Zeph Undercover

by Jenny Andersen

  “Well, thanks, sir. I—”

  “But I’m not forgiving and I’m not forgetting. I’m keeping my eye on you. And next time you do something like this, maybe you could confine yourself to the case you’re actually working on?”

  Zeph flinched at the sarcasm in Lincoln’s voice.

  “Not that Monty wasn’t grateful, judging by the way he shot out of here, but you do realize that all the Sturm und Drang today didn’t do a thing for your actual job. Don’t you?”

  ****

  The next morning, Zeph shut the door of the sheriff’s station behind him with relief, and stood on the sidewalk gathering his thoughts. Even Monty hadn’t been able to resist ragging him about solving the wrong case. Hell, he hadn’t even known there was a drug deal going down. If he’d been asked, he would have put Stone’s Crossing at the bottom of the list for drugs.

  Not that being arrested for drug dealing proved Seldon’s innocence in the other matter, but even before seeing the guy in action yesterday, not to mention listening to him spill his guts this morning, he hadn’t believed Seldon had anything to do with a sophisticated-by-comparison building scam.

  So all the fuss and bother left him still spinning his wheels.

  He’d cleared Allie’s father and Seldon. Frank had faxed him this morning about Bartelett’s finances. A look at the guy’s bank records convinced Frank the guy was paying blackmail, not receiving it. So he must be guilty of something. But was it anything Zeph cared about? Likely not, so his remaining suspects came down to Rodriguez, Mentrine, and…anyone he hadn’t suspected to date.

  Shit.

  He really needed to get his head together here. He’d already been in Stone’s Crossing about twice as long as he should have been, and he didn’t feel any closer to an answer. Of course, when he did find one, he’d have to leave Allie, and that didn’t figure as something he wanted to do. Still, he’d better get to work.

  But first he’d go find Allie. Even investigators got coffee breaks and he deserved a few minutes with her. Then he’d get the truth from Bartelett.

  Allie wasn’t at Betty’s, so he drove to the clinic. She had a waiting room full of dogs and cats and furry things he couldn’t identify, so he went out to the stable to visit his horse.

  He leaned on the corral fence, and the mare trotted over to snuffle at him. He patted her neck and noticed that her fur felt smooth. She looked almost shiny, not so bony. She nosed at him again, and he pulled out a carrot he’d gotten from Martha before he left Lincoln’s this morning. The mare—he really ought to name her—didn’t seem to care that it was a little wilted, just gave him a look that he’d swear was grateful.

  He took a step back. Damn. Zeph Granger didn’t do animals. He didn’t do mush. And here he was, thinking it felt…kind of good…to know he’d saved this horse. Kind of…stretched…inside. Maybe the way the Grinch had felt when his heart grew three sizes in one day.

  And maybe Stone’s Crossing was addling his mind. He needed to get back to L. A. before his brain turned to oatmeal.

  But first—he got a curry comb and brush from the stable and crawled through the fence. His horse loved being brushed so much he didn’t have to worry about tying her up.

  When he finished with the brushing and had even combed the mane and tail, he looked into the clinic. Allie finished giving a shot to an ill-tempered dog about as big as she was and smiled at him. “Good timing. I’m all finished here.”

  “Lunch?” he asked. “We could go to Betty’s before I talk to Bartelett.”

  At the café, he slid into the booth next to Allie and sat closer than necessary. The feel, the gentle heat of her close against him, wiped all thoughts of Bartelett from his mind. After they ordered, he turned to face her, screening her from the room. “We should have taken a picnic lunch up the mountain,” he murmured, and enjoyed the color that washed her face.

  “It’s going to snow,” she said. “We don’t get many days like that one this late in the year.”

  The teasing light in her eyes made him grin. “Picnic, truck, doesn’t matter. I’ll take what I can get.”

  “Sorry to interrupt.” Betty set their coffee and lunch plates on the table. “You two lovebirds want anything else?”

  Bartelett burst through the door and stomped across the room to their booth, brushing Betty out of the way. “You,” he growled at Zeph. “I want to talk to you.”

  “That’s a coincidence. I want to talk to you, too,” Zeph said pleasantly. “Sit down, Mr. Mayor.”

  Allie leaned forward. “Hello, Bill.”

  “Allie. I didn’t see you.” The mayor gave her a startled glance. “Perhaps I’d better see you later, Granger.” He started to turn but Betty blocked his way. “Coffee, Mr. Mayor?” He subsided and sat.

  “You seem a little upset, Bill. What’s wrong?” Allie asked.

  “Nothing, really, Allie. I’ve been looking for Granger for three days. I’d like to check out a couple of things I heard.

  “And I’m not invited? I get it.” Allie nudged Zeph. “Let me out. I’ll get Betty to wrap my sandwich. I’ll take it to the clinic, and Bill, you can bring Zeph out to get his car, since you want a private conversation.”

  “Or I could walk,” Zeph said under his breath.

  “Nonsense. I’ll be happy to take you to the clinic.”

  “You may not want my company after our little talk.” Zeph took a swallow of his coffee. “Three days, huh? That would be when my mother arrived. So what did she say that’s got you so fired up?”

  Bartelett glanced around the diner. “Too many people. Finish your lunch. I’ll wait for you outside.” He lurched to his feet and left.

  Zeph shook his head and went to ask Betty to wrap his sandwich, too. When he got outside, Bartelett motioned him from his car. “In here,” he said. “I don’t want to be overheard.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want to know what you’re doing here in town.” His harsh voice left no doubt it was a demand. “You come sneaking around here asking questions, every time I turn around you’re there, you have the gall to question my wife, and now you’re mixed up in some drug arrest. We don’t have a drug problem here in Stone’s Crossing. At least, we didn’t until you showed up. So you tell me what you’re up to, Granger, or—” He broke off and glared at Zeph.

  Zeph returned the glare. “I checked out the prowler at your place because you asked me to. As a favor, in case you’ve forgotten. Your wife did not back up that story. And, by the way, your drug problem was home grown, nothing to do with me.

  “What I’m up to right now, since you ruined my lunch with my girl, is trying to figure out what you’re so worried about, Mr. Mayor. Seems to me you’ve got a mighty damned guilty conscience. You want to tell me what’s going on? Or shall I start trying to find out?”

  “It’s none of your business,” Bartelett snapped.

  “You’re making it my business.”

  The glares turned into a staring contest.

  The mayor broke first. “Did my wife hire you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Would you tell me if she did?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, for God’s sake, Granger. You can’t expect me to—”

  “Give it a rest, Bartelett. I don’t give a good goddamn if you cheat on your wife. She didn’t hire me. I haven’t been watching you. So get off my back and get out of my way.”

  Bartelett sat back abruptly, anger leaking out of him like the stuffing in Betty’s cracked plastic booths.

  Zeph narrowed his eyes. “If you keep this up, I’m going to start wondering if you’re up to something more than a little light adultery,” he said, but the mayor didn’t react like a guilty man. Zeph decided to prod a little. “No embezzling town funds? No hanky panky with town contracts? No paying blackmail? Come on, Mr. Mayor. Don’t tell me you came all the way from Sacramento to this backwater for the peace and quiet.”

  “That’s exactly what I did, Granger,” Bartel
ett said quietly. “I wanted—needed—a—a place that—” He looked down, anger or embarrassment flushing across his face. “The hiring committee didn’t find out…my wife…I needed to be where she…she…” The emotion in the mayor’s voice prepared Zeph for the shine of tears gathering in the man’s eyes.

  “She seemed quite charming this morning,” Zeph said. Charmingly loony. “Moving wouldn’t help if the problem were insane spending. There’s always the internet. If she was the neighborhood busybody you wouldn’t move to a small town. What was it—she banging all the repair men?”

  Bartelett looked up, pain carving lines in his face that hadn’t been there a moment before. “If only,” he choked. “I’d give anything if that were the worst of it.” He clasped his hands together in front of him and the knuckles showed white. “She—her mind—” He took a deep breath and said in a low voice that scarcely carried across the car. “She’s in the early stages of premature senile dementia. Her behavior is—unpredictable, to say the least.

  “My assignations, Granger, have been with her doctor.”

  “You’ve been paying out a lot of money lately. At regular intervals,” Zeph making his voice hard. “Blackmail?”

  Bartelett’s mouth twisted. “The so-called blackmail payments are for medical services. And I came to Stone’s Crossing exactly because life here is quieter, although not as much simpler as I had hoped. No one,” he added wearily, “knows about this, although I don’t suppose I can keep it a secret much longer. I was afraid you were here because of her.”

  In spite of himself, sympathy for the guy’s plight twisted through Zeph. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a criminal, of course, but at this point it didn’t seem all that likely. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

  After a few moments, Bartelett shifted in his seat. “Well. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that. What is it about you, Granger?”

  “Sometimes a stranger’s the best one to talk to. I won’t be repeating this, if it makes you feel any better.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Everyone will know eventually. I only want to make things as easy for Margaret as I can.” He slumped back in his seat. “I made up the story about the prowler because I wanted you to meet Margaret without any preconceived ideas.” He looked at Zeph expectantly.

  “She seemed—almost normal. Mostly,” he added reluctantly.

  “Exactly. Only mostly. And I don’t want her to face…” He choked and looked away, his throat working.

  Well, double hell. So much for the blackmail theory. He’d tell Frank to check that the recipient was Bartelett’s doctor, but he’d bet the man had told the truth.

  He had to quit reading Agatha Christie. This case was turning into And Then There Were None. Maybe Rodriguez. So far, he had been an invisible man. Zeph hadn’t found out a damned thing about him. It was as if he didn’t exist outside of Blanton’s Builders. He didn’t do anything, belong to anything, have any charge cards. He had a social security number which appeared to check out, so he didn’t look like an illegal. Except for Mabel, no one ever mentioned him. He’d scarcely been in town since Zeph had arrived. All he did was work and pay taxes. Zeph didn’t believe it for a minute. Somehow, he had to get a handle on the man.

  Chapter 13

  Allie finished up with her last patient just as Zeph arrived at the clinic. From the scowl that greeted her, she figured he’d made no progress. “Rough day?” she asked, drying her hands.

  “Fruitless. Bartelett’s not involved and Rodriguez is a complete cipher. The only person he talks to is Mabel, apparently.”

  “He’s always been kind of a loner. Before I forget, Monty called. He says Wend wants to talk to us. To ask a favor,” she said and looked up as the door opened. “Hello, Dad.”

  Her father nodded a greeting. “What does Seldon want?”

  “Don’t know. But does it matter?” Allie said. “He’s got a lot of nerve, asking for favors after he shot at us. I don’t think so.”

  “We should go,” Zeph said. “He might tell us something useful.”

  Allie snorted. “He probably just wants to yell at you because he got arrested. I can’t imagine that idiot knows anything. You’d think he’d have learned something about the wages of sin from his brother’s example.”

  “Doubtful,” her father said. “None of the Seldons ever had the most rudimentary vestige of ethics. I’m not sure he would have realized dealing drugs would get him in trouble.”

  “I’d say you’re right,” Zeph said. “He puts it all down to bad luck. But I don’t think he’s going to yell. Not if he wants us to help him.”

  When the deputy ushered Zeph and Allie into the Stone’s Crossing jail cell block, a grim room that held two cells on either side of a central hallway, Seldon rolled off the cot and came to clutch the bars and smile at them. “Hey, you came. Thanks. You okay, Allie?”

  “Yes, Wendover, I’m fine. No thanks to you, you idiot.”

  “Aw, I’m sorry, Allie. I wouldna hurt you for nothing. I dint know you were anywhere close. I’m real ashamed of the way I acted.” His gaze swerved away from Allie.

  “I don’t blame you,” Zeph said. “No one likes to be seen in a panic.”

  “You got that right. I ain’t never been scared in the woods before.” He puffed out his thin chest. “It was them two guys in the boat. Damned—’scuse me, Allie—real hard cases, both of ’em.”

  “How in the world did you ever get mixed up with them?” Allie asked.

  “They ain’t friends, that’s fer sure. One of ’em called me, said he’d knew Lander up in the state prison and he needed some help. So I helped him, and look what it got me.” He scratched under his arm and sank back onto the cot. “Don’t hardly seem fair, trying to help someone and get put in jail for it. Anyway, Jed Huskins—he’s the sheriff over in Card county,” he added for Zeph’s benefit, “—said they was wanted. Somethin’ about a murder charge.”

  “At least he didn’t take you.”

  “I din’t have nothin’ to do with it. You can take that to the bank.” He raised a tortured gaze to Allie’s. “But that’s what I wanted to talk to you and Zeph about, Allie.”

  Allie frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “He’s goin’ to extra—extra—something me and take me, too. And I din’t kill no one. I been real careful since Lander went to prison. No way do I want to end up there. But that sheriff is thinkin’ I’m guilty.”

  “Thinking and proving are two different things, Seldon,” Zeph said. “If you’re not guilty, you probably don’t need to worry.”

  Wendover snorted. “Tell that to Lander.”

  Allie bit her lip to keep from pointing out that Lander had been guilty as charged.

  “See, the thing is, Allie,” Seldon said. “I need me a lawyer, a real good one, not like that dumb Public Defender that got Lander sent up.”

  She didn’t want to hear this. He was going to ask her to get her father to defend him. Even if she wanted to, she doubted she could pull that off. “Well, I—”

  “I don’t like to ask, but you’ve always been nice to me, and you’re real good with animals. And Zeph knows how to do stuff.”

  “True, but I don’t see what you want here,” Allie said.

  “I want you and Zeph to sell off the animals and the farm so I have enough money to hire me a good lawyer. And take care of the horses until they sell. You could maybe haul them down to the clinic? I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”

  A lot! It would take months to clean out a mess like that. Hard on the heels of that shock came the realization that this was the answer to her prayer. She’d said she’d do anything to get those poor horses away from that place. This was her chance. But… “It’ll take forever to clean the place up, Wend,” she said.

  “Aw, I don’t expect you to clean ever’thing up. Sell the animals and maybe pack up the personal stuff in the house. There ain’t much. Sell the place as is and fast. It won’t bring much, but I was gonna lose it for taxes pretty soo
n, and this way I’d get a little money and mebbe not spend the rest of my life in jail.” He gave Allie a pleading look. “Please?”

  “Well…”

  “I figured you might take like ten percent on the sales and you wouldn’t steal everything, like a lot of people I know.”

  “You need a better class of friends, Seldon,” Zeph said.

  “You’re the only ones I can trust, Allie. You and Zeph.”

  Did she have a choice? She looked at Zeph again, at his expressionless face, and couldn’t tell what he thought. Well, the heck with it. She could list the place with a realtor in Sacramento as well as he could, and those horses… “Yes, I’ll do it, Wend.”

  “What about the dogs?” Zeph demanded.

  Allie had been trying not to think about the dogs. Turning those two into good canine citizens didn’t seem likely, and putting down healthy animals hurt too much to consider.

  “Already gone.”

  “What happened?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “Started goin’ after the horses. I shot ’em.”

  Allie flinched. More confirmation that some people shouldn’t be allowed to have animals. The poor dogs probably had been starving. She forced her mind away from the subject. “How many horses are left?”

  “Five.”

  “Anybody taking care of them today?”

  Wendover shook his head. “Din’t have nobody to ask.”

  “Hell. Come on, Allie. We’d better get out there tonight.”

  Torn between pity and exasperation, and surprised at Zeph’s about face concerning animals, she followed. “We’d better take my truck out there. With the trailer. Just in case.”

  ****

  Allie whipped around the last curve and turned into Seldon’s driveway. Zeph swallowed a smile. He didn’t even flinch at her driving any more. “Would you have agreed to do this if it weren’t for the horses?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve known Wend ever since I can remember, but we’ve never exactly been friends.”

  “And you’re not exactly doing it for him either, are you?”