Texas Tall

by Janet Dailey

  She’d paused a moment to massage the small of her back, when Erin gave a shout.

  “There’s a hole back here! It looks like . . .” She shoved more rocks off the pile, then scrambled up the remaining heap for a closer look. “Lauren! It’s a cave! Bring me the flashlight!”

  “Get down!” Lauren caught her waist and dragged her back. “There could be anything in there!”

  “Anything?” Erin was grinning. “Like Spanish gold?”

  Lauren found the flashlight in the pack and switched it on. “Stay here while I check it out,” she said.

  Lauren crept up the pile of rocks. The prickling danger sense she’d felt earlier was screaming now. She’d never thought of herself as brave, but if anything came flying out of that cave, she’d want it to get past her before it got to Erin.

  Peering over the top of the pile, she shone the faint light into the cave. The walls were uneven rock, the ceiling about five feet above the stone-littered floor, which appeared to drop off near the back of the cave. There was no sign of life, not even bats or spiderwebs. But something about the place gave Lauren cold chills—maybe it was the distinct, musky odor that lingered in the cave’s stale air.

  “What’s in there?” Erin demanded.

  “Nothing much, but go ahead and look.” Lauren moved back and handed her the flashlight. “Remember, I said look. I didn’t say climb over. You’re not going in there.”

  Erin clambered up to the opening and shone the light into the cave. “Wow!” she muttered. “I can see all the way to that hole in the back. Maybe that’s where they hid the treasure.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Lauren said.

  “Okay, for now. But let’s move more rocks away. Then it’ll be easier to see what’s there.”

  They shoved the rocks to the sides until the pile was no higher than their knees. Lauren was hurting, but she couldn’t help being curious. If they hadn’t found Spanish gold, they’d at least discovered something. But her danger sense was still tingling. With most of the rock barrier gone, daylight lit the cave. They could see clearly all the way back to the dark opening in the floor. It was irregular in shape, like a jagged crack where the ancient rock had split and settled. At its widest point it was about two feet across.

  Erin had picked up the flashlight. “Let’s go see what’s down there!”

  “Wait!” Lauren handed her a rock. “Throw this down first. If we can hear it land—”

  “Got it.” Erin gave the stone an easy toss. It bounced off the edge and vanished down the dark crack. They could hear the faint clatter as it ricocheted off the sides, then silence. They glanced at each other. The hole was deep.

  “Don’t worry, I’m only going to look.” Erin started forward.

  “No—listen!” Lauren gripped her arm. “Listen!”

  For the first few seconds, they could barely hear it—a faint, rattling buzz—one, then a second, then a chorus of sound that seemed to echo off the walls of the cave.

  “Rattlesnakes,” Erin said. “I know that sound. They’ve got a winter den down there.”

  Lauren’s knees went weak. She’d always been terrified of snakes. “Let’s get out of here!” she said, tugging Erin back.

  Erin resisted. “We’ll be all right. The snakes are down there to hibernate. As long as we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us.”

  “That’s enough, Erin. We’re going.”

  “The treasure could still be down there. I just want to look—”

  “Not now! If you want to see what’s down there, come back with Sky—”

  “Did I hear my name mentioned?”

  Sky had just come up the trail from the lower canyon. As he stepped into the clearing, Lauren’s first impulse was to fling herself into his arms. But it was Erin who needed attention.

  “What’s going on?” As always, Sky was a man of few words.

  “We found this secret cave!” Erin spoke up, talking fast. “There’s a hole in the back, and I think the treasure might be down there, but Lauren won’t let me look.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Erin, it’s a rattlesnake den!” Lauren said.

  “What would you say to me taking a look?” Sky asked. “Don’t worry, I know about snakes. I’ll be careful.”

  Lauren remembered him telling her how Will had been bitten on the thigh by a Texas diamondback last spring and nearly died. “I wish you wouldn’t,” she said, knowing that Sky would do what he wanted.

  He squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll be fine. All right, Erin?”

  “All right,” Erin said, stepping aside for him. “But promise you’ll tell me what you find.”

  “I promise.” He pulled leather gloves from the pockets of his thick denim jacket and tugged them on. Erin handed him the flashlight. He frowned at the cheap dime-store item. “Don’t you have anything stronger?”

  “This was all we could find,” Lauren said. “We didn’t plan on needing it.”

  “Guess it’ll have to do.” He glanced around, picked up a stout piece of a broken branch, and, turning on the flashlight, ducked under the low ceiling of the cave.

  Lauren kept her eyes on him. Sky had lived all his adult life on the Rimrock. Surely, he’d be experienced with snakes. But terror gripped her as he dropped to a crouch beside the hole and shone the light down into the opening. For a moment he moved the light around, probably making sure there were no snakes close enough to strike. Then he bent forward, peering into the darkness as if straining to see by the poor light. Lauren’s heart crept into her throat as he lingered, looking down for what seemed like an eternity. At last he rose partway and, ducking to clear his head beneath the ceiling, stepped outside.

  One look at his grim face told her something wasn’t right.

  “What did you see?” Erin was all eagerness.

  “Mostly just snakes. Plenty of those. But no treasure. I could see all the way to the bottom, and it wasn’t there. Sorry, Erin.”

  “Me too.” Her face fell. Her shoulders slumped. “I was really hoping I could help my dad with the ranch. I’ve heard him and Uncle Beau talking. I know they’re having money troubles.”

  “Oh, honey!” Lauren hugged the girl, her eyes misting. Glancing up, she met Sky’s gaze. His jaw was set, his eyes guarded. She knew her man. He was troubled. And something told her it wasn’t just about the ranch.

  “You saw something else, didn’t you?” she guessed. “What was it?”

  He handed her the flashlight and pulled off his gloves. His gaze flickered toward Erin. He hesitated, as if weighing the wisdom of telling her, then decided to go ahead. “I saw bones,” he said. “They looked like human bones.”

  CHAPTER 10

  The door to Clay Drummond’s office burst open. Tori strode in like an Amazon in full battle gear. Even dressed in jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, with her reading glasses perched atop her rumpled blond mane, she was spectacular, Clay thought. But he knew she hadn’t barged in here to be admired.

  Ignoring his invitation to take a seat, she loomed over his desk. One hand clutched a sheaf of papers, which she shoved in his face. “Take a look!” she said. “I’ve spent the past two days researching precedents for Will’s case. Here’s what I found—five similar cases in Texas alone to support a verdict of self-defense. Read them! This trial is a farce—a waste of time and taxpayer money!”

  Clay took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay perfectly calm. “It wasn’t my decision to try this case, Tori. It was the judge’s. Will took an innocent man’s life. My job is to prosecute him to the full extent of the law. That’s what I intend to do.”

  Standing, arms akimbo, she braced her fists on her lovely hips. “How long did we work together, Clay? How many times since then have we faced each other in court? I know how you like to win. But, as far as I’m aware, you’ve always done it honestly. This case feels different, almost as if somebody’s got it in for Will. What’s going on here?”

  “As I told you, Tori, I’m just doing my job.”
He straightened the papers she’d flung at him. “By the way, there’s been a new development. You’ll get the official word in a couple of days, but as long as you’re here, I may as well give you a heads-up. Abner and I have been reviewing the evidence, both physical and circumstantial. We’re in agreement that, along with the present charges against Will, we should add obstruction of justice.”

  Tori went rigid. “Obstruction? Good Lord, Clay, how did the two of you come up with that?”

  “Think about it,” Clay said. “First, Will contaminated the crime scene by covering the dead man with a blanket from his truck. Since his DNA, and who knows what else, was already on the blanket, there’d be no way to tell if he’d touched the body.”

  “Will wouldn’t have been thinking about that,” Tori said. “His only intention was to keep Erin from seeing the man.”

  “Second,” Clay continued, “Will sent a key eyewitness away from the crime scene before the sheriff arrived, giving her time to think about her testimony, maybe even change it, before her interview.”

  “Oh, good grief! Why don’t you charge me, too?” Tori snapped. “I was the one who picked her up and drove her home. For heaven’s sake, Clay, Erin’s a child. She was scared and upset. Besides, Will had told her to get on the floor. He didn’t know she’d witnessed anything until I told him the next day.”

  “I’m aware that Erin’s a child, Tori. I also know the girl would say anything to help her father.” He rose behind his desk. The feeling that he had this beautiful, powerful woman at his mercy was strangely heady, almost erotic. “One more thing,” he said. “Just so it won’t be a surprise, we’ll be calling your daughter as a witness—for the prosecution.”

  * * *

  The afternoon sun was sinking toward the caprock by the time Sky returned with Erin and Lauren from their canyon adventure. Tired and hungry, they unsaddled their horses, rubbed them down, and put them away.

  He glanced at Erin as they left the barn, wanting to make certain she was all right. She’d been quiet on the ride home—but then, none of them had felt like talking much. The discovery of the bones in the rattlesnake den had sobered them all. The flashlight had been too weak for a clear look. But Sky had known what he was seeing.

  Maybe he should have kept quiet about the bones. They appeared to have been there a long time. And there could be no question of retrieving them from that deep, narrow space, especially with the snakes denned up for the winter. Leave the dead to lie—that would be sound advice. But there was something Sky had kept to himself—something that would compel him to go back to the cave with a stronger light for another look.

  The sight of those fragile bones had touched him deeply. He wouldn’t rest easy, Sky knew, until he’d learned more about how they’d come to be there. Light and distance may have fooled his eyes, but every instinct told him he’d been right.

  He had looked down into that awful darkness and seen the remains of a child.

  “Yum! I smell cinnamon rolls!” Erin’s piping voice broke into his thoughts as they neared the house. “Bernice told me this morning she was going to make a big batch. Come on in and have some!”

  “That sounds wonderful! I’m famished!” Lauren tugged Sky toward the kitchen, where Bernice had just finished icing a big pan of spicy, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. Jasper sat at the table, waiting for his share.

  Bernice greeted the three of them with a smile. “Something told me you’d come back hungry. You’re just in time. Wash up and have a seat.”

  After a quick cleanup, they joined Jasper at the table. Armed with saucers and forks, they dug into the pan of warm, delicious rolls. Bernice poured glasses of cold milk, then sat down to eat with them. “So, did you find the Spanish gold?” she asked.

  Lauren shook her head.

  “Told ya, ya wouldn’t,” Jasper said. “See, it’s just a story.”

  “We didn’t find gold.” Erin spoke between bites. “But we found a cave with a snake den at the bottom of a hole. Sky looked down there and saw some bones, didn’t you, Sky?”

  Jasper’s fork dropped from his hand and clattered to his plate. “ ’Scuse me,” he muttered, picking it up again. “Gettin’ butterfingers in my old age.”

  “Do you know anything about a cave in that canyon, Jasper?” Lauren asked.

  Jasper frowned, looking down at the table. “Seems like I recollect something about a cave. But I never went up that little canyon. Had no call to, ’specially after Bull sold it to Old Ferg.”

  “So you never heard anything about the bones?” Lauren persisted.

  “Nope. Most likely just some old-time Injun that fell down there and died, rest his heathen soul.”

  Sky thought that Jasper looked distinctly uncomfortable. He’d bet his best saddle that the old man knew a lot more than he was saying. Maybe later, when they were alone, Jasper would tell him the truth. But before asking, Sky wanted to go back to the cave with a strong light and take another look at those bones.

  * * *

  “You goin’ out again tonight, Ralphie?” Vonda looked up from dabbing black polish on her toenails, which she could barely reach over her bulging belly. Her voice, lately, had taken on a whine that grated on Ralph’s nerves like the sound of a mewling cat. He could hardly wait to get out the door.

  “Gotta go to work, baby,” he said. “Stella don’t pay much, but with a kid on the way, we can’t make it without me workin’ two jobs.”

  “But we don’t have any fun since you started that job—not even in bed.”

  “That kind of stuff could be bad for the baby.” Lord, he’d tried. But sex with Vonda these days was like pumping a beach ball. Some men claimed pregnancy made their wives sexier, but Ralph didn’t buy it—especially now that he was getting some on the side.

  “You’re tired all the time. And I’m cooped up here in the house, just gettin’ bigger and doin’ nothin’! You haven’t even took me to a movie since you started workin’ for that woman,” Vonda whined. “I thought bein’ married would be fun, like a date that doesn’t end. But it sucks! And bein’ pregnant sucks worse! You got me this way, and you owe me better’n this!”

  “Hell, I bought you those damn fake fingernails and gave you money for lunch with your friends. I even bought you a TV to watch while I’m gone.”

  “That old TV is crap! It’s not even a flat screen!”

  “Well, too bad. I’m doin’ the best I can. Just deal with it, Vonda.” Ralph walked out and slammed the door behind him.

  As he drove his old pickup into town, he dragged on a cigarette to calm his nerves. Stella was expecting him at eleven for a delivery run, and she wouldn’t stand for any slipups. He didn’t want to risk riling her and getting fired. The money was too good for that.

  Ralph thought about how he had stashed away $7,000 in a secret bank account. It was enough to buy a half-decent used truck. But if he showed up with it at home, Vonda would know he’d been holding out on her, and all hell would break loose. She might even be mad enough to phone her daddy and tell him about her husband’s part-time job.

  For now, he’d be smart just to leave the money in the bank and keep adding to it. He’d be damned if he was going to be stuck with whiny Vonda and a bawling brat for the rest of his life. When the time came to split, he could give her a little money, take the rest, and leave Blanco County for a new start somewhere. Vonda would be okay. Once her folks got a look at the kid, it would be just like in the movies. They’d take her back for sure.

  Stella was just closing up when he pulled into the parking lot of the Blue Coyote. He went in the back way, as the last customers were leaving. Angie, the blond young waitress, was just wiping off the tables. She gave him a tired smile, and he knew he’d be welcome in her room when he finished his run. He’d have to give her some money, of course. But what the hell, Stella always paid him in cash, and he’d have plenty to spare.

  With the front door locked, and Angie on her way upstairs, Stella ushered him down the hall to the storage r
oom that doubled as her office. She looked tired, but then she always did, after a night of tending bar on her feet. Her lipstick was gone, and her black eyeliner had smudged into the creases around her eyes. His mother would be about her age, if she hadn’t died of breast cancer, Ralph thought. But his mother had been a churchgoing woman, nothing like Stella.

  “You were Lute Fletcher’s friend, weren’t you, Ralph?” The question came out of nowhere.

  “Can’t say we were real good friends. We worked together for the Tylers, and I gave him a few rides to town before he quit the ranch. Never saw much of him after that.”

  “You know what happened to him, don’t you?”

  “I know he’s dead. Shot by that crooked sheriff.”

  “I had nothing to do with his getting shot,” Stella said. “But Lute was in trouble before it happened. He got greedy. I gave him my trust, and he tried to steal from me. As for his sister, Marie—” She broke off, as if she’d tasted something bitter. “Did you know her? Now, that woman was a real she-devil.”

  “I never met Lute’s sister,” Ralph said, feeling a tad nervous. “But I’m not like Lute, ma’am. All I want is to earn whatever you pay me.”

  “Now that’s what I like to hear.” She gave him a feline smile. “I’ve got plans for you—plans that involve a lot more money than you’re making now. But first you need to show me I can count on you. Understand?”

  Ralph’s mouth had gone dry. He nodded.

  “Good. We’ll talk more later. For now, here’s your package. Instructions are in the bag. Now get going.”

  Ten minutes later, Ralph was on the road, with two packets of cocaine on the seat beside him, hidden under a wrapped cheeseburger in a take-out bag from the Burger Shack. By now he knew the drill. Drive to an isolated spot on Blanco County’s network of backroads. Wait for the customer to show up, turn over the package, collect the cash, and take it back to the Blue Coyote for Stella. After she’d given him his cut, he’d be free to go.