Michael McGarrity - Hermit_s Peak

"What name did he give you?"

Beasly flipped a page back on his desk calendar and ran his finger down a list of names.

"Salazar. Ben Salazar."

"How many tenants are in the building?"

"Just one. It's a duplex converted from a two-story home. A young woman has the upstairs unit. She goes to the university part-time."

"Her name?"

"Jessica Varela."

The name didn't ring any bells for Gabe, nor did it match with any of the people Chief Kerney had interviewed.

"Was she at home when you showed the apartment?"

"I don't mink so."

"What did Barela do while he was inside?"

"Is that his real name? The usual. He opened doors, looked at the backyard, checked the appliances. I gave him my standard pitch about the place. Told him it would probably rent fast and if he didn't grab it, he'd lose it."

"Was he interested?"

"I thought so, at fast. He wanted to know if I was showing it to anyone else anytime soon. I told him a young couple would be looking at it this evening. He even asked me what time I was showing it."

"When are you showing it?"

"Six-thirty" "Thanks."

Beasly walked to the office door with the lieutenant.

As the officer got to his car, another police vehicle drove up and a man in civilian domes got out. The uniformed cop froze at the side of his squad car. The guy in civvies limped to the lieutenant and started talking. The lieutenant waved a finger in the man's face and poked him hard in the chest, his face red with anger.

For a minute, Beasly thought the men were going to start fighting. But when the cop in dwies pushed the finger away from his chest and said something, the lieutenant backed down.

Beasly watched the two men get into the lieutenant's vehicle and leave, wondering what the fuck that was all about.

In front of the hardware store, Gabe killed the engine and set the brake. Kerney could have pulled his shield and weapon for any number of reasons, including insubordination and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Poking the chief in the chest and calling him a stupid son of a bitch outside of Beasly's office had been a dumb thing to do.

Gabe turned and looked Kerney in the eye.

"Sorry, Chief. I was way out of line. I've been acting half-crazy."

Kerney studied the mounted antelope in the store window, a centerpiece display for the chain saws arranged on tree stumps and wood logs at the animal's feet.

"You have cause," Kerney said.

"No apology necessary.

Let it slide."

"Did you jump on Thorpe for lying about how he lost Bernardo?"

"I read him out royally. He stays on the job."

"He's a good kid." Gabe shook his head.

"Jesus, cops.

We're a crazy bunch, aren't we?"

"Sometimes we are."

Inside the store, rows of caps and hats were hung on lines that ran above the center aisle, and cattle brands burned into wood boards were nailed to the walls above the shelves.

"Yeah, Bernardo was in this morning checking on something at the order desk," the manager said.

In his early thirties, the man looked impatient and not at all happy to have cops in the store distracting his customers.

"Who did he speak to?" Gabe asked.

"Jessica talked to him."

Gabe glanced at the young woman standing behind the center aisle order counter. She was blonde and very Anglo looking.

"Where is Jessica now?"

"That's her at the desk."

"Is her last name Varela?"

"You got it."

"Can you relieve her for a few minutes and give us a place where we can talk?" Kerney asked.

"Sure. Use the break room in the back. I'll have Jessica meet you there."

Just off the receiving dock, the break room doubled as a storage room for excess inventory. Jessica Varela entered and pushed some strands of hair away from her face.

"What's this all about?" Her voice carried a childlike quality.

"You spoke to Bernardo Barela this morning," Kerney said.

"I don't know why he came in." Jessica kept her head slightly lowered and gave Kerney a sidelong, timid look.

"He knew the fence post driver he'd ordered wouldn't get here for another ten days. I told him that earlier in the week."

"Did he talk to you about anything else?" Kerney asked.

"He always tries to talk to me. I don't mind it if I'm not busy."

"What did he talk about?" Gabe asked.

"This morning?"

"Yes."

"Silly stuff. He wanted to know if I liked to study and do homework with other students in my classes."

"He knows you go to the university?" Kerney asked.

"Sure."

"What else does he know about you?" Gabe asked.

"That I'm divorced and that I moved up here from Albuquerque. How old I am. That's about it."

"Has he tried to date you?" Kerney asked.

Jessica shook her head and her long hair covered one eye.

"I think he'd like to, but he hasn't asked. I'd turn him down anyway.

He's too young and I'm not interested in dating. After what I've been through, men aren't very popular with me right now."

"What, exactly, did you tell him about your study habits?"

"Just that I like to study alone, and with my job and school and all I don't have a lot of time to socialize and stuff."

"Did you mention there was an apartment for rent in your building?"

Gabe asked.

"Why would I do that?"

"He didn't ask?"

"Why should he? He doesn't know where I live."

"Have you ever seen Bernardo away from the store?"

Kerney asked.

"No, just here. Did Bernardo do something wrong?"

"What time do you get off work?" Gabe said.

"Today? At five. Then I go straight to the library and study before my classes."

"What time do you get home from classes?" Kerney asked.

"Nine-thirty. You're scaring me with these questions.

What's going on?"

"We think Bernardo is a stalker," Kerney said.

"And he's stalking me?" Jessica's voice quivered.

"Possibly" "What should I do?"

"Keep to your normal routine," Gabe said.

"We'll be watching Bernardo."

"What about me? Who'll be protecting me?"

"There will be a plainclothes officer following you when you leave work," Kerney said.

"You'll be under constant observation."

"For how long?"

"Until the situation is resolved. I'd like to take a look inside your apartment."

"What for?"

"To make sure Bernardo hasn't been there."

"Do you think he may have?"

"It's possible. I'll need your key."

"I have a spare." Jessica reached for her purse, extracted a key chain, and gave Kerney a house key with a shaky hand.

"I never should have moved here," she said.

"I hate this town."

Kerney sent Gabe off on a door-to-door canvas of one part of Jessica's neighborhood while he covered the other. He worked the street behind Jessica's apartment, half expecting to find Gabe gone when he returned.

The last place he stopped was a one-story adobe with a deep portal and territorial moldings around the windows. An old hacienda that had somehow survived the neighborhood's late-nineteenth-century conversion to Victorian architecture, it had been transformed into apartments with a series of doors that opened on to the portal.

At the last apartment, a young man, no more than five four, answered Kerney's knock. Kerney showed him Bernardo's picture.

"I saw him sitting in a pickup truck," the young man said, pointing to a spot across the street.

"When was that?"

"On my way to my one o'clock."

"He was just sitting in the truck?"

"That's all I saw."

"How long was he there?"

"I don't know."

Gabe was waiting on the sidewalk in front of Jessica's apartment when Kerney turned the corner.

"Did you get anything?" Gabe asked as Kerney approached.

"Bernardo was parked a block over at about one o'clock. Did you?"