Jayleen lifted the binoculars that hung around her neck and adjusted the focus as she peered down into the ranch below. “Looks pretty normal to me.”
Noticing two trucks parked in the barnyard, one black, the other light blue, Kelly squinted. Zarofsky drove a light blue truck. “Do you see anyone walking around?”
“Nope, not yet. But we know at least two people are there because there’re two trucks parked.”
Kelly and Jayleen stared at the ranch without speaking for a couple of minutes. Then, Kelly saw a door opening to the smaller garage building. A man exited and strode across the barnyard to one of the trucks.
“Well, looky here. I knew someone would turn up,” Jayleen said, and adjusted the binoculars again.
The man opened the door to the black truck, got inside, and started the engine. Even from this far away, Kelly could hear the engine’s rumble. The man wore a dark jacket and what looked like jeans. He proceeded to turn the truck around in the barnyard and drive over to the garage. Then he parked, got out, and walked to the back of the truck, where he lowered the tailgate before disappearing into the garage.
“Looks like he’s going to load something,” Jayleen said.
Kelly moved another pine branch out of her line of sight and stared at the gray building, waiting for the man to reemerge carrying something. It was all she could do to contain her impatience. Finally, he appeared, carrying two boxes, one stacked on top of the other.
“Now it’s getting interesting,” Jayleen said, leaning forward.
Suddenly another man appeared from the garage, and he was carrying two boxes as well. Both men walked to the truck, where they loaded all four boxes. Then, the first man pulled what looked like a tarp from the corner of the truck bed and spread it over the boxes. The other man returned to the barn.
“I wonder what’s in those boxes.” Kelly said, pushing back her jacket hood, now that the tree branches provided rain cover.
“They looked like regular old cardboard boxes to me. I guess he’s covering them in case the rain picks up again.”
The second man emerged from the barn again, this time carrying a large sack. He dumped it on top of the boxes in the back of the truck and returned to the barn. Meanwhile, the first man secured the tailgate while the second man returned with another large sack and dumped that into the truck as well.
“Can you tell what’s in those big sacks they brought out?”
“Looks a lot like bags of feed. Almost exactly like it. Those are pretty heavy sacks. I wonder why they’re not covering them up with the tarp, too. Those feed sacks will be ruined in the rain.”
“Looks like they’re more interested in covering up the cardboard boxes. Kind of makes you wonder what’s in those boxes.”
“Here,” Jayleen said, slipping the binoculars over her head. “Take a look and see for yourself. For what it’s worth, the guy in the blue jacket looks like Bill Zarofsky. I can’t be sure.”
Kelly adjusted the focus of the powerful binoculars, amazed how far the vision field extended. Now, the barnyard was close and she could see the men as they walked around the truck, loading more sacks of livestock feed. Glimpsing one of the men, she agreed with Jayleen. The man in the blue jacket resembled the man she saw arguing with Cal Everett at the retreat, but she couldn’t be sure. And the truck looked like the one Bill Zarofsky had been driving.
“You know, Jayleen, I’m really curious why they’re covering up those boxes with feed. They’ve already got a tarp over them. And you’re right, the rain would destroy those sacks of feed. Do you think they’re simply trying to conceal the boxes?”
“Yep, I think that’s about the size of it.”
Kelly pondered. Not having any personal experience with the drug world, she didn’t have a clue how much any of these substances weighed. Like everyone else, she’d seen television news reports and movies showing bags of cocaine, and they always seemed packed pretty tightly in their contraband containers.
She decided to defer to a more knowledgeable authority. Jayleen’s former life of alcohol addiction had exposed her to a fair slice of the shadowy world. So, Kelly asked outright.
“What do you think they’re hiding in those boxes, Jayleen? I figure it’s drugs. What kind, do you think?”
“I’d bet it’s most likely crystal meth. I’ve heard how easy it is to hide a meth lab in the mountains. In fact, my warning bell is ringing like crazy right now. And that’s always a sure sign of trouble.”
“Mine, too. In fact, I’d put money on it. I’m gonna give Burt a call.”
“Good idea, Kelly,” Jayleen said, accepting the binoculars again as Kelly dug out her cell phone.
Checking for a signal, Kelly punched in Burt’s number. Her pulse was racing with the excitement of the chase. And the catch. Burt would be proud of them. Her sleuthing may have solved Cal Everett’s murder and busted a drug operation all at the same time.
Burt’s voice came on. “Hey, Kelly, what’s up? Would you like to help me run some errands this afternoon?”
“Maybe, Burt, but first I think there’s something else that deserves your attention. Did you know that Bill Zarofsky had a relative who served five years in Buena Vista for dealing drugs? He got out three years ago. Name is Kevin Zarofsky.”
Burt was quiet for several seconds. When he answered, Kelly noticed his voice lacked all the fatherly warmth she was used to. “How’d you find out about Kevin Zarofsky?”
“Megan found out for me,” Kelly blithely replied. “I asked her to search some of her restricted access sites, and she found out about his conviction and sentencing. Now, you know how suspicious I’ve been of Bill Zarofsky. Well, I’ve got a strong suspicion that Bad Boy Kevin is up to his old tricks again and involving Rancher Bill with him.”
Another pause. “And what gave you that idea, may I ask?”
“Because I’m standing here with Jayleen on the edge of Zarofsky’s ranch, watching two men load several cardboard boxes into the back of a pickup truck.”
“What! Where are you again?”
“I’m up here on the edge of Zarofsky’s ranch, watching him and this other guy who’s probably his brother hide boxes under a tarp in the back of his truck. Then they weighted them down with sacks of feed,” Kelly rattled on. “Jayleen thinks the boxes are probably full of crystal meth, and they’d need—”
“Damn it, Kelly! Get your butt off that ranch right now!”
“Wha—?”
“Peterson’s guys are ready to swoop down on Zarofsky this afternoon. If you screw up his operation, I swear . . . even I can’t save you. Peterson will be so mad, he’ll throw you in jail, too!”
That got her attention. “I-I’m sorry, Burt. I didn’t know . . .”
“Move out of there now before Zarofsky sees you and gets suspicious. You’ll blow Peterson’s plans to bits.”
“Don’t worry, Burt, we’re up here in the trees. They can’t see us,” Kelly said, motioning to Jayleen, who was shaking her head already. Savvy Jayleen had clearly picked up the gist of the conversation.
“Just get your butt out of there now and pray that you didn’t blow this thing.”
Backing away from their surveillance spot, Kelly said, “We’re leaving now, Burt. Nobody in sight. We parked Jayleen’s truck down on the forest service road. Tell Peterson he’d better hurry up. Those two guys look like they’re ready to drive away in that truck any minute.”
Burt uttered a few more exasperated rebukes before he hung up.
Jayleen held back a pine branch as they hastened through the green forest, returning to their path. “I have a feeling we just stepped into something we shouldn’t have, Kelly girl.”
“Ohhhh, yeah. And I’m up to my waist.”
Kelly turned the windshield wipers to high as she maneuvered her car around the corner into a favorite shopping center. Meanwhile, she waited for Steve to answer his cell phone. Finally he picked up. “Hey, I was thinking about ethnic for dinner tonight. Since our game was
rained out, I just feel like staying home and staying dry. How about you?”
Steve released a long sigh she could hear over the phone. He sounded tired. “Yeah, that’s fine. Damn rain. I was really looking forward to playing tonight.”
Kelly could hear a level of frustration in his voice she hadn’t heard before. “Feel the need to knock it out of the park, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Well, tell me all about it tonight while we curl up and eat and stay warm and dry.”
“Sounds good.”
“So, what do you want? Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian, what?”
He sighed again. “I don’t care. You choose.”
Kelly heard that frustration creep into his voice again. “Okay, Indian it is.”
Eighteen
Kelly peered around the corner of the Lambspun foyer, hoping to spot Burt. No sign of him. She walked through the yarn rooms toward the knitting table, listening for the sound of his voice. Nothing.
Rats! She was hoping to catch Burt here at the shop before he left to run errands this morning. With the wedding only days away, Mimi and Burt had rarely been seen at the shop this week. Kelly wanted to apologize to her mentor and partner in crime investigations for stumbling into the Zarofsky business without checking first. She should have known Peterson and his guys were suspicious of Zarofsky’s black sheep relative, Kevin. After all, the cops were privy to all sorts of information from informants. Hadn’t Burt once told her they kept intelligence files on people they were suspicious of? Watching and waiting for them to make a mistake. Of course he did.
She was also dying to know how Peterson’s raid on Zarofsky’s ranch went. Did they find a drug lab in that garage as Jayleen suspected? Were those boxes filled with crystal meth, all packaged and ready to sell? She had hoped Burt would call her last night with an update, but she hadn’t heard a word. Kelly wasn’t sure if Burt was still annoyed with her or had simply spent the evening doing more errands with Mimi.
Kelly plopped her bag on the library table and took a big sip of Eduardo’s coffee. Maybe she should sit and work on the knitted vest for a while, on the chance Burt might appear. Or, she could open her laptop and catch up on her accounting clients. Kelly pulled the vest from her bag.
Then, she heard a familiar voice coming from the classroom area outside Mimi’s office. Burt. She hastened to the doorway. Burt stood in the middle of the room, talking on his cell phone. She waited until he finished his call before apologizing.
“Mea culpa, Burt. I’m majorly sorry,” Kelly said in a contrite voice. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble yesterday.”
Burt glanced over and smiled. His regular warm, fatherly smile again. Kelly felt better seeing that. “I didn’t mean to bite your head off yesterday, Kelly. But you caught me at a bad time. Behind a traffic jam, behind on errands, and way behind on patience.”
“You and Mimi still running ragged? I’m going to have to talk to Megan about those lists. She’s outta control.”
“Well, she’s a taskmaster, I’ll say that. But Mimi and I are almost finished. Today and tomorrow should be the last of it. We’re scheduling downtime for Saturday, the day before the wedding. In fact, we may even turn our cell phones off.” He gave her a devilish smile.
Kelly feigned shock, hand to her mouth. “Turn off your cell phones? Why . . . that’s heresy!”
“Yeah, I know.”
Now that she was back in Burt’s good graces, she had to ask. Her curiosity was killing her. “Can you tell me what happened, Burt? On Peterson’s raid, I mean. What did Vern say? Did they find any drugs?”
Burt chuckled. “I wondered how long you could last before asking.” He checked his watch. “Looks like about sixty seconds.”
“Okay, okay, okay, so I’m impatient,” Kelly admitted. “So tell me, please! I’m dying of curiosity.”
“I can tell. Let’s go find a quiet place.”
“No one’s at the knitting table right now,” Kelly said, heading toward the adjacent room.
“I’ll give you the details quickly before I have to leave for errands.” Burt pulled out two chairs next to each other.
Kelly settled beside Burt and leaned forward, so they could speak softly without their voices carrying. “Okay, what happened?”
“Well, we were right about Kevin Zarofsky getting back into his drug business. Those boxes were filled with plastic bags of crystal meth, ready to sell on the street.”
“Yes!” Kelly hissed in triumph, fist clenched. “Jayleen and I were right.”
Burt nodded. “Yes, you were. Good instincts, Kelly. And you were right about them starting to leave. It sounds like Peterson and his boys roared down the driveway just as the Zarofskys were ready to drive off. Caught them red-handed with the drugs in the truck. And that garage was their meth lab. Pretty slick setup, too. No neighbors close by who could see what they were doing and get suspicious.”
“Actually, Zarofsky did have one neighbor who lives across the road from his place, and it was her comment that made me suspicious. She said he had lots of cars going down his driveway.”
“You’re kidding? Who was it? Where’d you find her?”
Kelly smiled. “Right here in Lambspun. She’s one of the regulars who comes down for the crochet sessions and workshops. Her name’s Eileen. Mimi’s bound to know who she is. She was here at the table one afternoon with another gal who lives up in Poudre Canyon, and we started talking about Cal Everett’s death. Then, she mentioned this neighbor of hers, Zarofsky.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. Good sleuthing, Kelly.”
Kelly acknowledged his praise with a nod. “Thank you, sir. Now, enough about Kevin. What about Bill Zarofsky? Were they able to find anything that connects him to Everett’s death?”
Burt shook his head. “That, I don’t know. Vern didn’t say a word about Everett. It was clear they were focusing entirely on busting the Zarofskys’ drug business. It seems they’ve been keeping an eye on them ever since our old friend, Deputy Don, got suspicious last year. Apparently he’d noticed a lot of different cars coming and going, so he paid a visit.” Burt smiled. “Don said his nose started itching the way it does when something’s not right. That, plus the fact that Bill Zarofsky acted kind of jumpy when Don was talking with him. That was enough to get Don’s report in their file. Then, they started hearing from other sources that some dealers were bringing meth into Denver from northern Colorado. That’s how cases are built, Kelly. One bit of information at a time.”
“Didn’t they keep track of Kevin when he got out of prison?”
“They tried, but he jumped parole after six months. Apparently he’s kept a low profile ever since he’s been holed up in the canyon. No one’s spotted him.”
“So Peterson and the guys put all those little pieces together and decided that Kevin Zarofsky was on the scene. Hiding out in the canyon and cooking up crystal meth.”
“Yeah. But they really caught a break when they questioned Bill Zarofsky’s girlfriend the second time. That’s when she got scared and admitted he wasn’t with her that night and had begged her to lie for him. Peterson asked if she had any idea where he might have been that night, and who his other friends were. Apparently she told them Zarofsky had frequent cell phone calls from his brother.” Burt’s smile spread. “That’s when they knew they had him.”
“Ha! So Kevin really was the Black Sheep Brother.”
“Apparently so.”
Kelly leaned back in her chair and took a sip of coffee. “Good job, guys. You give Vern my congratulations, okay?”
“Will do,” Burt said, rising from his chair. “Now, it’s back on my horse I go. Wish me luck.”
“Good Lord, Burt, what does Megan have you doing now? Are you sure you don’t need any help finishing up with those errands?”
“Actually, I’m in pretty good shape. Mimi and I are down to little stuff now, like paper plates, napkins, and cups.”
“I’m so glad you two are doing this casual, ra
ther than formal. It’s going to be so much nicer to relax in Mimi’s pretty backyard with the gazebo.”
“Well, thank Mimi. Megan was about to order linens and china and the whole nine yards of fancy, when Mimi put her foot down.”
“Good for her!” Kelly exclaimed. “Megan gets wound up sometimes.”
“Tell me about it,” Burt said as he headed toward the archway.
“Oh, and don’t forget to let me know if Zarofsky admits to anything else, okay?”
“I’ll call you as soon as I hear something,” he said over his shoulder.
Kelly took another long sip of coffee, processing everything that Burt told her. She picked up her vest and started another row, still pleased that she had been right on top of things, discovering clues just like the police. She finished one row and started another when her cell phone rang. How will I ever finish this vest? She was always starting and stopping.
She spotted Lisa’s name on her phone screen. “Don’t forget to be on time tonight,” Kelly warned when she answered. “Megan will have your head. You know how she gets.”
“Yeah, I do, but that’s not why I called,” Lisa said.
“What’s up?” Kelly settled back in her chair. She heard that confidential tone in Lisa’s voice.
“I want to tell you what happened this morning. Greta came up to me and asked how Jennifer was doing. That kind of surprised me, so I told her that Jen appeared to be doing okay. Her appointments with Dr. Norcross had helped a lot. Then I decided to use the opportunity to try and get Greta to open up. So I asked her if she was all right, like I have so many other times. And she got this funny look on her face and told me she was fine. Then, she grabbed her backpack and tore out of the office.”
“I remember you saying she does that every time you ask her, Lisa. She probably doesn’t want another therapist probing around in her past, especially if she was assaulted.”
“That’s what I thought, too. And then, I ran into one of the research assistants, Mary. She’s another grad student. I remembered her mentioning that she and Greta had gone through undergrad studies together and had known each other for years. So, on a whim, I asked her straight out if she’d noticed that Greta was acting differently, nervous and not wanting to communicate. Then I told her what happened at the retreat, and that I was worried about Greta. And you’ll never believe what Mary said.”
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