'You didn't go to the tribal resort earlier this week, looking for work?'
'Oh yeah, I forgot about that.'
'I understand you got a check recently from one of your father's companies.'
'Party time,' Eric said smiling. 'I go through Daddy's money fast. When it runs out, I find work. Like playing in a piece-of-shit band that doesn't pay squat.'
'Where were you Thursday night?'
'Beats me.'
'Did you meet up with anyone you knew in Del Rio?'
'How about the other places you stayed?'
'I didn't see anybody I knew.'
'I understand you're a gifted musician,' Kerney said.
'Once I was. After high school I was accepted at every topflight music school in the country that I applied to. But I didn't go.'
'Your father is dead, murdered.'
'I remember that,' Eric replied.
'What do you remember?'
'That you told me he was dead.'
'Did you see your father much?'
'I haven't seen him since I left Roswell six years ago.'
'You never visited him in Ruidoso?'
'What for?'
'Is that a no?'
'No. I don't go near the man.'
Kerney rose. 'We'll talk again.'
Eric scrambled to his feet. 'Do I get out of jail?'
'Not yet. I'm booking you on the drug possession charge.'
Langsford screwed up his face in disgust. 'I want to make a phone call.'
'I'll tell the guard.'
'You think I killed my old man, don't you?'
'And if you did?'
'It would make me happy,' Eric said, sounding like a mischievous kid admitting to a prank.
'Because of the way he treated you as a child?' Kerney asked.
'That's not even the half of it.'
'I'd like to hear the rest.'
'That's my business.'
'You're really not sure if you killed your father or not, are you?'
Eric smirked. 'I don't think I did, but you never know. Sometimes dreams ome true.'
Outside, Kerney took a deep breath of the cool night air. Eric Langsford had the maturity of an adolescent, a drug-addled mind, and was clearly pleased about his father's death. Kerney couldn't dismiss the possibility that Eric had iced his old man along with five other victims. Killers came in all flavors and varieties, including the hopped-up, emotionally arrested kind.
He decided to come back early in the morning and take another crack at Eric.
Kerney knocked at Sedillo's motel room door, and the lieutenant opened up. He reported that nothing of consequence had been uncovered during the search of Eric Langsford's house and van, except for a receipt from a package goods store in Maria, Texas, dated the same day Langsford had left the band.
Kerney summarized his interview with Langsford, placed the cassette of the taped conversation in Lee's hand, and asked Sedillo to put an agent on it right away.
'Have him backtrack on Langsford,' Kerney said.
'That's a three-day swing.'
'So far, he's our only suspect without an alibi.'
'Did his sister have one?' Lee asked.
'I haven't gotten that far with her yet.'
'I could use more people, Chief.'
'Not possible. The way it stands now, if we don't get serious movement by the end of the week, we'll be down to just you and me. Did Mary Margaret run those employee names?'
'Yep, and you can forget about it. At the time of Mrs. Langsford's death there were no political activists, hardcore felons, convicts, or fugitives working at the resort or casino who we can connect to Langsford. There were two cases against employees that resulted in bench warrants for failure to pay child support. Both fathers made their back payments and got a stay out of jail card. One other employee did time for aggravated battery against a police officer, stemming from a DWI stop. But he got drunk two years ago, passed out on the railroad tracks, and was run over by a train.'
'Eric says he hasn't seen his father in years-never once visited him. Get an agent up to Ruidoso in the morning, showing Eric'spicture around the judge's neighborhood. That beat-up van he drives would be pretty hard to miss.'
'Will do. Is that it, Chief?'
'Why is Langsford so damn happy his father is dead?'
'Maybe he just didn't like him.'
'I think it goes deeper than that.'
'You may be right,' Lee said. 'We just got the information you requested from the phone company on those hang-up phone calls made to Linda Langsford's residence. All of them were made the night of the murders from pay phones along the killer's route.'
'What about the anonymous calls to her office?'
'Two one-minute calls were made one right after the other from an Albuquerque number. I've got an agent making contact now.'
'Let me know as soon as you hear anything. We may have caught a break.'
The phone rang. Lee walked to the bedside table, picked up, listened for a minute, and then dropped the handset in the cradle with a shake of his head. 'It doesn't look promising, Chief. The Albuquerque calls came from an elderly man who misdialed a grand daughter's Roswell number. He reversed two digits.'
'I want confirmation on who he is, who the granddaughter is, and whether or not anyone else has access to his telephone.'
'We have an agent from the Albuquerque district office rolling on it now.'
In the morning, Kerney checked his unit for damage, found none, did a short run, and called Sara at Fort Leavenworth, half-hoping she'd already left her quarters for class. She answered on the first ring.
'How are you?' he asked.
'Pumped,' Sara answered. 'We start the advanced military studies sequence today. The Civil War. Grant's Vicksburg campaign. I've been reading all about it. Very exciting stuff. You never call me in the morning. What's up, sweetie pie?'
Kerney told her about Isabel Istee, Clayton, and the two grand children.
'My, my,' Sara said.
Kerney waited for more, but Sara remained silent. 'That's it?' he finally asked.
'I'm thinking.'
'I swear, I knew nothing about this.'
'You lead a shockingly interesting life, Kerney.' Kerney caught a hint of amusement in Sara's voice.
'The Irish are cursed that way,' he said.
