through the old files, to learn about the history of property in the area, he told Marie. But apparently he found the file for the Overstreet Ranch, and discovered that the mineral rights lease signed by their father was for fifty years. That meant that the rights would revert back to the landowner in two more years. The Overstreet sisters didn’t know that. They thought the mineral rights were sold forever.”
“And Cam would get the royalties on all of that coal-bed methane development,” Joe said.
Marie clucked her tongue.
“Were you aware of this scheme?” Joe asked her.
“Well, no. I didn’t find out about that part of it until this morning, when he confessed it to me. I was so damned mad at him. You think you know somebody . . . I’m ethical, Joe,” she pleaded. “Marybeth knows that. That’s why I refused to come to work. I would never take advantage of those two old sisters that way. Cam knew it too, which is why he didn’t tell me.”
And Stuart Tanner knew it, Joe thought. Tanner found it out when he researched the property. Tanner likely had it in the file he delivered to Cam Logue that day.
Marybeth turned back. “Well, Clancy and Helen decided to come and visit Cam. According to Marie, when his parents found out he was going to try to get the ranch back, they wanted to live there, too. No one except Cam knew about the mineral rights yet. Clancy and Helen thought it would be a good place to retire.”
“Damned right,” Clancy said defiantly. “The boy does something right for once in his life, and he didn’t want to share it.”
Joe shot a look at Marie. Her eyes were narrowed on Clancy.
“Please,” Marybeth said. “Let me tell the story.” Clancy snorted, but sat back.
“Marie was telling me that Cam has a brother, Eric. He’s a doctor with the army and he had some really severe problems a couple of years ago, some kind of breakdown. Eric was accused of deliberately hurting some patients. . . .”
“It wasn’t deliberate,” Helen broke in.
“Oh, shut up,” Marie warned, raising the pistol and looking down it at Helen. Helen clamped her mouth tight, but her eyes smoldered.
“He may have hurt his patients because of his sickness,” Marybeth said cautiously, searching for words that wouldn’t inflame either party. “Anyway, Eric’s friend, a male nurse, came with Clancy and Helen in their truck. You may have seen it parked outside. The camper shell with the locks on the outside of it?”
Joe nodded. Jesus.
“That’s how they brought Eric’s friend here. Under lock and key.”
Joe looked at Clancy and Helen now. They didn’t look like monsters. They looked like near-indigent retirees.
“Apparently, the nurse got away from Helen and Clancy. He may have been living on the property, in that shack our girls found, but we don’t know that for sure yet.”
Joe was confused. “Why did you bring him out here?” Clancy and Helen exchanged glances.
“You might as well talk,” Marie told them in a singsong voice. “Or I’ll just have to start blasting away.”
Helen cleared her throat. “Bob showed up at our house in South Dakota unannounced. He said he was looking for Eric. Our son asked that we bring him here.”
“Cam asked that?” Marie said incredulously. “Not Cam,” Helen said. “Eric.”
“What?” Marie’s face was getting red. “Marie, please be calm,” Marybeth said.
“Eric wanted you to bring that piece of filth to our home?” Marie’s voice rose into shrillness. “Where your granddaughter is?”
“Bob’s not that bad,” Clancy interjected. “Hard to understand him when he talks, though.”
“Besides,” Helen added, “he stayed out back and never bothered anyone. He just kept to himself.”
Maybe you ought to shoot them, Joe thought.
“Anyway,” Marybeth said, trying to get control of the conversation, “Eric and Bob showed up here today. They took Cam with them.”
“Eric was here?” Joe blurted.
Joe knew that something must have shown in his face, because both Marybeth and Marie picked up on it.
“Do you know where Cam is, Joe?” Marie asked. Joe looked at her.
“Oh, my God, do you know where he is?”
“I’m very sorry,” Joe said. “Cam is gone. We were too late to save him. Nurse Bob is dead too. We think he may have participated in killing Cam.”
Marie gasped, seemed to hold her breath, then let out a gut-wrenching wail that sent shivers up Joe’s forearms. Marybeth stepped back and covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide.
In mid-scream, Marie turned and raised the pistol, pointed it at Helen, and before Joe could lunge across the room and grab it, Marie pulled the trigger. The hammer snapped on an empty chamber. Joe grasped the pistol with two hands, and Marie let him take it from her. She ran across the room to Marybeth, who held her.
Letting out a long breath, Joe checked the gun and saw that Marie hadn’t racked a shell into the chamber from the magazine. Then he looked at Helen. Her expression hadn’t changed from before, when Marie pulled the trigger. Her eyes were dead, black, reptile eyes, masked by the face of an old woman.
“They got Cam?” she asked. “Yes.”
