Chapter Nineteen

December 27th

Two days later on the road back to Deadwood …

I’d stayed an extra day at my parents’ place, enjoying some time with my brother. Quint had hung around with us the day after Christmas until he’d had to catch a return flight back to the great white north to wrap up his photojournalist gig up there. Truth be told we were plenty white in South Dakota still, even though the sun had come out in full force and begun the long slow melt.

Aunt Zoe and Harvey had headed for Deadwood in her pickup last evening after Quint had taken off, leaving the kids and me to enjoy some alone time with my parents. The Twister game came out after supper. It turned out my mom’s yoga exercises were good for more than relaxation and sex.

This morning, Doc had driven down in my SUV and picked me up. I had to meet with my out-of-town clients again later this afternoon and show them some more houses, which meant vacation was over.

After saying our good-byes to my kids and parents, we climbed into my SUV and headed into the hills the same way we’d come down in the snowcat. I wanted to see how much snow had piled up between Deadwood and Rapid City, so he was driving.

“How long are the kids staying?” he asked as we passed the trail to Buzzard’s Roost on our way up into the hills on Highway 44.

“Dad will bring them home on New Year’s Eve. He and Mom have a party to go to that night that’s for adults only.”

We drove for a mile or two without talking. The snow grew deeper on the side of the road as we climbed. The radio started playing the Rolling Stones’ hit “Wild Horses,” as the DJ counted down to New Year’s Day with what the station considered to be the top five hundred rock songs of all time. I leaned back in my warm seat, enjoying the gorgeous scenery alongside Doc, whose spicy cologne made my SUV smell wonderful.

“How was your brother?” Doc broke the silence.

“He was good. Although he seemed distracted. When I badgered him about what was going on, he asked me what I remembered about Dr. Hughes disappearing.”

“Who’s Dr. Hughes?”

“The father of Quint’s best friend since childhood, Jeff Hughes.”

“What do you remember?”

The road sign for Norris Peak Road had snow piled up around the post from the plows. It must have been almost four feet high.

“Not much,” I told him. “Just that Dr. Hughes was an archaeologist, and that he went on a dig down in Mexico and never came back.”

“Did you ask him why he was wondering about Dr. Hughes?”

“Yeah. He said he might try to look into Dr. Hughes’ disappearance while he’s down in Mexico on his next job.” I shielded my eyes as the road turned and a ray of sun ricocheted off the snow, blinding me for a couple of seconds. “It kind of makes me nervous for him.”

“Why’s that?” Doc extended the visor to block the sun.

“I don’t know. The Mexican jungle is not the safest place to go digging for dirt on a missing person.”

“Maybe so, but the Black Hills have turned out to be a bit troublesome, too.”

I snickered. “That’s how the cow ate the cabbage.”

He glanced my way. “You’ve been hanging around Harvey too much.”

“I can’t help it. He lures me in with his cooking and then fills my head with his sayings.”

Several minutes of listening and driving later, Doc slowed as we approached US Highway 385. “Did you get a chance to tell Quint about being an Executioner?”

“No. Between the kids, my parents, and Aunt Zoe wanting time with him, we weren’t alone much.” And when we were, the time never seemed right.

He turned, heading for Deadwood. “You’re dragging your feet.”

“Maybe.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure where to start with this whole Executioner business.” I scowled out the window at the snow-coated pine trees. “And part of me doesn’t want him to know I’m a killer.”

“You think that will bother him?”

“He’s never been much for violence. An offshoot of our flower-child mother’s philosophy, I suppose.” Where had I gone awry? Was it because I was born to kill?

Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” came through the speakers as the radio counted down to the next song. I turned the song up. “Whoever came up with this top five hundred list doesn’t know shit. This song should be much higher on the chart. Or lower. You know what I mean.”

Doc turned the volume down. “I agree, but you’re avoiding my question, sweetheart.”

I sighed. “What if Quint starts looking at me differently?”

Susan had been right about one thing. I adored my brother. I always had. Next to Natalie, he was my best friend growing up. How was I supposed to tell him what I was up to these days without coming across as stark raving mad? Or at least slightly unhinged? And if he did believe me, I didn’t want him to look at me like I was a killer, even though I was. I preferred him thinking of me as his crazy but lovable “Curly Bill.”

“Violet, you can’t hide what you are forever. Trust me, I know from experience. You can pretend, but something always gives you away.”

“I know, I know. I just didn’t want to ruin the holiday.”

“Your sister already beat you to it.”

I shifted in my seat. “Boy howdy, she sure did a bang-up job of it this year.”

“Have you heard from her?”

“No. Mom texted her but got no reply.”

“You think she made it to St. Barts?”

“Maybe. But it’s very possible she fled to South America instead, leaving me in a lurch with a bunch of money that doesn’t belong to me.”

Doc’s mouth tightened. “Coop thinks you should hire a lawyer.”

“Dad is going to contact his this week. He told me that my mom insists on paying for whatever it takes to fix this.”

The snow had turned Pilot Knob’s craggy top into a white blob. I’d bet Custer Peak was the same if not more buried.

“How’s your dad doing with this Susan business? He was pretty quiet at the table when it all came out.”

“We had a one-on-one conversation in his man cave after you guys left. He told me that after Susan had spoken her piece at the dinner table and Mom had calmed down, she and Dad had followed Susan to the basement. My mother spelled it out clearly without mincing words that Susan needed to do right by me. Dad added that my sister was not allowed back in their house until the deed was done.”

“No wonder Susan went to Denver with Mr. Peabody.”

“Dad said she went way too far this time, even for my mother’s forgiving nature.”

“Did you tell him about your deal with her for Rex?”

“No way. That would only piss him off at me. Besides, the chances of Susan following through on her word are slim at best. She has a history of taking the easy road out of trouble town.” The sign to Roubaix Lake was half-coated with snow with a drift burying the posts. “I’ll deal with Rex if I need to when the time comes.” I glanced at Doc. “Unless I kill him first.”

“You’ll need to get in line behind Natalie. She told me she has a brand-new pink hammer with his name on it.”

I grinned. “She called me last night from the Wyoming–Colorado border.”

Natalie hadn’t dallied up in Deadwood. She’d ridden back to town with Doc and Cornelius, packed her bags, and left a couple of hours later. “She should be pulling into Jackrabbit Junction later this evening if the roads are clear the rest of the way south.”

“That’s a long drive in a short time.”

“She was pretty determined to put distance between her and a certain detective.” I held my hand up in front of the warm air coming from the dashboard vents, glad for the heat with all of the snow surrounding us. “Does Cooper know she’s gone?”

Doc nodded. “I mentioned it this morning before I left for Rapid. He was heading to work as I drove away.”

“Did you tell him why she went down there?”

A smile played at the corner of his lips. “I might have hinted at it.”

I doubted Doc hinted as hard as I would have, but the cupid in me was content for now. “How’d he take it?”

“Hard to tell with Coop. He wears that same expression for most everything.”

“If you mean the pissed-off one, I wish he’d switch it out more often.” A couple of snowmobilers passed us going the other way, cruising at the edge of the ditch. “He’s actually a little handsome when he smiles, but not as dreamy as Reid.”

A laugh came from Doc’s side of the cab. “I’ll be sure to let Coop know you said that next time he smiles at me.”

“Oh, Lord, please don’t. He’ll shoot me for sure.”

He caught my hand and squeezed it. “Are you ready to return to life in Deadwood?”

“Life and death and everything in between.” I laced my fingers with his. “Anything happen while I was gone?”

He grimaced in response.

“What?” When he still held his tongue, I leaned toward him. “Come on, Doc. Spill.”

“I wanted to give you time to get home and unpack before telling you.”

“Telling me what?” His reluctance to talk made my chest flutter.

He frowned out the windshield. “As I promised Addy, I stopped by your aunt’s place shortly after getting back to Deadwood yesterday morning to check on the cat and gerbil.”

“Please tell me they’re both alive.”

“They’re fine.”

Whew! The last thing I needed right now was a dead pet to deal with on top of a dead husband.

“But when I was in our room,” Doc continued. “I looked out the window and saw someone standing on the sidewalk in front of the house.”

“Was it Rex?”

He shook his head. “Dominick Masterson.”

“Damn it.” I pulled my hand free of his and crossed my arms. “That man is relentless. You didn’t talk to him, did you?”

Dominick had a way of getting into people’s heads. Only Harvey and I had been able to resist his so-called charm to date: Me because of what I was, and Harvey because … well, we didn’t know why, only that he could. Cooper’s theory was that his uncle’s head was too hard for anything to get inside of it, let alone stick.

“I intended to see what he wanted, but by the time I made it downstairs and opened the front door, he was gone. I walked around the outside of the house twice, but saw no sign of him other than tracks in the snow, which led up the hillside to Mount Moriah.”

“Crap.” I blew out a breath. “You know what this means, right? Dominick is out of patience and I have to hunt down his stupid lidérc sooner rather than later.”

“No, we have to hunt down his lidérc.” He looked my way for a second before returning his focus on the snow-covered road. “We’re a team, remember?”

“I have a feeling this is going to get really hairy fast.”

“Great.” He spared me a grin. “That’s exactly how I like my women—hairy and fast.”

I chuckled, watching the trees go by out the window. Pink Floyd faded, replaced by AC/DC’s hard-core riffs.

“Okay, it’s official. This song list is total hogwash. ‘Back in Black’ is always in the top one hundred if not top fifty. I’ve lost all faith in this radio station.”

Doc hit a button and the stereo went dark. The crunch of tires on snow filled the cab. “What’s really bothering you, Violet?”

Dominick Masterson’s handsome face flickered through my thoughts, making me grit my teeth. That asshole needed to stay away from Aunt Zoe. “Where’s that damned lidérc hiding?”

Doc’s brow furrowed. “A more worrisome question is how in the hell are we going to catch a parasitic, soul-sucking Hungarian devil?”

“I have an idea about that.” An old co-worker in the Executioner business had given me a tip on hunting lidérc a short time ago.

“Oh, yeah? Let’s hear it.”

“For starters, we’re going to need some fresh bait.” I grimaced out the window at the picturesque winter scene. “As in the non-human kind.”

The End … for now

A quick note from Ann:

If you’d like to read about Quint’s adventures down in Mexico while searching for Dr. Hughes at the last Maya dig site where the archaeologist was seen, check out LOOK WHAT THE WIND BLEW IN, the first book in my ongoing Dig Site Mystery Series.

Also, be sure to catch up with Natalie’s cousins, the Morgan sisters, down in Arizona in my Jackrabbit Junction Mystery Series. Word on the street is that more crazy high jinks are coming soon from their neck of the Sonoran Desert. With Natalie heading their way, you’re not going to want to miss what happens next at the Dancing Winnebago R.V. Park!