Shallow Grave-J Collins 3 (32 page)

Like I needed another confrontation in my life today.

He rolled down the window. Mine was already down since I was enjoying yet another fi ne tobacco product from the RJ Reynolds company.

“What’re you doin’ out here, Julie?”

Reese looked enough like Owen they could’ve been twins. Instead of a snappy suit, Reese wore denim over-alls and a battered straw cowboy hat. Not a good look, 367

especially not for a cowboy; a gay Indian cowboy.

“I was in the neighborhood.”

“Slummin’, are you?” His eyes were masked behind dark sunglasses. “If you’re thinkin’ about headin’ to the house to harass my mother, think again.”

“No. Actually, I was hoping to talk to you.”

“What for?”

“To fi nd out what you, Ben, and your dad fought about before Ben went to work for the Sihasapa Tribal Council.”

“Why you think you’ve got the right to be askin’

questions? You ain’t our family.”

“Ben was my family, so I do have a right to know what shitty things your family did to him before he was killed.”

“Wrong. Go on. We don’t want you here. We never have.”

My mean girl surfaced. “How is it you defend them?

I know how your precious family treats you, Reese. Ben told me.”

“Shut up.”

“Leticia and Owen make fun of you. Snicker behind your back. Made rude comments to your face. Does your father join in? What does your mother do? Defend you, like she did when they treated Ben the same way?”

Reese didn’t rise to the bait.

I’d try a diff erent tack. “Why did Leticia fi re Leon 368

Bird? I thought you were in charge of running the ranch?”

“Not as long as she’s payin’ the bills.”

“Come on Reese, that’s crap. Th

ere’s more to it.”

Reese adjusted his hat. “You know what, I’m sick of actin’ like this is some big fuckin’ secret. It’s not. Before Ben ran off to Arizona my dad told him he’d better pick another career because he’d give this ranch back to the government before he’d ever let Ben own it. Th en he told

Ben he oughta talk to Doug Collins, maybe he’d let Ben sponge off a him for the next thirty-fi ve years because he was sick of Ben sponging off him. No wonder Ben took off . Sometimes I wish I coulda gone with him.”

My heart lurched. Poor Ben. Neither Verlin nor my dad wanted him. No wonder he’d connected with Marlon Blue Legs.

Reese said, “I didn’t agree with how Dad handled it. I don’t agree with most things that go on around here. Here’s something I guarantee you
don’t
know: Th e

ranch has been teetering on the edge of foreclosure for years. Leticia supports it, she supports us, which means she runs the show.”

No bitterness. Just fact. “What about Owen?”

“Owen’s about one step up from me on the totem pole. He knows how to toe the line just like the rest of us do.”

“Reese, I’m sorry.”

369

“Now you know all our dirty laundry. Now you got no reason to cause no more problems. Leave this be. Leave Ben’s memory be. Diggin’ ’round ain’t gonna help nobody.”

“Digging around is gonna help me,” I said to the dented tailgate of his pickup. His tires spewed gravel as he shot across the faded blacktop road and through the open gate.

M M M

Maybe it was masochistic, but instead of going home, I switched direction toward my dad’s place. Th e dusty

backroads, which boasted my beloved familiar vista of hills and plains and buttes, didn’t calm me.

At the ranch, I pulled up next to the machine shed and jumped out.

Trish hustled down the porch steps, a checkered dishtowel dangling from her soapy right hand. “Julie?

What’s wrong?”

“I want to talk to him. Now.”

“Come on in, he’s in the kitchen helping Brittney with her homework.”

“No. Send him out.”

She didn’t argue and disappeared back inside the house.

Several minutes later, my dad moseyed onto the porch. He leaned his shoulder against the wooden 370

support post and studied me from beneath the brim of his John Deere ball cap. “What’s the special occasion?”

“It’s National Ass Chewing Day. And I want to know where you get off telling Abita some goddamn bald-faced lie that I would
eve
r sue for visitation rights for Jericho.”

He snorted. “Actin’ pretty self-righteous, ain’t you?

Like you hadn’t considered the possibility.”

“I hadn’t.”

“Right. Like you ain’t been obsessed with everything surrounding Ben for the last few years?”

My immediate denial stuck on the tip of my tongue.

“I just thought that young gal oughta be aware of what lengths you’ll go to keep a fl esh and blood link to your treasured half-brother.”

Ignore the sarcasm, he’s trying to lure you another direction.
“How did you fi nd her?”

“You ain’t the only one with investigative skills, girlie.”

“Oh, do tell. Maybe I can pick up some tips from you.”

Dad fl ashed his typical cruel smile. “Her car with Arizona plates was parked at your house. After I left your place, I noticed that car had stopped at the convenience mart.”

I stomped up the walkway. “So you just gave her the what-for right there in the parking lot? In front of Jericho and Brittney?”

371

“Yeah. I fi gured you wouldn’t do nothin’ ’bout tellin’ her I wanted to talk to her, so I took the opportunity that was off ered.”

“An opportunity to see if Ben had talked to her after he returned here?” My gaze swept his weathered, non-committal face for a hint of emotion. “Why would you care? It wasn’t like you kept in contact with Ben.”

Immediately his body rivaled the porch post for rigidity.

And I realized the Standing Elk family wasn’t the only one keeping secrets. Fuck. My hatred for him expanded. “You mean, smug bastard. Something happened between you and Ben, didn’t it? Reese told me Verlin Standing Elk had informed Ben he couldn’t inherit, or even work on their ranch in the months before he was murdered. Did Ben take Verlin’s advice and come to you?”

Th

e wait for his answer was excruciating.

“Yes, Ben came here, demandin’ I fi nally acknowledge his birthright,” he sneered. “I don’t know what he expected. Me to welcome him with open arms after forty years? When the injuns don’t want him no more he shows up actin’ like he’s entitled to somethin’? Ticks me off his mother didn’t do like she’d promised and kept my name off the birth record. No one was ever s’posed to know about my mistake.”

372

Oh, Jesus. Dad hadn’t actually called Ben a mistake to his face, had he?

“I’d put that incident behind me, hid my shame, moved on with my life, and then lo and behold, Ben showed up like a bad Indianhead penny. Your mother didn’t know nothin’ about him, you decided he was the end-all and wouldn’t just let him fade back into the background where he belonged. And suddenly my shame had a name and a face. And everyone knew.”

He scrubbed his knuckles along his stubbled jaw. “I lived with the embarrassment all those years, not that you cared. Does it make me a bastard ’cause I didn’t have no magical attachment to him because I poked his mother one night when I was drunk? Or did it just make
him
stupid to believe I’d ever treat him like a son, when for his whole life I’d made it clear I din’t want nothin’ to do with him?”

I stared at him, dumbfounded.

“After harassin’ me for a couple of weeks, when he fi gured out I wasn’t gonna give him squat,
ever
, he said when I kicked the bucket he’d sue for his share of the ranch.”

“You’re lying.” Th

at did not sound like my gentle,

laid back brother.

“No, I’m not. I’m sure since you’ve put him on a pedestal you think he was above such behavior. He ain’t.

373

No one is. Come right down to it, I was happy to see the ass end of him. I told him the next time he set foot on my property, I’d have him arrested for trespassin’.”

My vision wavered from the blood pulsing behind my eyeballs.

Doug Collins eased away from the post. From his perch on the porch he looked down his nose at me. “I told that girl to forget any designs she might have on that boy inheritin’ anything from me. She’d be better off to take the kid and go back to the desert where she belonged.” He cocked his head. “I’ll bet she’s hit you up for money, huh?”

Although Abita hadn’t asked me for a dime, I said sweetly, “It’s
my
money, Dad. I can do whatever the hell I want with it.”

Th

e curtain in the living room twitched, temporarily distracting me. Who was skulking in the shadows watching? Probably that snot-nosed DJ, taking notes on how to turn into a fi rst class asshole like our father.

“I raised you better than that, Julie Ann, to fall for every sob story that comes down the pike.”

“Well, I guess since beating it into me didn’t work, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself for
my
failings.”

His posture challenged me. His gaze dropped to my hands, curled into fi sts at my sides and he smirked. “Still actin’ the tough girl?”

374

Take a swing. Just haul off and hit him and let your knuckles wipe that fucking, self-righteous smirk right from his face. See how he likes to bleed.

Slowly, I unclenched my hands. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You’re a pathetic, shallow man and I truly hate you.” I turned on my heel, returned to my truck and didn’t look back.

375

My jumbled thoughts jumped track to track:

Abita, Jericho, Th

e Standing Elk family, my father, Maria

Dove, Sharon Dove, Roland Hawk, Bonita, Denny Bird, Martinez, the identity of the biker. I needed information on that pledge.

Could anything else in my life be more fucked up?

When I had drama, I had it in spades. It never spaced itself out. No, everything piled on top of me at once to see how quickly I’d topple under the weight.

One dead body. A secret nephew. A friend’s unexpected pregnancy. Two bar fi ghts. Unearthing human remains. Working for the sheriff again. Working in a strip club. Two run-ins with a knife and stun gun wielding psycho. Multiple run-ins with Ben’s family. A nasty revelation from my father. Under suspicion as a possible snitch for a 376

motorcycle gang . . . Gee, was I forgetting anything?

Yep. I’d totally forgotten to talk to Martinez about Trina’s drug deals at Bare Assets. Oh, joy, I could hardly wait to broach that subject.

A shower, a shot, and two hours worth of
Highlander
reruns hadn’t kept my problems bobbing in the background.

I left Martinez a message about my trip to talk to Crystal and spent more time than usual on my hair and makeup. I’d show that bimbette Charity mousy.

In my truck the Dixie Chicks sang about not being ready to make nice. I had no choice.

A pledge I’d never seen was stationed at Bare Asset’s front entrance. I bypassed him without incident, slipped into the back and knocked on Crystal’s door.

She didn’t beat around the bush. “So you’re the one making time with Tony.”

I smiled, a little cockily.

“I wondered the minute you walked in here.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t quiver in your boots at the mention of his name. And he stopped coming around when you were working.”

“Might’ve been because he trusted me to do the job without having to keep an eye on me.”

“He can’t keep his eyes off you,
that’s
the problem.”

377

She exhaled. “How long?”

I shrugged. “A few months. Not exactly common knowledge.”

“It is now. You here to gloat?”

“No. I’ve got another employee type question.”

“Shoot.”

“Do the Hombres’ pledges get paid while they’re working security here?”

“No.”

“Th

en there’s no record of who worked here, when they started, and for how long?”

“Nope. Th

e Hombres send them over, I send them

out front, and they’re supervised by one of the patched-in Hombres members. Did you ask Tony if the club historian keeps records about stuff like that?”

Th

e Hombres had a club historian? “Not yet.” It appeared now I’d have no choice but to ask Martinez. And in light of his enforcer’s suspicions about me . . . Yeah.

Th

is was gonna go over great.

“Th

anks, by the way, for fi guring out Dave was ripping us off . Fucker. He had excuses up the wazoo. He tried to blame Charity.”

“You really had no clue about him?”

“No. Like you said, I even trusted him alone with a goddamn unlocked safe, fucking-head-of-security-piece-of-shit-asshole. I’d like to kick that cocksucker’s ass.”

378

Whoa. Her creative vernacular rivaled mine. “Well, I had to tell Martinez about the other security problems.

His A-team would have a fi t if they knew this building wasn’t secured.”

“I know. Tony talked to me about it today. He wasn’t happy, but he’s not sending Jackal in to chat with me, so I ain’t complaining.”

Smart move.

“As long as we’re coming clean about everything . . .”

Crystal’s Cheshire grin unnerved me. “I told Tony that you’d asked to see some personnel records.”

Tit for tat? Great. Be even harder now to chat with him about Trina’s sideline. “Gee, thanks.”

“Share the shit, that’s my motto.”

I’d have to remember that one.

While I skulked along the back wall of the club, avoiding Charity, Trina, and Bo-Bo, I noticed a guy sitting alone at a table near the stage. His ugly red jacket stuck out like a stop sign. Had to be June’s brother, Jeff Colhoff .

Again? He’d been in here Th

ursday night with his

freaky looking cousin Willie, who gave me the willies.

Seemed Jeff had slipped the old ball and chain twice in a week. Wonder how little wifey felt about that?

I froze.

A mental whack. Th