“ Why’d you stop him?” Dani asked. He watched as she raised her left foot, using it to scratch her right ankle.
“ When I give an order to my men back home I want it obeyed. I don’t want excuses and I don’t want no buts. I’m working on your nickel now, so I’m giving you the same respect I want when I’m in charge. No more, no less.”
“ Why, Earl, I think you and I are going to get along even better than I originally thought.”
“ You wanna leave this?” Earl said, looking down at the body.
“ I don’t see why not.” She bent over the body and pulled off the ski mask. Then she picked a wallet and passport out of a back pocket. She stood and smiled at Earl, “There’s a national guard post not too far from here, but I doubt that they’d investigate, even if they heard the shots.”
“ There must have been someone in the hotel, that door didn’t get open by itself. And what about those?” Earl nodded toward the beach bars.
“ They all have someone sleeping in them,” Dani said. “But like the security in the hotel, they’re not a problem.”
“ Why not?”
“ When there’s a shooting in Venezuela, the police round up everybody connected, witnesses included, and throw them all in jail. Then they wait and see who starts talking.”
“ Won’t get many witnesses that way.”
“ Exactly,” Dani said. “When shots are fired people start running. Nobody sees anything. But we should leave anyway.”
Dani sat back as Earl drove back toward the Sans Souci. She marveled at the way he’d sauntered away from Kevin’s dead body. It was no more in his mind than yesterday’s trash. “Want me to drive, or you?” he’d asked. “What about your car?” she’d said. “Stolen. Better that way, no paper trail,” he’d said and she handed over the keys. She usually liked to be in control, but she was at ease with this big man. He was not the lumbering ox she’d first thought. He was smart, cagey, and ruthless. A lot like her.
“ Up ahead,” he said.
“ I see it,” she said. They were on the long strip of road with the pounding surf on their right. And ahead, losing its battle with the sea, surrounded by a crowd, was Kevin Underfield’s Jeep, still lying on its side as the waves washed around it.
“ He was lucky to get out of that alive,” Earl said.
“ He was climbing out the passenger window when I came by,” she said, remembering the way the white moonlight played of off Kevin’s blanched face. It was at that exact moment that she knew he had to go. She’d turned a blind eye to his rabid jealousy, and she could forgive him trying to take a few shots at Bill-he hadn’t succeeded after all-but she could never forgive the fear that radiated from his eyes when he climbed out of that Jeep. A man afraid was a man that would talk.
Earl slowed, then stopped behind a police car with flashing blue lights, telling the world that there was danger here. He leaned his head out the window and asked, “?Que pasa, agui?” What’s going on here?
“ Accidente,” a young policeman answered back.
“?Es alquien lastimado, muerto?” Is anybody hurt, dead?
“ No veo a nadie, nadie esta aqui,” I don’t see anybody, nobody’s here, the policeman said.
“ Esta bien que nadie esta lastimado.” It’s good that nobody’s hurt, Earl said.
“ Claro,” the policeman said, then he moved away and Earl slowly maneuvered around the police cars and the crowd.
“ The Mexican accent was a good touch,” Dani said.
“ I’m from Texas,” Earl said. “It was natural.”
“ Whatever, that policeman will remember a Mexican, not an American,” she said, and she caught him looking in the rearview mirror. “Is he writing down the tag number?”
“ No, but you should turn the car in first thing in the morning, because when they find that body they’re going to be interested in any cars that were seen coming up this road. Especially after they link our undertaking friend to the Jeep back there.”
“ As I said earlier, I’m going to like having you around, Earl.” She was mildly surprised to find out that she meant it. She was more than a little attracted to him. Although she’d known him for only a very short time it was plain that he understood her better than anyone she’d ever met, better than Broxton, her father and even better than her ex-partner, the late Kevin Underfield.
“ I have another room, besides the one you booked for me, at the Dynasty across the way. Room six- fourteen,” he said. “Not that I didn’t trust you, but if things didn’t go as planned, I didn’t want to be where anybody might be looking.”
“ Booked in another name, of course?” she said.
“ Of course,” he said. “I carry a couple extra passports, just in case.”
“ Earl, you continue to surprise me.” Both her admiration and infatuation with the West Texas Sheriff were growing. “But why are you telling me about the other room now?”
“ I was kind of hoping you might like to spend the night there,” he said. His eyes were straight ahead as he took the corner and aimed the car down the road toward the Sans Souci on the right and the Dynasty on the left.
“ I have to see someone at the Sans Souci,” she said.
“ I understand,” he said. There wasn’t a trace of disappointment in his voice. She liked that.
“ I’ll try to cut it short. Can you take a raincheck for a couple of hours?”
“ I’m a light sleeper,” he said.
“ I’ll bet you are.” She laughed, and he turned into the Sans Souci parking lot. She jumped out of the car, tossed him a promising smile and said, “Keep a light on for me.”
“ Count on it,” he said. Then he put the car in gear and in a few seconds was gone.
In the lobby, Dani went straight to the elevator. There were no police, no firemen, no reporters and no milling or panicking people. She punched the up button and looked at her watch. Less than an hour and everything was apparently back to normal. Kudos to the staff, she thought, nothing must be allowed to interfere with the comfort of their guests. The door opened, she stepped in and punched nine. She studied herself in the mirrored wall on the trip up. She was definitely flushed. She was excited and couldn’t wait to get the unpleasant business with George over with so that she could keep her appointment with Earl, the small town sheriff with so many surprises.
She stepped out of the elevator on nine and straightened her blouse. Then she took a deep breath and went to his room. He answered while she was still knocking.
“ Well?” he asked, his deep brown eyes sparking.
“ It didn’t go well,” she said. Then she told him everything.
“ Did you have to kill Kevin?” he asked after she was finished.
“ Yes,” she said.
“ What a cock up!” He waved a newspaper like it was a signal flag. He looked ready to explode. His alluring eyes were glazed and hard.
She wanted to tell him to calm down, but he had every right to be mad. She’d abdicated her responsibility. Turned the job over to someone else. Although she was confident that Earl was up to it, his failure was her failure. It damaged her reputation and by extension, her.
“ What were you thinking of?” He met her straight on, eye to eye. His gaze was fierce and she felt like taking him down a peg or two. She knew she was capable, but she couldn’t do it, because he was right.
“ I wanted to be with Broxton when it happened,” she said.
“ Lord why?” he asked.
“ Two reasons. One, I didn’t want him hurt, and two, it was the perfect alibi. If I was with him every second for the three or four hours leading up to the blast then I couldn’t have done it. I’d be in the clear, but things didn’t happen the way there were supposed to. I didn’t expect Ram to start taking Broxton’s advice right off the bat. He was supposed to be up in that room alone while the two of us were having dinner. And it’s not Earl’s fault. He couldn’t have known Broxton would change rooms on him.”
“ You’re worried about being tied into it?”
