Death on Heels (19 page)

“Maybe.” Lacey sat down at the table and Tucker set the heel down in front of her. She fished out her camera and started taking photos of the heel from every angle. She even took off one of her boots to compare it with the silver and black heel, and snapped some more pictures, using her own boot for scale.

“I’m going to see about the stew.”

“Think about it, Cole. This cabin is out in the wild. Far from the road. The owner’s been dead for a couple years and teenagers are using it for a party palace, if what you say is true. Rae Fowler was a teenager when she disappeared. A girl like Rae could have been brought here against her will.” Lacey glared at him. “Like you brought me.”

Tucker dropped his head. “Chantilly Lace, I’m real sorry about today at the courthouse. But what can a man do when he’s trapped? I’m a cowboy, not a killer. I saw daylight and I cowboyed it, without considering your feelings. I regret it, but there’s no one I’d rather have along for the ride.”

She ignored his remorse. “All the victims were found barefoot. Someone took their shoes. Or their cowboy boots. And we’ve got a bootheel.”

Tucker retrieved the pan of hot stew from the stove and set it down in the middle of the table. He tossed Lacey a fork. “We’ll share. And we’ll save the last two bagels for the morning. Good by you?”

“Good by me.” She poised the fork in the air, sniffed the stew and decided it was edible. She took a bite. Beef, not mammoth. It was remarkably tasty, but then she was remarkably hungry. “Do you think one of them was killed here?”

“Damned if I know. I never thought about it until you started waving that silver heel around. But this cabin is kind of a high traffic place, for being so out of the way. What with kids coming up here and all. Please, eat up while it’s hot.”

“Why aren’t they here tonight, then?” Lacey was in a mood to argue.

“Monday’s a school night. I figure the partiers come on the weekends. If they see it’s already occupied, they’ll move on to some other lover’s lane. And they won’t alert the sheriff either.”

“So you don’t think those women were killed here.”

“Beats me. If that heel belongs to one of them, it sure changes things. But there are other places, old cow camps, line camps, that would be a better place to hide what you’re doing.”

“Line camp? Explain, please.”

“Cowboys used to bunk overnight at line camps when they were running cows on the trail, herding them out to different pastures for grazing. Most haven’t been used in years. Not since we started using trucks and Jeeps and ATVs to get to the herd. Hardly anybody overnights it out on the range anymore. Sheepherders maybe. But a couple of old camps have been kept up. Some are not too far from here, but nestled by the rocks and hard to spot unless you know where they are. If you’re right, Chantilly Lace, there are a few places around here those girls could have been taken.”

During her reporting days in Sagebrush, Lacey had seen plenty of abandoned cabins out in the county. There was even one that she remembered the cops and sheriff’s department used for training. The walls were so riddled with bullet holes it looked like a feast for giant termites. It made the shot-up highway signs look like the work of amateurs.

Dear God, if they come here, I hope they don’t shoot first and ask questions later.

“And there are other places that are even more remote,” Tucker said.

“And you know about them because—?” Lacey asked.

“I run a ranch, remember? Takes a lot of landscape to feed a single head of cattle in the West. We graze our herds all across this county, on our own land, on land that we have cooperative grazing deals with, on state land, on BLM land. I’ve seen a lot of this county from horseback, from truck windshields, from the air. Not many corners of it I haven’t set foot on.”

“And the Averys would know these places too, because they’re in real estate dealings?”

“Virgil would. He gets around. Homer, the other one, he sticks closer to the office.”

“You said Mitch Stanford’s been haunting the county clerk and recorder’s office in search of mineral leases?”

“Him and a bunch of other people. Anybody in the energy business up here would have come across places like this. Hunters too.”

“But why wouldn’t a killer just use his own place, where he’s less likely to be caught?”

“Why foul your own nest with something as ugly and messy as murder?” Tucker said. “Maybe the killer figures it’s better to have no direct ties to a killing place.” He took a thoughtful bite of stew. “Whew, you fashion reporters sure can make a fella glimpse the dark side of human nature.”

A new sound shattered the quiet of the cabin. This time it wasn’t an animal. Lacey jumped and Tucker put a finger across his lips to silence her.

“It’s a car,” she whispered.

“No, it’s a snowmobile.” The noise came closer to the cabin. “Shhh.”

Was it Vic? Or the sheriff? Or someone more dangerous? Lacey didn’t know if help or danger was near, but her heart beat wildly. She was anxious to leave the cold little cabin and her fear behind. She pushed the chair back and stood.

“Careful, Chantilly. Might be some trigger-happy fool,” Tucker said, echoing her thoughts. “Might not care if he hit a hostage. Not that you’re a hostage, you’re more like a dinner date, but, well, you know. They don’t know that.”

Lacey retreated into the shadows. She wasn’t interested in being collateral damage. Tucker darted in front of her, gamely putting himself in front of any stray bullet. Someone cut the engine of the snowmobile. There were footsteps outside the cabin, then a whistle, like a birdcall. The call was repeated twice.

The tension left Tucker’s shoulders. He whistled back and went to the door. He opened it slowly and peeked out. Lacey held her breath.

“It’s Kit,” he said over his shoulder.

“Your brother? But how—”

Tucker opened the door. “Hey, Kit! Come on in.”

Kit stomped the snow and mud off his boots on the stoop outside before entering. Instead of his usual cowboy hat, he wore a fleece stocking cap. He pulled it off,
leaving his hair sticking up around his head. He gave Lacey one dark look, then focused on his brother.

“What in purple hell do you think you’re doing, Cole?”

“How did you know I’d be here?” Tucker asked.

“Wild guess. After you borrowed my pickup and left it out on the range and took the horses? Wasn’t hard to figure where you were heading.” Kit walloped Tucker in the arm, and Tucker smacked him back in a show of brotherly bonding. “And you had to bring her?” He pointed to Lacey. “Aren’t you in enough trouble without grabbing your old girlfriend? Unless it was her idea.”

“My idea?” Lacey inhaled sharply. “Are you crazy?”

“If I am, I’m not the only one,” Kit snapped back. “I’d reckon there are three crazy people here.”

“Give her a break, Kit. It’s not Lacey’s fault. It might not have been too smart of me, but done is done. Won’t be the first stupid thing I’ve done, or the last. Now, you hear anything in town?”

“I had the pleasure of a chat with Sheriff T-Rex. Luckily, it was after I found my pickup. He seems to think you’re still in Petrus’s old Jeep that you stole.”

“Borrowed. He doesn’t think you helped me, does he?”

“Couldn’t rightly tell,” Kit said. “But I can tell you this. Our tyrannosaurus sheriff is in a rattlesnake-spitting rage.”

“He’ll get over it. Anything else?”

“T-Rex didn’t believe a word I said.” Kit stomped his feet to knock more snow off his boots. “Cole, what are you doing out here with her? Aren’t things bad enough?”

“We’re just talking over old times.” Tucker took a seat. “Lacey came all the way from D.C. to see me.”

“To write some trash about you. She’s with Vic Donovan now, she tell you that? He’s looking for her and the sheriff’s looking for both of you, and the state patrol and the CBI and the posse and the whole damn county. I’d say you’re in worse trouble today than you were yesterday, and that’s going some. Why don’t you let me take her with me? Get her off your back, so you can travel lighter.”

Lacey stood up. She was ready, even if she had to go with Kit, who still seemed to be holding a grudge against her.
Why, because I didn’t marry his brother? Or because his brother ever wanted to marry me?

“Can’t do it, Kit. You have to go back alone,” Tucker said. “If you take Lacey, you’re going to look like my accomplice and they’ll throw you in jail too. And you can’t tell Belle Starr where you found us. I don’t want her to get some wild hare and come out here looking to help me. You two have a ranch to run.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you skipped out of the courthouse. I know you couldn’t kill those women, Cole. But running away makes you look pretty damn guilty after all.”

“I wasn’t going to get bail. I was going to sit in jail for months while they dragged their heels on a trial. The trial would take weeks and weeks and then they were going to railroad me into prison on the first train to Supermax. I’d never see daylight again. So I reshuffled the deck a little, gave myself a fresh hand, see if the cards might get a little better. Luck of the draw, little brother. Do they have any idea where we are?”

“They think you’ve gone to Brown’s Park, far as I can tell.”

Tucker laughed. “That’s where outlaws go, ain’t it?”

“What did you say?” Lacey asked.

“I agreed.” Kit grinned and ran his hands through his hair to smooth it down. “Said maybe it was Brown’s Park. Good place to hide out, just ask Butch and Sundance. I added that you have friends way out in the backcountry in Utah, Wyoming too, and I mentioned he’d never find you if you made it down into the Canyonlands area. It’s all true. I didn’t tell T-Rex any lies. I just opened his mind a little. Hopefully in the wrong direction.”

“Good thinking,” Tucker said.

Kit turned his back to warm his hands by the fire. He put his gloves on the stove top, along with the hat. He loosened his jacket. “T-Rex and his deputies alerted the other ranchers, asked for their help. It’s posse time.”

“Posse time?” Lacey asked.

“Everyone has horses, trucks, and guns,” Tucker said. “Sheriff can call up the whole county in an emergency. Ranchers know their own land like nobody else, and everybody likes to help round up bad guys.”

“Yeah, but they’re all friends of ours.” Kit finally smiled. It lit up his whole face and he looked like a younger Cole. “Old Truman told me he swore to old T-Rex he’d do anything he could to help catch you.”

“Oh, Lord,” Lacey said.

“Relax, Lacey. He was laughing when he said it. Everybody here knows Cole’s no killer. The ranchers in Yampa County have known Cole and me and the rest of us all our lives. “

“We can’t say the same for the feds,” Tucker said. “Fish and Wildlife, BLM.”

“What on earth does the Bureau of Land Management have to do with a county fugitive?” Lacey slumped in her chair.

“T-Rex and the CBI probably alerted the various agencies. God knows there’s a slew of them,” Cole explained. “They know the lay of their own land, the county roads, back roads, horse trails, ATV trails.”

“But they’re not authorized to hunt for you. They’re not cops.”

“They have their own law enforcement people. They work together when they feel like it. The agencies, they’re sort of another unofficial posse. They’ll be on the lookout for me. And they’ve got no love for cowboys.”

“You have any idea how to get out of this ridiculous fix?” Kit asked.

“No, but Lacey might. We’re discussing it. She’s had some experience.”

“Lacey?” Kit turned his gaze on her, clearly unimpressed. She didn’t rise to the bait. “Whatever. You two better work fast.”

“I’m going to send her back soon as I can. Maybe tomorrow,” Tucker said. Lacey looked at him and cocked her head.

Kit pressed his lips together and nodded. “I’ve got to
get back tonight before I get another visit from T-Rex. Don’t want him wondering where I’ve been.”

“Okay, then,” Tucker said. “You didn’t bring a hamburger with you, did you?”

“No. But I have something else you might be able to use.” Kit reached inside his jacket and pulled out a white envelope. “Five hundred. All I had in the kitty. I can get you more later, but I don’t want to use the bank in town. T-Rex’ll hear about it.”

Aiding and abetting. What are brothers for?

Cole Tucker took the envelope and stuffed it in his jeans. “Thanks, Kit. I won’t forget it.”

“It’s on your tab, Cole.” Kit punched his big brother’s shoulder again. He picked up his warmed hat and gloves and jingled his keys out of his pocket. He and Tucker shared an embrace, and a few private words Lacey couldn’t hear. Then Kit was out the door, into the starry night.

After Tucker bolted the door against the cold, he and Lacey returned to the stew. They finished it in silence. It was probably wrong, but Lacey was glad that Tucker had a little money in his pockets. She was probably guilty of mentally aiding and abetting. It might be enough to give him a shot at escaping, perhaps enough to hide out in the backcountry until things cooled off. But not enough to even start getting at the truth.

Lacey was thinking about how distant from civilization she was. She also considered the dead women and how they died in such a far and lonely place. Perhaps like this one. She put down her fork and got up to stretch her legs.

“Cole, help me think this through. Rae and Ally and Corazon were found barefoot on country roads. Do you know what roads they were on? Was it the same road?”

“No, not the same road. Not that I recall.”

Lacey picked up her bag. “Can you draw me a map? Give me an idea where they were found in relation to each other? And to these places you’re thinking about?”

“You got some more paper?”

“I’m a reporter. They’d take my press pass away if I didn’t have paper and a pen.”

“What good is all this talk going to do, if I get caught?” Tucker lifted his head and looked at her.

“For one thing, when the cops don’t believe you, you could hire a private investigator. Like Vic.”

“Your new boyfriend.”

“He’s good at what he does. PIs have tools, expertise, and they have something the police often don’t have.”