'But you're talking to me.'
'I'm worried about Hugger.'
'I think Hugger will be all right,' I said.
'You know something?'
'Almost nothing,' I said. 'But I'm beginning to make some decent guesses.'
'I'm going to keep on staying with him,' Rice said. 'Me and the ten-gauge.'
'Okay,' I said. 'And I'll work on it from the other end.'
'What other end?'
'I'm hoping to figure that out,' I said.
FORTY-TWO
I SAT WITH Becker in his office. The air-conditioning was on and the blades of a twenty-inch floor fan were spinning in the far corner. We were drinking Coca-Cola.
'Two days before Clive was murdered,' I said, 'he learned for certain that he was the father of Dolly Hartman's son, Jason.'
'Learned how?' Becker said.
'DNA test results came back.'
'Hundred percent?'
'Yes.'
'So he's got another heir,' Becker said.
He was rocked as far back as his chair would go, balanced with just the toe of his left foot. He had taken his gun off his belt and it lay in its holster on his desk.
'His will mentions only his three daughters.'
'Suppose if he'd lived longer that would have changed?'
'The timing makes you wonder,' I said.
'There's other timing makes you wonder,' Becker said. 'Kid's about what? Twenty-five?'
'Dolly says she had an affair with Clive early, and then disappeared until Sherry was gone.'
'Slow and steady wins the race,' Becker said. 'You figure one of the daughters scragged the old man to keep him from changing his will?'
'Or all three,' I said.
'Why not pop the kid, Jason?'
'Old man is readily available,' I said. 'And if he included the kid, before they knocked the kid off, then his estate would be in their lives.'
'You like one daughter better than another?'
'Well, that's sort of sticky,' I said. 'I figure Stonie or SueSue would be willing to do it, but would have trouble implementing. I figure Penny could implement all right, but wouldn't be willing.'
'How about our friend the serial horse shooter?'
'Billy Rice came and told me that there's no more security on the horse.'
Becker frowned a little. It was the first expression I'd ever seen on his face.
'Rice is the groom?'
'Yes.'
'Well,' Becker said. 'Been couple months now.'
'I know, but it's a valuable horse, and there's still security on the stable area and on the house. But no one's paying any special attention to the horse. Except Billy, who's sleeping in the stable with a ten-gauge.'
'Case a hippopotamus sneaks in there,' Becker said.
Becker let his chair tip forward. When he could reach the holstered gun on his desk, he tapped it half around with his forefinger so that it lined up with the edge of his blotter.
'So it seems like they're not expecting anyone to try to shoot their horse,' I said. 'Why would that be?'
'Might be that the horse shooter is a Clive,' Becker said.
'And the whole horse shooter thing was a diversion?' I said.
'Except it went on for quite a while before the DNA results came back.'
'How about this?' I said. 'The killer or killers find out ahead of time about the paternity thing. They know Clive is going to have DNA testing done. They put the serial horse shooting in place so that if it turns out wrong, and they have to kill him, it'll look like a by-product of the horse shooting.'
'It would explain why no one seemed to care if the horses died or not,' Becker said.
