'Yeah. What else,' Denton said, still looking at whatever attracted him outside. 'It's the same oval shape. One of those merged-in trifocal grinds.'
'Let's go back to where we started,' Leaphorn said. 'Get back to that day you asked me if I would look for your wife. See if I could find what happened to her, anyway. And I said I would if you wouldn't lie to me. You've been lying to me, so I'm quitting. But I'd still like some straight answers out of you.'
Denton had turned away from the window. 'Lying about what?' The bright backlighting from the window made it impossible for Leaphorn to read his expression, but the tone was hostile.
'About the maps, for starters. McKay wasn't trying to sell you a location in the Zuni Mountains. His was on Mesa de los Lobos. Then there's the circumstances of how you shot him. He wasn't just leaving when that happened. He was—'
'What makes you think that?'
'McKay was a sort of fancy dresser. He wouldn't have been walking out of here without his expensive leather jacket, which was hanging on that chair over there with no bullet hole in it, and no blood.'
Denton walked over and sat behind his desk, studying Leaphorn. He shrugged. 'So what?' he said. 'Whether he was leaving, or just getting ready to leave.'
'Then there's the gun. Big, clumsy long-barrel thirty-eight revolver. He wouldn't have been carrying a gun like that in the pocket of his jacket. It wouldn't fit anyway. Hell of a job to get it in your pants pocket. Or out of them.'
Denton shrugged again. 'You're sounding like a damned lawyer.'
'Peggy McKay says he didn't have a gun.'
Now Denton leaned forward. 'What are you saying? You saying I just shot the bastard down and planted the gun on him? Like you police sometimes do?'
'Something like that. Am I close?'
A long minute of silence followed that question. Leaphorn remembered Louisa's warning to him to be careful— that Denton might be a little crazy. He'd always figured Denton to be a little crazy. Who wasn't? But he was conscious of how Denton had moved behind the desk, of desk drawers with pistols in them.
Denton had come to some sort of decision. He exhaled, shook his head, said: 'What you're suggesting is I had that pistol in here all ready to plant on him. You're suggesting I invited him here just to execute him. Right? Now why in the world would I do that? The man's trying to sell me what I've been trying to buy. The location of the Golden Calf.'
'Because,' Leaphorn said, and hesitated. Perhaps it was time for him to lie himself. Time to avoid standing right where Marvin McKay had stood. But he was already past that point. 'Because you already knew where this legendary gold deposit is located. You'd already found it. When you learned McKay knew the location, you didn't want him around spreading the word.'
'Hell,' Denton said. 'That doesn't make much sense, does it? Why would I give a damn if he talked about it? People been talking about finding the Golden Calf for a hundred years. More than that. And nobody would believe them. Why would they believe a con artist? And why would I care anyway?'
'Because at the end of the month, an option you have with Elrod Land and Cattle to buy that land at the head of Coyote Canyon goes into effect,' Leaphorn said. 'If the word gets out before then, the deal can be canceled.'
Denton's swivel chair creaked as he leaned back in it, studying Leaphorn. His hands were out of sight, under the table. Then the left one reappeared. He rubbed the crooked hump of his broken nose. Made a wry face.
'Where'd you hear that?'
'It's public record,' Leaphorn said. 'The contract's tied in with the Bureau of Land Management lease.'
'So what,' Denton said. 'What if you're guessing right? So you think that gives me a motive for murder. Hell, man, I've already been to court on this thing. Found guilty of killing McKay. Already served my time in prison. You know the law. It's over with. No double jeopardy. And what's any of this have to do with finding Linda? That's what you're supposed to be doing.'
'That brings us to one of your deceptions that has a lot to do with finding Linda. Let's see if you'll tell the truth about that.'
Denton produced a hostile grin. 'It's deception now, is it, instead of lie? Well, go ahead. Let's hear it.'
'Before McKay came out here that evening he called his wife. Told her he was bringing you your map and all that. He said that from the questions you'd been asking him, he thought you might be planning to cheat him. Take the map and his information and not give him the fifty thousand. He said in case that happened, he had a back-up plan, insurance, something to make you pay.'
'She told you that, did she?'
'She did, and with nothing to gain from lying about it.
'What was this insurance? This back-up plan?'
'You tell me,' Leaphorn said. 'McKay didn't tell her what he had in mind. So now you tell me what he said. It might help us find your wife.'
Denton said nothing. He looked away from Leaphorn, at the window. When he looked back, the bravado had slipped away. He shook his head.
'I don't know.'
'Come on, Denton, stop wasting our time,' Leaphorn said. 'You know now Linda must have been in McKay's car out at Fort Wingate that afternoon. That would have been just before he came here. Just before he called his own wife and told her about his 'insurance.' Why not quit kidding yourself?'
Denton had lowered his head into his hands, and was shaking it back and forth. He didn't look up. 'Shut up,' he said. 'Shut up, damn you, and get out of here. And don't ever come back.'
