The Blight Way (19 page)

“Interesting idea, Pap,” Tully said. “What do you have to say about that, Dave?”

Dave thought for a moment. “I must have a good alibi. If I don't I'll think of one pretty quick.” Dave scratched his chin. “Let's see, I had to be somewhere. What's on the TV that night? Oh yeah, I remember now. I was home in bed by midnight. My wife will probably attest to that. She's been kind of ornery lately, but I think she will. Is that good enough?”

“Good enough for me,” Tully said. “I may still have use for a good tracker. After that, I'm not so sure. By the way, I've got another little job for you.”

“Why am I so lucky?”

“Beats me. I want you to go up to the Last Hope Mine and have a close look around. You can do it in the daytime.”

“What am I looking for?”

“I'm not sure, but you'll know it when you find it.”

“Thanks. It's always easier to find something when you're specific like that.”

Pap shook his head. “I don't think it's a good idea to dismiss Dave as a suspect. If you arrested him right now, Bo, we could all go home.”

Buck suddenly stopped eating and looked up from his plate.

“What is it, Buck?” Tully said.

“I was just thinking,” Buck said.

“I told you to stop doing that,” Pap said.

“You know it was a moonlit night when those fellas was hit,” Buck said.

“Right,” Tully said. “So what's your point, Buck?”

“The fella after Holt, he wouldn't have wanted to use a flashlight, at least until he found Holt's gun, if he did find it. So he had to be a good tracker himself, to follow Holt only by moonlight.”

Everybody stopped eating and stared at Buck.

“You know what, Buck,” Tully said. “If you keep coming up with stuff like this, I might have to give you a promotion. There aren't that many trackers around these days.”

Buck went back to his pancakes. “I thought you might want to think about a promotion,” he said.

“It's true,” Pap said. “We probably do need to look for a tracker.”

Tully said, “I doubt either of those two fellows staying at Littlefield's place is a tracker, seeing as how they're both from L.A. Shooters maybe, but not trackers.”

Pap looked at Dave. “A local boy, no doubt.”

“Maybe I'll check with Madeline,” Dave said. “Just to make sure she supports my alibi.”

Tully looked around at all the empty booths and tables. “Kind of slim pickings this morning, ain't it, Dave?”

“To tell you the truth, it's about as bad as I've ever seen it. Must be something going on.”

“Something that could scare a whole town?” Pap said.

“Yeah,” Dave said. “Maybe you fellas should stop eating here all the time. Gives the place a bad name.”

Chapter 36

After breakfast, Tully and Pap stopped by Ed's station, to check the gossip circuit.

“It's very strange,” Ed said. “Nobody is talking much. It's like there's some big secret nobody wants to reveal.”

“You mean the residents of Famine know something you don't?”

“Seems like it. I usually know what's going on, but this silence beats the heck out of me. It can't be those three fellows that got themselves killed. Folks talked that to pieces. But ever since you and Pap showed up and started asking questions, Bo, the whole town seems to have stopped talking. People are nervous.”

“Got any idea what would make them nervous?” Tully asked.

“Nothing I know about. Everybody turns pretty nervous when Vern Littlefield gets in an uproar. He can be pretty mean and take it out on most anybody he feels
like. But as far as I know, he hasn't bothered anybody lately.”

“I've known him to get in a bit of a snit, all right,” Tully said.

“Snit isn't exactly the right word,” Pap said. “Vern can get pretty darn mean. But he isn't half as mean as his old man. Not only was Cruise Littlefield mean, he was smart, too. As far as I can tell, Vern inherited only the mean part and not all of that.”

“He may not be all that smart, but he sure has a grip on this town,” Ed said. “For one thing, he owns most all the houses in it. One by one he's bought them up over the years and then rents them out.”

Tully selected a candy bar from a display on the counter and peeled the wrapper back. He dug in his pocket, took out a quarter and placed it on the counter. “How do folks around here survive, anyway?”

“They do as little as possible,” Ed said. “A few of them still trap in the winter, but there's not much of a market for furs anymore. Some of them work in the woods, but there's not much logging either. Quite a few old folks get by on their Social Security. One thing, it doesn't cost a whole lot to live in Famine.”

Tully bit off a chunk from his candy bar. It didn't taste as if it was more than five years old.

Pap looked at him and shook his head. “I thought you just ate a two-pancake breakfast at the House of Fry.”

“I'm still a growing boy,” Tully said. “By the way, Ed, you run the station all by yourself?”

“Practically. I have old Lucas fix tires for me sometimes.
I wouldn't trust him with the keys to the gas pumps, though.”

“I don't recall seeing anyone else around,” Tully said.

“He's a big old guy. Wears a stupid cap with the ear-muffs. As far as I know, he even sleeps in the ratty thing.”

“Stupid cap,” Tully said. “I didn't know caps had IQs.” He pointed out the side window to a small yellow school bus parked in the lot next to the station. “You drive the school bus, too, Ed?”

“Naw, that belongs to Lucas. That's why I don't trust him with the keys to the gas pumps. He'd be filling that bus up all the time. It's all rusted out, but he's got some idea he can turn it into a camper. He probably figures he can then turn himself into a hippy.”

“Shucks,” Tully said, “I've thought about doing that myself. Just never found a school bus.” He turned to Pap. “Well, maybe we'll drive out to the Littlefields' and see if Vern has put in an appearance yet.”

“You think Littlefield might be involved with these killings?” Ed said.

“Yep, one way or another. I think I've got all the pieces now. I just need to put them together.”

“You want to look over that pretty wife of his again,” Pap said.

“That, too.”

“Maybe I'll go back to Blight City with Buck,” Pap said.

“Oh, you might as well go with me. Otherwise my lungs will miss the cigarette smoke. I'll only be a minute
at the Littlefields'. Then I'm headed into Blight. Besides, it isn't as if you have any important business to attend to.”

“That's all you know, Bo. I've got a woman coming in to see about a housekeeping job.” He shoved himself up out of the chair and started for the door.

“I pity that poor desperate soul,” Tully said.

He could tell that the night of camping had taken a lot out of the old man. For that matter, it had taken a lot out of him.

“You hear anything that's going on here, absolutely anything, you let me know, okay, Ed?” he said. “I'll be back in Blight for a few days. A sheriff can't spend all his time on interesting stuff like murder.”

Chapter 37

They turned into a farm road directly out from the Littlefield house. Tully pulled up behind some trees.

“What now?” Pap said.

Bo swept his field glasses back and forth, looking for any activity. “Just want to check out a few things.”

Pap sighed and leaned his head against his window. Soon he began to snore. Half an hour later, he sat up, startled. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. I just want to look over the Littlefield place for a while.”

“We could be back in Blight by now.”

“What do you care, Pap? You've been sleeping the whole time, anyway.”

“Yeah, I've got a knot in my neck big as a baseball to show for it, too. Let's go.”

“I've got to stop by the Littlefields' first.”

Pap muttered a four-letter obscenity.

They drove up in front of the Littlefield house. Pap stayed in the Explorer while Tully got out and rang the doorbell. Cindy Littlefield opened the door.

“Oh, hi,” she said, startled, as if she had been expecting someone else.

“Hi,” said Tully.

Behind her in the living room he could see the lady from the General Store. She started to get up and perhaps out of sight, but it was too late. She knew Tully had already seen her. Giving a hopeless shrug, she sank back down into the easy chair. She was holding a coffee cup. Another cup, probably Cindy's, sat on the coffee table.

Tully raised his hand in greeting.

The lady, obviously embarrassed, raised hers back.

“You know my sister?” Cindy said.

“Your sister?” Tully said. “Yes, we met at the General Store.”

“Oh, I hadn't heard. What can I do for you, Sheriff?”

“Just checking to see if Vern made it back from his elk hunt.”

“Not yet. But he did drive up to a place where his cell phone would work. He called last night.”

“He did? So everything is all right?”

“Yes, Vern's fine. He said he would be up in the mountains for another couple of days.”

“That's good news. Any luck?”

“I'm afraid not. But he still has hopes.”

“About what time did you talk to him?”

“Oh, I didn't. He called Mitchell. I guess he had
some things he wanted Bob to take care of. Bob passed the message on to me.”

“Oh. By the way, are Mitchell and Kincaid around? I'd like to talk with them.”

“They're on the ranch, but I don't know where. They live in the other house over there. Nothing like first-class accommodations for your employees. You're welcome to come in and wait. I imagine they'll be coming in soon.”

“I don't have time right now, but I do have a question. The one called Harry Kincaid? Was he, by any chance, raised around here? For some reason he looks familiar to me.”

“You know he's from Los Angeles?”

“Yes, that's why I wonder why he looks familiar.”

“He has several brothers who live around here. Maybe you're thinking of one of them. The Kincaids live way back in the hills. His father was a trapper, probably still is. Harry did some trapping, too, but I guess the father was pretty fierce and mean and a little crazy. So Harry took off for L.A. when he was still a kid. That's all I know about him.”

“It's probably just my imagination. Someone looks familiar to me, I can't get him out of my head. Not too bad for a lawman, I suppose, but it gets to be a nuisance. Sorry to have bothered you. If Vern shows up, have him give me a call, will you? I'll probably be at home the next couple of days, so have him call me there. You have a pencil and paper, I'll give you the number.”

“I'll be right back,” Cindy said.

She walked back into the house, apparently toward the office. Tully and the woman from the General Store stared at each other. Suddenly the woman burst out laughing, got up and walked over to Tully. She was trim and attractive, wearing a gray cardigan sweater over a white blouse and jeans.

She held out her hand. “I'm Dana Cassidy.”

“Hi,” Tully said. “I'm Bo Tully. I guess the job in Boise didn't work out.”

“Actually, there was no job in Boise. I've been hired to cook for the Littlefields and their crew.”

“They don't have much of a crew anymore.”

“Actually, I'm not that great of a cook, but I'm a whole lot better than Cindy. I've known Bob Mitchell and Vern Littlefield for a long time. Vern and the Little-fields are helping me over kind of a rough patch. Cindy and I keep each other company.” She sighed, shook her head and laughed. It was a nice laugh. “I don't know why I lied to you at the store. I guess it's just a habit when I'm talking to strangers. You don't have to stand there in the doorway, Sheriff. Come in and sit down.”