Are y’all on your way yet?”
“Can you ask the driver who he is?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure why not. This isn’t a reg’lar sort of guy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The way he’s staring at me. He’s got a shoulder rig on.”
“He’s carrying a weapon?”
“Yes, ma’am, a big revolver in a shoulder rig. I can see it against his chest.”
“Go to your vehicle, Marvin.”
“I don’t think he wants me to do that.”
“Listen to me, Marvin. Take your cell phone from your ear and walk to your vehicle with it. But don’t break the connection. Are you listening?”
“He’s walking up to me, ma’am.”
“Drive away, Marvin.”
“No, ma’am. This is not the time to go anywhere. Jesus Christ, lady, get out here.” There was a pause, then: “I’m from the power company. I’m not sure what’s going on. The place is a wreck, isn’t it? I think a lady in there might be hurt real bad. Sir, you cain’t take the keys out of my truck. That’s a company vehicle. They don’t allow unauthorized personnel inside their vehicles. Sir, don’t throw my keys up there. I’m gonna be in a heck of a lot of trouble.”
The connection went dead.
Maydeen dispatched the paramedics and two deputies to the house, then called Hackberry at his home and told him of the 911 call. “The guy from the power company didn’t say who the minister was?” he asked.
“No clue.”
“And nothing else about the guy in the Trans Am?”
“Just what I told you.”
“Collins?”
“I’ve tried to call Marvin twice, but I go to voice mail.”
“Call the power company and ask them to call the radio in his truck.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There was blood in the horse tank?”
“That’s what the caller said.”
“I’m on my way. Get Pam out there.”
“She just walked in.”
“Put her on, please.”
“It’s Collins, isn’t it?” Maydeen said.
“That’s my guess.”
“You’ll probably beat the ambulance there. Wait till I get R.C. and Felix out there for backup.”
“Do what you’re told, Maydeen.”
“You’re too goddamn old and stubborn for your own good, Hack. You’re gonna get yourself killed.”
Pam picked up the extension. “What’s going on?” she said.
“We ROA at Anton Ling’s place. Maydeen will fill you in. Get ahold of Ethan Riser and tell him Jack Collins is probably in the neighborhood. Put out an APB on a Trans Am with no paint on it. Include Collins’s physical description.”
“Copy that,” she replied. “Hack?”
“What?”
“If you see Collins, forget the rules.”
“We never forget the rules.”
“Haven’t you figured it out? That’s exactly what Collins counts on.”
Maydeen was right. Because Hackberry was driving from his ranch, he arrived at Anton Ling’s property before the ambulance or the deputies from his department. The rain had stopped, and the great boundless baked emptiness of the land that was not unlike the floor of an ancient ocean seemed to have risen cool and green and washed from the storm, a blue and pink and turquoise rainbow arching over the hills, anchoring itself and its promise somewhere beyond the clouds.
Cody Daniels’s truck was parked in front of the house, the ignition wires ripped out. The lineman’s truck was parked close by, the driver’s door open, the keys gone from the ignition. There was no movement either inside or outside the house. Hackberry walked to the barn and the bunkhouse and the stucco cottage and looked inside. There was no one there, and the Trans Am was nowhere to be seen. He pulled his revolver from its holster and entered the house through the kitchen door, the pistol hanging heavily from his hand. The contents of the cupboards and the pantry had been raked on the floor. Through a side door, he could see into the room that served as a chapel. The statue of the Virgin Mary had been broken in half, and the tiered rack of votive candles had been flipped over and the candles and glass holders smashed and ground into the floor. The small altar had been flung into the folding chairs, the white altar cloth grimed with footprints.
The only sound he heard was the wind flapping the curtains on the windows. Through a doorway, he could see the dining and living rooms. The pictures had been stripped from the walls and the dining table turned over, as though someone had been looking for something taped under it, the fabric on the stuffed chairs sliced open.
“This is Sheriff Holland! Who’s in here?” he called.
“Sheriff?” a familiar voice said.
“That’s what I said.”
“It’s Cody Daniels.”
“Walk out here where I can see you, Reverend.”
“Did you bring the ambulance?”
“Do what I say, please.”
“Yes, sir, I’m coming,” Daniels said, walking into the dining room. “They beat up Miss Anton and almost drowned her. We got to get her to the hospital. Sometimes people get pneumonia when they almost drown.”
Hackberry still held his revolver, his eyes roving around the house’s interior, searching over Cody Daniels’s shoulder. “Where’s Collins?”
“Is that his name?”
“Will you answer the question?”
“You’re talking about the guy who killed all those Thai women, right? He didn’t give us his name. He just asked who did this to Miss Anton. I told him I didn’t have a clue.”
Hackberry holstered his revolver and went into the bedroom. Anton Ling lay on a mattress that had been pulled off the bedsprings. Her dresser drawers had been dumped and her clothes pulled from the hangers in the closet. There was blood on her pillow, her clothes were drenched, and her eyes had the lack of focus that accompanies brain concussion. He knelt beside her. “Who did this to you, Miss Anton?”
“They all wore camouflage masks. Only one man spoke.”
“What was Jack Collins doing here?”
“The man in the suit?”
“Yes, what did he say to you?”
“He wanted to know who the men were. He said he and I were on the same side. He touched my face with his hand. Cody told him not to do that, and for a minute I was afraid for Cody’s life.”
“Cody?”
“If it weren’t for him, I’d be dead.”
Hackberry looked over his shoulder at Cody Daniels and said, “Where’s the guy from the power company, the one named Marvin?”
“The guy in the suit threw his keys on the roof and told him to hoof it. So that’s what he did,” Cody Daniels replied.
“The ambulance will be here in a few minutes, Miss Anton,” Hackberry said. “I need to talk with the reverend, but I’ll be right outside.”
