Aaron Elkins - Skull Duggery

The fresh turrones lay untouched and cooling on the table throughout. Once it had all sunk in, Tony was the first to speak. “Let me get this straight. You’re saying she never ran away with that guy? You’re saying she was murdered? There’s no doubt about that?”

“None. Her face-” He had almost forgotten for a moment that he was talking to Blaze’s two brothers and-especially-to her daughter. “None,” he said.

“How was she killed?” Annie asked dully.

“Blunt-force trauma.” Gideon hoped she’d let it go at that and was relieved when she merely nodded and looked down at her hands. He wouldn’t have looked forward to telling her that her young mother’s beautiful face had been pulped with something along the lines of a baseball bat.

“So he actually killed her,” an incredulous Jamie said. “Manolo?”

“Who the hell else?” Tony said bitterly. “The sonofabitch. Robbing the frigging payroll and taking her away from Carl wasn’t enough payback for him.” He shook his head slowly back and forth. “And all this time we thought…”

“No,” Annie said dully, “Manolo wouldn’t have killed her. Why would Manolo have killed her?”

“Hey, honey,” Tony said kindly, “maybe this is something it’s not so good for you to be talking about right now. This is kind of a shock to everybody, you most of all. You sure you don’t want to go unpack or something, get your head clear? We can talk about it later.”

“Forget it,” she said stonily. “I’m staying. So why would Manolo have wanted to kill my mother?”

Jamie answered diffidently. “Well, so he could have that sixteen thousand dollars all to himself; he could have lived on that for five years. Or maybe it was just to get back at your father, I don’t know. But my point is, once he had the money, why would he want to take her with him? You can’t seriously think he was in love with her?”

Julie shook her head. “But even so, as Annie said, why would he want to kill her? He could just as easily have taken off with the money without murdering anyone.”

“Could be he just didn’t want to leave any loose ends behind,” Tony suggested. “She must have known about his plans, about where he was going. She could have put the police on his tail.”

“So he could have changed his plans and gone someplace else, anywhere he wanted,” Julie persisted. “Sixteen thousand dollars-he must have felt like a rich man. So why go out of his way to kill her? Why would he risk a murder charge hanging over his head, instead of a simple robbery? Besides, if he was worried about the police hunting him down, he’d have killed you too, Jamie. Right then and there, on the road, it would have been the easiest thing in the world. You were the only eyewitness, the only one who could identify him for sure as the person who robbed you.”

Jamie’s eyes widened slightly and his Adam’s apple jigged up and down. “Yes, you’re right,” he said in a hushed voice. “That’s certainly true.”

“What do you think, Gid?” Tony asked. “You know more about this kind of stuff than any of the rest of us. You got an opinion?”

“I don’t see that knowing something about bones gives my opinion any more weight than anyone else’s, but on the face of it, Manolo would probably be at the top of my list.”

“What about you, Tony?” Jamie asked. “What’s your theory?”

“I don’t have a theory. How could I? I wasn’t around until a couple of days later and I hardly know anything about Blaze other than what I’ve heard here. The last time I saw her she was, like, fourteen. But don’t worry, the police will come up with plenty of theories.”

“The police,” Jamie groaned, rolling his eyes. “God help us, do you mean to tell me the police have to be involved in this? After all these years?”

“I don’t see any choice,” Gideon said. “I have to tell Colonel Marmolejo about it, and he’ll certainly put somebody on it. I’m seeing him later today, so it won’t be long.”

Jamie frowned. “Damn. That’s terrible.”

Annie flared angrily up. “Terrible? What the hell is the matter with you, Jamie? Don’t you want to see whoever did it caught? Don’t you want to see him punished?”

Jamie was shocked. “Well yes, of course I do, Annie, how can you even ask that? I just hate to see this terrible old business dragged out in public again after all this time. Besides, I’m afraid… you know.”

“No, I don’t know. Tell me. Afraid of what?”

“Well…” he fidgeted in his chair. “The police are going to ask a whole lot of questions, and the first one is going to be: who had any reason to want her dead? Am I right, Gideon?”

“Maybe not the first, but it won’t be very far down the line.”

“All right, then,” Jamie said, addressing all of them, “and who is the person that had the most reason to hate Blaze, to be out-of-his mind enraged at her?”

Brows were knit in thought for a fraction of a second, and then Tony abruptly exploded. “For Christ’s sake, are you honestly suggesting that Carl… that Carl murdered his own wife? I don’t believe this!” He was halfway out of his chair. His blotchy red face, thrust out at his brother, had blotched and purpled even more; his nose was flaming.

Predictably, Jamie quailed. His hands came up as if to ward off the assault. “No, Tony, come on, give me a break, I’m not accusing Carl of anything. Of course not! Why is everyone picking on me? I’m just saying what the police are bound to think. I’m just saying we have to be very careful what we say to them, that’s all.”

“Oh.” Tony sat back down. His color subsided. “Sorry, Jaime, I didn’t mean to fly off the handle. You’re right, we better give this some thought.”

“Look, folks,” Gideon said, “this is your affair and I don’t want to interfere, but I’ve been involved with a lot of police investigations, and my advice is not to try to protect Carl or anyone else; in fact, not to ‘try’ to do anything. Just answer their questions as truthfully as you can. Otherwise, you’ll wind up making trouble for yourselves and for Carl.”

“Yeah, but you’re talking about American police,” said Tony. “Down here it doesn’t work the same, trust me.”

“Well, I know you know more about that than I do-”

“Do I ever,” Tony said with a harsh laugh.

“-but if Colonel Marmolejo is involved in it, I think you can count on decent treatment. And don’t try conning the guy-trust me on that.”

Tony smiled, keeping his thoughts to himself.

“Speaking of Carl…” Julie said, gesturing with her chin toward the corral gate, through which Carl was leading the straggling line of ladies back from their short ride.

“Whew,” Jamie said. “Who’s going to tell him about this?”

“I’ll do it,” Tony said, grim-faced, beginning to push himself up.

“Uh-uh,” Annie said, putting a hand on his arm to keep him in his chair. “I will.”

They watched her go down the stone steps to the corral, watched her go up to Carl as he dismounted, and saw Carl’s tanned, lined face go through a parade of expressions that would have been comic under other circumstances: pleasure at seeing his daughter-she’d been away three days-followed by frowning concentration, then disbelief, then denial, then anger, and then something like despair, all in the space of ten seconds, all without having let go of the reins. Then he closed his eyes and turned away from his daughter, leaning his face against his horse’s neck. Annie, looking stricken, began to stretch a hand toward him, but pulled it back.

“I think I better go down there too,” Tony said.

Jamie grabbed his cane and got up with him. “Me too. The poor guy, can you imagine?”