A Basket of Trouble (33 page)

didn’t throw this away.”

He pointed to a small dried brown stain on the shirt. “That

looks like blood. And there’s another spot here. If the DNA

matches Kyle Mendoza’s, then we’ve got him fair and square.” He

opened the paper bag and placed the shirt inside.

Claire let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been hold-

ing. “I sure hope so. Charley needs this case to be solved.”

Wilson stapled the paper bag shut and dated and signed it.

He stowed it in his car trunk and returned the crate and tools to Hank’s trunk. After pulling off the latex gloves, he stuffed them in his pocket and wiped his hands against each other. “I think it’s 278

time to take Hank Isley down to the station. See what he has to say for himself after we lay out all the charges against him.”

Wilson and the patrolman walked over to Hank and untied the

ropes. Then the two of them lifted Hank to his feet. While they escorted him to the patrolman’s squad car, Claire and Jessica joined Charley and Tom.

After Charley apologized to Tom for the trick he played on

him, Tom said, “I guess you had a good reason, to suss out Hank

as a spy. Who knew he’d turn out to be a killer, too? I suppose it’s partly my fault, if Hank thought he was doing me a favor by making it look like you had a killer horse on the property.”

They watched while Wilson put a hand on the top of Hank’s

head as he slid awkwardly into the back seat of the police car.

“We still don’t know what motivated him,” Charley said. “He

and Kyle could have had some disagreement, or maybe he was

jealous of Kyle being my top hand. After Kyle died, Hank led most of the trail rides, and I’m sure his tips increased.”

“Whatever.” Tom stuck out a hand. “I hope you’ll accept my

apology, too, for having him spy on you.”

Charley shook it. After the two exchanged a promise to coop-

erate better together in the future, Tom got in his car, too. As the three cars drove off, Jessica, Claire and Charley silently watched them leave.

Charley exhaled. “I’m sure glad we finally caught the guy who

killed Kyle.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jessica said while Claire nodded. “But there

goes another employee.”

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The side of Charley’s mouth twisted up in a sour grin. He put

an arm around each of the two women. “Now, how the hell am I

going to run a stable with only one and a half wranglers?”

———

Hours later, Claire, Charley and Jessica were sitting on the front porch of the office trailer brainstorming about just that over

glasses of homemade lemonade, when a car pulled into the park-

ing lot. The waning rays of the late afternoon sunlight glinted off its windshield, so they couldn’t see who was inside. Vince Donahue got out and walked around to the passenger side. He helped

ease Brittany out of the car, then put an arm around her waist to support her.

She slowly made her way up to the porch, while Vince assisted

her. She finished the walk up from the parking lot with sweat on

her face and a look of pride.

But when they reached the steps, Vince swept Brittany up in

his arms. He mounted the steps, deposited her on a bench next to

Claire, then sat next to Brittany on her other side.

“I can’t believe you’re up and about, Brittany.” Claire gave her

a hug and pulled back to inspect the bruised face of her young

friend. “Especially after such a trauma.”

Jessica offered them both some lemonade from a large glass

pitcher stuffed with lemon slices and chunks of ice. “I’m so glad to see you, Brittany. But not that goose egg on your head. What did

the doctors say about concussion?”

“They didn’t see any signs of bleeding in the CT scan,” Brittany

said, after taking a gulp of lemonade. “But Mom’s going to have to 280

wake me up every couple of hours tonight and check my eyes. It

took two stitches to close the cut, so I might end up with a scar.”

“I’m surprised you’re here instead of home in bed,” Charley

said.

“I will be soon.” Brittany put down her glass and looked at

Vince. “But Vince and I had something important to talk to you

about first.”

Vince leaned forward toward Charley. “Mr. Gardner, I’d like to

apply for a position as wrangler.”

Charley’s eyes widened. “But you work for Tom.”

“I hear you pay better,” Vince said with a nod to Brittany, then

he smiled. “And I like the rest of your staff.”

Charley’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t have the two of you flirting

with each other at work.”

Claire crossed her fingers but kept quiet. This was Charley’s

decision to make. Then she noticed that Jessica’s fingers were

crossed, too.

Brittany held up her hands. “No, sir. We know it’s important to

be professional, especially in front of the tourists. And we’ll both work hard for you. We won’t let our relationship get in the way of that.”

Charley looked from one to the other. “God knows I need the

help. And if Tom has you leading rides, you must be good.” He

held out a hand to Vince. “You’re hired.”

Vince shook it. “I have a friend who’s looking for work, too.

Comes from a family dude ranch in Wyoming, so he’s used to

pampering tourists. I was going to recommend he talk to Tom, but

if you want, I can suggest he interview with you.”

281

“Please do,” Charley said, rubbing his hands together. “I’d love

to talk to him. Okay, let’s go fill out some paperwork. And please tell me both you and your friend are legal.”

They all laughed.

“Congratulations, Charley,” Claire said after the guffaws died

down. “It looks like your problems are getting solved.”

Charley gave her a wry smile. “I’ve still got at least one left.

How the hell am I going to break this news to Tom?”

282

twenty:

a farewell and

a celebration

Early Sunday afternoon Claire sat next to Roger on a pol-

ished wooden pew in the whitewashed adobe Sacred Heart Cath-

olic Church in Old Colorado City. While she and Roger hadn’t

known Kyle Mendoza well, she had gotten to know his mother and

brother from Petey’s hippotherapy sessions. She wanted to attend

his funeral to support the family while they said a final farewell to the young man on whom they had leaned so much.

Charley and Jessica were attending, too, and sitting in the same

pew.

Claire looked at the closed coffin up front, draped with white

lilies and dark green ferns. Another young person whose life had

been taken much too soon. Way too many young people she had

known had died recently, and she almost wished the next death

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would be someone older. Until she remembered her mother tee-

tering on the brink of mental incapacity.

No, not her, not yet, she prayed.

A rustle and murmur passed through the attendees, making

Claire look around for the source. The Mendoza family was walk-

ing down the aisle to take their seats in the front. Ana and her husband Emilio came first, followed by Petey holding the hand of a

young woman. With her long silky black hair and beautiful fea-

tures, she was a female incarnation of handsome Kyle.

Claire realized this must be the missing Sophie, Kyle and

Petey’s sister who had been estranged from the family. Somehow,

she must have been convinced to come from California for the

service. Maybe that’s why there had been such a delay between

Kyle’s death and the service. Crossing her fingers, Claire hoped

this would be the beginning of a reconciliation between Sophie

and her family. Petey needed his big sister.

Throughout the service and in between genuflecting for prayers

and rising for hymns, Claire tried to catch glimpses of Sophie

in front of them, until Roger shot her a puzzled look. Before she stopped peering she had seen Sophie’s hand ruffling Petey’s hair and took that to be a good sign. Another good sign was that she held

his hand again as the family left the chapel first after the end of the service.

In the parish friendship hall afterward, Claire waited her turn

in line to express her condolences. She gave Ana a hug and whis-

pered in her ear, “I see Sophie came.”

“Yes,” Ana replied, her eyes shining with unshed tears of grief

and her mouth upturned in happiness at the same time. “We’ve

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talked, gotten over some old hurts. She tells me she’ll watch over Petey when Emilio and I are gone.”

Claire returned Ana’s smile. “I’m very happy for you, but I’m

also sad that Kyle is gone.”

Ana bit her lip and nodded. “Thank you.”

Claire took that as a cue to move on. After shaking Emilio’s

hand and exchanging some well-wishes, she introduced herself to

Sophie and explained, “I’m Charley’s sister. Kyle worked for Charley, and I help his wife Jessica with her hippotherapy sessions. I’ve gotten to know Petey through them.”

Hearing his name, Petey, who was standing next to his sister,

leaned forward and smiled at Claire. She gave him a little wave,

and he waved back.

“Mom’s told me how helpful the sessions are for Petey,” Sophie

responded. “I’m so glad Mrs. Gardner can offer something like

that in Colorado Springs.”

“Speaking of Colorado Springs, how long will you be here?”

Sophie put an arm around her brother’s shoulders. “As long as

I need to be. I plan to start looking for work in the area Monday.

Hopefully I’ll find a job here and can stay permanently.”

“I’m glad,” Claire said. “I know Ana is very relieved you’ve

come back—to Colorado Springs and the family.”

Roger tapped her shoulder, and she glanced behind her. She

realized she was holding up the line. “Find me later,” Claire said to Sophie. “With my gift basket delivery business, I know a lot of businesspeople in town. Maybe I can help.”

She moved on to give Petey a hug, then waited for Roger to fin-

ish. As they walked over to the punch table, she said, “I’m glad that 285

sibling rivalry problem was solved, though it’s too bad Kyle had to die for Sophie to return to her family.”

Roger handed her a cup of punch and took a sip of his. “Hope-

fully your own sibling rivalry problem is being solved, too.”

Claire peered at him. “I didn’t know you noticed.”

“Charley’s been jealous of his big sister for years. He hasn’t said anything to me outright, but I could tell he felt like he was living in your shadow.”

“One he imagined,” Claire said, turning to look at Charley and

Jessica across the room. “Certainly not one of my own making.”

She sighed. “But yes, hopefully with the two murderers in jail and his staff level back up with the two new hires, his stable will recover. And hopefully he’ll realize then that he’s the one running the most successful business in the family, not his big sister.”

———

As Roger drove into the parking lot of Gardner’s Stables the next evening, Claire had a sense of déjà vu, thinking back on the opening celebration they had attended three weeks before. They were

attending a celebration here again, this time for Charley’s birthday.

Once again she held a gift basket on her lap. So far, though, she had resisted the urge to fidget.

The basket was filled with books about the geology of Colo-

rado Springs and the Garden of the Gods, local rock and mineral

samples, a membership card for the Colorado Springs Mineralogi-

cal Society that she had signed up Charley for, and rock collecting tools. She had even put in some rock candy and chocolate rocks

for fun. She couldn’t wait to see his face when he unwrapped the

cellophane.

286

She remembered her brother’s fascination with rocks when

they were children, though when he was very little, they usually

went in his mouth. Later, he collected those he found with inter-

esting colors and shapes. Still later he learned their names—granite, feldspar, quartz, mica. If Charley hadn’t been fascinated even more by horses, she was sure he would have become a geologist.

After parking the BMW, Roger came around to her side and

collected the basket from her so she could get out of the car. A

whisper of a breeze teased their hair, and puffy white clouds drifted across the sky. Claire was grateful they hadn’t developed into rain clouds, though Charley and Jessica had rented and erected a large dining tent just in case. They headed for the tent, out of which

came a murmur of conversations and tinkling of glasses.

Claire spied a couple of large grills pumping smoke beside the

tent and pulled on Roger’s arm. “I want to say hi to Leon first.”

She spotted the large black man holding a plastic cup of beer

in one hand and a long barbecue fork in another. He wore a tall

white chef ’s hat and a jaunty red-checked apron stretched across his rounded belly. He grinned and posed as someone took his

photo.

Claire couldn’t help laughing as she approached. “I didn’t

know you did the cooking, too, Leon.”

“Claire!” He stepped out from behind the grill and gave her a

big hug. He pulled back and nodded to Roger. “Roger, my man. I’d

shake your hand, but I see they’re full of one of Claire’s creations.”

Roger acknowledged Leon’s greeting, then said, “I see the gift

table, so I’m going to drop this off. I’ll be back.”

While he walked away, Leon handed his fork to a young man

and took off the hat and apron. “I was just posing for some shots 287

we’re going to put in our catering brochure. Hell, I don’t know