“That one,” Walter said, pointing at a 2002 black Isuzu Rodeo. “You have a key?” A few minutes later, after a quick spin around the block to see if the car actually ran, Walter said, “I’ll take it.”
“That’s great,” said Lonnie. “That’s great. Y’all made a great selection.”
“How much?”
“Well now, this particular one here is priced at seventeen, seven-fifty, but I…”
“I’ll take it,” said Walter.
“Seventeen, seven-fifty?”
“Look Lonnie-can I call you Lonnie?”
“Why sure, you sure can, Mister…?”
“I’m in a real big hurry, Lonnie.”
“Un huh.”
“And I just don’t have the time to take care of all the paperwork I know you have to do on a transaction like this.”
“Un huh.”
“So here’s what I’d like to do, if it’s okay with you. I’d like to take this Isuzu, right now, and drive it out of here, and let you do all the paperwork without me.”
“But…”
“No, no,” Walter interrupted him. “I’m aware of how much trouble this puts you to. Believe me, I know. Why, you don’t even know my name, do you? So, I’m going to pay you the seventeen, seven-fifty and I’m going to throw in another two thousand two hundred and fifty just for you.”
“Two thousand two hundred and fifty?” Lonnie P. Meecham was flabbergasted.
“Twenty thousand altogether,” said Walter. “Cash.”
“Twenty thousand?” The kid could hardly swallow properly.
“Give me the keys, Lonnie.”
It’s a straight shot on I-25, about 325 miles, less than five hours, from El Paso to Santa Fe. They would stay there overnight and in the morning, as Walter planned, they would drive the last hundred miles or so, to a small cabin in the middle of nowhere, near the tiny town of Albert, New Mexico.
The fire provided all the heat they needed. The twigs Walter placed under the four heavy logs in the fireplace burst into flame as soon as he touched the match to them. The wood crackled as it burned, hot splinters spitting and bouncing off the screen in front. A large stack of firewood was piled high behind the cabin. Walter knew it had been there for years. The small cabin was pushed into the side of a hill. It overlooked a dirt road winding and bending a full quarter mile from the main road. The cabin was well built and someone had gone to a lot of trouble, once, to make sure it was comfortable in winter. The windows and doors had been carefully insulated sometime after they were installed. The three small space heaters Walter and Harry bought before leaving Santa Fe were plugged in but not turned on. Everything in the place worked. The water, the toilet, the stove, even the small refrigerator under the counter in the kitchen. The cabin had been empty for a long time and it was dirty, dusty. They cleaned it once the fire was going.
Walter remembered the one time he’d been here before. How could he forget? Michael DelGrazo had greeted him. Michael DelGrazo, The Cowboy . It was of course, Leonard Martin, pretending to be the slow-witted Michael. “Can I use your restroom?” Walter had asked him. That always worked, always got him inside. After Michael DelGrazo let him in, he walked back to the small bathroom, opened its window and peered out, looking for something, anything, a sign to tell him Leonard Martin had been there. All the while, he was right there, sitting on the couch in the living room near the front door. He flushed the toilet even though he hadn’t used it and on his way back to the front room, Walter took a good look into the cabin’s only bedroom. He saw nothing remarkable except for the fact there was no bed, only a bedroll stacked against the far wall. No bed, just a closet and a small, three- drawer dresser. Back in the living room, Michael talked about “Mr. Marteenez.” His boss, he said he was. Marteenez. Shit! It was Leonard Martin all along. It still pissed Walter off. He had missed him, missed him completely. He spent more time looking at the cabin than at the man. He’d been made the fool. He stood in front of the warm fire with Harry Levine, thinking, unable to drive the past from his mind. “Now look at me,” he said, half out loud. The cat had become the mouse.
“What?” asked Harry.
“Nothing. Nothing.”
This was the perfect place to put Harry. No doubt about it. Leonard Martin had hidden here for two years. The whole country-Jesus, the whole world-searched for him. Walter was the only one who had found him. And when he did, he didn’t know it. He fell for the Michael DelGrazo act and drove off that day thinking he had not yet seen Leonard Martin. Now, he struggled to keep his attention on the matter at hand. He knew it was a personal risk coming here. He’d replay it all. He was afraid of that. But this was the best place he had ever seen to hide out. This was the place where Harry Levine would be safe. Walter was sure nobody would discover him here.
It wasn’t just Leonard, of course. He couldn’t think of him and not think of Isobel. Isobel was part of it then and part of it now too. He checked before leaving for Europe. Through her organization, The Center for Consumer Concerns, she had handled all the expenses since Leonard left. She paid the taxes, the electricity, the water, everything, and why had she done that? Was it sentimentality? He didn’t know. Somewhere in the back of his mind, behind those heavy metal doors, he wondered if Isobel thought someday Leonard might need to come back. Was that possible? Was he only dreaming? He didn’t know. And what would Leonard say if he could see Walter now, if he could see he had come here, again, this time not to find, but to hide? Where was Leonard Martin? Alive, or dead? Did Isobel know? What Walter didn’t know-couldn’t know-was that Leonard’s last instructions for Isobel told her to pay the bills, keep the place. She did not know why and Leonard didn’t say. What Walter did know, however, was that Leonard Martin had never returned to New Mexico. Not after the day Walter drove up and drove off. Walk on the other side, Conchita Crystal had asked him. What side was more other than Leonard Martin’s?
After dinner Walter and Harry sat outside on the front porch. It was freezing, but they wore the heavy, down-lined jackets they bought back in Santa Fe and they were bundled up against the night air. The cold wind on their faces was compromised by the hot tea they held in their gloved hands. The steam warmed their cheeks. Neither man had seen a sky like this one before. Pitch-black, deep and wide beyond measure, tipping their sense of perspective, forcing them to look upward. With no nearby lights illuminating the horizon, nothing masked the stars. In the distance, only the abrupt absence of a million sparkling lights indicated the demarcation line separating land and sky, planet and space. All those bright shining spots in the highest regions of the night sky-the sheer number of stars they could plainly see-was enough to make both men gawk like teenage boys at the sight of their very first naked girl.
“Harry, I need you to do something while you’re here.”
“You don’t get to see this, do you?-not in a city anyway.”
“The stars?” said Walter. “No. You’re right.”
“Can you just imagine life before electricity? Everyone, everywhere on the Earth saw-this-every day, every time the sun set. It’s no wonder we’re a spiritual species.”
“I need for you to read the document you have, carefully. And I need for you to figure out who would kill to keep it secret. I don’t mean, who wants to keep it quiet. That’s not enough. I mean who would kill for it. That’s a decision you’ll have to make. Maybe it’s a list. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just one.”
“The Kennedys?”
“No,” said Walter. “Not the Kennedys. They sent Sean Dooley. I’m not making a judgment about how much the Kennedy family might want to keep this confession from ever reaching the public. I suppose they have a strong desire. But they sent Dooley and he’s no killer.”
“That’s why you let him go?”
“He wanted the document, and he might have pushed somebody around if he needed to. But he was unarmed and not skilled or experienced enough to beat anyone to death.”
“You know that? How?”
“His hands. Did you see them? No marks. No scars. His fingers were never broken. Same for his face. He’s no fighter. Bust and grab, break and enter maybe. But no fighter.”
“Still, the Kennedys…”
“No, Harry. Sending Sean Dooley, when they were absolutely sure the document would be there, makes no sense, no sense that is if they killed Sir Anthony and McHenry Brown trying to find it. You don’t send a killer to find
