ready to change clothes at a moment’s notice. She also wore a pair of penny loafers. Most noticeably, she didn’t have a gun in her hand.

  “Ms. Holdridge,” I said, and nodded in deference. “It’s good to see you out of jail.”

  “I bailed her out.” Mrs. Simon said.

  “Loraine, I think these guys are okay. I don’t think Paul sent them.”

  “Is it okay if I put my hands down?” I asked.

  Loraine Simon looked to Tanya Holdridge, who nodded. “All right. But don’t try anything. I’m a crack shot with this thing. It’s a thirty-ought-six, and it’ll blow a hole in a man that no amount of medical attention can fix.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Travis,” Tanya said. “Loraine wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s all bluster, just like me. Just like Millie.”

  “Somehow, I doubt that,” Hank said, and his hands came down from the air by degrees.

  “Why did you spring her from jail, Mrs. Simon?”

  “Because it’s possible that if Jack doesn’t kill her, then Paul might. Maybe not directly, but he could stage an escape. Tell her she’s free to go and then shoot her. Something like that.”

  “You believe your husband’s a murderer then?” Hank asked.

  “I’ve never seen him kill anyone, but sometimes he flies into an awful rage. And lately, he’s been mad a lot.”

  “Any reason why?” I asked.

  “You’d have to ask Paul about that.”

  “Crap,” Hank said. “You just might get your chance to do that, Bill.”

  And then I heard the sirens.

  “Shit,” both Loraine Simon and Tanya Holdridge said together.

  CHAPTER TEN

  D on’t worry,” I said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to either of you. Hank, you stay with the ladies. I’m going out there. Alone.”

  “Is there a place where I can cover him from?” Hank asked Loraine Simon.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Over here.”

  I watched as she led Hank to one of the windows where the tape was partially removed, but where the glass was apparently broken out. I would have to keep all the action—and hopefully, there wouldn’t be any of note—on that side of the building.

  “Wait here with them,” I said to Penny’s Aunt Tanya, then turned and walked back out the rear door.

  *****

  I had made it past the pink Cadillac when the car came sluing into the parking lot.

  There were two deputies, and their doors came open even before the car ceased it’s slide on the rocks.

  I stepped forward with one hand in the air, the other resting on my hip, though not far away from my holstered pistol.

  “Shots were fired over here?” the big, burly deputy asked. He had his hand on the butt of his gun. His partner, a younger female, likewise was ready to draw. They stopped in their tracks.

  “My partner shot at a rattlesnake is all,” I said, “but it got away.” I dimly recognized the two from the Sheriff’s Office and my big speech there. “As you two know, this is an ongoing investigation. If it’s okay with you, my partner and I would like to conclude our walk of the property.”

  The big fellow didn’t take the hint. “We’ll go in with you and look around, if it’s the same to you?”

  The woman shook her head, whispered something his direction.

  “That’s not what he said,” the burly deputy informed her. “He didn’t say anything about us leaving.”

  “Well,” I said. “I was being nice, but yes, that’s exactly what I’d like you to do. Or do I need to call the Sheriff?”

  “Uh. No,” he said. “That won’t be necessary. It looks as though you’ve got this. If there’s a
nything you need, Ranger Travis, just let us know.”

  They slowly withdrew back into their vehicle, put it in gear and turned back onto the highway, headed back to town.

  I allowed myself to breathe.

  As the deputy sheriff’s cruiser disappeared around a bend in the highway, something nagged at me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The itch was something awful.

  I was decidedly missing something. Something important.

  I turned around and went back inside.

  “That was close,” Hank said from across the room. “I thought they were going to shoot you for sure.”

  “Hank, what am I missing?”

  “I don’t know. What are you talking about?”

  “Just a feeling. I don’t know.”

  “I have my own feeling,” he said. “If the Sheriff gets the word that we’re poking around the Smudge Pot, he’ll ask about it, and then he’ll coming running. I’d say we don’t have long here.”

  “He’s right,” Loraine said. “If Paul gets the idea that we’re here, he’ll come, and there’ll be hell to pay.”

  “There’s always hell to pay,” I said. “But that’s not what’s stuck in my craw sideways. Okay, is any place in this town we can hide you two until I get all this sorted out?”

  “Well, Jack is still in the hospital. Maybe at his place. I don’t think Millie will turn us away. We’re...”

  “You’re the Trinity Trio,” I said.

  “Yes, we are,” Loraine stated.

  “Friends for life, and no matter what,” Tanya replied. She stepped over to Loraine and the two of them clasped their hands together.

  “Tanya,” I asked. “Did you shoot the senator?”

  “I did. It was self defense. He was trying to kill me. I shot him, then got out of there. I thought he might die, so I called 911 on my cell phone I was leaving. They got to him in time.”

  “Why did he want to kill you?” Hank asked.

  She looked nervously at Loraine, then withdrew her hand from her friend’s, slowly. “I went to borrow money from him. Money to re-open this place. Not to turn it into what it used to be—a den of prostitution and drug usage, but just a restaurant and a bar. He wouldn’t have any of it. I was desperate and maybe a little pushy about it. I sort of threatened...something.”

  “What did you threaten?” I asked.

  “I told him I would go to the authorities...about something.”

  “The authority is standing right in front of you,” I said. “What were you threatening to rat him out about?”

  She looked sidelong at Loraine, who cocked her head in wonder.

  “I think I’d better hear this, Tanya,” Loraine said.

  Tanya hung her head. “It was about the squawk.”

  “The what?” Hank asked.

  “The S-Q-W-K. It’s a military contract. The senator is on the Defense Appropriations Committee in Washington. A lot of stuff has been coming through this county. A lot of military hardware. At first it was prototypes and stuff, all unloaded into one of those new warehouses out on the Loop. Then it became big crates of stuff.”

  I nodded. “How long has the Senator been on the Defense Appropriations Committee?”

  “I don’t know. Ten years or more, I think.”

  “Sixteen, possibly?” I asked. “Seventeen?”

  “Why?” Loraine asked.

  “Because, I want to know if any of what you’re talking about possibly coincides with the death of Tanya’s husband.”

  “Billy?” Tanya said. “What could this have to do with that?”

  “When did he die?”

  “Back in 2001.”

  “How did he die?”

  “In a car wreck.”

  The hackles on my neck stood straight up, and a cool wind blew in my gut.

  “You...you went to his funeral?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Did you see the body before they buried him?”

  “Of course I did.”

  “Crap,” Hank said.

  “You’re both coming with me,” I said. “Right now.”

  I turned to go, but Hank beat me to the door.

  “What’s going on?” Loraine raised her voice.

  “A man is in danger for his life,” I said. “We have to hurry.”

  *****

  We raced down the highway back to the hotel while Hank tried to reach Ranger Gray Holland on his cell phone. The women were in the back seat, and Tanya still had her shotgun with her.

  “Tell me, Mrs. Simon, your husband’s nephew, Abner. What kind of man is he?”

  “He’s a useless bit of human garbage,” she said. “I can’t stand the sight of him. He lives in a little trailer house Paul had brought in, back behind our house. He drives that car of his like he owns the road. Also, he always seems to have money, but he’s never worked a day in his life. I would suspect him of dealing drugs, but I’ve never found any on the property, even after a thorough search.”

  “Might he be involved in anything that’s going on between your husband and the Senator? I’d still like to know more about these military contracts.”

  “They’re as thick as thieves,” Loraine said. “Paul, Abner, and Jack.”

  “Ladies, when all this is over, I want to have a long talk with you. All three of you.”

  “You mean Millie too.” Tanya said.

  “Especially her.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  W e found Gray Holland on the floor of my hotel room. He was breathing, but just barely.

  An ambulance was en route within seconds.

  I did my best to staunch the flow of blood coming from the gash in the back of his head. His breathing was ragged and I had little doubt that he had a serious concussion. Of course, Abner was long gone, along with Gray’s pistol.

  I managed to keep talk to a minimum and used hand gestures to keep everyone quiet and help me get him up on the bed. It’s been long proven that speaking during a traumatic event while someone is unconscious can have a deranging effect later in life, and if Gray was going to survive, I figured he would want to remain sane.

  Once it appeared that the bleeding was under control—Tanya kept a damp bath rag to his head—I gestured for Loraine to follow me outside the door.

  “Abner did this,” I said, once we were in the otherwise empty hallway.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “It’s not your fault. I don’t know what he was trying to prove, but he’s at least shown us what side he’s on. And now he’s armed and dangerous.”

  “He’s almost always armed. And he’s never been anything except dangerous.”

  “I have to make a call to the Ranger Barracks in Austin. Someone has to go with Gray to the hospital, and watch over him. Do you have a cell phone with you?”

  “Yeah,” she held up a little clutch purse, with a small cellular phone poking up out of it.

  “Good.” My head nearly spun with all the things going through it at once. I took a moment and breathed. Soon, all hell would be breaking loose. An ambulance would arrive at the hotel and a crew of paramedics would swarm into the room, the local police and possibly the Sheriff and his deputies would show up shortly thereafter—if, in fact, they didn’t show up first!—and there would be a potential confrontation between Loraine and her husband over her having bailed out her friend, Tanya.

  “Okay,” I said. “I just realized that splitting up with you and Tanya won’t work. I need to take you two with me. I’m sending Hank with Gray to watch over him at the hospital. This means you and Tanya and I are leaving. Now. Is there any chance that Abner is somehow involved with the Senator? Taking orders from him, maybe?”

  Loraine nodded. “While I can’t say for sure, nothing would surprise me anymore.”

  “Okay. Tanya is taking us to this storage building where this alleged military hardware is stored.”

  Loraine Simon shook her head in affirmation.

&nb
sp; I opened the door and re-entered the hotel room and gestured for Hank to step outside.

  Once the door was closed again, I let Hank know what I was doing.

  “Bill, I don’t want you going deeper into this all alone. Julie would never forgive me if you got your ass shot off.”

  “She’d never forgive me if I got you shot trying to protect me. That’s happened before, you know. We’re not going through any of that crap again.” This, in reference to the time in North Texas when Hank took a bullet through the lung, and very nearly died. That had been twelve years or more back.

  Hank’s face twisted into momentary wrath, but then I put my hand on his shoulder and his tensed muscles slowly loosened as he breathed out a deep sigh. “Okay, Bill,” he said. “I’ll do as you say. But this is the last time.”

  “That’s fair,” I said. I turned to Loraine. “Okay, get Tanya. We’re leaving.”

  Hank put his hand on the door handle, and I said, “And make sure you implicate the hell out of Abner. I want a bulletin out on him. Armed and dangerous. He’s going up for at least five years for assaulting a peace officer, and God help him if Gray dies. If that happens, it’ll be the death penalty.”

  *****

  The way I had it figured, noting how Gray was lying on the floor when we came in, he must have gotten up to go to the rest room, and when he came out, Abner had nearly bashed his head in with the brushed nickel lamp from the desk. The lamp had been laying near Gray, right where Abner had dropped it. Gray hadn’t been expecting it because he’d had no idea that Abner was a liar and on the completely wrong side.

  These were the things I thought about as I got in my car and headed out of the parking lot. As we turned onto the highway, headed in the opposite direction from town at Tanya’s direction, a series of flashing lights came roaring from town—the police and the Sheriff—while the ambulance pulled up under the breezeway in front of the hotel.

  The sun was finally going down as I moved down the highway away from all the fracas.

  “Okay, Tanya,” I said, “where is this warehouse?”

  *****