Dust Devil (54 page)

The
bullet plowed through the front window of his small living room,
struck him right between the eyes, bored through his brain to blow
out the back of his head. His body jerked at the impact, slumped
heavily, and the wheelchair toppled over, sending him sprawling.

Minutes
later, Morse’s killer was inside the house, moving swiftly,
sparing hardly a glance for Morse’s pitiful,
crumpled
corpse. In one hand, the killer carried a bulk eraser, which was soon
plugged into a wall and switched on to quickly wipe Morse’s
hard drive and diskettes free of all they had ever contained,
destroying them. When that was finished, the killer unplugged the
bulk eraser, then returned to the dimly lit back porch, where the
diskettes containing the altered records of Lamar’s dope deals
had been left as a precaution. These, the killer concealed between
Morse’s fallen body and the cushion of his wheelchair, to make
it appear as though they had been missed during the search and so not
wiped clean like the rest. Wrapped around the diskettes was a
typewritten note, secured with a rubber band.

Everything
thus satisfactorily accomplished, the killer slipped from the house,
laughing softly at the memory of the message sent earlier.

*****
Gotcha!*****

As
it had not been by Lamar’s killing, the entire town was totally
outraged and horrified by Morse’s murder. That someone would
cold-bloodedly shoot a Vietnam veteran, who had served his country
honorably and with distinction—however unpopular the war—and
been permanently confined to a wheelchair for his brave efforts, was
a crime so heinous that it seemed unimaginable.

Realizing
from the note wrapped around them that the diskettes discovered
beneath Morse’s corpse were of the utmost importance, Sheriff
Laidlaw had hastily summoned one of Morse’s fellow
computer-science instructors, Professor Tully O’Neill. Although
Morse had taught
only
the occasional night class at the college, he and Tully had been
friends nevertheless. Shocked by his colleague’s brutal murder,
Hilly at once offered to do whatever he could to help. Since Morse’s
hard drive was destroyed, Hoag escorted Tully and the diskettes to
the sheriff’s office, where the dispatcher’s computer was
used to read them.

Thirty
minutes later, in a state of high glee, Sheriff Laidlaw and Deputy
Truett drove first to the newspaper building, where they arrested
Renzo for the murders of Lamar Rollins and Morse Novak. Then, after
Renzo was securely locked up in jail, Hoag and Dwayne rode on out to
Sarah’s old farmhouse, where—because she had provided an
alibi for Renzo the night of Lamar’s killing—they
arrested her, too, as an accessory to the murders.

Between
the acting of a dreadful thing

And
the first motion, all the interim is

Like
a phantasma, or a hideous dream.

Julius
Caesar

—
William
Shakespeare

Renzo
was fiercely angry and upset when Hoag and Dwayne brought Sarah back
to the rear of the sheriff’s office, where the jail cells were
located. There was, Renzo knew, little she could do at the moment to
help him, and he didn’t want her to see him locked up the way
he was, his hands still cuffed before him, he having by this time
worked them under his legs, from behind his back. He saw that the
sheriff and deputy must have already told Sarah the charges against
him, because she was crying. But then he spied the handcuffs locked
around her own wrists and realized Hoag and Dwayne had arrested
Sarah, too. He
went
crazy then, swearing and shouting at them that they had better turn
her loose.

“
Why,
we can’t do that, boy.” Hoag grinned wolfishly. “She
alibied you that night you killed dumb ole Lamar. This here whore’s
your accomplice, and that’s a fact. That being the case, I
expect we’d better frisk her real good before we lock her up,
don’t you, Dwayne?”

“
I
reckon so, Hoag,” Dwayne replied, leering and grinning as
broadly as the sheriff.

“
Don’t
you touch her!” Realizing their intention, Renzo went
absolutely berserk even before they put their hands on Sarah lewdly,
slowly and deliberately fondling her breasts through the thin
material of her pink shell, sliding groping fingers over her jeans,
squeezing her buttocks and the soft mound between her thighs. The
whole time, she shook uncontrollably and wept and swayed on her feet
as though she would faint, her face ashen, stricken. “Hoag,
I’ll kill you, you fucking bastard! I’ll kill you! You
and Dwayne are dead men! Do you hear me, Hoag? You’re dead, you
goddamned son of a bitch, Hoag!” Renzo yelled, kicking the bars
of the cell so savagely and repeatedly that the sheriff grew afraid
that they would actually give way from the violent blows.

Because
of that, he and Dwayne at last released Sarah. Then, drawing the
revolver at his hip, Hoag ordered Renzo to get back against the far
wall of the cell. Knowing the sheriff would love nothing better than
to shoot him and claim he had been trying to escape, Renzo furiously
did as he was instructed, his blood boiling, his rage such that he
feared he would explode. Then Dwayne opened the cell door, roughly
pushing Sarah through it.

“
Just
consider her our little present to you, boy,” Hoag declared
before, laughing raucously, he and Dwayne headed for the front
office.

Renzo
cursed the cuffs that bound his wrists, so that he was forced to drop
his arms down over Sarah’s head even to hold her and could do
little more than that as he pulled her trembling body against his,
crooning to her, wishing desperately that he could stroke her hair,
her face, to soothe her, comfort her as she sobbed hysterically
against his chest. He did manage somehow to get them seated on the
hard cot in the cell and her pulled into his lap. He was able that
way at least to rock her like a child until, after a long while, she
finally began to quiet down. He spoke to her then—softly,
gently, although even that couldn’t disguise the vicious note
in his voice, borne of the brutal wrath that consumed him utterly.

“
Sary,
sweetheart, before you got here, did those two bastards... hurt you?”

Knowing
what he was really asking, she shook her head, which was buried
against his chest. Then, after a moment, she whispered tremulously,
“But, oh, Renzo! They—they would have, if they hadn’t
been scared I’d... I’d tell Bubba.”

A
short, harsh, mocking laugh escaped from him at that. Anger and hurt
that he hadn’t been able to protect her, that she had been
forced to turn to Bubba, assailed him mercilessly. “My God! I
never thought I’d live to see the day when I was grateful to
Bubba Holbrooke, glad you had gone out with him!” Swearing,
tightening his arms around her, Renzo took her mouth savagely with
his, as though to reassert his own claim on her, hating what she
had
endured because of him, the way she quivered and whimpered in his
embrace even as her lips clung to his, yielded pliantly to the deep
invasion of his tongue.

“
Oh,
Renzo, what’s going to happen to us?” she asked fearfully
after a long moment.

“
I
don’t know.” His voice was grim. “Did they let you
make a telephone call?”

“
No,
you?”

“
No.
But sooner or later, they’ll have to, Sarah. And when they do,
I’ll get some outside help into this town. That’s what
Hoag and Dwayne are afraid of, I know—that I’ll drag my
high-powered friends in Washington here. And I will. So don’t
you worry,
cara.
We’re
not totally alone, without any resources. I’ve got money and
connections both. This town isn’t going to railroad us through
any kangaroo court and into prison! I’ll see to that, I swear!”

In
the end, Sarah and Renzo discovered that they did, after all, have
friends in town, too, when Liz, her fiery redhead’s temper in
full force, her grey eyes snapping, was escorted by the sheriff into
the small cell block.

“
Get
out, Hoag!” Liz snarled contemptuously. “I’ve got
the right to consult with my clients privately—and I don’t
want to see your fat ass back here until I call you to tell you I’m
done! No, don’t even
think
about
giving me any of your ignorant lip! Because I’ll tell you what,
Hoag. You’d best not forget that my father-in-law is Kingston
Delaney and that I work for him and Judge Pierce—not to mention
Wade Langford, Drew’s daddy. So you get smart with
me,
Hoag,
and they’ll all be down on you like ducks on a june bug. You
won’t even know what hit you! Now, get on out of here!”
Grumbling heatedly under his breath, Hoag stamped off, and Liz turned
to Sarah and Renzo. “Sarah, I came the minute I heard. What can
I do to help?”

“
Tell
us what evidence Hoag’s got, number one, that’s led him
to believe he can see me convicted of two brutal homicides I didn’t
commit!” Renzo exclaimed before Sarah could respond.

“
He’s
got a set of diskettes—recovered from the crime scene. On ’em,
they have a series of names and dates that make it appear as though
you and Lamar were in cahoots, peddling pot to half this damned town!
My God! Even Parker’s down on the list as having bought grass
from you! Hoag’s talking about calling in the state bureau of
investigation!” Liz went on to explain everything that had
occurred since, concerned when Morse hadn’t reported to work
this morning and unable to reach him via telephone or computer, Renzo
had sent Virgil out to Morse’s house to check on him, and
Virgil had discovered Morse’s body.

Valiantly,
Virgil had attempted to call Renzo, to warn him about what had
happened to Morse. But by then, Renzo had left the newspaper office
and gone over to the courthouse to look up some old records for an
article he was researching, returning only shortly before Hoag and
Dwayne had shown up to arrest him.

“
I’ll
speak to Judge Pierce, see if I can’t schedule a quick
arraignment, so we can get bail set and get you both out of here,”
Liz continued.

Renzo
nodded. “Thanks, Liz. Meanwhile, would you do one other thing
for us? Will you go get Alex out of summer school right now? Tell him
what’s happened and that I said for you to take him up to stay
at Papa Nick’s house until Sarah and I can come for him.”

“
Papa
Nick?” Sarah and Liz exclaimed jointly, startled.

“
Yes,
Sary,” Renzo insisted, in a tone that brooked no argument. “I
want to be sure the boy’s safe—and no offense, Liz, but
it may be that you can’t protect him. And after what Hoag and
Dwayne did in here a little while ago to Sarah, I’ve
just
got
to
be concerned for my son, to be certain he’s in a place where
they can’t somehow get at him.”