by Gwen Moffat
She peered up at the cab. ‘You’re not one of our men. You’re from Molten. Your name’s Hammer. Did Mr Nielsen give you permission to come up this way?’ She didn’t wait for an answer but blundered on: ‘It must have looked odd, my paying the girls’ rent, and of course it was obvious that I was bribing Mrs Webber; I was under no obligation to pay their debts. Perhaps you can help me. We’re worried about the Indians, d’you see. Of course Mr Nielsen knows they could have had nothing to do with it but with the kind of questions the police are asking.… What we want to know is: have they any evidence or are they just picking on the obvious suspects? I mean, the ones they think are obvious.’ She took a breath. ‘In other words, is this merely another example of racial discrimination?’
There was silence from the cab, then: ‘Did one of the Sweetwater Injuns run too?’
‘Well, that’s the whole point, d’you see? Do they have any evidence?’
‘Yeah, they got evidence.’ Hammer put his truck in gear and his face turned to her. ‘Be a good idea if you got all your red men away. Just give ’em a hint. They’ll fade, take to the hills; they know where they’re safe. The police’ll be back tomorrow so there’s not much time.’
The truck moved on. Miss Pink settled herself in the driver’s seat, glanced at the receding tail-lights in the mirror, and eased down the track.
Her headlamps floodlit a wrinkled wall and she crept along its base, half her attention on those twin red eyes behind her. She came to the narrows of the canyon and immediately the tail-lights were blocked from view but she knew her own glow would be visible for a long time. In the basin he was on a higher level. But it would not be so long, she calculated; the canyon twisted deviously, the next dogleg appearing as she rounded the last, and only two or three hundred yards ahead at most. After the second she stopped, left both doors open, and retraced her route on foot to the entrance. The length of time she took to trudge through the deep gravel could have been little more than five minutes but she was increasingly aware that this was time enough for Hammer to have turned and be coming fast down the track, heading for the canyon, the walls of which could very well be effectively shielding his light from her at this moment.
Bunny should be safe, so long as the girl had heeded the warning not to come out on the road before his tail-lights disappeared over the pass, but if he caught Miss Pink, what story could she tell to account for leaving her car and walking out of the canyon, away from Sweetwater? She should have waited in the car.
She felt soft air on her face and within a few paces the darkness that was rock was strewn with stars, while in the distance, between ground and stars, a faint but familiar glow moved upward to the pass.
Chapter 9
‘But she was one of the girls who died!’
‘Have a whisky, Jack. And I would be most grateful for a sherry.’
That Miss Pink should ask her host for a drink, and that only two minutes after she had entered the den, was one more sign of the singular atmosphere that prevailed at Sweetwater this evening. This impression was no more a product of her imagination than her host’s sullen ramblings, but as he droned on about the two men wearing polyester suits and guns, of Wayne Hammer who had gone tearing after them, she realized that he was suffering from a form of shock. He accepted the existence of armed poachers, but to be confronted in his own house by uninvited guests who neither created mayhem nor uttered overt threats, was unprecedented. Poachers ran; these two had walked in as if they expected him to run. He was still preoccupied by the incredible impertinence of it, so Miss Pink evinced no surprise at the inanity of the statement that Bunny should be dead.
He handed her a glass of sherry and lowered himself into a chair. She waited until he had taken a few thoughtful sips but it was he who spoke first. He had shifted gear.
‘I’m glad you’re safe, Melinda; nasty weather, and you aren’t accustomed to it. Was there snow on the pass? Not enough to stop you obviously. We called the gas station and Fraser said you’d gone to the motel. You weren’t there but the Webber woman said you took the Sweetwater road before dark. I’d left it at that, still expecting you for dinner, but Hammer came back and went up the canyon. That was too much for my temper. Strictly against orders and besides, you were coming down. Kind of fellow would force you off the road if you got in his way. So we took off after him: me and Simon.’
They had met in the narrows. Miss Pink had ignored their curiosity concerning her companion, had introduced her as ‘Cindy’, and told them not to mention her presence when they reached Sweetwater. She would explain on arrival, she had told them meaningly.
Bunny had been spirited into the ranch and up to Miss Pink’s room without anyone else being the wiser. Since the room had a private bathroom there was no need for the girl to show herself. There was a coffee-making machine too, and until she could steal something more substantial from the kitchen, Miss Pink had provided her guest with cookies and chocolate bars.
‘Tell me your news first,’ Miss Pink said, watching Nielsen relax under the influence of the whisky. ‘Why did Hammer come here?’
‘Miss Ginny says he talked some rubbish about a mining claim that he wanted to buy from me, or relinquish; it was just an excuse to get into the kitchen and find out which way those two city skunks went, and then he followed them.’
‘Did he catch them?’
‘I wouldn’t know that. Naturally he didn’t call at the ranch on the way back. Miss Ginny had—’ he smiled ‘—indicated that he wouldn’t be welcome at the back entrance a second time. She keeps a shotgun in the broom closet for rattlers.’
‘Which way did the visitors go?’
‘Visitors? They were Mafia!’ He grinned, visibly thawing. ‘They went over the bombing range.’
‘I thought that road was closed.’
‘It’s not gated. There are just notices, telling you to keep out, and the penalties if you don’t. The boards will be drifted deep long ago; it’s been snowing on top since mid-morning. The bombing range isn’t shown on some maps, you see, and there’s a road right through it to the interstate. They’ll never reach it. That road skirts the Air Force base and is patrolled, so as soon as they come down out of the hills, they’ll be arrested. I called Jimson, the Commanding Officer, told him what brand of varmint he has coming his way.’
‘How did they act—specifically?’
‘They walked straight through the house from the kitchens. Can you credit that? Came to the back entrance of course, and spoke to Miss Ginny. Mean, she said they were, even to start; wouldn’t state their business. She sent one of the maids for Simon, who was on the terrace with me, but they followed the woman, right—through— my—house.’
‘Could they have been police?’
‘Police have manners: vestigial in some individuals, but there.’
‘What did they want from you?’
‘Nothing from me. They wanted Emma.’ He nodded at her astonishment. ‘And they said “Emma”, not Mrs Simon Chadwick, no handle at all. “Emma”, they said, as if she were a servant.’
She was pondering. ‘Perhaps they thought she was. Did she meet them?’
‘Most certainly not. She was riding, and she’d gone up the valley; they went across it. I was all set with Myron to take off after them if they went north—and we’d have taken rifles, but they went towards the range. That pleased me. Hope they run over an unexploded bomb. Emma came in after they’d gone. She hadn’t seen them.’
‘Where were Brewer and Doyle while this was happening? Why do you arm them if they can’t keep undesirables away?’
‘They were in the southern part of the valley. The bighorns will have drifted down in front of the storm and Calcine people might think we wouldn’t be patrolling in bad weather, and seize their opportunity. But those boys are keen and that’s where they were—still are for all I know: keeping an eye out for hunters after the bighorn. What did those fellows want with Emma, Melinda? She doesn’t know, nor Simon. They’re bewildered.
Can any of this tie in with the dead girls? Or rather, with the bodies in the car, since we know one of those girls isn’t dead now.’
She looked at him curiously. ‘ “Dead girls” will do for now. One wonders if there is a connection. If these two men were responsible for those deaths, it’s asking for trouble for them to come back, particularly since they might expect the place to be swarming with police. An alternative could be that some other villains came here and killed the two in the car, staging an accident, and now two others have been sent—but for what reason? To check how things had gone? Or because someone had told them Bunny Kraus was still alive? Someone was selling Bunny out. I think Wayne Hammer would see no difference between pimping and betrayal. The activities are similar. That would explain why the men came to Molten and why Hammer followed them. It doesn’t tell us what happened when he caught up with them—if he did. But since Bunny’s got away, he’s lost his bargaining counter. There can be no deal. If that pair had not been sent to Sweetwater, they could very well have found Hammer in his cabin, and Bunny. Could the person who sent them here have been trying to protect Bunny? On the face of it, giving them Emma’s name sounds spontaneous: it didn’t matter whose name was given just so long as they left Molten.’
‘Possibly. I wonder if they realized that? When I think about it, they went easily, considering; almost as if they recognized that they’d made a mistake.’
‘On the other hand, if they didn’t know of the existence of the bombing range, crossing this desert could have been merely their way of leaving the area. They need not have gone to a lot of trouble to visit you; it was on their way. Certainly someone had given them Emma’s name but I’d hazard a guess that until they saw it, they thought the ranch would be a cabin about as decrepit as those at Molten. They could have visualized Emma as the wife of a homesteader or miner: a couple that could put up no resistance to bullying. When they saw the ranch they went to the kitchen entrance which indicates that they thought Emma was a servant.… I don’t think they’ll come back. By now they must have realized they were used or side-tracked. You know, I have the feeling these men didn’t know Donna was dead.’
He thought about this, nodding to himself, and then said: ‘What happens when they discover Bunny’s alive?’
‘No one should discover it until she’s safely away. That’s why we have to get her out.’
‘Yes, so you said. Simon shall fly her out at first light. How did she escape?’
‘Hammer was keeping her at his cabin. I brought her away.’
‘But he passed you in the canyon. Didn’t he see her?’
She described the meeting and he was amused by the distracting business of the cigarette but he sobered when she came to the part about the Indians.
‘The police do suspect them?’
‘I heard no mention of it at Molten even though Vi said they’d all disappeared from the neighbourhood. I used the Indians merely as a ploy to get Hammer off my back.’
‘Their disappearing is in character. As soon as the police focus attention on an area, the Shoshone melt away. Not our men, of course; this is their country, they and it are under my protection, so they’re not bothered. But when I asked how Bunny escaped what I meant was from the burning car.… No, I mean: how was it she wasn’t in the car? And who was?’
‘I know why she wasn’t in it.’ She related Bunny’s story of her return to the motel only to find that Donna had been and gone, and of her subsequent flight back to Hammer’s cabin. ‘What Bunny doesn’t realize yet is that Donna must have been killed in that room and her body carried to the outskirts of town where two cars were hidden: her own and the one belonging to the killers, and then the body was taken to the pass and the car sent off the road. At some point a second person was murdered, because there were two bodies in the car.’
He was gaping at her. ‘Start from the beginning. And this time explain it step by step.’
She said patiently: ‘The girls had been making plans to leave the motel under cover of darkness. Donna must have decided to go on this particular night because she left her car outside Molten. She must have left it outside because no one heard it drive up to the motel and Webber would never have allowed them to get away without paying the rent.’ She paused. ‘Webber? But someone else said the car wasn’t there that night.… So Donna arrived at the motel, went into Bunny’s room because they lived in that one and she kept her clothes there. She packed her own clothes but then, perhaps as she opened the door to go to her own room to retrieve her toilet articles, she was surprised by a visitor. He—or she—may have come to the door, may have been watching from the forecourt. Whatever, someone else finished her packing, taking Bunny’s toilet articles by mistake because this person thought that this was Donna’s room, since she was in it, packing. At that point Donna was either dead or unconscious.
‘There had to be two cars parked outside town: hidden behind cabins, I suspect, because the killers had a car, and there was more than one killer because two vehicles had to be driven: their own and Donna’s.’
Nielsen poured whisky, apologized, and filled her glass, placing the bottle of sherry at her elbow. ‘You’re mad,’ he said, awestruck. ‘Now tell me who the second body was.’
‘That could be Janice Fraser.’ In the face of her total seriousness he could only goggle at her. She explained. At the end she said: ‘The snag to that theory is that she left L.A., according to the man she’s living with, ten days ago, so where has she been in the meantime? One could speculate indefinitely—and fruitlessly, because we don’t even know that it is her in the wreck. That’s a job for the police. There’ll be a record of her teeth. You have to contact Stuart tomorrow, Jack—or I should. Bunny’s room must be gone over by Forensics. Probably it has been; they’ll have to do it again.’
‘We’ll call Stuart at first light.’
‘Bunny’s leaving at first light.’
‘Second light then.’
Chapter 10
At breakfast time Nielsen was full of glee, hailing Miss Pink’s arrival on the terrace with the news that Stuart could not be found.
They were alone. Chadwick had flown Bunny out at dawn, Ingrid was having breakfast in bed, Emma was riding.
‘Stuart hasn’t disappeared.’ Nielsen chuckled. ‘He’s “out of town”. Meaning they won’t tell me where he is. And of course, I refused to divulge my important information to anyone but the man in charge.’ He beamed at her. ‘Why are you looking doubtful, Melinda?’
‘Merely the law-abiding citizen’s reaction. He’s not going to be pleased.’
His eyes widened. ‘ Can I help that? They won’t tell me where he is.’
She nodded. In fact her remark had been merely something to say. She was dubious because there were two killers on the loose, and just possibly they were somewhere out on the Last Chance Range.
‘Did you telephone the man at the Base?’
‘No. He was going to call me back. Maybe the storm’s brought the lines down. I’ll go and see if I can raise him.’
When he returned it was to announce that he had got through to the Base but no one had crossed the mountains, at least by car; no one could have done. Belatedly, the Commanding Officer had discovered that two of his staff had gone on a cross-country ski trip earlier in the week, and the road had been blocked then. It would have been impassable for any kind of vehicle, even four-wheel-drive. Since then there had been several inches of fresh snow.
‘The Mob didn’t come back,’ Nielsen said meaningly. He insisted they were mobsters.
‘Could the Air Force send a helicopter up?’
‘It’s hopeless. The cloud’s down to five thousand feet and the road’s at seven thousand for several miles. And their rescue team is over in the Sierras looking for a light aircraft that went missing in the storm.’
‘So that leaves us?’ He shrugged. ‘Jack?’—steadily. Miss Pink was about to get angry.
‘Yes, it leaves us.’
‘Presumably t
hey’d have spent the night in the car.’
He smiled, then erased it quickly. ‘I can’t imagine the Mob bringing survival gear on a quick trip into the desert. Yes, if they were stuck in a drift on the top they’d have stayed in the car, perhaps tried to get back when it got light, although visibility will be very bad up there, and it’ll be windy, probably a blizzard blowing still. However, if they did try to make it on foot they could have come back, or gone on, depending at what point they got stuck. They wouldn’t know where they were, of course; can you imagine the Mob being able to orientate themselves at seven thousand feet? But it’s possible they’re in the Stone Cabin if they had the sense not to push on yesterday afternoon. That’s in Bighorn Basin: the place where I’ve heard the puma.’ He grinned broadly. ‘They had very smart shoes. Not made for running.’
‘Has it occurred to you that Hammer may have caught them up?’
For a moment he was amazed, then he frowned. ‘You’re right; he could have overtaken them. Of course it depends where they were but, judging by the time he left here and when he returned, the wrong way up the canyon, he had time to get some considerable distance—well beyond Bighorn Basin. You think Hammer could be responsible for their not getting through?’
‘Not for failing to make the Base. That seems to be the fault of the snow. He could be responsible for their not returning. He has a rifle.’
‘He had it with him?’
‘I didn’t see it in the cabin. He owns one.’
‘Suppose we called him?’ Nielsen was mischievous. ‘Asked him did he kill a couple of mobsters yesterday?’
‘He’s not on the telephone.’
‘Yes, well, for my money, if he did shoot them, he won’t have hung around Molten.’
‘An odd situation—but it makes no difference to the rescuers; whatever happened when, and if, he overtook them, he certainly didn’t have them in his truck when I met him. They’re out there somewhere.’
