by Craig Smith
All the same he came back one last time, the fiancée sitting in their car with her arms crossed. It was the last hour of a three-day sale, and the kid just wanted to look at the Z one more time.
Sometimes you have to wear people down. A good manager knows that, and he’s patient, but sometimes people need a new face before they can make a decision. I saw Larry the Liar in the bullpen. Milt was pacing and kicking tires and smoking. Larry had his eye on the fiancée. The only thing she needed was to feel good.
Milt was too smart to send the wrong salesperson in, though. There wasn’t any lie on earth going to make that girl feel good about buying Deb’s Z.
That left Tubs. Milt told me later he didn’t think there was a chance in hell to make the sale, but he had to give it a shot before he turned the lights off and we all went home.
I made the T.O. by introducing Tubs as my dad.
Tubs was worn down from three days of it. I think he had sold six or seven cars every day, and he looked like it. He was running on empty. Tubs could turn on a pretty good smile when he bothered, but at ten o’clock at night with the last customer at the fairgrounds getting ready to make his getaway, Tubs didn’t shake hands, and his smile was about as friendly as a piece of rusty barbwire.
‘You going to buy this car or look at it, son?’ That was all he said. Not even a pleased-to-meet-you.
The kid pulled his eyes off his last memory of freedom and tipped his head toward the fiancée. ‘She don’t like it.’
Tubs shook his head in disgust and turned away. ‘If a man’s wife doesn’t like a car, he better not like it either!’
Tubs actually got a couple of steps away before the kid said, ‘She ain’t my wife.’ Tubs stopped and looked at him as if he hadn’t heard right. ‘She’s my fiancée,’ the kid explained.
‘ Fiancée?’ Tubs sounded surprised.
The kid nodded his head in perfect misery. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘You’re not married to that woman?’ Tubs stepped in closer to the kid.
The kid grinned. ‘No, sir. Not yet.’
Now he got inside the kid’s space, lowering his voice as if passing a great truth along: ‘Let me tell you something, son. I don’t want you to quote me on this, Lord help me if you do, but if you let a woman push you around before you marry her, you ain’t got a chance in hell after!’
That kid gave Tubs a hard look, but it wasn’t half as hard as Tubs’s glare. I thought the kid might pop him, but what he did was, he said, ‘To hell with it.
I’m buying the son of a bitch!’
Milt asked Tubs later that night over a beer that Tubs never touched how he got that kid to go full pop on a beat-to-hell Z. ‘That one,’ Tubs answered with a sly grin, ‘was my Be a Man Close, because you either are or you aren’t.’
Chapter 28
THE FIRST BLAST OF THE SHOTGUN sounded from within the house, taking me back to the present.
I looked up at Roger Beery. He was distracted by the sound but it wasn’t possible to come out of my chair.
He had his finger on the trigger, and the weapon was pointed between Molly and me. I was ten feet away. Molly’s position, seated in a deep chair like my own, put her nearly fifteen feet from Roger. There was no possibility of fighting him and no chance for any of us, Roger included, once Buddy returned.
I searched my failing imagination for a way to distract Roger, but what I needed was a miracle, Tubs-style.
Not his Gun in the Face Close, either. I didn’t care to feel righteous in my grave. I needed to make Roger Beery understand that they had come out to the farm that evening together, but Buddy planned on going home alone. It was that simple, if only I could make him see it.
How would Tubs have handled it? I considered the matter for a moment, my thoughts interrupted by the second blast from the four-ten just outside the house.
Wade had somehow managed to elude Buddy’s first shot. I wasn’t so confident he had escaped the second.
I gave myself forty-five-to-sixty seconds. Tubs had closed that kid in about twenty. The difference was the young man was primed to make a choice. I glanced at Roger, who was staring at Molly. Roger had his mind on something else altogether.
‘You understand Buddy is going to kill you here tonight?’
I said this with a degree of calm and insight one uses when stating the obvious.
Roger’s sneer had a certain amusement about it.
‘Why would he do that, Dave?’
‘That’s easy,’ I said, handing him my car salesman’s grin. ‘He marries your widow, and the two of them live happily ever after with your money.’
‘You don’t know anything. Do you know that? You don’t have a clue!’
‘You’re a very intelligent young man, Roger.’
‘I’m a genius, Dave! And you’re a moron.’ He rocked his head back toward the TV, where the picture showed Molly straddling Buddy on the couch. ‘You didn’t have a clue, did you?’
‘Tell me something,’ I said. ‘When you watch that, is it Molly or Buddy that you want?’
Two muffled shots came from close to the barn.
There was enough time between them for the first to be a takedown, the second to finish it. Wade had gotten as far as the barn. That bought us another full minute.
I glanced toward Molly. She still had tears in her eyes, but she knew I was working Roger. Her muscles had the look of coiled steel.
‘I guess you read my novel a little better than I thought.’
‘Buddy read it?’
‘Every word.’
‘He wanted to know how to work you.’
‘You don’t know what’s going on, Dave. You don’t understand anything.’
‘I know we’re looking at a triple homicide inside the house tonight. Only question is who’s man enough to walk away, you or Buddy.’
‘Nobody’s going to get killed. Buddy told you what were going to do.’
‘Tonight is about Buddy and Denise tying up loose ends, Roger. As long as you’re around, they’ve got a prison sentence hanging over their heads. As soon as they kill you, they can move on. If you don’t see that, I don’t give you more than two or three minutes to live.’
I heard the kitchen door open.
‘You’ve got the twelve-gauge,’ I told him. ‘As long as you’re holding it, he won’t try anything. But you can kiss your ass goodbye the minute you put that gun down.’
Buddy called from the hallway. ‘Son of a bitch got away!’
Roger looked at me uncertainly.
‘To him, you’re just another sucker he can take advantage of. But you can turn the tables on him…and even keep Denise. The beauty is no cop in the world is going to look at you for this. They’ll think Buddy was out here alone. You walk out clean, just like he will if you give him the chance.’
Buddy came into the room. ‘What was he talking about, Roger?’
Before Roger could answer, I said, ‘I was telling your friend here how easy it was to kick your ass the other night.’
Buddy laughed. ‘Plenty easy when you’re holding a gun!’
‘You’re the expert on that.’
Buddy walked toward Molly, and nodded toward the TV screen. ‘You remember what night that was, Molly?’
‘The night you killed our dogs,’ I said.
‘I didn’t touch your dogs, Dave. That was Roger.
Roger hates dogs.’
On screen, Molly laughed as she rocked her hips over Buddy while his hands squeezed her breasts.
‘What do you think Roger? You want some of that sweet pussy or a little professional head?’
Roger’s eyes darted from Buddy to me. ‘I’m ready for a blow job.’
‘You heard the man, Molly! Get down on your knees and show us how a pretty little pregnant girl makes her living on the streets.’
Molly slid out of the chair and knelt in front of Roger. ‘Just don’t hurt us,’ she said.
‘You’ve got my word on that,’ Buddy answered. ‘You c
ooperate and we all walk away good friends. Course, if you go to the sheriff or Dave comes after one of us, Lucy gets her own copy and we put another one on the internet for all your friends. That fair enough to keep the two of you honest?’
‘Let’s just get it over with.’
Buddy laughed. ‘Damn, woman! This isn’t your husband. Show some enthusiasm.’
‘You know what?’ Roger said as he stepped away from Molly and faced me, ‘I think I’d rather have Dave do it.’
Buddy laughed. ‘There you go!’ Buddy pointed his gun at my head. ‘You heard the man, Dave!’
With Buddy’s four-ten close to my ear, I could see Roger lifting the twelve-gauge, the barrelling coming up level on Buddy. Buddy saw it too, but he couldn’t respond in time. Roger’s shot hit him in the chest. I felt the percussion of the blast, the blood splattering across my hair and cheek. The birdshot from Buddy’s weapon hit our ceiling as he fell, showering me with plaster.
Molly came off her knees the moment Roger’s gun discharged. Only a step away, she got hold of Roger’s gun and struggled to hang on while Roger whipped the gun about, trying to throw her free. I got to them before Roger could turn the gun in my direction, and cracked his jaw with a right hook that felt better and purer than any punch I’d ever thrown.
Molly came away with the gun and rolled to a sitting position in time to see Buddy crawling up over the back of the chair I had been sitting in. His gun was already aiming in our direction when she pulled the trigger and blew his face away.
I GOT TO MY FEET AND WENT to Buddy. I checked his carotid artery for a pulse. He was still alive, but not for long. His legs twitched. His face was blackened, ruined. One eye had been ripped out. The other was open, blood pooling in it.
Picking up the four-ten, I aimed it at Roger as Molly searched him for a weapon. When she had finished I told her to call the sheriff’s department.
I heard her on the phone. Two people shot, she said into the phone. She gave directions to the farm. She answered several questions with a yes or no. Roger tried to talk once, but I ordered him to shut up. He stared at me, his breathing ragged, his eyes wet. He thought I had lied to him, and now, because of it, he was going to jail.
I told Molly to hang up. She looked at me, frowning. Police agencies, I knew, liked to keep people on the line during an emergency. ‘Hang up,’ I said.
This time, she did. ‘Flash the lights just like last time.’
She walked over to the light switch, three times off, three on. She didn’t understand but she knew I was up to something. Our phone rang, but I told Molly not to answer.
I looked at Roger. ‘You came in two cars?’
He shook his head. ‘I drove us out.’
I smiled at him. ‘Buddy needed a ride home, Roger.
He couldn’t very well drive your car away if he wanted the police to think you were out here by yourself.’
Roger stared at me, trying with his impressive IQ to comprehend what I was saying. I wasn’t sure he did until we heard a car pull into our driveway and start up the hill.
‘Sounds to me like a Mercury Marquis. That sound like a Merc to you?’
Roger blinked stupidly, but he finally got it.
‘Now who’s the dumb ass?’ I snarled.
Buddy Elder’s car idled in the circle in front of our house.
‘If she drives away before the cops show up, she’ll beat any indictment they throw at her. The thing to do is to get her inside the house and keep her here.
That way she can’t come up with some alibi. You get her involved in this and you can deal with the prosecutor. She drives off, you’re looking at death row for Johnna’s murder – with Denise as the state’s star witness.’
Roger’s eyes shifted nervously.
‘Of course, if you’re in love with the woman, the best thing you can do is tell her to run. Believe me, she will.’ I kicked up one shoulder. ‘At least one of you will be free to spend all that money.’
The car door slammed. I motioned to Molly to move back out of sight and pushed one of the chairs around a bit so I would have an unobstructed view to Roger as I retreated to cover. Roger started to stand up, but I told him, ‘Stay down, like you’re wounded, or I promise you will be.’
I listened for the sound of sirens, but the night was still silent. The door at the back porch screeched open and slammed shut.
‘Buddy?’ Denise called.
‘In here!’ Roger shouted. ‘Buddy’s been shot!’
We heard Denise running down the hallway. She burst into the room, eyes wide open in fright, her face bloodless. Seeing Buddy stretched out, his face broken apart, she ran to him and threw herself down over him with a shriek.
I went forward quickly, jerking her up by her coat.
She made no resistance when I threw her over the back of the chair and searched her roughly for a weapon. While I did, Denise screamed profanities at Roger with a nastiness that surprised me. What happened? What had he done to Buddy? Roger answered in the same spirit. They had been planning to kill him!
I told them both to shut up. When they ignored me, I tossed her to the floor and stepped toward Roger, offering the butt of the four-ten as a threat. Roger shut up, but he continued staring at his newly-wed wife incredulously, and I couldn’t resist.
‘You didn’t really believe she loved you?’
Roger didn’t answer me. He did turn, however, and watched Buddy and Molly working themselves toward a mutual climax on our television. It was, under the circumstances, an eloquent rebuttal.
I heard the first sirens and left the room, intending to snap on the floodlights so they could find Wade. I got as far as the front hall when I heard the report of a handgun. I was down before I registered that I had been shot. My back on fire, my brain struggling to understand what had just occurred, I heard two more shots from a handgun, followed by the unmistakable blast of the twelve-gauge.
I tried to crawl across the parquet floor toward the four-ten I had dropped when I fell, but Molly came to me. As she held me, I tried to speak, but I couldn’t.
Turning, I saw Denise Conway lying across Buddy Elder’s legs. The back of her head was broken apart, her peroxide blonde hair stained in blood. Roger Beery lay on his back, his arms and legs twitching oddly, blood on his face.
The front hallway lit up with whirling red and blue lights, the last thing I saw before I passed out.
Chapter 29
I WAS CONSCIOUS AGAIN when they settled me into the ambulance, but not for long. Later, when I woke up, I looked at the hospital room, did not especially like what I saw, and went back to sleep.
At ten I was fully awake and in a different room.
Molly was in a chair close to my bed. From the number of magazines at her feet, I guessed she had been there quite a while. My voice cracked when I tried to speak.
I felt dizzy, but I did not pass out.
‘Wade?’
‘He got out of surgery a couple of hours after you did. It was bad, but he’s going to make it.’
‘What happened?’
‘Buddy had a revolver in his coat. Denise found it or knew it was there. After she shot you, she turned the gun on Roger. I don’t think she even knew I was in the room.’
‘They’re both dead?’
‘All three of them.’ After a moment she said to me, ‘I have the DVD, David.’
I closed my eyes, nodding, message received. When I woke up again Molly was gone. I talked to the nurse, then to the surgeon. That afternoon my mother showed up. She was the one who told me Molly wouldn’t be back. ‘She said to tell you she’s closing the house up.’
I SAW KIP DALTON only after I had refused to talk to anyone else. I told him I had put together most of the pieces of the puzzle before Roger drove out to the farm, but not all of it.
Kip smiled at me. ‘Anything you can give me will help, professor.’
‘Buddy and Denise killed Walt and Barbara for the inheritance, but they needed to get rid of their
new partner to get the money.’
‘What did Johnna Masterson have to do with anything?’
I shook my head. ‘Sport mostly, though it got blood on Roger’s hands, which gave them a degree of control. I expect Buddy showed Roger how they could frame me for her murder and do whatever they wanted to her. That would have appealed to Roger, I think.’
‘Well… they did.’ Kip’s face twitched as he said this, and I knew it was worse for Johnna than I could imagine.
‘The night they came out to the farm, they said they were going to let us go if we cooperated.’
Dalton nodded. He understood how killers use false promises to control their victims.
‘I think Buddy had convinced Roger they were going to terrorize us for a while and then stage another murder-suicide. Another bad marriage that ended badly. Truth was Buddy planned to kill Roger so Denise could inherit Roger’s money. Given my history with Roger and Denise, the sheriff would not have been inclined to look any farther than the evidence right in front of him: Roger shows up at the farm and all three of us go down with gunshot wounds. No one would even think to ask Buddy Elder about an alibi.’
‘According to your wife it would have worked if your neighbour hadn’t stumbled into the middle of things.’
‘When Buddy went out to take care of Wade, I had a chance to convince Roger he was the patsy unless he was man enough to make the first move.’
‘You must have talked fast.’
‘Have you tested the gun Denise used on Roger and me?’
Dalton nodded. ‘It’s the same gun that killed Johnna Masterson.’
‘You know that night, I couldn’t understand why Buddy took the gun with birdshot and let Roger grab the twelve-gauge. I figured he overlooked the difference in the guns, but I should have been known better. Buddy hadn’t overlooked anything from the start. That was no different. The weapon he intended to use on Roger was the handgun they had used to kill Johnna. Once he eliminated Roger with it he could turn the birdshot on Molly and me, and no problem at all if he had to shoot us a few times before it took. The sloppier the work the more convincing the scene. The point was to make it look like we had a gun battle using our guns, as if Roger showed up to talk, and things got out of hand.
