The Sky Took Him - An Alafair Tucker Mystery

by Donis Casey

  “I’ll have my lawyer call on you tomorrow.”

  “Very well, ma’am. Might just as well get it over with.” He gave a little bow. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Yeager. Give my regards to Lester. Chief.”

  Alafair followed Collins through the foyer and opened the front screen to usher him out. He gave her a preoccupied glance as he passed and walked toward his car. Hanlon was leaning against the fender with his ankles crossed, cradling Ruth Ann’s pug-nosed cat and absently stroking its belly as it lolled contentedly in his arms. Hanlon straightened as Collins approached and gently put the cat down on the sidewalk. The cat disappeared like smoke before Hanlon opened the car door for his boss.

  ***

  The bedroom was hardly big enough to contain all the people who were arrayed around Lester’s bed. After Collins had left, all the church and club ladies and business acquaintances were hustled out as fast as it could politely be done. Besides family, only Pee Wee Nickolls, Mike Ed Beams, Streeter McCoy, and Chief Burns remained. They had spent the previous several hours with their heads together in the parlor, trying to figure out what this all meant.

  Russell Lawyer had appeared in the afternoon, briefcase in hand, still breathless from his day of scuttling hither and yon, gathering papers and contracts, meeting with bankers, and most importantly, Buck Collins’ lawyers.

  There had been a long discussion, but in the end all agreed that it was really necessary for Lester to be included in on this information session. No one knew the warehouse situation better than Lester, and besides, while he continued to reside on this earth, he was still the head of the Yeager family.

  So, Zip Kolocek volunteered to watch the kids, and the rest of the party trooped upstairs to Lester’s room. Ruth Ann had dosed him with just enough laudanum to take the edge off the pain while leaving his mind clear. He had been apprised of the situation, and he sat propped against his pillows, eyeing the group thoughtfully.

  “What did Collins’ pack of lawyers have to say, Russ?”

  Lester’s voice was strong. He looked better than he had since she had been here, Alafair thought. Being engaged in the business of living was powerful medicine.

  “I examined all the agreements between Kenneth and Collins, and as you might guess, everything looked perfectly in order. Seems Kenneth has been borrowing from Collins for a long time, ever since he bought the Garber property. Kenneth was even borrowing to make the payroll for the drillers. You asked me to see if Collins’ son Ellery had anything to do with the loans, but I didn’t see evidence of it.”

  Ruth Ann sniffed into her handkerchief. “Mercy! Kenneth has been murdered, and he ain’t even in the ground yet. Can’t this wait until after his funeral, at least?”

  Russell Lawyer turned toward Ruth Ann and shook his head, not unkindly. “I think not, Ruth Ann. Collins is going to take advantage of the situation, if he can. We’d better try to cut him off at the pass. If we can.” He turned in his seat to address Olivia, on his other side. “I’d advise you to let me contact Judge Langley and explain the situation. Nothing can happen to your property until it goes through probate, which will take a long time, since Kenneth died intestate.”

  “Collins still might try to pressure Olivia to agree to sign over her property before the ruling,” Lester said, “even if he couldn’t take legal possession right away.”

  “But why?” Olivia asked. She sounded plaintive. “Why be in such a hurry? All he has to do is be patient. If everything is as neat and legal as you say it is, Russ, then he’ll get his money sooner or later. And it’s not like he needs it.”

  A moment of silence ensued as everyone considered this.

  “Maybe…” Alafair ventured absently. There was a rustling noise as all turned to look at her. Her eyes widened and she swallowed her words. She hadn’t realized that she had actually spoken aloud.

  “Do you have an idea, Miz Tucker?” Chief Burns prompted.

  “Well, it just looks suspicious, don’t it? Like maybe he’s trying to get Olivia all flustered and do something fast while she’s grieving and not thinking straight. Maybe it’s not the money that he wants. Maybe he wants to make sure he gets the property.”

  “But which property? The warehouse or the oil field?” Martha asked.

  Russ Lawyer shrugged. “Why not both?”

  Olivia sighed. “Well, once again, I’m wondering why he’s in such an all-fired hurry. And, why he’d want the businesses instead of cash money.”

  Pee Wee Nickolls leaned forward in his chair. “I don’t expect he cares a fig about our piddly wildcat well. He’s got oil wells from here to Beulah Land. Even if we come in like gangbusters tomorrow, it’d just be a drop in his oil bucket.”

  “Nickolls, did you have any idea that Crawford was getting money from Buck Collins to run your operation?”

  Pee Wee blinked at Chief Burns. “No, sir, I did not. I never did ask Kenneth any questions about where the money come from. I figured he had plenty of money of his own. Now that all this has come out, though, I sure been thinking about things. For the last couple of months, that big lug of Collins’, that Hanlon, has come by the well a few times…”

  “Buck’s bodyguard?” the chief interrupted.

  “Yes, sir. Somehow him and Zip got to be friends. Didn’t surprise me none. Zip’s always picking up strays when he goes to town. Zip showed him around at least once, that I know of. He said Hanlon was interested in maybe working roustabout on some well after his parole was up. I never gave it a second thought, until now.”

  “Guess I’d better talk to Zip,” Burns said.

  Pee Wee was quick to defend the boy. “Well, if Collins set Hanlon to spy on us, Zip sure never knew about it.”

  “It’s not the money Collins is worried about, then.” Lester steered the conversation back on track. “There’s something else that’s got Buck’s ears pricked up. He thinks Kenneth has something he wants. I’d bet on it.” Shifting his ravaged body was obviously not something he wished to undertake, since only his eyes swiveled to look at Mike Ed, across the room. “Mike Ed, get some of the men and go over the place from top to bottom, see if there’s something stored in some corner that ain’t supposed to be there. Open the crates, see that what’s supposed to be in ’em is in ’em.”

  “Won’t the owners object?”

  “I expect they don’t need to know. Just be sure to nail everything back up good.”

  “Lester!” Ruth Ann was shocked.

  “What’s going to happen, honey? Burns going to throw me in jail?” Lester looked back at Mike Ed. “Use men you trust,” he warned. “And don’t forget to look through the icehouse, the trucks, every unlikely place you can think of. Go over the books, too.”

  “I’ll hunt through Kenneth’s things at home,” Olivia offered, “and I’ll search his desk at work, too.”

  “Just in case, Pee Wee, give the field and well the once-over.”

  “That’ll take me a while, Mr. Yeager,” Pee Wee warned, “what with the outbuildings and all, and if we’re worrying about Collins having spies among us, I got to say that the youngster Zip Kolocek is about the only one of the twisters I’d trust a hoot.”

  “I won’t be leaving town for a day or two,” McCoy said to Pee Wee. “I’ll volunteer to help you out, if you think you can use me.”

  “I can help check your inventory lists against your equipment, if that would be useful,” Martha offered. “Or look at your books, if you’d trust me, Mr. Nickolls. I work at a bank and deal with numbers all the time.”

  ***

  Lu fixed a plate of sandwiches for the family and their company, and everyone ate in a haphazard way as they refined their plans in the parlor. After they had gone over every possible course of action for the tenth time, people began to drift away one by one. Lester had been drugged to the nines to help him sleep. Ruth Ann went upstairs shortly after supper to drop onto the cot in the corner of the master bedroom. Grace was long abed. Olivia and the baby had moved into one of
the guest bedrooms for the moment. Martha and McCoy helped her haul Ron’s bassinet up the stairs.

  “Be sure and close the bedroom door,” Alafair called after them. “Don’t let the cat in there with that sleeping baby.”

  When Mike Ed Beams finally took his leave, Alafair walked him out and they said their goodbyes on the front porch. It was a fair night, filled with music on the air from the street dance that was ending the Jubilee festivities.

  Alafair turned to go back in the house and saw Pee Wee Nickolls and Zip sitting in a couple of Adirondack chairs at the end of the long porch. It was completely dark, now, and if it hadn’t been for the dim light coming from the front window, Alafair wouldn’t have seen them at all. She waved them down as they started to stand when she approached.

  “Don’t get up, boys. I expect you’ll be wanting to get on the road pretty soon. Might as well catch your breath, first.” She sat down in the porch swing, at right angles to Zip.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Pee Wee affirmed. “I expect we ought to get going right quick. It’s a long trip back to Garber by car in the dark, especially since I’ve got to take the dangedest roundabout route out of town, what with this to-do going on. Me and Zip was just talking about it. I’d like to do a blast-out on that well tomorrow morning before your folks show up to search the place. Reckon we’ll be getting up pretty early to get the job done.”

  “Well, I hope you blow a gusher. Just be careful and don’t blow off any more body parts, Pee Wee. Looks like you found out the hard way that nitro is dangerous stuff.”

  The comment made Pee Wee smile. She had found an interesting way to ask what had happened to him while leaving him plenty of room to politely ignore her curiosity if he didn’t want to tell her. He wasn’t particularly sensitive about his injuries, and he appreciated a straightforward approach instead of the all-too-frequent furtive attempts people made not to look directly at them. He touched his eye patch. “Yes, ma’am, I sure did. This here is a stupid mistake I made when I was a foolish wisp of a lad learning how to shoot. It was in Louisiana. We was using one of them old-fashioned torpedoes that you set off with a go-devil…” He hesitated at the look of interested incomprehension on her face. “That’s a weight that you drop down the well on the wire when you get the torpedo in place, ma’am. It hits the firing cap on top and sets it off. I reckon they call it that ’cause it can make you go to the devil right quick. Well, sometimes the torpedo is a dud and the charge don’t fire. Then, if the boss is a cheapskate, which he usually is, he has you haul the dud out rather than leave it in there and send down a second torpedo on top of it. Usually nothing happens. But sometimes it does. I was looking down the well like an eejit when I was hauling up one particular dud that decided to go off after all when it was about halfway up.”

  A pained look crossed Alafair’s face. “Mercy!”

  Pee Wee shrugged. “I was lucky I just lost a couple of fingers and the sight in one eye. My looks could have been downright spoiled. Besides, since then nobody is more careful with the nitro than me. Sometimes the Lord has to give you a good knock in the head to teach you to pay attention.”

  “Well, you surely take your misfortune in stride.” Alafair made no attempt to keep the admiration out of her voice.

  Pee Wee leaned back in his chair and his one visible eye crinkled as he relaxed and warmed to his subject. “Nitroglycerin is mighty handy stuff for clearing an obstructed well, ma’am, but I’m sure you know it’s devilish tricky to work with. It’s like a temperamental gal—no matter how careful you handle her, you never know what’s going to set her off. And it’s never the same thing twice, neither. Depends on the temperature, the age of the stuff, all sorts of things. Sometimes you can toss it around like a baseball and nothing happens. Then you put a foot wrong and that’s the end of you. No kidding. Once down in Texas, a friend of mine stepped in a few drops that had dripped from a leaky can onto the floor of the magazine shed. Blowed his foot right off.”

  “What on earth makes you want to work with such an awful mixture?”

  “Oh, it’s safe enough if you mix it with alcohol or some such. It’s just when you draw off the pure stuff for a blast that you’ve got to be on your toes. Besides, a shooter makes a load of dough what with all the hazard pay.”

  “All the money in the world ain’t no good if you’re blown up,” Alafair pointed out.

  Pee Wee nodded his agreement. “Well, that’s true. And forget about anybody selling you life insurance.”

  “Yet you still do it?”

  “Truth is, I can’t stand the suspense to watch somebody else do it. I don’t relish the thought of picking bits of one of my drillers out of my hair. At least I know what I’m doing.”

  This conversation had taken a turn that was too grisly for Alafair. She looked at Zip. “Did Chief Burns talk to you about Mr. Hanlon?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I told him I couldn’t hardly believe Mr. Hanlon was a spy! He’s such a nice fellow. I met him last spring at the railroad station, when I was in Enid to pick up a load of pipe for Pee Wee. He was waiting to drive Miz Collins home after she come in on the train from the City. We got to talking and I told him how I liked working at the field. He don’t like being a driver. He’s looking for some different kind of work he can do after he don’t have to work for Mr. Collins anymore. So I told him to come on out to the well any time and I’d show him around. He did, too. I think he liked it. He came to visit with me a couple times. Brought me a half a fried chicken once, from Mr. Collins’ kitchen.”

  “Why does Mr. Hanlon have to work for Mr. Collins? He ought to just quit if he doesn’t like it.”

  “He’s probably an ex-con from Leavenworth on parole under Collins’ guarantee,” Pee Wee told her. “One bad word from Collins and he’s back up the river in a flash. I heard Collins gets some of his muscle that way.”

  “Mr. Hanlon is looking to start a new life,” Zip said. “He’s tired of rough ways.”

  Pee Wee didn’t comment, but Alafair saw him shake his head at Zip’s credulity.

  “I hear from Grace that you’re a crackerjack babysitter, son. I could see y’all out the bedroom window, running around together like monkeys in the backyard with Ron in your arms and Grace on your heels, laughing to beat the band. You have younger brothers and sisters, I’m guessing.”

  “Oh, no, ma’am.” Zip’s disembodied voice answered her out of the dark. “Reckon I hung a toe when I was born, ’cause there weren’t no more after me. It’s just me and my ma, now. She lives with my grandma down in Waukomis since Pa died.”

  “You’ve got a way with the little ones.”

  “I love babies.” He sounded enthusiastic. “I’d like to have a passel of ’em someday. Babies and dogs. I like all kinds of animals.”

  “That’s the truth.” Pee Wee sounded amused. “We’d be running a regular menagerie out there to the field if I didn’t keep a tight rein on him. As it is, he picked up the ugliest dog I ever seen somewhere and downright refused to drown it.”

  Zip was hurt. “Why, he’s a good watchdog.”

  “I reckon. He don’t even have to bark at trespassers. Anybody who takes a gander at him runs off screaming.”

  “Aw, Pee Wee!”

  Alafair steered the conversation back on track. “Olivia said you even changed Ron’s diaper, Zip.”

  “Well, I got no quarrel with baby shit. The little fellow didn’t mean nothing by it.”

  Zip delivered this comment so innocently that Alafair nearly choked on the laugh that threatened to explode from her. She glanced at Pee Wee. She could just see his face in the dim light from the window. He was looking off into the dark, trying not to make eye contact and biting his lip in a valiant effort not to guffaw. He stood, and a shadow leaped from his chair to the porch. In the dark Alafair had not been able to see Ike in Pee Wee’s lap.

  “Come on, pea brain,” he said. “I think it’s time for us to hit the trail.” He hauled Zip up by one arm and plopped the boy’s hat on his head.
“Good night, Miz Tucker. Please don’t hold the boy’s lack of refinement against him. Hope we’ll see you again before you leave for home.”

  “Good night, boys,” she managed. She waited until they walked down the steps, found their truck, gave it a crank to start it, and drove away, then allowed herself to laugh until she cried.

  ***

  “What’s so funny, Ma?”

  Alafair hadn’t heard Martha and McCoy come outside. They walked over toward her end of the porch as she wiped her eyes and tried to get hold of herself. “Oh, just something that Zip said. That young’un is funnier than a bucketful of kittens without even meaning to be.”

  “He’s about as worldly, too, I think,” McCoy said. “I saw him with the kids earlier. He and Grace are just about on the same level.”

  “I reckon. Are you going back to the hotel, Streeter?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I expect I ought.”

  “What time are y’all going out to the oil field tomorrow?”

  “There’s a train leaves for Garber in the morning at about eight. Zip will pick Martha and me up at the station out there and drive us to the field.”

  “Pee Wee told me he plans to shoot out the well first thing in the morning.”

  McCoy nodded. “Yes, we figured that if we got there around nine that’d give him time to get his blast done and his crew back to work before we show up.”

  “I wish he’d wait until we’ve come and gone,” Martha said. “I don’t see how his blast is more important than trying to figure out what happened to Kenneth.”

  “That’s how these oil men are, Martha,” McCoy said. “Death isn’t a good enough reason to interfere with drilling.”

  Martha wasn’t convinced. “If the blast opens a gusher, he’s sure not going to be thinking of helping us much.”

  “Pretty unlikely,” he assured her. “I don’t think his well is deep enough yet.”

  Alafair interjected herself into the conversation. “Would y’all mind if I came with you?”

  Martha and McCoy spoke at the same time.