“Richard played around with both of ‘em at one time or another. Then he brought ’em over here and the trouble started. I guess it appealed to his sense of humor. Two screwed-up sisters and two screwed-up brothers. I remember him saying that one time. Nola thought it was funny as hell.”
“Did anybody ever ask Jonelle what became of her sister?”
“She didn’t know either. That’s what she told the people that investigated the fire. Me, I didn’t give a damn. Good riddance, we all thought. Then Jonelle moved away too.”
“And she and Jeffords landed in Taos.”
“Apparently so.”
“And ended up together.”
“I guess that proves some damn thing. Fairy tales come true or something. Jonelle always had this crazy lust for Charlie Jeffords. But Nola Jean always took Jonelle’s men away from her. It came as natural as breathing. She tortured Charlie Jeffords and drove that poor bastard nuts. Diddled and teased him and never even gave him a good look at it.”
The telephone rang. He didn’t want to answer it. But we both knew who it was, and he picked it up just as the recording started to kick in.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, he’s here now.”
Then Crystal told him something that made his mouth hang open.
He held the phone away from him, looked at me, and said, “I’ve got to take this.”
“Sure.”
“Shut that door but don’t go away. We’re not done yet.”
I stepped back into the front room and closed the door. I couldn’t hear anything. Crystal seemed to be doing all the talking.
I looked down at the desk, at Eleanor’s letter. Picked it up and put it in my pocket.
What’s a little federal crime at this stage of the game, I thought, and I walked out.
I crossed the street and stood in the dark place between buildings. I watched his storefront and I waited. He seemed to be back there a long time. When he did come out, he came slowly. He came to the front door and out onto the sidewalk.
“Janeway,” he called up the empty block.
I didn’t move.
“Janeway!”
He jumped in his truck and drove away, leaving his door wide open. I let him get well ahead. I wasn’t worried. I knew where he was going.
53
There were three keys in the envelope—one for a car, two for more substantial locks. I put them in my pocket, got out of the car, and started across country through the woods.
It was easy going. The ground was damp but hard: the underbrush sparse. I followed my flashlight till the trees began to thin out and a clear beam of moonlight appeared to light the way. I saw the Rigby house in the distance as I approached from the east, moving along the edge of the silver glade. Dark clouds drifted across the moon in wisps, and the meadow seemed to flutter and undulate in the stillness around it. The light from the kitchen window stood out like a beacon, the darkened printshop squatting like a bunker behind it. I stayed at the edge of the trees, skirting the dark wall to blend in with the night. As I walked, the printshop seemed to drift until it slowly covered the light from the window like an eclipse. When the blackout was full, I turned and walked straight across the meadow.
I came up to the back of the shop and eased along the outer wall. The clouds had covered the moon and again the night was full. The glow from the kitchen was a muted sheen at the comer of the shop, a suggestion of radiance from some black hole. I turned the other way, circled the building from the south, and came to the front door at the corner where there was plenty of dark cover.
I was looking into the front yard and, beyond it, down the side of the house. Rigby’s truck was gone but Moon’s was
