Zeph Undercover (27 page)

Bartelett looked up, pain carving lines in his face that hadn’t been there a moment before. “If only,” he choked. “I’d give anything if that were the worst of it.” He clasped his hands together in front of him and the knuckles showed white. “She—her mind—” He took a deep breath and said in a low voice that scarcely carried across the car. “She’s in the early stages of premature senile dementia. Her behavior is—unpredictable, to say the least.

“My assignations, Granger, have been with her doctor.”

“You’ve been paying out a lot of money lately. At regular intervals,” Zeph making his voice hard. “Blackmail?”

Bartelett’s mouth twisted. “The so-called blackmail payments are for medical services. And I came to Stone’s Crossing exactly because life here is quieter, although not as much simpler as I had hoped. No one,” he added wearily, “knows about this, although I don’t suppose I can keep it a secret much longer. I was afraid you were here because of her.”

In spite of himself, sympathy for the guy’s plight twisted through Zeph. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a criminal, of course, but at this point it didn’t seem all that likely. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

After a few moments, Bartelett shifted in his seat. “Well. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that. What is it about you, Granger?”

“Sometimes a stranger’s the best one to talk to. I won’t be repeating this, if it makes you feel any better.”

“Doesn’t matter. Everyone will know eventually. I only want to make things as easy for Margaret as I can.” He slumped back in his seat. “I made up the story about the prowler because I wanted you to meet Margaret without any preconceived ideas.” He looked at Zeph expectantly.

“She seemed—almost normal. Mostly,” he added reluctantly.

“Exactly. Only mostly. And I don’t want her to face…” He choked and looked away, his throat working.

Well, double hell. So much for the blackmail theory. He’d tell Frank to check that the recipient was Bartelett’s doctor, but he’d bet the man had told the truth.

He had to quit reading Agatha Christie. This case was turning into
And Then There Were None
. Maybe Rodriguez. So far, he had been an invisible man. Zeph hadn’t found out a damned thing about him. It was as if he didn’t exist outside of Blanton’s Builders. He didn’t do anything, belong to anything, have any charge cards. He had a social security number which appeared to check out, so he didn’t look like an illegal. Except for Mabel, no one ever mentioned him. He’d scarcely been in town since Zeph had arrived. All he did was work and pay taxes. Zeph didn’t believe it for a minute. Somehow, he had to get a handle on the man.

Chapter 13

Allie finished up with her last patient just as Zeph arrived at the clinic. From the scowl that greeted her, she figured he’d made no progress. “Rough day?” she asked, drying her hands.

“Fruitless. Bartelett’s not involved and Rodriguez is a complete cipher. The only person he talks to is Mabel, apparently.”

“He’s always been kind of a loner. Before I forget, Monty called. He says Wend wants to talk to us. To ask a favor,” she said and looked up as the door opened. “Hello, Dad.”

Her father nodded a greeting. “What does Seldon want?”

“Don’t know. But does it matter?” Allie said. “He’s got a lot of nerve, asking for favors after he shot at us. I don’t think so.”

“We should go,” Zeph said. “He might tell us something useful.”

Allie snorted. “He probably just wants to yell at you because he got arrested. I can’t imagine that idiot knows anything. You’d think he’d have learned something about the wages of sin from his brother’s example.”

“Doubtful,” her father said. “None of the Seldons ever had the most rudimentary vestige of ethics. I’m not sure he would have realized dealing drugs would get him in trouble.”

“I’d say you’re right,” Zeph said. “He puts it all down to bad luck. But I don’t think he’s going to yell. Not if he wants us to help him.”

When the deputy ushered Zeph and Allie into the Stone’s Crossing jail cell block, a grim room that held two cells on either side of a central hallway, Seldon rolled off the cot and came to clutch the bars and smile at them. “Hey, you came. Thanks. You okay, Allie?”

“Yes, Wendover, I’m fine. No thanks to you, you idiot.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, Allie. I wouldna hurt you for nothing. I dint know you were anywhere close. I’m real ashamed of the way I acted.” His gaze swerved away from Allie.

“I don’t blame you,” Zeph said. “No one likes to be seen in a panic.”

“You got that right. I ain’t never been scared in the woods before.” He puffed out his thin chest. “It was them two guys in the boat. Damned—’scuse me, Allie—real hard cases, both of ’em.”

“How in the world did you ever get mixed up with them?” Allie asked.

“They ain’t friends, that’s fer sure. One of ’em called me, said he’d knew Lander up in the state prison and he needed some help. So I helped him, and look what it got me.” He scratched under his arm and sank back onto the cot. “Don’t hardly seem fair, trying to help someone and get put in jail for it. Anyway, Jed Huskins—he’s the sheriff over in Card county,” he added for Zeph’s benefit, “—said they was wanted. Somethin’ about a murder charge.”

“At least he didn’t take you.”

“I din’t have nothin’ to do with it. You can take that to the bank.” He raised a tortured gaze to Allie’s. “But that’s what I wanted to talk to you and Zeph about, Allie.”

Allie frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“He’s goin’ to extra—extra—something me and take me, too. And I din’t kill no one. I been real careful since Lander went to prison. No way do I want to end up there. But that sheriff is thinkin’ I’m guilty.”

“Thinking and proving are two different things, Seldon,” Zeph said. “If you’re not guilty, you probably don’t need to worry.”

Wendover snorted. “Tell that to Lander.”

Allie bit her lip to keep from pointing out that Lander had been guilty as charged.

“See, the thing is, Allie,” Seldon said. “I need me a lawyer, a real good one, not like that dumb Public Defender that got Lander sent up.”

She didn’t want to hear this. He was going to ask her to get her father to defend him. Even if she wanted to, she doubted she could pull that off. “Well, I—”

“I don’t like to ask, but you’ve always been nice to me, and you’re real good with animals. And Zeph knows how to do stuff.”

“True, but I don’t see what you want here,” Allie said.

“I want you and Zeph to sell off the animals and the farm so I have enough money to hire me a good lawyer. And take care of the horses until they sell. You could maybe haul them down to the clinic? I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”

A lot! It would take months to clean out a mess like that. Hard on the heels of that shock came the realization that this was the answer to her prayer. She’d said she’d do anything to get those poor horses away from that place. This was her chance. But… “It’ll take forever to clean the place up, Wend,” she said.

“Aw, I don’t expect you to clean ever’thing up. Sell the animals and maybe pack up the personal stuff in the house. There ain’t much. Sell the place as is and fast. It won’t bring much, but I was gonna lose it for taxes pretty soon, and this way I’d get a little money and mebbe not spend the rest of my life in jail.” He gave Allie a pleading look. “Please?”

“Well…”

“I figured you might take like ten percent on the sales and you wouldn’t steal everything, like a lot of people I know.”

“You need a better class of friends, Seldon,” Zeph said.

“You’re the only ones I can trust, Allie. You and Zeph.”

Did she have a choice? She looked at Zeph again, at his expressionless face, and couldn’t tell what he thought. Well, the heck with it. She could list the place with a realtor in Sacramento as well as he could, and those horses… “Yes, I’ll do it, Wend.”

“What about the dogs?” Zeph demanded.

Allie had been trying not to think about the dogs. Turning those two into good canine citizens didn’t seem likely, and putting down healthy animals hurt too much to consider.

“Already gone.”

“What happened?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Started goin’ after the horses. I shot ’em.”

Allie flinched. More confirmation that some people shouldn’t be allowed to have animals. The poor dogs probably had been starving. She forced her mind away from the subject. “How many horses are left?”

“Five.”

“Anybody taking care of them today?”

Wendover shook his head. “Din’t have nobody to ask.”

“Hell. Come on, Allie. We’d better get out there tonight.”

Torn between pity and exasperation, and surprised at Zeph’s about face concerning animals, she followed. “We’d better take my truck out there. With the trailer. Just in case.”

****

Allie whipped around the last curve and turned into Seldon’s driveway. Zeph swallowed a smile. He didn’t even flinch at her driving any more. “Would you have agreed to do this if it weren’t for the horses?”

“I don’t know. I’ve known Wend ever since I can remember, but we’ve never exactly been friends.”

“And you’re not exactly doing it for him either, are you?”

She smiled. “Got me there. I said before I’d do anything to get those animals away from him. Now’s my chance.”

“How are we even going to find all the horses? It’s dark, and I didn’t see any sign of outside lights.”

“We’ll use the headlights. And I’ve got a couple of flashlights in the back.”

Her voice shook, and Zeph touched her shoulder in reassurance. “Worried about what we’ll find?”

“Of course.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll handle it.”

Her mouth curved. “Thanks.” She stopped the truck in the middle of the yard, with the lights trained on a cluster of pens. Two horses crowded close to the gates of the nearest corral. “Let’s start with them.”

Zeph grabbed a flashlight and investigated the water troughs. “All dry.” He found a dilapidated hose and filled the tanks while Allie pitched hay. The hungry horses jostled to get at the food.

“You’re getting good at this,” she said, moving to the next corral. “We make a good team. Here’s number three. Can you find the other two while I finish here?”

“Sure.”

He picked his way through the cluttered yard toward the corrals dimly visible along one side of the barn.

“One more over here, Allie,” he shouted.

She came to his side. “Ugh. What died?”

Zeph edged around the corner, playing the light back and forth ahead of him. “Geezus H,” he muttered, backing away. “That damned Seldon threw his dogs on the manure pile. I’ve got to say, honey, that he is one worthless waste of space.”

“I’m not going to argue. I want to feel sorry for him, I’ve always wanted to, because he’s had a hard life and he’s such a pathetic little weasel, but that’s over the line. Come on. Let’s finish up and get out of here. We can deal with the mess tomorrow.”

Zeph looked at the sagging barn. “The fifth horse must be in there.”

“I’ll get it. Stay here.”

“No way,” he said, and started after her.

“I mean it. I don’t think this place is safe, and I want you outside to rescue me.” She flashed him a quick grin and darted inside the dark building. The grin faded as she tiptoed deeper into the dilapidated building, sending the flashlight beam darting ahead of her.

A huge horse, a pitch black giant, loomed out of the dark in the first stall. “You must be part Clydesdale, you’re such a big boy.” She opened the stall door, keeping up the flow of meaningless talk. Thank goodness the horse wore a halter. “Come on, old boy. Let’s get you out of here.”

He came along willingly enough, and she’d started to breathe more easily when somewhere deep in the shadows of the barn, an unseen creature made a scuffling noise and knocked over something that fell with a loud clang. The horse bolted and lurched against the barn wall. Allie’s heart nearly stopped at the creak of rotten old wood giving way. The wall began to bow outward. The horse whinnied, a thin, shrill scream that tore the night, and began to back toward the safety of his stall.

An old feed sack lay just inside the door. She grabbed it and tried to whip it over the plunging horse’s head. Suddenly Zeph was by her side, grabbing the sack, reaching higher than she could, blindfolding the horse. He stepped aside to whack the broad rump.

The horse shot forward as the overhead beams began to fall and Allie ran, stumbled, grabbed a handful of mane, let the horse tow her out into the yard, scarcely aware of what was happening. “Zeph,” she screamed, her mind blank with horror that he’d been trapped in the collapsing barn.

“Right here, honey,” he answered close behind her. “I grabbed the horse’s tail and let him pull me clear. Glad you told me that story about getting horses out of a burning barn.”

“My God,” Allie said when she’d stopped the horse and looked back at the remains of the barn. “My dear God,” she said and started to shake.

Adrenaline reaction. Zeph had a little case of the shakes himself now that the fun was over. He put an arm around her. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “We’re okay. And you were right. That barn wasn’t safe.”