"I heard a rumor that the marriage ended because Linda was having an affair."
"That wasn't it at all. I think Linda started that rumor herself."
"Was there anything else in Linda's behavior that you found strange or unusual?"
"You know, I never saw her naked--not once. She'd even lock the bathroom door when she brushed her teeth. I teased her about it one time and she almost went ballistic."
"What did she say?"
"That she needed her privacy; didn't like people spying on her--weird stuff. In a way, she was like two different people. Publicly she'd act all loving and affectionate toward me. But at home she would shut down when it came to snuggling or kissing, or anything romantic. She'd ask me if I needed a blow job maybe three or four times a week. That was the way she treated sex. After a while it made me feel vulgar and cheap."
"Did she ever talk to you about her family?"
"That subject was pretty much off-limits, and when she did say anything, it always had a double edge to it."
"Can you give me an example?" Kerney asked.
"It was always a mixed message kind of thing. She'd call Eric a sick little sneak and then say something about how it wasn't really his fault. Or she would chastise her father for not loving her mother and then blame her mother for being frigid. Frankly, I think Linda was frigid herself."
Kendell checked his wristwatch and stood up. "I've really got to go."
"Do you take your family to your ball games?" Kerney asked as he got to his feet.
Kendell's expression warmed. "They never miss one. They're my biggest fans."
***
After repeating his promise not to reveal the particulars of Kendell's failed marriage, Kerney left and checked into a high-rise hotel near the Albuquerque airport. He opened the window drapes in his room and watched the lights of the city wink on as the last bit of dusk vanished in the western sky.
Bill Kendell seemed like a good man, happy with his life and his family, and the thought made Kerney long for similar circumstances.
Having Sara in his life was a delight, but maintaining a long-distance marriage wasn't getting any easier. And Sara's interest in starting a family while continuing to serve on active duty made Kerney wonder how they could pull it off. He had no desire to be a military dependent following Sara from post to post.
He turned away from the window thinking he had to keep his priorities straight. He was married to a woman he loved deeply, and he was about to come into a sizable chunk of money that would give them more options. He needed to start thinking more creatively, but he didn't know where to begin.
His thoughts turned to the Langsford case. He decided to spend the evening piecing together what he knew about the family, to see what kind of profile developed.
***
In the morning, Kerney waited for Sara's flight to arrive. When it did, she was the first one out the jetway, and he started grinning the moment she appeared. Each time he saw her again he couldn't contain a feeling of elation.
She dropped her overnight bag, pressed up against him, and planted a long wet kiss on his lips while the other passengers flowed around them.
She pulled back and gave him a lascivious smile. "Do you have a room."
"Nearby, milady."
"You're one smart man, Kerney. I may not have to divorce you after all."
She grabbed her bag and folded her arm in his. "Let's go."
***
An hour or so later, after very little talking, Sara found the spot on Kerney's shoulder where she liked to rest her head. She reached over and started gently scratching his chest.
"I haven't heard from you much this week, Grandpa," she said. Kerney groaned in response. "Not funny, huh?"
"Unsettling."
"Tell me about it."
Kerney brought her up to date on Clayton, including the surprise introduction to his family at the Roswell motel. "It sounds like an overture to me," Sara said. "A small one, perhaps. We'll see where it goes."
"And the case?"
Kerney put the week's events into a series of highlights, concentrating on Eric Langsford's suicide, the disappearance of Danny Hobeck and his sister, and his difficulties dealing with Kay Murray, Penelope Gibben, and Linda Langsford.
"Murder, suicide, drugs, missing persons, sexual deviants, harlots, pushy women, family secrets," Sara said, when he finished. "What have you gotten yourself into?"
"The sex angle intrigues me. Vernon's bizarre need to have Murray dress up and act like a provocative schoolgirl, Eric's twisted voyeurism, Linda's aversion to intercourse, statements that Vernon's wife was passive and frigid. I've even wondered if Penelope Gibben may have groomed her niece, Kay Murray, to become Vernon's mistress."
"At Vernon's urging?" Sara asked.
"Perhaps. And why did Kay Murray tell me a useless lie about continuing to be Vernon's lover up until the time of his death, if the sexual relationship had ended?"
"Sex and secrets," Sara said. "A potent combination."
"Murray offered to give me a blow job if I left her alone." Sara raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Did you take her up on it?"
"No, it wasn't the type of bribe I usually accept." Sara punched him on the arm in response.
Kerney shook off the love tap and tickled Sara's tummy. "What do you make of it?"
Sara pushed his hand away. "Stop it. I think you're right to follow the sex angle. Something has been going on in the Langsford family for a long time that everyone wants kept secret, and it's connected to the judge."
"That much I know. But what is it?"
"You'll figure it out. But not this weekend, if I have anything to say about it. I hope you haven't made any plans."
Kerney cocked an eye. "What have you cooked up?"
Sara pushed herself into a sitting position. "We're weekend guests at Dale and Barbara's."
"Don't you have to be back at the post tomorrow night in time for Monday classes?"
"Classes don't resume until Tuesday morning. I've rented a car to drive down to the ranch."
"Are we in a hurry?"
Sara lifted the bedsheets, looked at Kerney's crotch, and smiled. "Not necessarily. What have we here?"
"Has all this sex talk turned you on?"
"No more so than you, it would appear," Sara said. "Did I mention that I'm fertile this weekend?"
"Thanks for the late warning."
Sara laughed as she swung a leg over Kerney's torso. "Matrimony usually brings with it the promise of children, Kerney. That's a given, unless negotiated otherwise."
"So I've heard," Kerney said, thinking back to his conversation with Bill Kendell.
***
The Rocking J, Dale and Barbara's ranch on the western slope of the San Andres Mountains, bordered White Sands Missile Range and spread down to the Jornada del Muerto--the journey of death--a waterless, desolate savanna of cactus, creosote, and mesquite. Once part of El Camino Real that ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe, the Jornada earned its name because of the scores of lives it claimed during the early days of Spanish settlement.
The remote ranch headquarters stood on a ridgeline overlooking a deep canyon, with views of the basin below and the red-tinged forested mountains inside the missile range. Only the soothing sound of the wind in the trees and the call of Mexican blue jays broke the silence.
On arriving at the ranch, Kerney became pensive and somewhat quiet, and although he hid it well, his moodiness remained just be low the surface.
Sara didn't press him about it, thinking that perhaps staying in the old foreman's quarters, where Kerney and his parents had lived after losing their ranch to the army, brought back sad memories, including the harsh reminder of the tragic death of his parents, who had died in an auto accident on the day of Kerney's return from Vietnam.
Kerney had buried them in a small family cemetery under a grove of old pine trees on the Rocking J. After greeting Dale, Barbara, and the girls and chatting for a while, he paid a
solo visit to the grave site for the better part of an hour.
When he came back, Dale got him to help with some chores, and the routine of ranch life seemed to lift his spirits somewhat. Sara watched the two men for a while and then worked on supper with Barbara and the girls, all of them talking up a storm as they prepared the evening meal.
The two girls, Candace and Meaghen, were lovely, wholesome, spirited teenagers who made Sara yearn for a daughter. As she flattened bread dough with the heels of her hands, she wondered if her lovemaking with Kerney had turned that longing into reality. The possibility brought a smile to her face that made Barbara raise an eyebrow as she passed by on her way to the kitchen sink with a bag of potatoes that needed peeling.
Working with Barbara and the girls reminded Sara of her own family's Montana sheep ranch and her mother, who had taught her to work as hard as a man and cook as lovingly as a woman. There was something to be said for the country life, Sara thought, as she molded the dough, covered it with a towel, and set it on the top of kitchen windowsill to rise. If nothing else, it was a welcome break from the spit-and-polish routine of the military.
She looked at her three busy companions, took in the delicious smells of the roast in the oven, the handmade welcome wreath hung over the kitchen door, and the neat row of hand-painted antique food canisters on the shelf next to the stove. Barbara was still peeling potatoes, Meaghen was putting final touches on an apple cobbler, and Candace was busy snapping string beans.
"Why the big grin?" Barbara asked.
"This is just a lot of fun," Sara replied, as she found a paring knife and joined Barbara at the sink.
The remainder of the weekend went wonderfully well, and after an early Sunday supper, Barbara left the dishes for Candace and Meaghen and invited Sara on a walk. They followed the ranch road into the canyon, the creaking sounds of the lovely old wooden windmill next to the corral wafting along behind them on a slight breeze, before Barbara led her off on a game trail that wandered down to a distant stock tank on the flats.
The breeze had pushed away a light haze and the Jornada sparkled under a harvest-yellow sun. Barbara pointed out the bleak San Cristobal Mountains, named for a friar who'd died on his return journey to Mexico four hundred years earlier. The peaks cut into the sky like sharp incisors, blunted only by the towering expanse of the Black Range that filled a hundred miles of the horizon to the west. Sunlight bounced off the metal roof of a distant wine-processing shed near the railroad tracks that cut through the Jornada, past the remnants of Engle, once a thriving railroad and ranching community.
Water for the acres of adjacent vineyards on the tableland was piped across the desert from Elephant Butte Lake, the largest water impoundment reservoir in the state, which ate up forty miles of land along the Rio Grande.
"Is Kerney's heart still set on ranching once he leaves the state police?" Barbara asked, as they stood looking at the view.
"He hasn't been talking about it quite as much as he used to."
"I would never say this to Dale, but I wish there was a way for him to slow down and not work so hard. Except for our trip to Montana for your wedding, we haven't been anywhere as a family for the last five years."
Sara nodded, her thoughts turning to her father and brother on the Montana sheep ranch. "The work takes its toll."
"And you can't tell these kind of men that they might not be twenty years old anymore," Barbara said, turning to look at Sara.
"And what about you? Do you want this kind of life?"
"I grew up with it," Sara said.
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I want Kerney to be happy."
"He's going to have a lot of options open to him," Barbara said. "Maybe he hasn't considered all of them."
"Do you think he's holding on to an unrealistic dream?"
"You two fit together like a hand and glove, Sara. If both of you were going to build a ranch together, I'd say go for it. Ranching may be hard, but it's a wonderful way to live."
"I know it is," Sara said.
Barbara smiled. "Want some advice?"
"I thrive on it," Sara said playfully.
"Help Kerney learn how to enjoy all that money he stands to gain from the sale of Erma's land. I don't think it's sunk in that he's going to be a rich man."
"Convince him to give up the dream?"
Barbara shook her head. "Heavens, no. But he could ranch in a small way, for the fun of it, and enjoy life without worrying about the price of beef on the open market, or the next drought, or the cost of doing business."
Sara bit her lip and thought about it. "I don't think he could stand the idea of being anything but a dirty-shirt cowboy."
Barbara patted Sara's arm. "Encourage him to change his attitude. Believe me, I'd be on Dale in a flash if we had the financial wherewithal to ease up a bit."
"That might take some doing."
Wind blew Barbara's hair into her face. She pushed it away and settled down on a large boulder. "Do you really want to see Kerney sink everything into something so risky? His dream could turn into a disaster real fast."
"I've thought about that," Sara said, joining her.
"Would you be willing to give up your career to help him make a go of it?" The sky lost color as mare's tail clouds masked the sun. Sara twisted her West Point class ring with her thumb. "No."
"Neither would I, if I had a profession I'd worked hard to achieve and was good at," Barbara said.
"Kerney doesn't change his mind easily." Barbara giggled.
"What?"
"You have an advantage. He's desperately, completely in love with you."
Sara's sparkling eyes smiled. "He does seem to adore me."
"Enough said," Barbara replied. She stood and started back up the trail. "You get no more sisterly advice from this gal."
"That's it?" Sara asked jokingly.
"For now. Let's get back and serve up some of that chocolate cake you made, if it hasn't already been devoured."
***
Kerney gave Sara a kiss, watched her enter the jetway, and left the airport wondering if he'd married a mind reader. They had stayed up half the night in the hotel room talking about the future, with Sara raising questions that had been bouncing around in Kerney's mind, giving him a voice to talk about his apprehensions about starting a ranch and leaving law enforcement for good.
Nothing had been resolved, but Kerney felt a weight had been lifted.
Sara had suggested a range of options to be considered, all of them centered around the notion of more time together, establishing a permanent home, sharing responsibility--if indeed she was pregnant for raising a child, and allowing Kerney to pursue his aspirations.
She'd driven the point home by noting that the army might be willing to send her to law school, which was something she'd planned to do anyway sometime in the future. That would mean three years of detached duty and the chance for them to be together over an extended period of time.
The idea excited Kerney, especially when Sara made it clear she would apply to the University of New Mexico, which had an excellent program, as her first choice.
He drove out of the airport parking garage toying with ideas he hadn't considered before. For years, in different ways and for different reasons, both of them had been nomads. Marriage hadn't changed that.
But now there was a possibility it could change, at least for a very large chunk of time.
Caught up in a delightful daydream, he barely heard his call sign on the unit's radio. He keyed the microphone and responded.
"Hobeck just pulled up at his residence, Chief," the agent on stakeout said.
"Is his sister with him?"
"Negative, but a visitor has been waiting. I ran the plate on his car. It's registered to Pomeroy and Associates. I checked the phone book. It's a law firm. This guy's a suit, fifty-five years old or thereabouts, chunky, with thinning hair."
"Give me your location and stand by," Kerney said, wondering what prompt
ed Hobeck to seek legal counsel, hoping it had something to do with Margie.
***
Hobeck's house was in an upscale neighborhood in the foothills overlooking Albuquerque. The subdivision had been started during the brief time Kerney had been married to his first wife and attending graduate school in the city. Back then, the original developer had scarred the foothills with roads, clear-cut the vegetation, and built houses overlooking the city that sat like exposed Monopoly pieces on a life-size game board. It was now a hidden residential oasis for the well-off. Mature trees sheltered the homes, neat rows of decorative shrubs were carefully pruned, emerald green grass bordered brick walkways, and trimmed vines climbed thick stone walls.
Hobeck's residence sat on two lots at the end of a cul-de-sac. Surrounded by carefully arranged groves of evergreen trees, it presented a vaulted cathedral-style glassed entry to the street.
Kerney walked up the semicircular driveway and rang the bell. Hobeck answered with a look of dismay. In the daylight, Kerney could see the signs of years of heavy drinking etched on his face. "You have no business coming here," Hobeck said. "Where's Margie, Mr. Hobeck?"
"My family matters aren't your concern."
"I would think you'd want your best friend's murder solved."
"I've done nothing wrong," Hobeck caught his blunder and tried to adjust. "Of course I want the killer caught."
Kerney pressed the issue. "But you have done something wrong, Mr. Hobeck. Failing to reveal the whereabouts of a material witness constitutes obstruction."
"Margie had nothing to do with Vernon's murder."
"That's not my point. Talk to your lawyer."
"Have you been watching my house?" Hobeck asked.
"I'll wait here while you speak to him," Kerney said.
Hobeck closed the door. When it opened again, a middle-aged portly man in an expensive suit greeted Kerney with a quick, hard look.
"May I see some credentials?" the man asked. Kerney held up his badge case. "Who are you?"
"Ronald Pomeroy. Hobeck's attorney."
"Is your client willing to cooperate with me?"
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