Trouble at the Red Pueblo (32 page)

“What happened?”

“When I told him that Austin tried to—”

“—rape you. You might as well call it what it was.”

“It’s such an ugly word. But yes, when I told Matt, he was so angry. Not with me, and not with Austin so much as with himself. He realized he just stood there as Austin walked over here with me, and it was going on when he wasn’t a hundred feet away. He blamed himself.”

“And because he was so angry at himself, he wanted to rearrange Austin’s features?”

“I think so.” She smoothed the red handkerchief in her lap and then looked up. “But that’s different from killing someone.”

“I agree. Go on with your story.”

“By then it was about four in the morning. I fell asleep in the chair, and when I woke up, he was gone.”

“What time was that? I remember talking to you just before Toby showed up. Around eight?”

“Yes. I hadn’t been up very long. I’d been trying to reach his phone, but he wasn’t answering. I went by the house, but his folks hadn’t seen him. He wasn’t at the museum, so I headed on over to St. George.”

“Why did you go to St. George?”

Her chin quivered. She cleared her throat. “Because I just knew that’s where he went.”

“Did you see him there?”

Her head rolled back and forth over the rocky wall in a forlorn negative. “I know you said he was there, but I didn’t see him.”

Spider uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, arms on his knees. “Okay. Let’s go over what you did when you got there.”

“I drove to his house. Austin’s house.”

“How did you know where he lived?”

Linda grimaced. “He took me there one afternoon. I think he was showing off.”

“Okay. Then what?”

As Linda talked, she methodically gathered the red fabric up into a tight ball and enclosed it in one clenched fist. “I knocked on the door, but there wasn’t any answer. When I knocked again, the door swung open a bit. I pushed it halfway open and called Austin’s name, but nobody answered. I was just ready to pull the door shut and leave when I saw his feet sticking through the door to the living room.”

“What did you think?”

“I thought the worst, that Matt had come and beat him up.”

“So you went in. What did you find?”

Linda’s chin began to quiver again, and she covered her mouth with the wadded-up bandana. Her eyes widened, as if she were seeing the horror again, and she spoke from behind the cloth. “I don’t know if I can describe it.”

“Give it a try, please.”

She put her hands in her lap and started twisting the handkerchief.“He was face down. Dead. I knew he was dead before I knew anything else.”

“Go on.”

“Somebody had bashed him over and over with—” She swallowed. “—with an Anasazi ax. It was the one he bought on that first day I met him.”

“The ax was there?”

“Yes. It was lying on the floor over by the kitchen door, like somebody flung it away when they got done.”

“Is that how the ax got in the display case? Did you put it there?”

She nodded. “I took it home and washed the blood off it. I let it dry in the sun and brought it in early and put it in the case.”

“When did you do that?”

“Sunday afternoon.”

“So, when you and Matt came to see me Sunday evening, you thought he had killed Austin Lee?”

She shook her head, more vigorously this time. “I don’t think I thought he had killed him. Matt might have knocked him out, but he wouldn’t have pounded his skull to hamburger.”

“But you knew Austin was dead?”

“Yes.”

“That explains why you were so quiet. What about Matt? You were both keeping your distance.”

“I think he was still working through the rape thing.”

Spider sat a minute, pondering. In his mind’s eye, he tried to picture the group when he had told them yesterday morning about Austin Lee’s death. He remembered Linda’s unsurprised expression, and he remembered Matt’s eyes rolling to the back of his head before he fainted and landed in a heap on the floor.

“Did Matt know you went to St. George on Sunday?”

Linda’s hands, which had been worrying the fabric, stilled. She looked at Spider and then beyond his shoulder, apparently searching her memory. “He could have. Martin and Neva showed up at the museum just after I put the ax in the display case. They asked where I’d been, and I told them I’d had some errands in St. George. They asked me to come to supper that evening.”

“So they could have mentioned it to Matt?”

“They could have.” She frowned. “But why would he think that I was going to see Austin?”

“But you did go to see Austin.”

“Yes, but only because I was afraid Matt was going to go see him.”

Spider took a deep breath. “Okay, Linda. Let’s talk about something else. You’re an educated girl. Did you never think, through all of this, that you were doing something wrong by tampering with evidence? That you might be committing a crime?”

“While it was happening? No. Since then, yes. I’ve lost a lot of sleep over it.”

“Well, you’re apt to lose a little more. This is a serious thing you’ve done. Don’t do anything, though, until we get you a lawyer.” He stood. “Let’s go in and talk to Martin and Neva. They need to get a lawyer for Matt, too, and hang the cost.”

HALF AN HOUR
later, as Spider and Laurie crossed the state line on their way to the county jail, Spider was finishing a conversation with Brick Tremain.

Laurie glanced over. “What did he say when you told him that Martin was thinking of selling the Lincoln letter, so he could hire a lawyer?”

“This is mixed company. I can’t repeat what he said.”
Spider pocketed the phone. “He’s going to call Martin right back and tell him it’s a bad idea. He’ll also have a few pithy words about him not getting a lawyer in the first place. He had some for me not pushing it harder.”

They turned off the highway onto the gravel road to the dump, also the road that led to an impressive, state-of-the-art jail. Built with an eye toward housing overflow from state prisons, the facility had an occupancy rate higher than even the most successful hotels in town.

Pulling into the parking lot, Spider said, “Tell me again what Marshal Thayne said when he called?”

“He said Matt seems to listen to you, and you need to come talk some sense into him.”

“I wonder what that means.” Spider turned off the engine. “You coming in?”

“They have a nice waiting room. I’ll come in and sit where it’s cool.”

“I forgot you already have a history with this place. There’s Marshal Thayne. Looks like he’s been watching for us.” Spider got out and waved. He waited for Laurie and followed her up the sidewalk to the door. The Fredonia lawman greeted them and then escorted them inside.

“Mrs. Latham, you can wait in here.” The marshal opened the door to a glass-walled room off the lobby. “There’s magazines or a TV. I don’t think anyone will come bother you here.”

“I’ll be fine.” She smiled and waved at a woman at a desk next door. If I need anything, I’ll ask Connie.”

Leaving Laurie in the waiting room, Spider took off his hat and followed Marshal Thayne down the hall. They passed through a manned and locked door to another lobby with an officer sitting at a desk. The marshal spoke to him, and he directed them to a small, sparely furnished room with a large glass window looking onto the lobby.

“Go on in,” Marshal Thayne said to Spider, “I’ll wait outside. I don’t want to get in the way of anything he might say to you.”

“Thanks for doing this,” Spider said.

The marshal held up his hand. “Don’t thank me. I like young Taylor. He’s a bit prickly, but years of roaming the canyons alone will do that to you. He’s made of good stuff, and I hate to see him mixed up in something like this.” He opened the door. “Go in. Have a seat. They’ll bring him down in a minute.”

Spider went in and sat on one of the two straight back chairs. He put his Stetson on the small table and looked around at the shiny, utilitarian interior. He checked the clock and wondered how long he’d have to wait.

As it turned out, it wasn’t long. A guard accompanied an orange jumpsuited Matt to the door, let him in, and stood in the corner.

Matt looked at the guard. “Does he have to stay in here?”

“Apparently so. Sit down. We probably have a limited amount of time, so let’s get to it.”

“To what?”

“Marshal Thayne thought you might have something to say to me.”

Matt shrugged. “What would I have to say?”

Spider leaned back in his chair and regarded the younger man. “Let’s get one thing straight. Linda didn’t have anything to do with the murder of Austin Lee. If you think you’re protecting her, you’re wrong.”

“How did you know—?” Matt stopped himself and shifted gears. “Why would I think that she had anything to do with it?”

“Because you saw her in St. George and figured she had gone to see Austin. But you’re wrong. She was there because of you.”

“Because of me? Why?”

“She was afraid you’d gone over to clean Austin’s clock because he tried to rape her. Was she right?”

Matt looked down at his hands. “Yeah.”

“So, tell me what happened Sunday morning. Start at the time you left the hospital. By the way, thanks for coming and staying with me.”

“No problem,” Matt muttered. He ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. I left the hospital and I drove up Hog Canyon, up to the antennas. I needed to get away, clear my head. I watched the sunrise. Thought about what Linda had told me. Decided I needed to go tell Austin Lee what I thought of him. Yes, and maybe give him a sock in the jaw.”

“Okay,” Spider said. “What time did you get to St. George?”

“I don’t know. After I watched the sunrise, I drove back down the canyon and had breakfast at Nedra’s. That would put me leaving town somewhere around eight or eight-thirty.”

“Which puts you at Defrain Estates around nine-thirty or ten?”

“Probably. I practiced what I was going to say all the way over. I called him some pretty creative names. They all had to do with someone who has to force his attention on women. I think I planned on making him take a swing at me, so I’d have an excuse to take him on.”

“And then what happened?”

“The biggest anticlimax of the century. Nothing. He wasn’t home.” Matt paused and thought a moment. “From what the police say, I guess he was home, just not able to answer the door because he was, you know, dead.”

“Did you knock or use the doorbell?”

Matt’s brows drew together. “What kind of a question is that?”

“A fairly crucial one. Can you answer it?”

“I don’t know.” Matt rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “I used the doorbell. I remember now. It was set in some sandstone rockwork.”

“All right. Then what did you do?”

“I got in the pickup and drove away.”

Spider leaned back and folded his arms. “When you came up into the subdivision, you checked in at the gatehouse. Why didn’t you check out when you went back through?”

“Nobody was there.”

“Okay. Where did you go after you came down off the mesa?”

“There’s a gas station down towards the stop light. I went there to get gas.” Matt glanced at the guard. “While I was filling up, I saw Linda drive by.”

“What did you think when you saw her?”

“You want the completely honest answer?”

Spider cocked his head. “I hope you’ve been completely honest all along.”

Matt waved a hand as if to indicate that hadn’t been important. “That was easy to be honest about. This one is hard.”

“All right. Let’s hear the hard honest answer.” Spider waited. Saw Matt’s Adam’s apple dip. Waited some more.

“I thought—” Matt ran his hand through his hair again. “I thought she was going up to see him because she wasn’t over him yet. Hell, he’s handsome, has lots of money, big car, clothes that look like the labels would be hard to pronounce. What’ve I got besides a track record that’s got Tiffany Wendt written all over it?”

“So you didn’t follow her up to his house?”

He shook his head. “I was too chicken.”

Spider sighed and shook his head. “Son, when we’re done with this, I want you to grow some self-confidence and start believing in yourself and in Linda. She loves you. If you’da followed her, she’da told you so at Austin’s doorstep, and you’da both left. When the police came around, the murder weapon would have been right where it was tossed after the murderer mashed Austin’s skull in.”

Matt drew back, frowning. “I don’t understand.”

“Linda knocked on the door, and it swung open. Whoever went out of it last didn’t pull it tight. That’s why I asked if you used the doorbell or knocked.”

The color drained from Matt’s face. “So when the door opened, she went in and saw Austin’s dead body? And she thought I did it?”

Spider unfolded his arms and leaned forward. “Yes. And to protect you, just about an hour ago, she confessed to the murder.”

“No,” Matt whispered.

“Don’t worry. The confession was to me, nobody else. I told her why I knew she couldn’t have done it, and she agreed to tell me the truth about what she did on Sunday.”

Matt’s eyes dropped to his hands, obviously processing all Spider had told him. He raised his head and looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Is that how the ax got in the display case? Did Linda bring it and put it there?”