Emmy raised her hand as if she were in school.
“But how are you going to find it? All of Peter’s metal detectors got burned up in the fire.”
Bronco and Roxana laughed at that, and then Roxana answered her.
“Oh, don’t worry, honey, we know where to get more.”
***
Morris Whitaker applied sunscreen to the tip of his nose and then headed back out into the field.
The weekend was his favorite time and he was doing his favorite thing, along with his fellow club members, The El Paso Treasure Hunters.
It had been a great morning, he’d found a gold ring in his first hour and also a necklace. He couldn’t wait to go home and show them to his wife, Myra. Morris’ wife thought that walking around with a metal detector was a stupid waste of time and money, but Morris told her that it was great exercise and beat watching TV twelve hours a day, which is all his wife did on the weekends.
He was walking along in the field with his head down and listening for beeps when a pair of large booted feet came into sight.
Morris raised his head and looked up at Hombre, saw the beady eyes, the evil grin, and knew that he was in trouble.
“Uh, Hello?”
Hombre thumped him on the top of the head, and Morris fell to the ground and moaned.
As Hombre stripped him of his metal detector, Morris spoke words of feeble protest. He then noticed that several of his fellow diggers were laying upon the grass as he was, while in various states of pain and distress. Afterwards, he followed Hombre with his eyes, watching the man’s long braid swing across his wide back like a pendulum, and then saw him join several other men wearing leather vests, who were standing around a group of motorcycles. However, Morris couldn’t hear what they were saying because of the ringing in his ears caused by the blow to the top of his head.
Morris sighed. Myra was right. He should have stayed home and watched TV.
***
Hombre returned to his bike and climbed on.
“I’m keeping this one for myself, it looks fancy.”
One of the other men spoke to Hombre; he was a huge man with bulging biceps.
“How many we get from those nerds?”
“This one makes fifteen, that should be enough; now let’s get back, I could use a beer.”
Multiple engines rumbled, and the Diablo’s Doubles biker club roared away.
***
Jake stepped off the jet with Chris and Rayne following, and watched as a man with a badge on his chest walked over.
The man looked at each of them in turn, and then looked behind them.
“Howdy, I’m Sheriff Hennessy, and I was hoping to meet Jake Caliber.”
“You’re in luck,” Jake said.
The sheriff stared at him.
“You’re the grandson, the one that got the name?”
“That’s right.”
“You sure as hell look like him, I’ll give you that much, and who are these folks?”
Jake introduced Chris and Rayne, and the sheriff tipped his hat, while admiring Rayne’s beauty.
“I came out to escort you folks to town.”
“Any reason why, Sheriff?” Jake said.
“To tell you the truth, I wanted to meet your grandfather, but I also want to know what you people have planned, this isn’t New York.”
Chris stepped forward.
“When I talked to Velma she said that you were a good man and that you knew what you were doing, so do you have any leads on who really killed Gates?”
“Yeah, I do. I sent the clothes Miss Parker was wearing to a blood splatter expert, and I just heard back from him.”
“What’s the verdict, Sheriff?” Jake said.
“According to the expert, the blood patterns strongly indicate that Miss Parker was the one who murdered Peter Gates, and because of that, I’m officially charging her with murder.”
“Your expert is wrong!” Chris said.
Sheriff Hennessy shook his head.
“My expert is the best in his field. Miss Parker’s prints were also found on the murder weapon, a baseball bat. Now, let me ask you folks a question, just how well do you know Velma Parker? What I’m wondering is, is she the deceitful type?”
Chris looked frozen by the question, as Jake lowered his eyes, but Rayne strode towards Hennessy and stood before him.
“Velma Parker is not a murderer, and I’d like to see that blood report.”
“All right, as a courtesy, just follow me back to town.”
The sheriff got in his car, and as Jake and Chris walked over to a rental they had ordered, Rayne headed towards a second car.
“You ordered another rental?’ Chris asked.
“Yes, I think I’ll need to poke around out here, and we should have more than one vehicle.”
“I’ll ride with you.”
“No, Chris, go with your brother, I need time to think.”
“Thanks, Rayne, for standing up for Velma just now.”
“She didn’t do it, and we’ll prove it.”
“Damn straight,” Jake said, and the three of them left the airport.
CHAPTER 15
Deputy West opened the cell door and let Chris inside to see Velma.
“I’ll be at the end of the hall,” West said.
Velma and Chris barely heard her, or the clanging of the bars, as they held each other.
Once they separated, Chris sucked in air in sympathy as he took in Velma’s bruised face.
Velma took Chris’s hands in her own.
“I didn’t kill Peter. I swear it.”
“Velma, what the hell, you don’t need to say that to me.”
“Yes, I did, and I know that you’ve doubted my word lately, and with good reason, but it’s just hard for me to open up, you know?”
“Do you have any idea how that blood got on your blouse? The expert says that it marks you as the killer.”
“No! That’s impossible, I was unconscious.”
Chris led her over to the cell’s thin cot and they sat.
“We’ll figure it out; Jake is speaking with the sheriff right now?”
“And what about your grandfather, where is he?”
“He stayed in New York, he has complete faith in Jake and so do I, and he said to tell you to do the same.”
“I do; your brother is an excellent investigator.”
“There’s one more thing,”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve brought Rayne along too; I think she can help.”
Velma stood in a rush.
“Chris, are you insane? It’s partly her fault that I’m locked in this cell.”
“That’s not true, although she did admit to me that she was behind Gates showing up in AC.”
“I knew it, and what did it take to get that out of her?”
“I simply asked, Velma. I asked and she told the truth.”
“Unlike me, who lies constantly; is that what you mean?”
“You don’t lie constantly, but you don’t volunteer anything, you don’t let me in.”
Velma sent him a sarcastic smile.
“Little Rayne lets you in though, doesn’t she?”
Chris whispered, “That’s crude, Velma,” and looked away.
Velma lifted his chin and stared into his eyes.
“You’ve been with her again, haven’t you?”
“Yes, damn it, yes.”
“Go!”
“What?”
“I said, go, I don’t want you near me, not when you practically reek of her.”
“Velma, we have to put that aside. All that matters is getting you out of here.”
“Leave, Chris. I don’t want to even look at you right now, but before you go, know one thing, if you so much as kiss Rayne again, we’re done, and that doesn’t mean that I’ve decided to stay with you, now go.”
“Velma, I—”
“Deputy! Please get this man out of my cell.”
Wes
t appeared so quickly that Chris wondered if she’d been close enough to hear everything. She opened the cell door and gestured for Chris to leave.
“I love you, Velma, and I’ll always choose you... goodbye.”
Chris walked out, the bars slammed shut, and Velma sank onto the cot and cried.
***
Jake and Hennessy were sitting across the sheriff’s desk from each other as they discussed Velma’s case, and despite Hennessy’s claim that he was going to charge Velma, he had yet to do so.
“Not that I’m complaining, but why haven’t you charged her?” Jake said.
“I’ve decided to wait for the tox screen to come back, she was examined and a puncture wound was found near the small of her back; that wound worries me.”
“You’re not convinced she’s guilty? That’s good, because she’s not, and tell me, since it seems unlikely that someone could have planned to drug Velma, who in the area would be traveling around with drugs powerful enough to knock someone out?”
“There are only two that I can think of off the top of my head, one is the vet around here, Dr. Penn, the mayor’s husband. The other is, ah, my sister, the town doctor.”
“Your sister? And does she have any connection to Peter Gates?”
“She does, or rather she did years ago, they were actually dating when Gates went off to Fort Worth and met Velma Parker.”
Jake raised an eyebrow.
“Gates dumped your sister for Velma? Pardon me, Sheriff, but that sounds like a motive for murder.”
The sheriff grinned.
“It does, don’t it? Luckily, my sister was with twenty witnesses at the diner in town when the murder took place.”
“I see, then what about this vet? Could he have a motive?”
Hennessy laughed.
“The mayor’s husband? Bill Penn is as timid and mild as they come, Mr. Caliber. No, I can’t see him doing that, but I am checking into it.”
“How?”
“Dr. Penn is a stickler for doing things right, and he keeps meticulous records and receipts. One of my deputies is with him right now going over the inventory of his drugs, if there’s a discrepancy, then, we’ll know where the drug came from.”
“Is he really the only vet around here?”
“Local, yeah, and the other two that are nearby have alibis, while Dr. Penn was at home, and the housekeeper confirms it. But there’s something else, one of my deputies noticed that the side door to the veterinary clinic had a busted pane in its glass. He said the hole was big enough to reach through and undo the lock.”
“So if drugs are missing, anyone could have taken them.”
“No, my deputy said that the drug safe wasn’t broken into. He also found a baseball lying nearby on the ground, and so the busted window could have just been an accident caused by kids playing in the field behind the storefronts.”
“Or the baseball was an attempt to make us think that.”
“Yeah, also, the victim’s wife, Emmy Gates, she used to work at Dr. Penn’s and could possibly know the combination to the drug safe. Her alibi for the time of the murder is her sister-in-law, Roxana, who just got out of prison on a drug charge of her own.”
Jake thought for a second, and then asked a question.
“What about the vet’s wife, the mayor?”
Hennessy leaned back in his seat.
“There was talk years ago that she and Gates were fooling around, but let’s wait and see what the inventory shows, hmm?”
“Yeah, but tell me, Velma’s blouse, where is it now?”
“Our blood expert in El Paso still has it, but we’ll have it back tomorrow, why?”
“I want a second expert to look at it, not that I doubt your man’s abilities, but a second opinion never hurts.”
The sheriff nodded. “I hear you.”
There was a knock at the door, and through the glass set into it, Chris could be seen. The sheriff waved him in and Jake looked up at him.
“How did it go?”
“She’s in good spirits overall,” Chris said. He then asked a question. “Where’s Rayne?”
“She went out to look at the scene of the crime,” Jake said.
“There’s nothing out there but a burnt trailer and some scrub land,” the sheriff said, “But your Miss Carver said she still wanted to look at it. Maybe she’s got it into her head that there’s money hidden out there, same as that fella, Pruitt.”
“Pruitt? Not Trace Pruitt?” Jake said.
“That’s him, he’s from New York too, do you know him?”
“I know him,” Jake said, and if he’s involved in framing Velma I’ll choke his lights out.”
“Mr. Pruitt is here fortune hunting.”
“What does that mean?”
Hennessy smiled, and then told them about the robbery of the drug dealer and the possible missing money.
During the conversation, Chris had pulled up a seat and sat next to Jake, but now leaned his elbows on the desk and spoke to Hennessy.
“So, Gates had been searching on that land with a metal detector for over a year?”
“According to his wife, Emmy, and she said there was just one more section left to check.”
Chris stared at his brother.
“Maybe Gates was murdered for that money?”
“There is no money,” Hennessy said. “Just a bunch of fools chasing dreams.”
“Still, it’s worth looking into.”
“I told Miss Carver the story earlier and I think it’s what prompted her to go have a look, but even if there is money buried out there, Gates didn’t find it, so I still think the murder was about something else.”
“Passion,” Jake said. “Looking at the way he was beaten with that bat, there was a lot of passion behind that, and hatred, so it could have been a scorned lover.”
“Or an ex-wife,” Hennessy said, and both Chris and Jake sighed.
CHAPTER 16
Rayne wrinkled her nose as the wind wafted the odor of the charred trailer towards her.
There was more land on the property than she had imagined, and she thought that Gates had been dogged if he really had searched most of it singlehandedly with a metal detector.
Unlike the sheriff, Rayne found the thought that Gates’ brother had hidden money on the land to be feasible. If he had come during the day, he could have buried the money and left without ever being seen, as the area couldn’t be viewed from the old county road that adjoined it.
The sound of a vehicle approaching roused her from her thoughts and Rayne turned to see a car drive in, when the driver parked and got out, Rayne couldn’t hide her surprise.
Trace Pruitt walked towards her, smiling, as his eyes took her in from head to toe.
“Hello, and what’s your name?” Pruitt said.
Rayne hesitated in answering. She knew Pruitt was in the area, but she had not expected to run into him, and she feared that he would recognize her voice from their phone conversations. She then discarded that thought. Her voice was not unique, and she sounded like many other women.
“My name is Rayne Carver, and I’m here investigating a murder. I work for Jake Caliber.”
Pruitt smiled and offered his hand in greeting.
“I’m Trace Pruitt, Rayne, and I work for me.”
Rayne shook his hand, and Pruitt held on just a bit longer than was necessary. He was a good looking man, but Rayne barely noticed, as the focus of her heart was on Christopher Caliber and Christopher Caliber alone.
“Why are you here, Mr. Pruitt, and is that a New York accent I hear?”
“Yeah, I’m from New York, and I came here to find money, same as you.”
“You’re talking about the missing drug money? That’s just a myth. I came here to see the crime scene.”
Pruitt looked her over again.
“Why don’t we go have a drink, Rayne?”
“I don’t think so, Mr. Pruitt.”
“Too bad, I’d like to get to know you be
tter... Madam X.”
Rayne spun around to look at Pruitt fully.
“How did you figure it out, was it my voice?”
“Not your voice, but your tone, you say my name like it was something you stepped in.”
“That’s because a real private detective never would have agreed to help me get Gates to Atlantic City, only a bottom feeder like you.”
Pruitt laid a hand upon his chest, as he appeared to be genuinely hurt by her words.
“Bottom feeder? I provided you with a valuable service, and hell, seeing as how it turned out, I think you owe me another bonus.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not stupid, you wanted Caliber-lite all to yourself, didn’t you?”
“His name is Christopher.”
“Whatever, thing is, with Velma Parker rotting away in a Texas prison, he’s all yours.”
Rayne cocked her head.
“Did you have something to do with framing Velma?”
Pruitt moved closer to Rayne, and the top of her head only reached his chest. He smiled down at her.
“If I did have something to do with it, just how grateful would you be, hmm?”
Rayne smiled back, then, kneed Pruitt in the groin and performed a sweep kick that knocked him onto his back. Before he could recover, she had a gun pointed at his face.
“What did you do, Pruitt? Did you kill Peter Gates?”
“No, no, hell no, I was acting like it so I could get into your pants. Hell woman, I’m no killer, and how did you get a gun on a plane?”
Rayne stared at him for a few moments, and then told him to get up, as she put her gun back in her purse.
“You’re an idiot. You nearly confess to murder just for the hope of sex, stupid.”
“Still, I bet you’re glad that Velma Parker is screwed.”
“She’s not screwed. Velma is innocent and I won’t leave here until I prove it.”
“Whatever, just calm down, and really, how did you get that gun on a plane?”
“I flew here on a private jet, along with Chris, and Jake Caliber.”
“The old guy or the jerk grandson?”
Rayne smiled.
“The grandson, why, do you know him?”
“Yeah, I know him, and he thinks he’s hot shit.”
Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 2 Page 22
