Buck Fever (Blanco County Mysteries)

by Ben Rehder

  It was all an obvious pack of lies…but Marlin knew that a jury would probably buy it. It certainly sounded no crazier than smuggling drugs inside live animals.

  Marlin glared at Swank, who leered smugly back at him.

  “If you're so innocent, then why was your lawyer already here?” Marlin shot at him.

  “I'm an avid hunter myself,” Geis said. “I simply came out because I wanted to see if the other hunters got any Bowie and Crockett deer this weekend.”

  “It's Boone and Crockett,” Marlin growled. He could hear Collison stifling a laugh behind him.

  “Uh, right,” Geis said. “That's what I meant.”

  Marlin's anger was beginning to reach a boiling point. He stepped up close to Swank, towering over the shorter man. “This is the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever heard.”

  “Careful, Mr. Marlin,” Geis said. “You're coming awfully close to violating my client's rights.”

  Marlin turned to leave, but decided to deliver one last shot. “We're gonna get you on this, Roy. Plus the bullshit you had going at the bank.”

  Swank's eyes showed a trace of surprise.

  “That's right,” Marlin went on. “I know all about your bribe to Claude Rundell. So you better enjoy this ranch while you can, because it won't be yours for long.”

  Swank let out a long sigh and looked away from Marlin as if he were bored. “I have no idea what you're talking about, Marlin…now please go away.”

  Collison had his hand on Marlin's shoulder, gently holding him, sensing that he was about to go after Swank.

  Colby, who had been waiting outside at the lawyer's insistence, entered though the den door. “Hey, John…come out here for a minute. There's someone here to see you.”

  “Who is it?” Marlin asked, not wanting to walk out without getting some satisfaction.

  Colby locked eyes with Marlin and winked at him. “Come on out, John. These guys'll still be here in ten minutes.”

  Marlin walked out with Colby into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Waiting for him was Deputy Bobby Garza.

  “Where in the hell have you been?” Garza asked Marlin. “I was calling you all last night.”

  Marlin wanted to fill Garza in on everything that had happened, but there wasn't time. He wanted to get to Swank now, while the lawyer was still talking. Get them to slip up on something they would have to contradict later. “We stayed at Chuck's Motel last night because we didn't feel safe at my place or Phil's,” Marlin told him. “It's a long story, Bobby, but everything I told you the other day seems to be true. I called in the DEA. Sorry, I didn't mean to go around you or the Sheriff's Department on this one, but you know how Mackey is, and…”

  Garza shook his head. “Are you kidding? Don't worry about it. Those DEA guys will nail his nuts to the wall.”

  “Don't be so sure. Swank's lawyer is in there slinging lies all over place. And with Swank's connections…you know how those scumbags cover each other's asses. Dammit! If he manages to slip out of this…”

  “Relax, Marlin,” Garza smiled. “How would you like a confession?”

  Marlin looked at Garza like, Well, duh, I'd love one.

  Garza held up a videotape and said, “Marlin, ol’ buddy. Don't say I never gave you nothin’.”

  MARLIN WALKED BACK into the room, accompanied by Bobby Garza and Phil Colby. Swank looked a little surprised that Garza had appeared—probably wondering why Mackey wasn't here instead, Marlin thought—but Swank didn't say anything. Geis was finishing a call on his cell phone—confirming a tee time for later this afternoon, apparently. Marlin waited until he had both men's complete attention.

  Geis hung up and Marlin waited for just a moment, savoring what was about to happen.

  “Roy, I think Deputy Garza here needs to talk to you about an unrelated matter.”

  “What are you talking about?” Swank demanded, glancing nervously over at his lawyer.

  Geis started to speak, but Garza cut him off. “Nothing to be concerned about. But I do need to inform you that I think I've recovered some property that was stolen from you. Have you been burglarized recently?”

  “No! This is ridiculous. This…this…” Swank stammered, unsure what Garza and Marlin were up to.

  Marlin held up the videotape without exposing the label. “Deputy Garza made an arrest last night, and the two suspects confessed to stealing this from your residence. You might know them—Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock?”

  Swank shook his head and shrunk in his seat. “No, I don't think…Wait, maybe I do know them.…I'm not sure.”

  Covering all the bases, Marlin thought. Because he doesn't know what the hell we have.

  “Why don't we take a look at this tape, Mr. Swank, then you can confirm whether it is your property or not.”

  Without waiting for an answer, Marlin walked over to the entertainment center and plugged the tape into the VCR.

  Geis looked at Swank, wondering what the hell was going on, but Swank just shrugged.

  Marlin hit the PLAY button, and the men waited in silence for the tape to begin.

  Then the first images came on the screen. A blonde porn star eating a banana in a very suggestive manner. Then the picture jumped and the quality changed. It looked like home video and the frame showed a slain doe, lying in the grass among some cedar trees.

  “Oh my god,” Swank gasped. “Turn it off.”

  “Hold on there, Roy,” Marlin answered, with a huge smile. “We're not even sure it's yours yet.”

  On the screen, Roy Swank entered the frame—and began to dress the deer carcass in women's lingerie.

  Geis looked over at Swank like the fat lobbyist had just farted. “Jesus, Roy, what the hell is this all about?”

  “Turn it off!” Swank shouted, and rose to approach the VCR.

  Garza stepped in his way.

  Marlin said, with plenty of sarcasm, “Oh, so it is your property. Glad we got that cleared up.”

  “Always nice to help out a victim such as yourself,” Garza said.

  “Do something!” Swank yelled at Geis, who just shook his head.

  Onscreen, Swank was beginning to strip off his clothes.

  “Of course,” Marlin said, “this is evidence in a case, so Deputy Garza can't return it right away.”

  Swank began to cry now, huge sobs that made the other men turn away in embarrassment. “For the love of Christ, stop it!” Swank bawled. “Just tell me what you want! What do you want?”

  Marlin hit the PAUSE button, freezing the image of Swank with his pants down to his knees. “Let's see…Where do I begin?”

  An hour later, a well-dressed Hispanic gentleman approached the main bridge in Laredo, intending to cross over into Mexico. He was driving a late-model Cadillac with a rental sticker on the bumper. Larry Blackwell, a border guard for seventeen years, decided to check it out. Too many stolen cars were crossing the border nowadays.

  He motioned the driver over to the side and rapped on the driver's window.

  The window came down and the driver gave Blackwell a big smile. “Yes sir, Officer?” he said with a thick accent.

  “May I see some identification, please?”

  The man handed him a passport. Humberto Moises Rivera, it said, and it appeared legitimate. A naturalized American citizen.

  “Mr. Rivera, may I see your rental papers for this automobile?”

  “Oh, yes sir,” Rivera said eagerly, handing the guard some additional papers.

  Everything looked to be in order, Blackwell thought, but you could never tell, with computers and printers as advanced as they were these days.

  Blackwell handed the documents back to the Hispanic man. “Where are you traveling today?” he asked.

  “Going to see my family in Monterrey. Beeg family reunion.”

  “Reunion, huh? That sounds nice. What are their names?” Blackwell asked.

  “Perdóneme?”

  “Your family members…what are their names.”

&nbs
p; “Well, there ees my brothers, Javier, Rafael, and Raul. My sisters, Isadora and Maria…” The man noticed the guard had a pad out and was writing the names down.

  “Any aunts and uncles there? Maybe some cousins?”

  “Sure,” Rivera replied, and continued to list names. After he had provided a dozen or so, Blackwell motioned that he could stop.

  “Please wait here for a moment, Mr. Rivera,” he said, and returned to the small guard station.

  Blackwell simply sat for five minutes, drinking coffee. It was one of the oldest tricks in the book. Ask some questions, wait a while, then ask ’em again, see if the answers matched up.

  Blackwell exited the guard station and approached the car again.

  “Okay, Mr. Rivera, we're almost done here and then you can be on your way. Just tell me again…what are your brothers’ names?”

  The man's smile evaporated. “Why for you ask this again? I have already given you those names.”

  “The names, sir.”

  The man looked through the windshield at the bridge ahead of him. “There is Javier…and…”

  “Who else?”

  “And…I am a busy man! I must be on my way!”

  Blackwell placed his palm on the butt of his gun. Then he said, with an edge in his voice, “Step out of the car, sir. Right now.”

  Moments later, Oscar stood to the side and watched in amusement as several men searched the interior of his car. These fools, he thought, they will find nothing. There is nothing to find. He had tossed his handgun out on the road many miles back. As far as his fictitious family, so what if he could not remember names on a list? In the U.S., they could not hold him for that. In Colombia, yes, but not here.

  He watched as the one named Blackwell removed the keys from the ignition, walked to the rear of the car and popped the trunk.

  In an instant, Oscar's world came crashing down. From ten feet away, Oscar could clearly see the contents of the trunk—and he realized with great despair that he had fallen victim once again to another man's incompetence. Tyler had not done what Oscar had asked. He had not disposed of the body of Barney Weaver, whose corpse grinned lifelessly up at the border guards.

  EPILOGUE

  PHIL COLBY STOOD on the bed of his truck and drove the last in a long line of eight-foot T-posts, then looked back at his work. Large rolls of horse-fence were waiting in a nearby trailer. He'd have the fence finished tomorrow, then he could let Buck out of the barn, free to wander. Colby sat down on the tailgate just as Marlin came bouncing up the driveway in his truck. Becky Cameron was in the passenger seat.

  “Fence is looking good, Phil,” Marlin said as he climbed out of the vehicle.

  “You really think five acres is enough?” Colby asked, surveying the area to be enclosed by the deerproof fence.

  “Aw, yeah, don't worry. Maybe we can leave a gate open, let a couple of good-looking does in.”

  “A couple?” Becky said with a grin. “What does he need more than one for?” Before either man could reply, Becky said, “You look worn out, Phil. I'll go grab us all some iced tea if you've got any.”

  “How ’bout a cold beer instead? There's a six-pack in the fridge,” Colby replied.

  “Be right back,” she said.

  Both men watched her walk away in her khaki shorts.

  Marlin figured it was as good a time as any. “Listen, Phil, I wanted to talk to you about Becky.…”

  Colby held up his hands, palms out. “Hey, don't worry about it.”

  Marlin shook his head. “I just want you to know that I didn't plan it this way. I know you were interested in her, but…”

  Colby cut in. “You think if I was the one holed up in the cabin with her, I wouldn'ta done the same thing?”

  Marlin didn't know what to say.

  “She's a great gal, John,” Colby said. “Quit moping around about it and just enjoy yourself.”

  Just like that, Marlin knew why he had been friends with Colby for so long.

  “But about this fence.” Colby changed the subject. “It just doesn't feel right, to keep him in a pen this small.”

  “He'll be fine.”

  “Yeah, but what about next season? And even in between seasons, there are always poachers around. I imagine Buck will hang around the house here for the most part, but you know he's gonna wander off sometimes.”

  “What if he had four thousand acres to roam around on?” Marlin said, barely able to contain himself.

  Colby gave him a sidelong glance. “What are you talking about?”

  “I'm talking about your ranch, Phil. It's gonna be yours again.”

  Colby's lips moved, but nothing came out.

  “I just came from a meeting with Roy Swank,” Marlin continued. “Just me and him. No lawyers. We made a little trade—a rather disgusting videotape, for the ranch. I told him it was a funny thing, tapes like that had a way of ending up on the Internet. He was all too happy to make a deal.”

  Colby started laughing, the kind of laughter accompanied by tears of joy. He came over to shake Marlin's hand, and the handshake turned into a hug.

  “Jesus, John. You don't know what that means to me.”

  “I know. You got Bobby Garza to thank, too. He bent the rules a little bit. As soon as Swank deeds the property back to you, Garza is gonna give him the tape, no questions asked. Red and Billy Don gave Garza that tape so he wouldn't nail ’em for theft and DWI and speeding and…”

  “Gaw-damn, I'm gonna have to buy those rednecks a beer sometime,” Colby said. “On second thought, maybe I'll hire ’em to work the ranch.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” Marlin couldn't tell if Colby was serious.

  “Hey, what better way to keep ’em from poaching the property?”

  Marlin smiled. “You know, you may be right.”

  Marlin and Colby sat down on the tailgate and watched the sun begin to dip behind the oak trees.

  “What about the smuggling, John? Isn't Swank gonna get nailed for that?”

  “Man, I hope so. He's still gotta deal with those charges, but I don't know what kind of case the feds can put together. Tim Gray and two of the Colombians are dead. The leader, this guy Oscar, is in jail and hasn't said a word yet. I doubt he ever will. Mackey has admitted to taking some bribes from Swank, but it sounds like he didn't really know what was going on out there. In any case, Mackey's gonna be out of a job, and I know a fine young deputy named Garza who's just dying to take his place. So, to be honest, I figure if Swank hires enough Austin lawyers, they can get a jury to believe just about anything. Swank could walk away with probation, or maybe even get off scot-free.”

  Colby sighed. “That just ain't right.”

  “On the other hand,” Marlin said, “if Luis gets out of the burn unit and decides to save his own skin—no pun intended—he could put Swank away for a long time.”

  Colby nodded. “John, you said something yesterday that I meant to ask you about. When we were still at Swank's, you were talking to that lawyer, Geis, and you said something about finding another tape…”

  Marlin nodded. “Several years back, Cletus called in about some shots fired on the Circle S. I went over there and found a doe all prettied up like the one on the tape we saw. There was a video camera set up, but the poacher had taken off. Now, looking back, I realize it wasn't a poacher, it was Swank.”

  “Did you look at the tape?”

  “Hell, yes. Nothing on it, though.”

  Colby shook his head. “That guy is one sick puppy.”

  The men heard Colby's screen door slam and Becky returned with three longneck bottles.

  They drank in silence for a moment, enjoying the last light of the evening.

  Just as the sun dipped beneath the horizon, they heard a deer snort beyond the fenceline. A large buck emerged from behind a grove of trees and stared at the trio.

  “It's gonna be a great season, John,” Colby said, as the graceful animal snorted again and bounded off into the brush.

&
nbsp; ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ben Rehder lives with his wife near Austin, Texas, where he was born and raised. His Blanco County mysteries have made best-of-the-year lists in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Field & Stream. Buck Fever, the first in the series, was nominated for the Edgar Award.

  KEEP READING FOR AN EXCERPT FROM

  BEN REHDER'S

  BONE DRY

  On the morning of Saturday, November 5—opening day of deer season—a statuesque blonde beauty strolled out of the trees, pulled down her khaki shorts, and peed beneath Cecil Pritchard's deer feeder.

  “Well, suck a nut,” Cecil said to himself, sitting in his deer blind a hundred yards away. He looked down at his coffee mug, blinking dumbly. Maybe he'd added a little too much Wild Turkey. And this was his fourth cup. But when he looked up again, the Nordic goddess was still there, hiking up her shorts. His brother-in-law would never believe it.

  The day had started normally enough. Cecil climbed out of bed at four A.M. sharp, pulled on his camo coveralls, and brewed a pot of Folgers. Nothing gets you going like the smell of fresh coffee, Cecil thought, whistling happily. He would have loved a big plate of scrambled eggs, bacon on the side, and a basketful of biscuits, but Cecil wasn't much of a cook, and his wife, Beth, was still drowsing in bed. Goddamn woman was as useless as a negligee on a nun. On weekdays, when he'd come home from the machine shop at lunchtime, he'd usually find Beth staring at the soap operas or Jerry Springer on TV, and Cecil would be left to make his own lunch. The way Cecil saw it, that was a serious infraction of the marriage vows. So, as he had prepared for the morning hunt, Cecil made sure to stomp around the mobile home as heavily as possible, kind of get the whole floor vibrating. It'd serve her right if she couldn't get back to sleep after he left.

  He met up with Beth's brother Howard at the ranch gate at five in the A.M., just as planned—plenty of time to reach the blinds before first light. Seeing as how they had a few minutes to spare, Cecil took the opportunity to remind Howard what a lazy, good-for-nothing sister he had. Howard heartily agreed while munching a breakfast taco his own wife had prepared for him. Sorry, I ain't got but one, Howard said around a mouthful.