When I looked up, Santiago stood there by my open window. “Why did you bring the laptop to the hospital?”
I noted the 173,472 miles on the odometer and knew just how it felt. “I thought he might want to know it was being attended to.” He kept watching me, the dark of his eyes deepening. “What, Sancho? ”
“You mentioned that case a couple of times. Are you sure you didn’t just want to see his reaction?”
I shook my head. “You have a sordid and suspicious mind.” I sat there continuing to stare at the odometer and wondered what the mileage really might be, since it hadn’t worked in years. “We couldn’t get past the security software, so I figured I’d just hang on to the case for safekeeping.”
“How about not telling him that Maynard was dead?”
I put on the loose seat belt and ground the starter. “He has his little secrets, and I have mine.”
His turn to nod. “You really want me to stick around and keep an eye on him? ”
The Suburban finally caught and roared. “Yep. Call up Frymire or Double Tough over at the jail and get a replacement for midnight.”
He looked at the sun, which was attempting to escape over the Bighorn Mountains, and I didn’t blame it or him for wanting to put a little distance between them and what appeared to be going on. “What’re you going to do?”
“I’m going to go have dinner with my daughter, her new boyfriend and his sister, and Henry, and then I’m going to sleep at the jail.”
His arms rested on the sill of the Suburban. “You really think Tuyen’s liable to do something?”
I mused for a moment on how quickly the Basquo was developing and how long he was likely to be satisfied with the job of deputy. “I don’t know, but according to you, somebody tried to kill him and you never can tell if they might come back and try to finish the job.”
“So you don’t think Maynard hit him or murdered the girl? ”
I slipped the truck into reverse and waited a full five seconds for it to engage. “At this point in the investigation, I’m not ruling out anyone.”
15
“Daddy.”
It was possible that Tuyen had been attacked, but had he been hit twice or was it a setup?
“Daddy? ”
I had pushed him, but had I pushed him enough? Was I pushing the wrong guy?
“Daddy! ”
I focused on my daughter, who was giving me hard looks as Henry chuckled and the collective Morettis smiled and continued eating the hors d’oeuvres. “Sorry.”
I picked up a stuffed mushroom from the appetizer tray and glanced at Michael for a little backup as he helped himself to another Rocky Mountain oyster. The Philadelphia beat cop came in like a champ with a little mind reading. “So you don’ think this Tuyen is on the level? ”
I chewed the mushroom, not tasting much of anything, and looked around at the interior of the Winchester Restaurant and the replica antique firearms over the fireplace. “I’m not sure how, or how deep he’s involved, but something just doesn’t ring true with the guy.” I looked at Henry, who I’m sure was reading my mind; for him it had been a lifetime avocation. “What do you think? ”
The Cheyenne Nation sighed. “He is spooky; once a spook, always a spook.”
I thought about the old term for spies, nodded, and looked at Vic; I was still trying to get used to her in a white, ribbed tank top and a tight, short skirt. “What do you think? ” She munched on a fried cheese stick and extended a hand, holding the palm down flat, shaking the turquoise bracelets at her wrist as her manicured hand wavered. Then I watched as she took another breaded steer testicle from the center platter and placed it onto Michael’s plate.
I still wasn’t sure if he knew what he was eating.
“One of the things that keeps snagging me is the preciseness of the hanging.” I caught the eye of an elderly woman at the next table, and Cady glared at me, causing me to lower my voice and lean in. “The hanging was textbook—the drop according to height and weight, and there’s only a limited number of people in the common populace who would know how to pull something like that off.”
Vic played with the silver dancestick earrings I had gotten her up on the Crow reservation for her birthday. “Would Tuyen? ”
“It’s possible. Some of the organizations he was cozy with were known to perform these types of executions.”
“Who else would know? ”
I turned my glass of Rainier in the water ring. “I am loath to say it, but Den Dunnigan did a stint as a corrections officer up in Deer Lodge, Montana, back in the old days when they used to hang people. That and we just saw the Dunnigans’ truck pull into the turnoff to Bailey but then continue on.”
Michael dipped the high-plains delicacy in cocktail sauce. “He got any kind of record? ”
“He has a temper, and once came close to beating a guy to death with a shovel.”
Despite her reservations, Cady joined the conversation. “Is that the crazy rancher? ”
“He’s not crazy.”
Henry chimed in. “I am not sure that confusing your mother with the timer on the electric coffeemaker denotes a great deal of mental stability.”
I turned back to Cady. “Not James, his brother Den.”
My daughter leaned in even more. “He thinks his mother is a coffeepot?”
I looked at all of them. “It’s complicated....”
The waitress interrupted. “Are you folks all right?”
Michael looked up at her, still munching on the Rocky Mountain oysters. “These are great; can we get another round? ”
I thought about the girl, the missing one. Who was she? More important, where was she? The only thing I could think we might do is knock on doors from ranch to ranch and see if anybody had seen her. It was a long shot but all I could come up with in the rough and expansive country of the Hole in the Wall.
“What about the second girl?” The Bear was mind reading again, and I wasn’t sure if I was happy that he had just made my internal monologue the topic of conversation for the group.
“What second girl?” I hadn’t had a chance to fill Vic in.
“The manager of the Flying J down in Casper said there were two girls in the car and that both had long dark hair, but I asked Maynard and the Dunnigans, and they all said Ho Thi was traveling alone.” I nodded at Henry. “James said that he was having . . . I don’t know. What would you call them? ”
He smiled. “Visions.”
“Anyway, we went out to the ghost town and took a look around but couldn’t find anything.”
Michael took the last Rocky Mountain oyster. He hadn’t noticed that he was the only one eating them. “Ghost town?”
“There’s an old settlement to the west of Powder Junction, a mining town that dried up.”
Michael stopped chewing and looked at Vic. “You have to take me there.”
I looked at them. “There are snakes.”
Vic blew a breath between her lipsticked lips. “Fuck that.”
Cady smiled and reached a hand out for Michael, who took it. They both turned back to look at me. Cady seemed concerned. “What kind of visions?”
The elderly couple at the next table were leaning in, too, so I lowered my voice. “He said he saw the girl who had been murdered out there in Bailey.”
“You mean when they found the body?” Cady’s voice was a little too loud, so I gave her a look back.
“After that. James said he was driving home one night— this was after finding Ho Thi’s body—and there she was standing on the side of the road.”
Cady’s voice was just as loud as before. “What’d he do?”
I shrugged. “He said he stopped his truck, but by the time he got out, she was gone.”