El Gavilan (42 page)

Able felt hands on him again. He cocked back a fist, then saw Deputy Linda Rhodes. Linda said, “Boss, please—take it easy, boss. They’re all here now, getting help. Let’s get you in the men’s room. Deputy Nelson’s here to help. We brought you a change of clothes. We’ll see they take good care of Amos and your family. TV crews are already outside. Come on, boss, let us get you cleaned up. You can’t be seen looking like this.”

* * *

Luke Strider was parked two blocks from Diego Ortiz’s house. He walked toward the house, his gun in his waistband, hidden by the tails of his untucked shirt.

Luke saw the sheriff’s cruisers and the SWAT van parked in front of the Ortiz house and slammed his hand into a tree trunk. He watched as Ortiz was led out in cuffs, surrounded by a dozen armored Horton County deputy sheriffs and SWAT team members. And Tell Lyon was there with them, holding Ortiz by one arm.

* * *

It had taken hours for them to break their suspect down; to get him talking. It was half past six now.

Unbelieving, Tell said, “What did you just fucking say?”

Tell was down close in to Diego Ortiz’s face. Diego was cuffed to a chair bolted to the floor. His legs were chained to the chair too. The interrogation room reeked with the sweat of all the deputies crowded in behind Tell and Russell Kane. There were fifteen in all; probably a sixth of Horton County’s full complement.

“It was Walt Pierce,” Diego said. “He was the one who put me up to killing Able Hawk. To killing
you.
Now, you going to take care of my mother, right? You gonna take care of my sister and see they have help, right? I don’t want them turning into
putas
.”

“You sign a statement, and I’ll see they have all the help they need,” Tell said. He looked over at Russell Kane and shook his head. “Do you fucking believe this?”

“Only because I heard it,” Kane said. He gestured at a fellow deputy. “Get the paperwork going. Get this cocksucker’s statement signed. Then get a judge. Figure me and the chief got us some arrest warrants to obtain.” Kane said that last with some relish.

Tell shook his head and said, “You do that, Russ. And tell this crew of yours to keep their mouths zipped on what we’ve got now. Let’s do this pristinely and not tip our hand. I’ve just got word from an officer of mine that one of Pierce’s own men is ready to flip. Ready to testify that one of his fellow deputies confided to him that the deputy raped and killed those women with the assistance of Walt Pierce. We’ve got that bastard nailed down good and tight now.”

Russell Kane said, “Agreed. And my people will keep the secret. All I’m saying is we better go in with an army, it comes time to arrest these two. They don’t strike me as surrender material.”

“That’s why we keep our mouths shut and take them down at a time and place of our choosing,” Tell said. “We’ll do it when they’re off duty, and do it simultaneously, if we can swing it. And we do it far from their fucking headquarters. We don’t want to spark a range war.”

“Agreed,” Russell said.

“Good.” Tell waved, backing away.

Kane frowned. “Where you headed, Chief? We’ve got a shitload of work ahead of us.”

“You see to it, would you, Russell? I’ll be there for the big bad end, when we take those two down, but right now, I’m overdue at the hospital. I want to check in on Hawk.”

* * *

It was a few minutes past seven when Tell found Sofia. She was sitting in a waiting room chair. Evelia was cuddled up asleep on her lap. The little girl was holding a stuffed horse and monkey in her arms. Sofia nodded at Tell.

Tell sat down next to her, said softly, “Any news, Sofia?”

“Luisa’s baby is a girl. Luisa’s mostly fine, although her blood pressure is still quite high.”

“And Amos?”

“Still in critical condition. He was shot in one lung, one kidney and in the stomach. Those are the worst wounds. Many of his ribs are broken. They think the bullets that hit him, most of them, anyway, probably first deflected off the car and the pavement, or else it would have been worse. He’s also shot in the arms and legs and hips. But those aren’t life threatening.”

“Able,” Tell said, “is he with Amos?”

She blinked. “Able left an hour ago … he said he had an important meeting. He was going to have to try and borrow one of his former deputy’s cruisers to keep the appointment, he said.”

Tell narrowed his eyes. “Appointment where? With whom?”

“I don’t know. He just said he was going to stop in and see how his deputy, Mr. Marshall, was doing. Then he had to be somewhere at eight. He said he would try to be back by ten.”

“I can’t believe he left Amos like this,” Tell said.

Sofia nodded sadly. “Able said he felt useless. He said that sitting here, he was doing nothing, but out there, with his skills, he might at least accomplish something.”

“We already caught the one who did this,” Tell said. “He’s already under arrest. I came to tell Able that.”

“Then I really wish that I knew where he is. I know he would want to know.”

Tell patted her arm and walked to the nurses’ station. A bleary-eyed black nurse looked up at him, then at his nameplate, and frowned. Tell said, “I need to know which room Troy Marshall is in.”

The nurse told him, her tone grudging.

Tell checked his watch as he walked fast down the hall: a bit past seven thirty.

Troy Marshall looked up sharply and frowned. “Hey, Chief,” he said. “You’re cutting it close aren’t you?”

“Come again?”

“You’re supposed to be meeting with Able at the ballpark at eight.” He frowned suddenly. “Jesus, you didn’t get the e-mail?”

“What e-mail?”

He told Tell about the note sent to Shawn that Troy had found and forwarded to Tell’s wife, Patricia.

“I never got that note.”

Troy Marshall cursed. “
Fuck
,” he said.

Tell said, “Where’s Shawn’s laptop? I’d like to see the original note Able sent me.”

Troy cursed again. “Fucking Walt Pierce confiscated that computer about one minute after I forwarded the e-mail to your wife.”

Tell said, “What are you saying? You saying that Pierce has access to that note?”

“Yeah, he—”

Troy Marshall looked on, confused, as Tell Lyon sprinted from his room.

* * *

Able checked his dash clock—7:42
P.M.
His cell phone’s alert light was flashing red. He punched in the password to access his voicemail.

It was Russ:

“We’ve got the fucker who shot your grandson, boss. Got him in custody. Tell Lyon somehow had identification on the little cocksucker. Lyon went along for the arrest and got a confession. I shouldn’t do this, but I wanted you to hear it from me, first. Boss, the kid, one of these Mexican gangbangers, said he was sent after you on orders from Walt Pierce. We’re working on getting a warrant for Pierce and his deputy, Luke Strider, now.”

Able closed his phone. He’d hug Tell Lyon when he saw him. Then he might shoot him.

No way was he letting Pierce or his stooge see jail time.

So Able would go find Walt Pierce and kill him.

Walt would almost certainly burn Able down just out of spite—for not dying to plan.

And if Amos pulled through, he couldn’t leave the hospital just to go to a jail cell on forgery charges once Walt ratted them both out. Able
couldn’t
let that happen. And Walt had gotten Amos shot; almost gotten Evelia killed. God only knew what living through what she had—and what she had
seen
happen to Amos—would do to Evelia.

Hawk palmed into the lot of the ballpark, tires crunching gravel. The lot was empty and dark.

Able turned off his engine and slipped his gun into his waistband—a precaution born of routine. Hands in pockets, he walked slowly out to the center ball diamond.

In the dark, from the other end of the parking lot, Able could again hear the crunch of tires on gravel. Something very heavy was pulling in.

Able figured Tell must have driven his big old SUV to their appointment.

THEN

The lights were all off at Seth’s place as Tell rolled curbside across the street and doused the headlights on his SUV. He slid out quietly, his gun in hand and pressed to his leg to obscure its view. The house looked abandoned. But then Tell smelled wood burning. He saw a flicker coming from the backyard.

Creeping around the edge of the house, he saw Seth sitting in a chair on his back porch next to a small fire set up in a patio stove. Empty beer bottles were littered around his feet. Seth had another longneck in his hand. Drunk as he was, Seth still seemed fairly alert. “That you, Tell?”

Tell stepped out, his gun pointed at Seth’s head. “How did you know it would be me?”

“You’re the only one who ever visits me.” Seth’s voice cracked and he said, “I’m sorry, Tell. When you told me your family was leaving ahead of you for the holidays …” A long, deep sigh and a shrug. “Anyhow, I figured it was Marita’s grief my conscience would have to cope with. Your daughter’s grief for losing
you
. Them changing travel plans? I couldn’t foresee that. You know?”

Tell stepped into the firelight. “How
could
you?”

“The money was unreal, Tell. It’s been going on a long time. I was just smarter than some others. Didn’t flaunt it. Didn’t rush out to buy the swanky new pad or some goddamn Escalade or Navigator. How’d you figure it out?”

“Nothing brilliant,” Tell said. “Your boss, Angel, he kept copious notes.”

“Christ, I’m surprised he could construct a sentence,” Seth said. Another long pause. “You’ve come to kill me?”

“I want to. But I suppose I mean to arrest you. Put you on trial for what you’ve done. Given your day job, we both know what’s waiting for you inside. Maybe I can kid myself that’s even sweeter than putting you down myself.”

Seth smiled sadly. “I owe you, Tell. Seems right I do at least a little something right.”

It happened fast: Seth’s hand moved to his lap.

From under untucked shirttails, Seth pulled out his service weapon.

Firelight on that matte finish; Tell saw it was a gun.

Tell hesitated firing just an instant—stunned that Seth pressed the gun under his own chin. Tell held his fire the extra half-second Seth required to pull the trigger on himself.

Extracts from the
New Austin Recorder
:

Vale County Sheriff’s Death Ruled a Suicide

By Barbara Ruskin

New Austin Recorder

Staff Writer

Horton County coroner Casey Parks has found in favor of suicide in the death of Vale County sheriff Walter Pierce.

Shortly before taking his life with a single shot to the head with his own service weapon, Pierce had become a suspect in the rape-murder of Thalia Ruiz, 35, a New Austin single mother. Ruiz’s body was found in a field adjacent to the New Austin Kid’s Association ball diamonds …

… New Austin police chief Tell Lyon, citing inadvertently filmed footage of the dumping of Thalia Ruiz’s body—footage that he uncovered—confirmed Vale County sheriff’s deputy Luke Strider and Pierce as his primary persons of interest in the rapes and deaths of Ruiz and three other area women …

… Strider’s body was found in his red Dodge Ram pickup truck—a truck seen in the film found by Chief Lyon. The Ram was found alongside an access road to the New Austin Kid’s Association’s ball diamonds’ parking lot.

… According to Coroner Parks, Strider was killed with a single blow to the head with a sledge hammer found at the scene. “Death would have been instantaneous,” Parks told the
Recorder.

… Chief Lyon told the
Recorder
, “The pressure was on the two of them—Strider and Pierce—and they apparently cracked … had some kind of falling out.

“We had secured evidence against Pierce and in fact had one of his own deputies lined up to testify against him in the rape and murder of Ms. Ruiz,” the chief continued. “We’re forced to conclude there was some sort of argument and Pierce evidently killed Strider. Then Pierce walked out to that field where the two of them had dumped Thalia Ruiz’s body. On nearly the same spot where Thalia Ruiz was found, Walt Pierce took his own life.”

FIFTY EIGHT

Tell slowed as he neared the park. Springsteen’s “My Father’s House” was playing low on the radio. Tell saw the silhouette of a big pickup truck idling next to a white house that backed up to the ball fields. Only Dodge Rams were built to that over-the-top scale. Tell saw the glow of a cigarette butt jitter once on its way from a mouth to an ashtray and back to a mouth again.

He turned left onto a side street, away from the ball diamonds. He could see the lights from the fields’ parking lot, but not much else.

He parked curbside, doused the lights and took out his riot gun. He tossed his white hat onto the front seat and looked down at his tan uniform, cursing Patricia for having talked him out of the black one now that stealth was required. Tell closed the door to his cruiser as quietly as he could and then walked behind the open yards of three houses so he could double back to where the pickup was parked.

Tell crossed the street and walked back in the direction of the entranceway of the ballpark. He slid up close to a darkened, white house. He crept around behind an ornamental shrub planted at the corner of the house. Tell peered around the edge of the evergreen at the pickup truck. It
was
a Dodge Ram, and it was red. The license plate was the same as the one issued to Luke Strider.

Tell figured if Strider was watching the perimeter, Walt might already be lurking on the diamonds somewhere.

A dog barked a few backyards due west. Tell hoped the neighbors and Luke would take it for harmless yammering. The moon was in quarter phase; not much ambient light. A row of pines still obscured the ball fields’ parking lot from view.

Tell looked at his sidearm, weighing it. Then he looked at his riot gun. Both were too much. He didn’t necessarily want to kill Luke Strider in cold blood. He wanted to arrest him. Make Strider face jail in some institution where he’d receive all the special treatment accorded a bent ex-cop. He also had to assume Walt Pierce was close by, so he couldn’t be too noisy. Tell wanted to retain some element of surprise before confronting Pierce.