Wild Wild Death (23 page)

As if it would help me make sense of his rambling, I shook my head. “We can do that another time. For now, I thought you might remember something I can’t remember. I need a name.”

“You have one. Pepper.”

I pul ed the phone away from my ear and made a face at it. “You’re stil taking those painkil ers, aren’t you?”

“No painkil ers.” Across the thousands of miles that separated us, I heard the smile in his voice. “Got cleared by the docs today. They say I can go back to work.”

That explained it! I actual y breathed a sigh of relief. Now that I knew he hadn’t gone off the deep end, it might be easier to get through to Quinn.

“That’s great. I know how much that means to you.

And you can start right now. By helping me out. Like I said, I need a name.” No more bad jokes so I added quickly, “Those guys we met when we went to the Indians game. Brian, the ghost hunter, and his friends. Do you remember—”

“Brian, John, Gregory, Arnie. Of course I remember. First names and last names. You think you’re dealing with an ordinary mortal?”

I knew for a fact I was not. Like I said, old lover, and a damned good one.

“So…” Of course, I had no idea what Quinn was real y doing, but he sounded so self-satisfied, I pictured him strapping on his shoulder holster and admiring himself in the mirror while he talked.

“You’re in New Mexico, right?”

It took me a moment to find my voice and stammer, “How… how did you—”

“Come on, give me some credit. Arnie got murdered out in New Mexico… what, three or four days ago? You didn’t think that would make the news here? He’s from Cleveland, after al . And now you’re cal ing and tel ing me you’re working a case and you need last names because you can’t remember. And one of the people who’s name is mentioned is the victim. So, who’s your suspect? Obviously, not Arnie.”

“Obviously.”

“I’m thinking Brian.”

“Because…”

I pictured him giving me one of his patented, blasé shrugs. “Brian was obviously the spokesman for the group so he was obviously in charge so if there’s something suspicious going on…”

“Brian, yes.”

“Ran him through the system as soon as I heard about Arnie. Brian Reynolds. Nothing there. No priors. Clean.”

“Brian Reynolds. That helps.” I looked toward Jesse when I said this, and he got the message and got right on his phone to start digging from this end.

“Only the cops out here—”

“Cops, huh?” Oh yeah, I knew Quinn plenty wel , and I knew there was a green spark in his eyes when he said this. “Any of them good looking?”

I couldn’t help myself. I glanced at Jesse. Like I needed the reminder that
good looking
didn’t even begin to describe Jesse? I shook away the thought.

“Does it matter?”

“It does. You have a thing for cops.”

“Not al cops.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “Good thing it’s just me.”

“Good thing.”

“And that’s the other cop I hear talking there in the background, right?” There was no use denying it so I didn’t bother to answer. Though he wasn’t talking loud, Jesse had a deep voice and it rumbled through the room like thunder. “You must be at the station.”

Dang, but I hated lying to Quinn. But not nearly as much as I hated the thought of dropping the truth on him without the proper chance to cushion the blow.

I coughed from deep in my throat and hoped it sounded enough like static to justify me saying,

“We’re breaking up.”

“You mean our cel signal?”

“Yeah. Of course. What else would I mean?” I mumbled a few unintel igible sounds just so he’d believe me. “We’l talk. Soon.”

It wasn’t until I hung up that I realized Jesse was off his cal , too. “So how does he feel about that?” he asked.

I tucked my phone into my purse. “About…”

“He’s the one…” Like Quinn was actual y standing there, Jesse poked his chin in the direction of my phone. “You said you never had any luck with law enforcement, explaining about the ghosts. He was the one who didn’t believe you.”

was the one who didn’t believe you.”

“He’s not as open-minded as you.”

He grabbed his hat from the bedside table. “I’m jealous.”

“You shouldn’t be. There’s nothing going on between Quinn and me. Not these days.”

“Not what I’m talking about.” Like I said, the room wasn’t big, and it didn’t take Jesse more than a couple steps to walk over to me. No lead-in. No explanation. He just took me in his arms and kissed me, long and hard, and when he was done, he looked into my eyes. “Because he knows you better than I do,” he said.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. It was nice and cozy, and besides, the way he kissed me made my knees weak and I needed the extra support.

“We’re working on that.”

“We are.” He backed way. “And we can keep working on it in the car. Come on.” Jesse opened the door. “I’ve got a lead. Norma’s ex.”

“And you think—”

“I don’t know what to think.” He clapped his hat on his head. “That’s why we’re going to talk to him.”

T

urns out Wil Kettle, Norma’s ex, was Taopi and he lived on pueblo land. Within an hour of leaving Antonito, we were outside the rusted trailer he cal ed home sweet home.

He didn’t ask us in, and I was relieved. From the brief glimpse I got when he opened the door, I saw that the inside of the trailer was cramped, dark, and packed with more junk than any one person should be al owed to own. There was mighty loud music coming from inside, too. Wil snapped the door closed behind him, muffling the head-banging noise, and led the way to the other side of the trailer, where there were a couple battered lawn chairs set up under a torn green-and-white-striped canopy.

Wil was a short guy. Blotchy skin, stringy hair, as wiry as the stunted tree that grew over near where Jesse had parked the SUV. He lit a cigarette and dropped into a chair next to a propane gril that had seen better days. “Didn’t have nothing to do with Norma dying,” he said.

“Didn’t say you did.” Jesse had refused the offer of a seat. He stood to my left, opposite Wil , loose-limbed and comfortable, as much a part of that land as the dust that kicked up in a hot breeze. They must have known each other, Wil and Jesse. It made me wonder how Wil could look so darned unconcerned.

Or maybe he just didn’t notice the hawk-like sharpness of Jesse’s eyes.

“Sheriff from Antonito, he already talked to me,”

Wil added.

“So I hear.” Jesse studied him for just long enough to make Wil squirm. “Where were you when Norma got kil ed?”

“At work. Over at the perlite mine. You can check with my supervisor.”

“I don’t need to.” I wouldn’t be so bold as to cal Jesse’s expression a smile. “Sheriff already did.”

“Then you know there’s nothing I can tel you.”

Jesse hitched his right hand over his gun. It wasn’t a threatening gesture. But it got Wil ’s attention. “I heard Norma broke up with you.”

Wil shifted in his chair. “No loss.”

“You might not have thought so at the time.”

“Shit, I was already seeing somebody else by the time Norma sprung the news on me that she’d fal en in love.” He gave the words a twist that told me Wil didn’t believe in love. “Imagine the little bitch dumping me before I could dump her! No loss. I got Gabriel a Montoya to help me forget. You know her, Jesse. Everybody knows her. Gabriel a, she’s got a reputation.” A smile spread over his face like oil on water. Wil had bad teeth. “Everything they say about Gabriel a is true. Which means I ain’t exactly missing Norma.”

“What happened?” Jesse wasn’t talking about Wil and Gabriel a, thank goodness. No way I wanted to know that story.

He pul ed in a lungful of smoke and blew it out in a long puff of indifference. “Norma was al right. If you know what I mean. But a guy like me…” Wil ’s gaze slithered in my direction. “I’m not a one-woman kind of guy, but when Norma said she was seeing someone else, wel , I don’t put up with that kind of crap.”

“The someone else, that had to be Brian.” I said this before Jesse shot me a look that told me not to say anything at al .

He swung his gaze back to Wil . “So Norma was seeing someone else, and that made you hopping mad.”

“Like I said…” Wil finished his cigarette, dropped it on the ground, and mashed it with the toe dropped it on the ground, and mashed it with the toe of his sneaker. “I already had Gabriel a to help me forget.”

“Except it doesn’t look as if you have forgotten.

Not completely. Last night…” There was a folded piece of paper in Jesse’s back pocket and he pul ed it out. “Heard you got picked up in Antonito, Wil .

Outside Norma’s house.”

“That was bul shit!” Wil jumped out of his chair so fast it tipped and hit the dirt. “I was just walking by is al .”

“Not what the sheriff says.”

“Al right, so I was looking in the window, okay?”

Wil had stalked as far as the trailer and he came back the other way. “I left my guitar there, you know?

When me and Norma, when we split. I left my guitar at her place, and hel , what was going to happen to it now that she’s dead? I didn’t know, but I sure didn’t want to see it in some estate sale one of these days.

Then I got a cal , you know, about picking it up.”

Jesse cocked his head. “A cal ? From who?”

Wil shrugged. “Sheriff’s department. That’s what the guy said. Said if I stopped by last night, the house would be open and I could come in and get my things. Hey, I paid a hundred bucks for that damned guitar. Then I get over to Norma’s and it looked to me like the place was shut up tight and I thought—”

“You thought about breaking in.”

“Yeah, maybe. But thinking about it and doing it are two different things, and since I never did it, it’s not exactly a crime, is it?”

Jesse took a couple steps closer. “You got a sheet, Wil . You can’t afford to get nabbed again, or you’re going to be facing some serious time. Good thing that deputy drove by and spotted you and stopped you from doing what you shouldn’t have been thinking about doing in the first place.”

“Yeah, wel , a lot of good that deputy did me. He told me to get a move on, and I would have, too, if he stuck around to watch me leave. But he got a cal , something about a big accident over on 285. He headed out fast. And I was al set to leave, too.

That’s when I looked in the window… you know…

just to check for sure about the person who was supposed to meet me there and let me in. And that’s when I realized there was already somebody in the house.” Wil spat on the ground. “Now that’s the real crime. Cal ing somebody else and tel ing him he could come in and pick up stuff and then not letting me in to do the same. That damned guitar better stil be there, or I swear—”

“Another person? In the house?” Jesse aimed a laser look at Wil . “If you’re lying to me, Wil —”

“Ain’t lying. Even thought of cal ing over to the sheriff’s department about it, but wel …” Wil crossed his arms over his scrawny chest. “After the way they treated me, I figured the hel with them. Going to file a complaint, though. About that cal , and not being able to get my guitar.”

I thought about the day I, too, had peeked into Norma’s window and saw Brian there with my Jimmy Choo bag. “Big guy, right?” I asked. “Sort of dorky looking. Close-cropped hair. Tattoo on the inside of his left wrist.”

“Dorky, al right. But not al that big.” Wil squeezed his eyes shut, remembering. “And he had shaggy hair. Brown. And wire glasses.”

I sucked in a breath of superheated air just as Jesse took a copy of a photo out of his pocket—the one that I’d first seen back in Cleveland the day the ransom note arrived. He showed the picture to Wil .

“That’s him.” Wil pointed a finger at Dan’s nose.

“That’s him al right. When I got to Norma’s last night, that guy, he was already there inside the house.”

“D

on’t touch anything.”

I wasn’t planning on it, but Jesse’s order brought out the stubborn redhead in me. We were just about to walk into Norma’s adobe next to the cemetery and my hands were in the pockets of my jeans. That is, until he had the nerve to say what he said, and I took out my hands and waved them around, just so he’d get the message.

He did. At least I guess that’s what the eye rol ing was al about.

“You know I didn’t mean it like a threat or anything,” Jesse grumbled. “So don’t take it so personal y. The sheriff cal ed me in just as a courtesy, and I want to make sure we don’t get in the way. Besides, the last thing we need is your fingerprints contaminating the scene. I’l bet anything your friend Dan’s are already doing that.”