Out of a Texas Night

by Phyliss Miranda

  “Avery, if I may call you that—”

  “Of course.”

  “It’s early yet. Let’s stop by the Jacks Bluff and talk with the vet about the bottle. Teg Tegler, isn’t that his name?” He felt like a blunt force instrument hit him squarely between the eyes as he waited for her response.

  “Yes, and I think that’s a good idea.” She bit her lip. “Please remember that I wasn’t even an officer of the law at the time and had no duty to turn in a bottle just because I found it. I didn’t even know the facts surrounding Deuce’s assault. I just kept the bottle because it’s over fifty years old and an antique. I wasn’t even a deputy in any county of Texas. I was on a leave of absence.”

  “If it’s not too personal, for what?”

  “I’m not quite ready to talk about it, but I promise...” Avery turned her upper body to face him. “I give you my word when I’m ready to discuss it, you’ll be the first I call. And you can rule out anything illegal.”

  “Like shooting your partner?” He laughed, but noticed she lowered her head and not another word was said for the longest time. Finally, after going over everything he said that could have upset her, he said, “I apologize for whatever I said that disturbed you.”

  “It’s okay. I’m thinking about Deuce and Rainey, that’s all.”

  Brody saw by the slack expression with slightly wet, dull eyes that she was holding back tears and he knew it had nothing to do with Deuce and Rainey.

  In less than forty-five minutes they pulled into the circular drive at the Jacks Bluff. An old, vintage pickup was parked at the end of the drive, and an ancient oil derrick stood as a tall, petrous reminder of yesteryear.

  Almost before Brody cut off the engine, Avery unbuckled her seatbelt and said, “That old F-110 belongs to Granny Johnson. She has a brand new Caddy and a couple of new pickups in the garage, but she uses them for funerals and church only. This one’s for ranching.”

  Brody reached Avery’s side of the vehicle and opened the door for her before she had time to get out by herself.

  “We definitely need to stop by and see either Granny or Lola Ruth before we go out to talk with Teg or Chase. Chase is their foreman.” She straightened her shirt. “By the way, Teg is fourth-generation Tegler to have worked at this ranch. Sometimes he’s called Four, but most people call him Teg now that his father has passed away. Plus, plan on spending some time in the house, because I’m bettin’ Lola Ruth won’t stand for you leaving until she feeds you. Both of the ladies, Granny and Lola Ruth, have deep-rooted Texas southern hospitality.”

  Before they could get around to the back door, Lola Ruth came out and greeted them like she hadn’t seen either one for months.

  Short, round, and always wearing an apron, she hugged both of them with a true Texas welcome. “I haven’t seen you all since yesterday. We’re so excited about Avery being named sheriff—”

  Avery interrupted, “Interim sheriff.”

  Lola Ruth batted her eyes through her heavy, black-rimmed glasses then continued, “Well, interim sheriff...but we barely got home before Granny and I let out a hoot and a holler that I bet they heard all the way down in Austin.” Lola Ruth held on to Avery like she was a kitten that might run away if she loosened her grip a tad.

  “I’m so glad to officially meet you, Deputy VanZant. I know we’ve talked but a person doesn’t know somebody until they sit down and have coffee with them. Talkin’ on the side of the road doesn’t count.” She let go of Avery and grabbed Brody by the elbow. “Got a pot of coffee I just fixed and fresh peach-apricot fried pies I made this morning.” Over her shoulder she said to Avery, “Plenty of iced tea, too.”

  Brody held the back screen for the ladies and then entered.

  “Granny isn’t here right now. She went with Chase out to the pasture where she has a bull she wanted him to look at.”

  Lola Ruth scurried around the kitchen, fixing the drinks and putting pies on plates, while she talked. “I haven’t seen you out here shooting for a few days.” She addressed Avery.

  “No. I’ve been busy getting up to speed on things in the department. When Deuce comes back, I want him to be able to just walk in and take over.” Avery took a seat at the table and motioned to Brody by raising her eyebrows as if to say this is a lost cause, so enjoy the coffee and fried pies!

  After eating two pies and drinking two cups of coffee, Brody wiped his mouth on a cloth napkin and said, “Lola Ruth, I apologize because I feel like I made a pig out of myself, but those were the best pies I’ve ever eaten. I might just drop by every day to check on you two ladies.” He smiled at Avery, who had a pleased look on her face. “On county business, of course, but if you have coffee and fried pies, it certainly wouldn’t be gentlemanly of me not to come inside and check on you all.”

  “What’s your favorite pie?” Lola Ruth asked.

  “Ma’am, whatever you have, I’m sure would make me happy. But those peach-apricot I just ate might well be my favorite.”

  In a bubbly and light voice, Avery said, “He’s a charmer, isn’t he?”

  “Sure enough is. Now whatcha two come all the way out here for?”

  Avery took the lead. “We’d like to talk with Teg for a few minutes, if he isn’t too busy.” She wiped her fingers on her napkin. “It’s about the kid who was trespassing on the ranch the night Deuce was injured.”

  “Are you sure you all don’t want another cup of coffee or glass of tea?”

  “No, ma’am, but thanks for asking. It’s been a pleasure, Lola Ruth, but we need to get with Teg and head back to town. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Avery hugged the older woman and kissed her on the cheek.

  After Brody thanked her again for the hospitality, Avery walked her to the door and gave her another hug. “Thank you. Tell Granny that we came by and are sorry we missed her, but we’ll be back. I want to catch up with her and find out how it went with the neglected horses Mesa is bringing back.”

  Brody put on his Stetson and tipped it to Lola Ruth, then followed Avery out the door and across the graveled path to the barn.

  He spied Teg Tegler in a stall that housed a pretty little deep-red blood bay, about the time the vet saw the lawmen. “Hey, what brings you all out in these parts of the woods?” He took off his gloves and walked their way, shaking hands with Brody and then said, “I’d hug you, gal, but don’t want to ruin those sparklin’ clean duds you have on.”

  “I don’t care.” She hugged him anyway. “We need your help. It’s about the night the stables were broken into. Can you give us a quick rundown on what happened?”

  “Sure. Take a seat.” He motioned to bales of hay stacked near the entrance. “I can’t give you exact times, but it was long after Mrs. Johnson and Lola Ruth got back from the festival and that was not long after it closed down. They’d taken a cab and had someone break down their booth and bring stuff back, so they got here after the fireworks, I remember that.” He twisted his lips. “Guess that’d be one or so in the morning.”

  “Were you in the main house or your place?” Avery asked.

  “Mine. That’s why I know it was pretty late. I saw a shadow running from the barn back toward the west pasture. He was tall and lanky. Didn’t see his face, so I don’t know who it was. Later I heard it might be Tommy Mitchell—”

  Brody broke in. “Who’d you hear that from, Teg?”

  “Deputy Scott. He was out here that night after it was called in. By the time he got here, I couldn’t find anything missing. I’d already talked to Mrs. Johnson and Mesa. They both said they didn’t want charges filed. That whoever it was probably was just pilfering.” He leaned against the railing of a stall. “So the whole issue was basically dropped.”

  Avery pulled the bottle from her purse. “Recognize this?” She handed the plastic wrapped bag to him. “If you need a better look at the bottle, you’ll need plastic gloves.”


  “Yep, and I don’t need any gloves to know what it is. That’s what the little jackass took. Damn it!” Teg turned his back to them and under his breath he used a couple of cuss words then turned back to them. “I should have known it was gone, but since we don’t use PCP any longer it never crossed my mind. I should have destroyed it a long time ago, but it’s one of my dad’s bottles and I think I just didn’t want to get rid of it and pushed it around on the shelf for years.” He moved to better light and read the label. “Yep, it’s from the 1960s, but wouldn’t have had the liquid in it. It was powder.” He handed the bottle back to Avery. “Yep, that’s what the little bastard was lookin’ for. With liquid added, it’s a strong drug, but snorted or smoked with other drugs it can take effect within two to three minutes. That’s why vets liked to use it on big animals. They’re hard enough to handle without being injured.” He pounded his elbow against a bale of hay. “Typically, this whole place is locked up tighter than a drum, but since the cowboys were bringing back in the rough stock from the rodeo, I’d left the side door to my office unlocked for their convenience in getting the bulls back in their stalls.” He lowered his brow. “It was my responsibility. Damn it to hell and back again, I should have destroyed that bottle years ago or at least had it locked up in the medical supply closet.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Teg. A drug addict will find a fix one way or another.” Damn, Brody hated the thoughts that were running wild through his mind. “Then Deputy Scott didn’t come here directly after you all called the sheriff’s department?”

  The vet addressed Brody. “I didn’t see anybody, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t talk with Mesa or Mrs. Johnson. The only deputy I saw that night was you when you came up the road, turned off your lights, parked, and then walked up here. Circled the headquarters, the bunkhouse, barn, and corral, then walked back to your pickup. But that was hours after the incident.”

  “That I did. You should be a deputy. I was sent out to check on your welfare and the lights were out in the headquarters and all of the outer buildings, so after I circled the main house, I went back to where the search party had organized.” He looked over at Avery. “This was after the search and rescue was well underway.”

  “Maybe Deputy Scott talked with Chase, our foreman, but I doubt Scott could have gotten by without me seeing him. After I called in the break-in, and I guess we can’t call it that, because we weren’t actually totally locked up—”

  “Trespassing or burglary, at best,” Avery said.

  “Anyway, I headed out to the east pasture toward I-40 in case the kid ran that way. Chase said he couldn’t see which direction the jackass—excuse me, ma’am—went but I thought it was west, not east, although I think I maybe thought the kid had double-backed.”

  “So, you ended up going east and Scott found Mitchell over by the west pasture. Interesting,” Avery blurted out before continuing, “Thanks so much, Teg. After Deputy VanZant sampled Lola Ruth’s fried pies, I think you’ll see more of him.” She snickered and elbowed Brody good-naturedly.

  Brody shook hands with the vet. “Sorry, but I have one more question. Where did you hear the name of the guy Scott picked up?”

  “Oh, I remember it very clearly. I was lookin’ for a mama cow who just gave birth out in the west pasture and I saw Danny Scott out there. He said he was lookin’ over things in daylight. I asked him if they had any leads, and he said that it was a kid who just got out of the hoosegow and I put two and two together. I think Stanley Mitchell’s brother is the only one around who fits that bill. Thanks for coming out.”

  “Thanks, Teg. You helped us a lot.”

  Avery and Brody walked to Pumpkin’s vehicle.

  Absentmindedly, he opened the door for Avery, but he had more questions than ever about Tommy. He hadn’t been privy to the report written up by Chief Deputy Scott, although he’d mentioned it to Danny. Brody’s memory of the night didn’t coincide with those of the veterinarian, who to Brody’s knowledge didn’t have a rooster in the fight.

  Since the bottle was nearly sixty years old, no doubt it wouldn’t have been missed if the vet had used it himself. Brody couldn’t think of a reason for it to have been tossed in an open field by anyone. But Brody was still perplexed as to why Scott was on the Jacks Bluff property the next day, long after Deuce was found.

  In Brody’s estimations, unless Chase were to tell them another version of the incident, which he doubted, both Teg and Chase Slade could be ruled out as having anything to do with the bottle or Deuce.

  Unfortunately, the more info gathered the more light seemed to be shed on Tommy Mitchell, which bothered Brody greatly. He didn’t think the kid was a criminal; he just needed guidance and maturity. He also knew Winnie did everything she could to mother the young man, but no doubt in Brody’s mind, his sister was hiding something within the family unit. It could be nothing more serious than her being a little ashamed of Tommy’s reputation in town.

  Brody needed some big brother-little sister time, but without Stanley lurking around. How Brody would accomplish that could be tricky at best.

  However, his biggest heartburn right now was how in the smothering hell was he going to tell Avery what he found at his sister’s house on the night Deuce was injured, much less explain away Stanley’s actions at the café after Tommy had been let loose from Deuce’s investigation?

  How could he be critical of Avery’s withholding the bottle she found when she wasn’t even a department employee, when he hadn’t had the opportunity to fill her in on his own private investigation of a family member? She’d kept the chain of command by locking up the evidence much like he did by putting his letter in Scott’s desk for the records and mailing himself a copy.

  What he knew, and had to be truthful about, would likely send Tommy Mitchell right off probation and directly to prison for many moons, if the timeline matched. But that might well be a big if.

  The last thing Brody wanted was to have mistrust between him and Avery, but it looked like that might happen, once he told her about his investigation.

  Brody had to think through everything and see what Danny Scott had put in the official records before he talked any more about Tommy. To find just the right time to tell Avery the truth...But when?

  He doubted Deuce had had an opportunity to do little more than make notes about Tommy, if even that, since at the time Tommy’s trespassing had seemed totally insignificant. Also to be taken into consideration—the owners of the Jacks Bluff didn’t want charges filed.

  When Brody had the opportunity and there were fewer time restraints on the new interim sheriff, he’d fill her in. He guessed he could wait until she fired him, once she found out about his unauthorized investigation, to start looking in the want ads for a rent-a-cop in security at the GreenMart.

  Once he told Avery the truth, his career would be worth about eight bucks an hour at best.

  Chapter 16

  What Avery had just experienced set her brain in an uncontrollable spin. She desperately tried to mentally match the information she’d read in the case file with the sketchy timeline she’d created and what she’d just heard.

  Brody shut the passenger door. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and tried to force the investigative information into some kind of order. It was like playing Scrabble and suddenly learning that you couldn’t use vowels. She stared into the reflective blue, orange, and red colors of the late evening Texas sunset.

  She and Brody had plenty of time to get something to drink before they went into the office. That would give her an opportunity to think about Deuce’s assault. Two heads were always better than one. No truer cliché fit how she felt.

  Tommy Mitchell was on her screen. But nowhere in the handwritten notes that she’d quickly scanned that morning before the press conference had she seen anything about what the vet had told them. Of course, now she had the answer...Scott definitely
had not talked with anyone at the Jacks Bluff the night Deuce was injured. So, he didn’t have anything to write down. The information was crucial to the whole chronology of the investigation. Who—and at what time—had he talked to at the ranch, should have been part of the case notes.

  But she could hardly wait to find Scott’s notes written up that night. The chief deputy had had a huge burden placed on his shoulders, which was a lot for a small town where very little violence took place. Then he had to become accustomed to his surprise at her being named interim sheriff, when it was obvious to everyone in the department that he anticipated getting the job. To a degree she could internally rationalize the chief deputy’s actions, or rather lack of action.

  Overshadowing her thoughts, she heard Brody ask if she’d still like to pick up something at Dairy Queen and eat at the office.

  “I’m actually full, but a Butterfinger Blizzard sounds good,” she said.

  No doubt he recognized her lack of enthusiasm.

  “A Blizzard sounds good. Afterwards, we can go directly to the office and eat out of the coupon queen’s baskets of goodies. Thelma saves us a lot of money using coupons.”

  His iPhone buzzed, indicating a text. He pulled to the side of the road, read the message, and placed the phone on his seat next to his hip.

  “How about we stop by the office, so I can change clothes, and have a bite to eat at the truck stop instead?” He glanced at her. “They have an excellent cheese omelet.” He teased. “It was my CI from her burner phone. She wants to see me at the truck stop east of town and specifically asked that you come along.”

  “Has she already heard I was named the interim sheriff?” That was the only reason Avery could think of for such a request.

  Very little was said on the short ride back to the courthouse except for discussing their Texas Ranger relatives. It was obvious to Avery that Brody had avoided discussing his family, except for the little bit he’d shared earlier about his father and that he had to take care of his little sister. But then they hadn’t had much time to talk. She did learn that his grandfather had been a Texas Ranger, but he never mentioned what his father did for a living.