I Shall Not Want

sisters in high school. All the Adams girls had a ruthless streak a mile wide.

P.J. had said the dogs were likely to be asleep by morning, and she was right. Kevin opened the gate slowly and quietly this time, watching the drive every second, but no ravening beasts showed up to try and take a chunk out of him. The sky arched overhead, rose and pearl, and grasshoppers whirred out of the grass as they drove up the lane.

Russ parked in the same spot he had two weeks before. This time he could see how badly the house and barn needed painting. The Christies had inherited a lot-he glanced at the century-old maples shading the house and the fields and woods falling away in every direction-but they were lousy stewards.

Getting out of the car, he could hear the sheep bleating. Another car door ca-chunked, and Lyle walked up to stand at his side. 'If anybody's hiding in the sheep pen, you're going in this time,' he said.

'Are you kidding? That's what we brought Kevin for.' Russ turned away from the house. Kevin and Eric were in backup positions and P.J. was readying a trank gun, muzzles and restraint straps dangling off her belt. 'Ready?'

'Yep.'

They mounted the porch steps. Russ rang the doorbell. Nothing happened. He rang it again. The door jerked open, revealing a twenty-something blonde in a baggy T-shirt and pajama bottoms. Her face was creased from sleep. 'What is it?' she asked.

Russ dredged the sister's name out of his memory. 'Isabel?' he said. 'We'd like to speak to your brothers.'

She blinked several times and rubbed her face. 'Why?'

MacAuley pushed against the door, opening it farther. She stepped back. 'We want to ask them about Amado Esfuentes.'

She came awake. 'Amado? Why?'

'He's been killed,' Russ said. 'We believe your brothers may have some knowledge of the murder.'

She clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide and white-edged. Oh, hell. Looks like Kevin was wrong about their relationship-or lack thereof.

'Are you sure?' she whispered. 'Are you sure it was Amado Esfuentes? Not one of the others?'

'We've positively ID'd him,' Russ said. 'I'm sorry.'

'He was tortured.' MacAuley had dropped his usual easygoing persona. 'For information he may have possessed. Over many days. He must have thanked whoever put a bullet in his head.'

Isabel Christie made a sound like an animal in a trap. She backed away even farther. Russ stepped into the house.

'You knew him, didn't you?' He kept his voice sympathetic.

She nodded.

'I met him a couple of times, too. He was a good-hearted, hardworking young man, with his whole life ahead of him. He didn't deserve to die like that.' He bent down so he was speaking to her face-to- face. 'Will you help us?'

She nodded.

'Where are your brothers?'

She took a deep breath. 'Bruce…' Her voice wavered. She stopped. When she started again, it was steady. 'Bruce is in the fifth wheel next door.' From the corner of his eye, Russ could see Lyle turn and point Kevin and Eric to the trailer. 'Neil's upstairs. Donald and Kathy were fighting last night, and he took off after she locked him out of their bedroom. He's prob'ly at his ex's house. Desiree Dwyer.'

'I thought she was out of town.'

She pointed in the direction of the dining room. 'Different ex.' Russ and Lyle followed, skirting the long table and heavy Victorian chairs, into the minuscule back hallway. A narrow staircase rose steeply to a windowed alcove.

'Isabel,' Russ said. 'Could you call your brother downstairs?'

She looked at him. There were purple shadows beneath her eyes that hadn't been there when they arrived. 'You think they did it?' she whispered.

'Evidence with the body points toward your brothers, yeah.'

She took another deep breath. Her face smoothed, became a mask of normalcy. She faced the second floor. 'Neil!' she yelled.

'Wha'?' A single snarling male voice, muffled by a door.

'Giddown here!'

'What the hell for? Jesus Christ, you know what time it is?'

She took a few steps up until she was level with the second-floor landing. 'The ram's busted the gate again. He's at the ewes.'

They heard feet thudding on the floor, accompanied by steady cursing. 'Donald!' The unseen voice-Neil-bellowed. 'Git your lazy ass out of bed. The ram's out!'

A door thudded open against a wall. 'Shut up!' a woman yelled.

Russ winced. 'The fiancee,' he told Lyle.

'He ain't in here,' she went on. 'He's coolin' off downstairs.'

'No, he's not,' Isabel said loudly. 'He went to Desiree's.'

'Uh-oh,' Russ said.

'What?' The shriek rose like a siren. 'That no-good, belly- crawling, rat bastard son of a bitch-'

Isabel ducked out of the stairwell. Russ and Lyle backpedaled as someone large and heavy crashed down the steps. Neil Christie emerged, pulling a T-shirt over his head. He stopped when he saw them. 'What the hell?'

'Neil, we want you to come with us,' Russ said. 'We want to ask you some questions about Amado Esfuentes.'

The big man's jaw unhinged, then clamped shut. He narrowed his eyes. 'You arrestin' me?'

'Not yet,' Lyle said.

Neil swung his head, left, right, like a bull readying for a charge. Russ hoped he wasn't going to try to take them. Then his gaze fell on Isabel, pressed against the dining room wall. 'You,' her brother said. 'You let ' em in. You -the ram ain't out, is he? You lying bitch!' He raised one meaty hand in a fist. Isabel cringed.

'Touch her and we'll have you up on assault,' Lyle said.

'C'mon, Neil.' Russ dropped his voice some. Confidential. Persuasive. 'You don't want any trouble, and neither do we. You come on down with us and answer a few questions. You'll be back in time for lunch.'

He could see the wheels and pulleys clanking slowly in Christie's brain. But he was surprised when Neil turned on Isabel again. 'Is Don really at Desiree's? Or is that you lyin' again? Do they already have him?'

'No! It's the truth!'

'We'll pick up your brother from his girlfriend's house,' Russ said.

At the same moment, Neil said, 'So it's just me? God damn!' and swung at the girl.

Lyle, who was closer, lunged forward, wrapping both arms around Christie's midsection and heaving backward. Isabel ducked. Russ was unsnapping his cuffs from his belt, yelling, 'Get his arm,' when a shrieking harpy flew from the stairwell and landed square on Lyle, screeching, 'Leave him alone, you rat bastard son of a bitch!' Lyle staggered and released Neil, struggling to shake off the woman clawing and punching him.

Isabel ran. Neil pivoted after her. Russ slammed into him with a shoulder block, but his angle was wrong to put Christie down. Instead, he jolted sideways against the table, which scraped over the wooden floor.