“Can you see Charles?”
“I can see the top of his head.”
I’m well over six feet tall, so that made sense that she’d see me and not Mimi. I said, “Keep her on the phone.”
“Hold on,” Mimi said.
“I’m going to stand here.” I stood approximately where Bucky might have been. “You stand there.” I pointed to where I thought the killer night have stood. “Now stand on your tips of your toes.”
Mimi did as I said. “Now what?”
“Raise your hands and swing your arms high, like you’re going for my head.” I yelled toward Mimi’s phone. “Cortnie, are you watching?”
“I’m watching and listening, but the only thing I see is your head, Charles.”
That was it. “Okay, Cort, come back down here. I want to talk to you.”
“Good, because I want to talk to you, too. I have something crazy to tell you.”
We walked back up the steps.
I offered, “But she was on the porch. The kitchen window is about a foot higher, at least.”
Mimi replied,“But someone would have to have been looking at that very moment. And how long could it have taken?”
“True. Rayna said Galynn was in the shower, or someone did.” I couldn’t remember the exact conversation, but that girl had wet hair when she came down to the barn, so maybe I just assumed she was in the shower.
“I wonder if he was hit on the left or right side of his head?”
I thought about what Bucky looked like laying on the ground yesterday. My experience told me he’d been hit from behind, and on the left side of his head. At least the hit that bashed his skull. The hits to the face seemed to be after the fact. I closed my eyes to take in all of the gruesomeness again.
“He was hit in the back of the head, and on the left side, with a metal pipe. If I had to guess, he was hit by a left handed person, who was strong enough to knock him out, or kill him with the first blow. The rest of the blows were anger, plain and simple. Hatred,” I said.
There was blood splatter, but not a lot. No more than the innards of a pumpkin if you smashed it with a baseball bat, and maybe even less, since the skull holds our brain in better than pumpkin flesh holds in its seeds.
“The person had to know they wouldn’t be seen down here. “ Mimi looked back up toward the house. “I wonder if Rayna and Galynn can see us? No way they had no idea.”
“I don’t want to speculate, because the cops are already doing that, and I’m sure Gabe and Nick have already done what we’re doing now.” I knew they had, because they were smart cops. Did they know who the killer was, and just needed more evidence? I wanted to know more, but I didn’t have a way to find out. I had access to Bucky’s computer, but not everything in a person’s life is on a computer.
“Well, we aren't the cops, but I’d bet if they find us down here, they’re going to slap us with obstruction or something. We’d better get a move on.” Mimi looked scared.
“What? You afraid Nicky-poo will withhold sex if you jump in the middle of his murder investigation again?”
She flipped me off.
We headed back to the car. This had been a waste of time, other than to escort our client off the property. And at this point, I guess he was no longer our client. He got what he wanted, and he was on his merry way. But wait, is this all working out a little too peachy keen for Skinner?
Cortnie met us at the top of the stairs. As we walked back to the car, she said, “Skinner told me that Emmet’s kid is definitely Bucky’s. He said we might want to go have a word with her.”
“Seems like Skinner has us on a wild goose chase. He’s getting what he wants, and he’s sending us all over the county.” I was beginning to think Skinner was as much a snake as Bucky had been. But hadn’t we been warned? Isn’t that what Pam told Cortnie and Mimi?
“So, do we talk to Emmet, or stay out of it?” Cortnie asked.
“We still haven’t earned all the money he gave us,” Mimi said. She grinned.
I liked a good puzzle as much as the next person, but didn’t we have other viable cases we could be working on? Weren’t there a hundred cheating spouses we could be spying on? What the hell was I saying? Those were boring as hell, just plain white vanilla cases. This was Jamoca Almond Fudge mixed with Pistachio Cookie Dough, and I’d rather have that ice cream any day.
“To Emmet’s it is. All for one, and one for all. The Three Musketeers ride again.” What the heck had gotten into me? I smiled. Max. Need I say more?
Only I had no intention of going with Cortnie and Mimi to talk to Emmet. That pixie chick rubbed me the wrong way, and I had no intention of standing in the same room with her for a minute, much less several of them.
“You go ahead without me. I’m going to stay here and work my Charles charm without you two ladies to weigh me down.” I had an idea. I hoped it worked.
“How will you get home?” Mimi asked.
“If I can’t charm Rayna or Galynn into a ride, I’ll call you.” Dear Lord in Heaven, please don’t make me have to call Mimi, or I’ll never hear the end of it.
“What do you have planned?” Cortnie asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, win Galynn’s heart?”
Hell, I had no idea, I just needed to get into that house, and maybe get those ladies out of it.
Chapter 13
MIMI
I was surprised when Cortnie told me Emmet’s address. It was in an apartment complex in South Salinas. We drove to town, and headed out Blanco Road, where she lived in a nice complex that was older than I was, but well maintained. The architecture had the definite 1970s look, and was painted a dark army green.
“We should have called first,” I said.
“If we miss her, we miss her. It’s just a social call, right?” Cortnie didn’t seem too concerned.
“What do you think about what Charles said, about Skinner sending us on a wild goose chase? Do you think he could be the guilty party? I mean, so far, he’s coming out smelling like the sweetest rose in this.”
“Makes me wonder if he knew the original contract deal with Bucky and Pam all along. But that’s so convoluted, and we don’t have the details to go on. I could look up the court documents and read through them today, if you want.” Cortnie looked down at her phone for her notes. “Apartment 89.”
I pulled into visitor parking.
It really did all seem too convenient. Skinner comes to us with a problem, wants us to help clear up his credit after this fraud scam of Bucky’s, and then he conveniently tells us about the horse deal. If he killed Bucky, why did he need us? I didn’t know that part yet. Maybe he really did want his credit cleared up, and his saddle back. But in the interim, he gets his horse back, his life back, and he proves to his wife that he really loved her all of these years. Now that part warms my heart. It made me smile for Naomi, but only a little. Was she married to a murderer?
“Let’s do this thing.”
We walked to Emmet’s apartment, neither of us in a hurry. I wasn’t sure I liked the woman. She wasn’t exactly pleasant with Cortnie the day before.
Cortnie knocked on the door.
We waited.
Emmet didn’t look half as cute and sexy as she had at the Cox place the day before. Her hair was tied up in a scarf, and looked as if it hadn’t been washed in a few days. The sparkles were still on her skin, but looked slept in. With no makeup on, she had dark circles under her eyes, the sockets looked sunken and her skin sallow.
“Cortnie?” Her voice held none of the venom from yesterday. “I’m sorry, come in.”
“We don’t want to bother you. We just wanted to ask you a few questions.” Cortnie spoke quietly, like she thought someone might be sleeping in the other room.
“The cops have already asked a ton of questions.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “I’m all questioned out.”
“Where’s your daughter?” I asked.
Emmet looked around the sparse, but immaculate apa
rtment. “Oh, Kiley’s at school.”
“So, you live here? Where do you keep your horses?”
“Home sweet home, but the horses are out on River Road. We don’t have enough money to buy property around here, and besides, we travel so much. It’d be too much of a hassle to keep up a ranch, and go to rodeos. I can’t afford a kid, horses, and a farmhand.” She half smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it.
“Rough night?” I asked.
“You don’t know the half of it, and we just got back early this morning.” She shook her head quickly, as if to rid her head of a memory.
“So Kiley’s Bucky’s daughter?” Cortnie just came right out and said it.
Hearing her daughter’s name made Emmet smile. “It’s not really a secret, unless you’re around Bucky and Rayna. I think everyone in the world knows it’s his, except Rayna, and maybe Bucky’s constituents. But it’s not like I hang around Bucky. Not in political realms, anyway.”
“Do you mind telling us the story?” I looked for a place to sit down, hoping she’d be willing to give us the full story. I sat on a chair at the dining room table.
The apartment’s public areas were all one space, so the living room and dining area were all the same. Emmet walked over and pulled out another chair. She looked happy to sit. Cortnie remained standing. I glared at her, and she took a seat.
“First, I want to say sorry to you, Cortnie. I was terrible yesterday. I was so mad at Rayna, and I had no right to be mean. You looked lovely, and I was being nasty. I guess I haven’t changed all that much. I can pop some real zingers when I’m feeling threatened.”
Cortnie nodded, but said nothing.
“Funny thing, when the cops came by, they didn’t ask about Kiley. They only asked about my relationship with Bucky. Where I had been, if I’d been alone with him, and how I felt about him. I told them, if I was going to kill anyone, I’d have killed Rayna.”
“Why is that?” I asked. This might get us somewhere after all.
“Because her husband raped me.” Emmet let that hang in the air. “And when I went to her and told her, she denied that Bucky would ever do such a thing. I couldn’t believe she’d defend him. The man cheated on her at every turn. When he raped me, and I gave her a chance to get out, she threatened me with slander and libel if I ever said or wrote anything even remotely mentioning the situation again. So I dropped it.”
Incredulous, I asked, “You didn’t call the cops?”
Emmet smirked. “Really? The cops? I was just a kid, and he was Bucky Cox. It was his word against mine, and I’d left the bar with him. I was so drunk. Besides, like I said, he was Bucky Cox, still a big deal back in those days, you know? If I’d have accused him of rape, it’d be like accusing a Heisman Trophy candidate of rape; no one was going to believe me. The public would rally around him, and I’d be the outcast. No way. It was my cross to bear.”
What the hell was wrong with society? Just because a girl got drunk didn’t mean she was free game for a horny asshole to stick his dick in as they pleased. And who is teaching the boys and men in our society that this kind of behavior is okay? Putting the soap box away now.Besides, an eye for an eye isn’t the way to solve anything. Or is it? Oops, soap box away, pushed way in the back now.
“I know what you did was your choice, but it wasn’t and isn't your cross to bear. And I’m glad Bucky is dead, if that’s what he did to you. No man should get away with rape because of his standing in the community or the sports world. This is bullshit! I’m sorry. Sorry in so many ways.” I needed to keep my personal feelings out of it. I’m so glad I didn’t know this earlier, or I’d have grabbed that pipe and beat Rayna across the head with it, too. “And that wife of his…”
“It’s all water under the bridge. I can’t do anything about it now. I just have to love my child the best way I know how. Move on so it doesn’t eat me from the inside.”
Cortnie gave Emmet a sympathetic look. “And then you found out you were pregnant?”
“Right, and apparently Rayna never told Bucky that she knew about the rape. And it’s not like it was a violent rape. This sounds bad. I’m not defending what he did. It’s just that I was really drunk, and he offered to give me a ride back to my trailer at a rodeo. We were in Steamboat Springs. Anyway, when he got me to my trailer, he had sex with me. I couldn’t stop him. I tried, but I couldn’t. And when I found out I was pregnant, he called me a whore and said it could be anyone’s baby. I told him if he didn’t want his wife to know, he’d take a paternity test. He did, and it was his.”
Great and good and all, but we already knew this much. Not that she was raped, but that the kid was his. Or so we’d figured.
“He tried to pay me to have an abortion, but I refused. I stopped rodeoing, because I was afraid I might have an accident at his expense. He’s that scary. But I had her, and I love her more than life itself, and Bucky pays handsomely, or did pay.” She stopped. The tears welled in her eyes.
“So was that what the spat was over in the yard at Cox’s ranch yesterday?” I tried to change the tone a bit.
“Rayna knows Kiley is Bucky’s kid. Look at her, she looks just like him. And family wasn’t allowed to bid on Mojo. Court order. Well, that bitch made sure I couldn’t bid on that horse, because no way in hell was Bucky’s illegitimate daughter going to ride her old horse.” Emmet chuckled. It was sinister. “What that hag doesn’t know is that her husband came back to me time after time over the years, wanting more. I never had sex with him again, not after what he had done, but I held it over him. And he paid handsomely, but now we have nothing. I don’t even know how I’m going to pay the stable rent, or the rent on the apartment. Look around you.” She looked around the bare apartment. “We don’t live high on the hog. Everything I have goes to Kiley, so she can ride junior rodeo, and she travels with me when I rodeo.”
“So, you didn’t have a life insurance policy on Bucky, just in case?” I would have. I mean, he was an asshole, and people would have wanted him dead.
“What good would that do? I’m not related to him. And you can’t just get a life insurance policy on the guy in the apartment next door. He’d have to take all of the blood tests, the health tests, and answer the questions. I have one for myself. It’s a lot to fill out that stuff. You think Bucky would do that for me?” She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out.
“No, but maybe he’d do it for his daughter?” I suggested.
“Oh, hell no. He still wouldn’t accept that Kiley is his child. He only paid the money so it wouldn’t end up in court, so there’d be nothing with his name on it. He didn’t want anything to come back to him. Are you kidding? I think that man wanted to be president someday.”
That might be a skeleton that was too hard to hide. Not that it mattered anymore.
“What are you going to do now?” Cortnie asked, though she didn’t seem all that concerned.
“I don’t know. Get a real job. Sell at least one of the horses.” Emmet put her arms on the table and crossed them. She dropped her head onto her arms and started bawling. “I have no idea. And I can’t tell Kiley. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Cortnie’s voice was as cold as I’ve ever heard it. “You could call your parents.” Cortnie stood up and walked to the door. “You could always do that. I’m sure they’d love to know they have a granddaughter. And maybe they’d be willing to help.”
I had no idea what was going on, but I jumped up, ready to bolt for the door.
Emmet looked up from her pity party. “You don’t know anything, Cortnie.”
Cortnie shook her head. “I know a whole lot, Emmet, and sometimes this lonesome road, this desperado thing gets old. Call them. Let them know you’re okay. Introduce them to Kiley. It’s never too late. Until they're dead.”
Cortnie opened the door and walked out.
I followed close behind. “Good luck to you, Emmet, and to Kiley. Sorry for your loss.”
I rushed after Cortnie. Damn it, if no one ever
told me all the details in advance. Now I was beyond curious.
“What the hell?”
Cortnie waited on the passenger side until I got the door unlocked.
I pressed the button and we both got in the car at the same time.
“I need caffeine, stat,” she said.
Caffeine it was. I drove to the nearest coffee house with a drive thru, which just so happened to be a Starbucks.
“I’m not going to let you make me wait,” I said as I turned onto Main St.
“Before we started rodeoing together in college, she used to be a world class equestrian. Her parents paid a fortune in riding lessons and travel, not to mention horses, because it was their dream for her to go to the Olympics. Then in our freshman year of college, Emmet met a cowboy and found the sport of rodeo, thanks to hanging out with a couple of us girls.”
Oh, no, I could already tell the ending of this one. “And they were pissed because she chose rodeo over show jumping?”
“Sort of. She sold her best horse, which her parents were stupid enough to put in her name and not theirs, to her biggest rival, then bought a couple of rodeo horses. She bought a top barrel racing horse, a breakaway horse, a team roping horse, and goat tying horse. And she bought a new truck and trailer, so she’d fit in with the college crowd. Of course she made the rodeo team. She had the best horses, was a fantastic rider, and she had money.”
“But her parents didn’t care?”
“Her parents cared when she dropped out of college to rodeo full time.” Cortnie looked at me. “They said they could forgive her shattering their dreams of Olympic glory. They had another daughter, after all. But not finishing college, and being a dropout, who could do nothing more than ride horses and wait tables, that they couldn’t forgive. They cut her off, and she cut them off.”
“She chose rodeo over her family? Sweet girl. ” If my mom did that, I’d be screwed. I couldn’t live without my mom. Now I felt like I should call her and tell her I loved her.
Cortnie pointed to the Starbucks and I pulled into the drive-thru. “You’d be amazed at what people have done, and what they’ve given up, for that sport. I’m amazed sometimes, and I participated in it. For some, it’s like a drug. You’ll do anything to keep riding. Anything.”
Electile Dysfunction (Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Book 6) Page 14
