A Violent End at Blake Ranch (25 page)

“What if I think of something that you haven't covered?”

“If you have something to say, go ahead and say it.”

Before we leave, I call the medical examiner, T. J. Sutter, and tell him that I've visually confirmed the identity of the woman we buried as Nonie Blake. “Her name is Susan Shelby. I brought a hairbrush and a cup from her bathroom that might have some DNA for testing. And a couple of photos.” I'm aware of Trevino listening to everything I say.

CHAPTER 24

On the way out to the Blake ranch, Trevino plies me with one question after another about the Blakes—why they live way out here, their position in the community, what their personalities are like, and how long they've been here. Good questions. She'll be a good cop.

“You said the father isn't able to work,” she says. “How do they make a living?”

“I know they have made some investments, because I interviewed their financial advisor. But I don't know where their money came from.”

“Financial advisor?” She snickers. “What are they doing with a financial advisor living out here in the country?”

“You've got some wrong ideas about small towns,” I say. “When you were familiarizing yourself with the town, did you drive out to the lake? Did you see some of those homes out there? People move in here from the city and they bring some of their city ways with them.”

“All right, don't get all bent out of shape. I'm sure this town is nothing but modern.” Trevino is a hard combination of eager beaver and snapping turtle.

Billy Blake's truck is still parked outside, which surprises me. I figured he'd be out of here first chance he got, since I hadn't cautioned him to stick around.

When I open the car door I hear the roar of a machine from behind the house.

“What is that?” Trevino says.

“I expect they're draining the pond,” I say. “Looking for the murder weapon.” We walk back to the pond, and sure enough there's a big truck there with a generator working a suction pump. A big pipe leads several yards back away from the house to a sloping section of the property that can handle the runoff.

Billy opens the door, his face livid. “What the hell do you have to say for yourself? Nobody told us a thing about draining the pond, and these guys showed up here this morning with an order. You can't disrupt people's lives that way.”

“I apologize. I was hoping to tell you before they set it up, but I was out of town.”

“A little vacation?” His voice drips with sarcasm. I sense Trevino tensing beside me.

“Mind if we come in? You're letting the air conditioning out.”

He stomps away from the front door, leaving us to follow and close the door behind us. At the door to the living room he confronts us again, hands on his hips. “Well? You going to tell me what you hope to gain by that?” He gestures widely toward where the pond operation is taking place.

“We're looking for the murder weapon.”

“You really think somebody is stupid enough to throw it in the pond?”

“I'm sorry it's an inconvenience. It shouldn't take them too long. But I'm here about something else.”

“More hassle.”

“There has been a development and I need to talk to your family. By the way, let me introduce Deputy Trevino. She recently joined the department.”

“It'll be interesting to have a girl cop around here,” Billy says.

I flinch and wonder how Trevino is going to handle being called a girl cop.

“I'm looking forward to serving the community,” Trevino says, with a little bite to her tone, which I approve of.

“I need to talk to your mamma and daddy, and then the three kids,” I say.

He starts to protest and then shakes his head as if to say he's given up. “I'll go get them.”

“We'll wait in the living room,” I say. I normally wouldn't be that forward, but I always feel like I have to establish my territory with Billy.

Charlotte comes downstairs right away, but it takes time for Adelaide and John to make an appearance. When they do, John's got a big grin on his face. “Hey, Samuel,” he says, “I haven't seen you in a good long time. How've you been?”

He apparently doesn't remember that I was here only a few days ago, and we were in the barn together. Maybe I can jog his memory.

I ask Billy and Charlotte to give us some time to talk.

“One of us should be here,” Billy says. “Mamma may need someone to help handle Daddy.”

“I'll be fine, son,” Adelaide says. “Now go on and leave us alone.”

Charlotte goes back upstairs, and Billy heads out the front door, slamming it behind him. Adelaide looks nervous, but John looks at me eagerly, as if he's happy to be engaged in some activity, even if he doesn't understand what it's about.

I introduce Maria Trevino, and although Adelaide is polite, she's too nervous to take much notice that we have a new cop on our small force.

“Adelaide, I need to tell you something, but first I want to ask John a question.”

John blinks at me and shuffles his feet back and forth as if he thinks he's going to have to get up and walk around.

“Stay right here,” I say. “John, I was here a few days ago. Do you remember that? We went out to the barn?”

“You what?” Adelaide says.

“I came over while you all were at the cemetery.”

“You mean you snuck over here to get at John.” Her voice is bitter.

“That's an interesting way to put it,” I say. “Almost like you think he had something to hide. John, do you remember when I was here?”

John looks to Adelaide for help, and when she doesn't say anything he shakes his head and mumbles that he doesn't remember.

“At the time, you told me you didn't think the woman who came here to visit was really your daughter. What made you say that?”

His face darkens. “She wasn't. She didn't look right and she didn't smell right.”

“John, stop that,” Adelaide says. “You're being silly.”

A sly grin tilts the corners of his mouth. “All right, I made up the part about the smelling.” He giggles, but then his faces twists and he brings a fist down hard on his knee. “But I'm telling you she didn't look right.”

“And you?” I say to Adelaide. “Did she look right to you?”

Adelaide is wringing her hands. “What are you asking me? I don't understand.”

“I think you understand perfectly. Did you recognize the woman who came here as your daughter?”

Adelaide brings a fist to her mouth and presses it hard against her lips. Tears well in her eyes. “It's true then? She wasn't Nonie?”

“She wasn't Nonie. How did you not see that?”

“I admit I had my doubts.”

“You had doubts?” I don't even try to hide my skepticism.

“You don't understand. I didn't think it was Nonie, but she knew all kinds of things that I thought only Nonie would know. At first I thought maybe my memory was at fault and I didn't remember her right.” She opens her hands out in appeal. “I didn't know what to do!”

“Did you tell her you didn't recognize her?”

“No, I didn't. To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of her. What kind of person comes here pretending to be somebody else? Who was she?”

“Did Charlotte know?”

“What are we talking about?” John says, looking from Adelaide to me. “Why don't we have some lunch?”

Adelaide gets up. “If you don't mind, I'm going to get Charlotte to take John in to the kitchen. He doesn't need to be upset by this.”

She goes out to the entry and calls up the stairs to Charlotte, who comes rushing down. “What's wrong?”

Adelaide says, “I believe your daddy could use some lunch.”

“But it's . . .” It's barely ten o'clock, but when Charlotte looks at Adelaide, a look of understanding comes across her face. She goes to John's side. “Daddy, I'll get you a sandwich. Come on in the kitchen.”

Trevino gets up and says, “I believe I'll go outside and take a look at the pond, see how they're getting on.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” I give her a nod.

As soon as we're alone, I say, “Adelaide, let's start from the beginning. Why don't you tell me how things went from the time this woman claiming to be Nonie showed up. And I want you to tell me the truth for once.”

Adelaide looks down at her hands in her lap. Her face is flushed. “Like I said, I knew Nonie was coming, I just didn't know exactly when she'd get here, and as it happened Charlotte answered the door. I wish I had been there so it wasn't such a shock to Charlotte. I realize now I should have told her in advance.”

“Why didn't you?”

Adelaide's face is sagging like she's aged ten years. “I don't know why. I guess I was hoping she wouldn't show up. Anyway she did, and Charlotte answered the door. Charlotte called me downstairs. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. She told me Nonie was here. I told her to go upstairs and stay with her daddy, and I'd explain later. When I walked into the living room, Nonie had her back to me. When she turned around, right away I thought she didn't look right. She didn't look like any of the other kids. I thought maybe I was imagining things, and that I hadn't seen her in so long that I'd forgotten what she looked like. You can't imagine how rattled I was.”

“You say she knew things that Nonie would know?”

“Yes, when I took her up to her old room, she recognized it. Or said she did.” Adelaide's eyes are distant. “I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken her into another room and told her it was her old room . . .” Her eyes widen. “This woman who came here . . . did she know Nonie?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Do you suppose Nonie described the house—where things were and all that?”

“I expect that's the way it happened.”

Adelaide swallows. “You talked to Nonie?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How was she? Does she have a job? Does she look all right?”

“She seems fine. She has a regular life, a decent job. But let's get back to this imposter. You showed her to her room, and then what?”

“When I took her to her room, Charlotte came in for a minute and hugged her and said she was glad Nonie was back.”

“So you all had dinner together. How did you introduce her to Skeeter?”

“I told him his sister Nonie had come back, that's all.”

“What happened when John saw her?”

“Oh, I didn't have him meet her that night. He's more confused at night, and I thought it was best for them to meet the next morning.”

“When he met her the next day, did he say right away that he didn't think it was Nonie?”

“Yes, but you have to understand, John doesn't always make a lot of sense. He could have said the same thing even if it was Nonie.”

“So you didn't pay any attention to him? Even though you had your doubts?”

“I didn't say that. The next morning when she finally came downstairs in the middle of the morning, I took one look at her and said to myself, something isn't right here. That woman is not kin.”

“You didn't wonder what she was up to?”

“Of course I did, but I didn't know how to ask. It's so strange having somebody in your house that seems to know you and everything about you, but you don't know them at all.”

“Adelaide, you're not making any sense. Why would you let this woman stay in your house if you suspected she wasn't your daughter, and then after she got killed, why go to the expense and pomp and circumstance of having her buried?”

She looks plain miserable. “I don't have an answer for you. I didn't know what to do. I wanted it over with, that's all.”

“You could have called me.”

“I didn't think of it. It seemed like a family problem.”

“Or like you wanted to get her buried so nobody would know that she wasn't Nonie. Is that what happened?”

“No, it wasn't like that. After she died, I thought it would be easier if we pretended she was who she said she was.”

At that moment, Skeeter stumbles into the room bare-chested, wearing pajama bottoms. “What's going on? Where's everybody at?”

“I'm talking to your mamma right now. Charlotte and your daddy are in the kitchen. Maybe you want to go in there.”

He yawns. “That's right. I got to get me some coffee.”

Adelaide jumps to her feet. “I wonder how John's doing?” She heads for the kitchen, and I hear her say in an overly cheerful voice, “What's going on in here?”

I follow her into the kitchen. I have plenty more to get straight with Adelaide, but right now I want to get her kids' reaction to my news.

“Charlotte, now I need to talk to you, Billy, and Skeeter,” I say.

Charlotte is staring at her mother “What's happened?” she says.

“I'll tell all of you at the same time,” I say.

Adelaide meets my eyes. She looks defeated. “I'll take John upstairs,” she says. “Maybe he'll take a nap.”

“I don't want a nap. Let's go somewhere.”

“All right, let's go upstairs and get ready to go out,” Adelaide says.

He smiles in anticipation and follows her.

“What's going on?” Skeeter says.

“I'll tell you in a minute,” I say. “I need to get Billy in here.” I go out front and find Billy and Maria Trevino talking on the front steps, looking comfortable with each other.

When we're settled around the kitchen table, I say, “I went looking for information about what your sister was up to before she came here, and it turns out the woman who was here was not your sister. Nonie is alive and living in Jacksonville.”

Charlotte's mouth falls open. “Nonie's alive? Are you sure?”

“I talked to her myself.”

“What the heck? Who's the woman who came here then?” Skeeter says.