and cranny of the basement and the attic, I swear, and there was no gun. Jody, the only way Billy could have gotten hold of a gun is if somebody came into the backyard and dropped one on his chest while he was in the hammock.”
“And that didn’t happen.”
“Right. That’s fantasy.”
“I don’t know what to say. Why would anybody want to kill your-Oh.”
It hit her, of course, that somebody would do exactly that if they wanted to frame Billy.
“Oh, God, Collin. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s enough that you didn’t say bullshit.”
“I wouldn’t. I won’t. Where are you?”
“In the motel in Henderson, waiting to find out what happens next.”
“Do you know where your father is?”
“No. If I did, I’d tell them.”
“Even though you think he didn’t do it?”
“I’m afraid of what he will do if he’s as desperate and angry right now as I suspect he is. He doesn’t have any money. He doesn’t have anything except Mom’s car, and he can’t even refill the gas tank when it runs out, which it probably already has. He’s not a smart guy, Jody. He’s just a physically tough man who runs headlong into trouble, and he’ll probably keep doing that until it kills him. I don’t want it to kill anybody else first.”
“What can I do?”
He said nothing for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t even have called you. I must sound like I’m possessed and I suppose I have been, in a way, for years.”
“That’s okay,” she said gently. “We’re both a little crazy.”
“I called you because I just… needed to.” There was another pause, and then Collin said, “I meant what I said to you last night, Jody.” And then he said, “I’ve got another call coming in. I’d better take it in case it’s about Billy.” A quick goodbye and he was gone. Jody punched a button to see his phone number again and memorized it. Maybe she would never call him, but it made her feel better to think she could reach him.
Jody turned to find her grandfather striding toward her across the grass.
She held the phone against her chest, hoping he wouldn’t ask about the call.
But all he said was, “Would you run down to Red’s house for me, Jody? I’ve called a dozen times, I swear, and all I get is voice mail on his cell and his phone at the house. I’m getting pretty fed up that he hasn’t let us know where he is and what he’s up to. I called Chase and Bobby, and neither of them sent him out of town, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Sure, Grandpa.”
“I’ve got half a mind to go with you and give him what-for.”
“No, no, you stay here. I’ll do it.”
If anything could have struck Jody as funny right then, after her call from Collin, this situation would have. Yesterday she’d been trying to keep her family from walking in on her and Red; tonight she was trying to keep them from walking in on Red and some other woman. As she faced the embarrassing prospect of knocking on his door, she thought: Red? Whoever she is, buddy, she’d better be worth this.
35
IT WAS ONLY a couple of hundred yards to Red’s place, down an incline that put him out of sight of the ranch house and gave both Red and the Linders some privacy from each other. When Jody was small, now and then her grandmother had sent her down to the mailbox at the front gate near the hired hand’s house just to let her run off some energy. Now she walked, not ran, in that direction, mentally working through a list of single women she knew in the county to try to predict who it was going to be. Thinking about Red’s new romance was easier than thinking about Collin’s phone call and all the things it might mean to her, to him, to her family, to a whole lot of people.
It was a beautiful evening on the ranch, fragrant and fresh.
The time was past twilight, with full night closing in.
She’d brought a flashlight with her to show her the way home, but she didn’t turn it on yet.
Red’s house came into view and she halted at the sight of it.
His truck was there and the garage door was still down.
She would just walk up, ring the bell like a proper visitor, and if his woman friend opened the door, she would ask with an innocent air, “Hi. Is Red home? May I speak to him, please?”
At the front door, she rang the doorbell and then knocked.
Nobody answered, though she could hear the television blaring from the bedroom. She rang again and knocked harder, giving them time to get dressed, if that was the problem. After waiting several more minutes with no results, Jody walked around the bushes at the side of Red’s house and went over to the garage. Red’s dog was pacing in front of the closed garage door.
She didn’t try to pet the stray that Red called Mangy Beast.
She looked like a blue heeler with a touch of husky in her, a gray and tan dog that he’d found by the side of the highway near the front gate. Red considered it a major miracle of his life that an actual hunting dog had materialized there, needing a home. She had acted liked a whipped cur for a long time before her curved, bushy tail began to wag when Red went out to feed her.
Mangy Beast wasn’t mean, but she wasn’t friendly, either.
The sturdy, muscular creature with the strange light eyes stood in front of the garage door, staring at her.
“Are you hungry, girl?”
It wasn’t like Red to neglect to feed animals, whether cattle or dogs, and it appeared to Jody that he had committed several of those sins today-neglecting horses, cattle, and his own pet.
On the far side of the garage-where any woman watching from the house couldn’t see her-Jody found an old bucket and put it under the window frame. She stepped up and looked inside a dirty window.
Red’s visitor drove a red Ford Taurus that looked familiar to Jody.
Where had she seen that car before and who was driving it?
She stepped down and walked to the back door this time.
Beyond the illumination cast by the lights inside the house, Red’s yard was totally dark, so she turned on her flashlight and trod carefully, watching where she placed her feet so she wouldn’t stumble over a garden hose or anything else in her way. As she neared the back stoop, she realized Mangy Beast was with her, keeping silent pace with her. The dog’s hackles were raised on the back of her neck, as if she didn’t approve of Red’s visitor inside, and she was growling low and deep in her throat.
Jody noticed the screen door was closed but the door behind it was ajar.
She pulled at the screen, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn’t.
Never before had she found it unsecured. In a town where hardly anybody locked anything, Red locked up out of respect for the fact that he lived in a house owned by his employers.
Getting more annoyed by the second at his obliviousness to responsibility, Jody knocked loudly and then pulled open the door and shouted, “Red! Are you home?”
When he didn’t answer, she stepped inside the kitchen.
The dog came with her. Jody closed the door.
She looked down at the bristly mottled coat at her side and said, “Go find him, girl.”
Beast went straight through the kitchen and on into the living room, where she paused to look and sniff around. The television was so loud Jody worried it would hurt the dog’s ears, but it didn’t stop Beast from aggressively hurrying toward the noise. Jody followed as the dog ran into the little hallway where the bedrooms were and then into the room where Red slept.
She heard Beast bark and then the dog started to howl.
Jody ran after her into Red’s room and screamed when she saw what the dog had found: Red Bosch lay on his
