Eleven Little Piggies (13 page)

I lost her when I was eleven, and found her again by a lucky accident – I was a cop by then, looking for someone else. Trudy was polite but somewhat puzzled by my delight at finding this down-at-heels woman. Now that she knows her, and especially as she sees how our son thrives under Maxine's care, she agrees we must never lose her again.

Ben was awake, sitting in a high chair gumming a graham cracker. He did his usual bouncing and crowing when he saw me, then sat on my lap and grew very long arms to grab at everything within gorilla reach.

‘How does he do that?' I asked Maxine, as I moved a salt shaker farther away and handed him a spoon.

‘They just have adjustable arms till they learn to talk,' she said. ‘After that they holler for what they want.' Ben, who had been reaching desperately for the spoon until I handed it to him, promptly threw it on the floor and grabbed my ear.

‘I've been thinking about families,' I said.

‘Oh, dear.'

‘What?'

‘Whenever you get anxious about something,' she said, ‘you start obsessing about families. What's going on?'

‘You read the paper lately?'

‘About Owen Kester? I saw the headline, I didn't have time . . . That's a shame, isn't it? Guess he shouldn't have rented out his field, huh?'

‘So you haven't read the later stories. We're pretty sure now it wasn't an accident.'

‘Somebody killed Owen Kester on purpose? Shee, no wonder you're tense.'

‘You know him?' I was surprised. Maxine doesn't get out much.

‘Not personally but that family . . . he married a Kleinschmidt, didn't he? The girl who did so well at barrel racing? And his mother was a Robbins. She and her sisters sit on the boards of charities that fund my kids' benefits.'

I was amazed. If the Kesters had penetrated Maxine's awareness they really had reach. I remembered Frank saying, ‘Wait till you see how many cousins they have.'

‘So,' Maxine said, ‘now you're afraid you might have to arrest a Kester? Hoo. No wonder you're upset.'

‘Why does everybody say that? They're not that rich.'

‘Maybe not really rich . . . but they've been around so long and they're so flaming respectable.'

‘Underneath it all they fight like anybody else, though.' Ben strained longingly toward the spoon on the floor. I picked it up and handed it to him. He waved it triumphantly and threw it down again. ‘What I started to say about families? They take these little mean digs at each other, but you have a feeling they're showing off, in a way, while they ambush each other.'

‘Oh, you bet. Just try agreeing someday. Say, “You're right, he's a wretch”. They'll turn on you like a nest of snakes.'

‘I guess Ben will never have anybody he knows well enough to do that with,' I said. ‘I mean, I don't even know where I got my name. All I have is you, and we don't fight like that, do we?'

‘Praise be. But don't worry. He'll get all the family wrangling he could ever want from Trudy's side.'

I said, surprised, ‘How do you know about that?'

‘She told me, one day just before Ben was born, about the many fathers who followed Mr Hanson into her life. She was wondering how old the baby ought to be before she told him about them.'

‘It wasn't Ella's fault she had so many husbands,' I said. ‘They were all rotten to the core.'

We both laughed, but then I said, ‘I used to think Trudy's mom was a terrible piece of work. But she's a terrific granny to Ben. Nothing's too much trouble.'

‘You see? You're starting to feel defensive about her.'

‘And if I commit to that I won't have time to defend myself! Which I must do because before long this kid will start pointing his adjustable arms at me and saying, “What's up with you? Why don't you look like anybody else?”'

‘No, he won't,' Maxine said. ‘He'll say, “How come we look just alike but you're darker than me?”'

‘Oh, no, no, no. Didn't I tell you? I have a firm contract with my spouse – all offspring, no matter what gender, have got to look like her. Come on, Tonto,' I got up and hoisted him onto my shoulder, ‘we gotta mount up and get home to that beautiful dame you resemble so much.'

I still had hopes. He was born a towhead, and so far his hair hadn't darkened much. There was a little something strange going on around the nose, but what did an eight-month-old nose know about shape? He was going to revise it soon.

‘H
ey, remember those three guns we brought back from the farm? I've got the lab results here,' Ray said Tuesday morning, waving them.

‘And?'

‘Nothing. They're all completely clean and the ammo that was in the cabinet with them is number six birdshot, which doesn't match the hunters' ammo or what Pokey found in the body.'

‘OK,' I said. ‘Could we handle easy answers if we ever got them, I wonder? What about the DNA and pellets from the walk-in cooler?'

‘We just found that stuff yesterday,' Rosie said. ‘Did you expect me to process it on the way back to the station?' Something about this case must be getting to Rosie, I thought. Lately she'd abandoned her customary feistiness and become downright contrary.

‘No, Rosie, I believe we agreed you would put a rush on it. Did you do that? Did they say how soon they could show results?'

‘Not exactly. They said how far behind they are. They said they'd do the best they could.'

‘I'll ask the chief to have a word,' I said. ‘He's very nervous about this case.'

‘What is so special about these farmers?'

‘Frank says they have many cousins and shit will soon rain down on us.'

‘What's new about that? Anyway,' she turned to Ray, ‘you want us doing interviews at the farm today, is that what you said?'

‘Yes. You and Winnie. Start with Doris. Get her to give you the names of everybody who was working there Saturday morning. Not just the ones involved in the accident, Jake got those – but everybody working anywhere on the three properties. Call me when you've got all the names and we'll decide whether you need more help or you and Winnie can do the whole crew.

‘In the meantime, Clint, you go after the driver of the truck that hit the horses. When you finish talking to him will you go across the hall, please, and get the name of the sheriff's deputy who called Doris Saturday morning? Then find him, talk to him and get a timeline from him for everything he saw and heard.

‘And Andy, I want you to go out to that farm and talk to the two men who mended the fence. Get them to show you the place, ask them how they managed without tools – listen to anything else they want to tell you. Keep in touch, folks!' he said as everybody got up and began to assemble gear. ‘Results to me as fast as you get them!'

Something had his ticker turned up high this morning; he was being Ray Bailey, Organizer of Most Persons. As I got up to leave he said, ‘You got a minute, Jake?'

‘Sure,' I said, and then something in his face made me say, ‘in my office?'

He followed me in and closed the door, sat down and got right to it. ‘I ran into Bo Dooley in the grocery store last night. He had Nelly with him and he was picking out potatoes. Looking at them the way he does, you know, like they better all be perfect or he might shoot up the store.'

‘Bo's always been wrapped pretty tight,' I said. ‘But I thought he relaxed a little after his divorce went through.'

‘He did. But now I guess he's got a new problem. He's passed all the tests for the DEA, but their funding's been cut for this area so no jobs are going to open up in the . . . well, maybe never.' Ray looked at me kind of sideways. ‘You think we might ask the chief to hire him back? I sure could use the help right now.'

‘I know you could. We were behind with those two assault cases before this killing happened.'

‘And Bo would hit the ground running. Not like taking on a new guy.'

‘I think it's against all the rules, but . . . tell you the truth I was sorry to see him leave. I've wished several times I'd talked him out of it.'

‘Well, you were afraid it was going to be awkward if he and Rosie moved in together. He saw that and he didn't want to mess up her career so he took that job with victims' services. That's what started the fight with Rosie, remember? After he messed her up in court that day.'

‘I forgot about that,' I laughed. ‘Bo was always going to fit like a sore thumb in a baseball glove at victims' services. But when he heard DEA was going to open an office here, we all thought it would be the perfect job for him.'

‘And it would have been. He'd had years of drug interdiction experience, so he looked like a shoo-in to be the local agent. But now that money's so tight they're closing offices rather than opening new ones.'

‘OK, I'll ask the chief what he thinks. Right after I ask him to speed up the DNA test. Anything else I should bedevil him about on his first day back?'

‘See if he knows any dirt about the Kesters, will you?' He did the ironic wobble with his eyebrows. ‘We still haven't recapped the parents' interview, by the way.'

‘What's to recap? The Bickersons get bad news and react in their time-tested way by disputing every point.'

‘Yeah. Do all marriages end up like that, you think?'

‘God, I hope not. Though lately Trudy does seem to get pretty critical when I fart and scratch my crotch.' We enjoyed that thigh-slapper for about ten seconds, till a phone call summoned all available street cops to a domestic disturbance that turned out to be an all-out family fight so horrendous, we had to pull all the detectives back from the farm to record the details of abuse and neglect. By the time I got to the chief's office I was ready to beg on my knees for more help.

‘I don't know,' McCafferty said. ‘Dooley's resignation is all but final. Though come to think of it we might not have finished the paperwork before we went on vacation . . . hang on a sec.' He walked out to Lulu's desk, they did some muttering and shuffling, and he came back with an impressive sheaf of paper. ‘Well, talk about just in time. Lulu's fit to be tied; a lot of work goes into one of these things.'

‘Sorry about that.'

‘Yeah, well . . . Is this for real, now? He won't change his mind again?'

‘He's a family man with no savings, Frank. I think he'd just about kiss your foot for his job back.'

‘God forbid. Well, he hasn't collected any retirement checks yet so I think I can just blow recall on the whole thing.'

‘Excellent. Can I start him right away?'

‘Just about. Get him in here to talk to me first, though, will you? Bo's a helluva cop but I want to look him in the eye and be sure where his head is at before we put in any more time on his case.'

‘Right away,' I said. I felt like I'd just grabbed the balloon that might loft me back to normalcy. Ray and I had worked most of our Saturdays since September, and were still woefully late closing cases. Bo's a tiger for work, just what we needed. I went out and called him, got no answer. So I called Rosie's cell to ask her if she knew where he was.

She was thrilled. ‘You mean it? He might get his old job back?'

‘It's OK with you?'

‘God, yes. We've been afraid he was going to have to go out of town.'

‘Is that why you've been in such a bad mood lately?'

‘Did it show?'

‘Well, a few tooth marks on my ankle. Nothing serious.'

‘Hey, I'm sorry. But if Trudy was talking about moving to Chicago how cheerful would you be?'

‘Don't even think about it.' I shuddered. ‘Listen, help me get Bo back on staff before anybody thinks of an objection. Where is he?'

‘I'll find him. Trust me – he'll be in there soon.'

‘Good. How's it going out there?' I could hear children wailing.

‘Awful. Worse than the first report said. At one point the two married folks who started the fight took exception to something Ray said, and decided to help each other kill him. It took five of us to pull them off. Ray lost most of the buttons off his shirt.'

‘Wow. Is he all right?'

‘Oh, sure. You know Ray – skip the drama and get on with it. And we're almost done with our part now. The rest is up to social services.'

‘Rotten shame we had to call you off the farm. How far did you get?'

‘Nobody wants to stop and talk; they're all spooked out there. And I never got to talk to Doris. She was in her office next to the kitchen, with the door closed, giving somebody a royal dressing down.'

‘Oh? Who's getting the grief?'

‘That field hand Clint likes so much. Maynard.'

‘What, he ran his mouth once too often?'

‘No, it's something more serious – she's been checking up on his work because she's noticed he's skipping a lot of the chores assigned to him. One of those women on the kitchen crew – the ones I called the sausage ladies before? Well, there's one named Aggie who's a talker like Maynard. She sidled up to me and whispered that it sounds like he's getting fired. Said it's about time – he's a sneak and a liar and he's always trying to stick other people with his jobs, so the other hands all hope he's gone.'

‘Huh. Clint'll be sorry to lose his favorite source of skinny.'

‘Oh, Clint won't have much trouble finding another one. It's a regular rumor mill on that farm right now. Everybody's all stirred up.'

‘I hope we can get you back out there pretty soon so you can collect some of that.'

‘Good plan but it won't be me today. We got at least two abusers here to book. Ray wants me to take one and Andy the other.'

‘OK. My light's blinking.
Find Bo
.' I pushed my call-waiting button.