Pumped by what he'd learned, Clayton left Rigby and drove past Rojas's house. In daylight it was even more impressive, probably a million-dollar property, which for El Paso was about as pricey as it got.
He cruised the neighborhood, trying to think of his next move. He still needed to locate Deborah Shea, but he wanted to do it without tipping off Rojas. All the houses-there weren't very many along the paved street-looked down on El Paso over a wide stretch of open desert. At both ends of the road, signs of a private security company were posted, citing twenty-four-hour armed patrol.
That gave Clayton an idea. A security patrol vehicle had passed him when he'd been on his way to talk to Rojas. Maybe someone at the company could shed some light on who came and went at the residence. Maybe they even had a record of who lived on the property with Rojas.
After finding an address in the phone book at the closest convenience store, consulting his map, and getting lost again, he finally reached the business, which had a small suite of offices in a building across from an adult bookstore.
The owner inspected Clayton's credentials, said that he was an ex-deputy sheriff himself, talked a little cop stuff, and pulled the file on Rojas.
'We've never had any problems at the Rojas place,' he said.
Aside from Rojas, two residents were listed: a personal assistant and a live-in housekeeper. Clayton wrote down the names. An attached frequent-visitor list carried the names of what looked to be Rojas's friends and business associates. Shea's name was included, along with a description and license plate number of the car she drove.
'Do your people check on unfamiliar vehicles traveling through the neighborhood?' Clayton asked.
'All the time,' the man replied. 'It's policy.'
'Can I look through your patrol logs?'
'How far back do you want to go?' the man replied.
'A week will do it.'
The man pulled the logs and let Clayton use his office, a small, tidy space next to a room where a uniformed security officer manned a radio. He sucked in his breath and whistled when he saw the entry for Harry Staggs's car and license plate number. Then he checked the date, sat back in the chair, and smiled at the ceiling.
Staggs had been with Rojas just hours before Clayton had arrived to be fed a line of bullshit by Rojas and Shea.
A small copying machine stood on a rolling cart next to a file cabinet. Clayton checked with the owner for permission, and made a copy of the log and the frequent-visitor list, mulling over his next step. It was too soon to confront Rojas. He decided to stake him out instead. Maybe Deborah Shea would show, or someone else equally interesting.
He thought about the lay of the land in front of Rojas's house. There wasn't much that provided concealment, but he could make do. On the rez he'd stalked poachers through open fields, caught trespassers in vast meadows, and busted out-of-season hunters above the timberline. He had everything he needed in his unit to stay warm and comfortable when night came and it got cold.
The prospect of the surveillance pleased Clayton far more than the thought of spending the night in an El Paso motel. He checked the wall clock. There were two hours left before dusk. If he hurried, there was enough time to locate a place to conceal his unit at the bottom of the hill below Rojas's house, hike up it, and pick a spot to hunker down.
The architect and the survey crew left just before sunset. Kerney stayed on at the building site watching touches of color fringe the few stray clouds, shadows deepen in the canyon, and the mountains fade into gray ghostly shapes. He stood behind the stakes that defined the placement of what would one day be his living room, imagining the house completed-the ceiling overhead, the plastered adobe walls, the tiled floor, the picture window looking beyond the portal to the canyon and the mountains. All of it on twelve hundred and eighty acres of ranch land just a few miles off a highway, yet far enough away to be private and secluded.
The night was quiet. Hills a mile or so to the east blocked any traffic noise, and the air was still. He thought about his parents, now long dead, who had lost their ranch. He thought about Sara, who'd left her family's ranch in Montana to attend West Point. He thought about his best friend, Dale Jennings, who'd never done anything but ranch, and vowed that he wouldn't trade one day of it to live any other way.
Kerney understood Dale's feelings. There was a pride that came from being a steward of the land, a satisfaction that came from hard physical work outside in the natural world, and a richness of spirit that came from the beauty that surrounded you.
Once, the idea that he could ever have anything close to this land had only been a dream, totally out of reach. Now it was coming true.
It wasn't a big spread and would never be economically self-sustaining. Maybe he could break even with it. If not, it was his, free and clear, with enough money left over from his inheritance after all the bills were paid to provide a comfortable life for his family and pass it on to his son, and maybe someday a daughter.
Kerney cracked a smile in the darkness. The land was beautiful but the native grasses were hardly sufficient for raising livestock. Still, he wanted to put some animals on it, and had decided to raise horses, primarily for pleasure, selling a few every now and then. Perhaps, when he retired, he'd get into breeding, but there was a lot he had to learn. Modern ranching had become a science, and he was way behind the curve on what he needed to know.
Did he have any horses? Yeah, one. A mustang named Soldier he'd bought at auction and turned into a good cutting horse. Dale was keeping Soldier on his ranch until the time came for Kerney to claim him. That time was coming fast.
Sara had been bugging him to give the ranch a name. Today on the phone, after he'd talked her through the final house siting, she'd teased him about it. Everything he'd suggested she dismissed as insipid. He had orders to come up with something good, perhaps even creative.
What did he have? Right now, he owned two sections of land and a horse.
That was it: The One Horse Ranch.
He made his way down the rocky dirt road thinking he really did need to rebuild it. He would call around to see if he could scour up a grader soon.
Chapter 11
The telephone call from Wendell and Hannah caught Kerney by surprise. Hannah recited the letters of the alphabet she'd learned along with her numbers, which she rattled off into the double digits. As the piece de resistance she informed Kerney that she could write out her name. Kerney said he was amazed and that Hannah was a very, very smart girl.
'I know,' Hannah said, handing the phone off to Wendell.
Wendell described the picture he'd drawn for Kerney and asked if it would be all right to have his mother mail it to him. Kerney said that he would love to have it. He would keep it in his office at police headquarters.
'I'm gonna be a policeman, just like you and my dad,' Wendell said.
The pleasure in the children's voices made Kerney realize that no matter what stood between him and Clayton, to Hannah and Wendell he was their grandfather, and they seemed to like it. He wondered where the idea for the phone call had come from. He didn't think Clayton was behind it, so that left Grace, or Clayton's mother. He settled on Grace as the instigator.
Grace came on the line and Kerney asked about Clayton.
'He would have called himself,' she said, 'but he's out of town.'
'Give him my best, and tell him I'll be coming down there soon.'
'Stop by the house while you're here,' Grace said. 'Wendell and Hannah would love to see you.'
'I'll do that,' Kerney said. 'Thank you for calling, Grace. It made my day.'
'From the smiles on your grandchildren's faces, I'd say the feeling was mutual.'
The phone rang immediately after Kerney disconnected. He picked up to find Sara on the line.
'Sara, I just…'
