They were halfway to Shadow Ranch before Thumps asked the obvious question.
“Why are we going back to Shadow Ranch?”
“You did lock down the villa?”
“Yes,” said Thumps. “I locked down the villa. And we processed the place. Came up empty.”
“What about the house out at Ironstone Estates?”
“Locked down as well,” said Thumps. “All of which puts me in the mood for locking you down.”
“We’re going back to Shadow Ranch because I want to look at the villa.”
“You already looked at the villa.”
“I was shot at the time,” said Cruz. “Pain and trauma can make you less observant.”
“I wasn’t shot. I didn’t miss anything.”
“You’re a hick sheriff in a hick town,” said Cruz. “Of course you missed something.”
Thumps pulled the cruiser into the No Loading zone in front of the main entrance.
“Why don’t you pull in behind the villa,” said Cruz. “Hell of a lot closer.”
Thumps started off across the property. “Walk will do you good.”
“I got a bad leg.”
“You want to talk about hick towns,” said Thumps, “let’s talk about Pie Town.”
Cruz limped along behind him. “You’re just being a shit.” “A hick shit,” said Thumps.
THE VILLA HAD a crime-scene sticker pasted across the door and the jamb. Thumps took out his knife and slit the sticker.
“If we were going to start from the beginning,” said Thumps, “we should start with the house out at the river.”
“Did that already.” Cruz tapped the sensor with his card key. “Got shot for my trouble. Remember?”
Cruz pushed through the door, limped his way to the living room. Thumps followed along behind.
“Tell me again what happened?”
Cruz turned the lights on. “After Greeley blew our cover, we packed up and came here.”
“And the dog?”
“Don’t know why Gage wanted the dog in the first place,” said Cruz. “Mutt did nothing but slobber all over the place. Should have seen my rear window.”
“So, you dropped Howdy off at the shelter.”
“Howdy?”
“The dog.”
“Right,” said Cruz. “Gage took him in. I waited in the car.”
“Yeah,” said Thumps, “the woman at the shelter remembered your car.”
“Too many loose ends,” said Cruz. “After I got Gage settled, I went back to the house to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind.”
“Or you went back to see if anyone else might show up.”
“Okay,” said Cruz. “Little bit of both.”
“How long were you there?”
Cruz walked the room, careful not to step on the broken pieces of ceramic and glass. “About an hour.”
“And then?”
“Got in the car and started to drive away.”
Thumps opened a drawer, shut it. Opened a cupboard. “And that’s when you were shot?”
“Bang, bang. And bang.”
“How far away?”
“No idea,” said Cruz. “Probably a hundred yards. Maybe less.”
“You see anything?”
“Didn’t even see the flash,” said Cruz.
Thumps walked to the far end of the living room. “What do you think happened?”
“I left Gage here,” said Cruz. “So, she didn’t come in and find someone waiting for her.”
“No damage to the door.”
“Kidnapper could have had a key card,” said Cruz. “Resort security might have a record of any entries.”
“And if they didn’t use a key card, Gage would have had to open the door herself. Does Gage know anyone out here besides you?”
“You think Sorin Dalca came knocking?”
“If he did, would Gage have let him in?”
“Did you find any blood?” Cruz pushed a couple of pieces of broken ceramics around with his foot.
“Nothing,” said Thumps. “If it was a forceable abduction, you’d expect to see blood.”
Cruz walked to the door. “Knock, knock.”
Thumps sweetened his voice, a little singsong. “Who is it?”
“Your good buddy Sorin,” said Cruz. “We need to talk.”
“Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin,” sang Thumps.
“Huff puff,” said Cruz. “Huff puff. Come on. We’re friends.
Look, I didn’t mean what I said back in D.C. Open the door.”
Thumps took his hat off, wiped the sweatband. “So, Gage opens the door, and what? Dalca pulls a gun? Come quietly or I’ll shoot you?”
“Answers the blood question.” “It does,” said Thumps. “But then why bother to trash the place?”
“Jesus,” said Cruz, “enough with the breakage. A better scenario is Kincaide.”
“Para Bellum.”
“They would come with numbers,” said Cruz. “Get in the villa, no problem. Grab Gage, easy peasy. A little breakage on the way. Van out back, and off we go to an undisclosed location to have a friendly chat about cabbages and kings.”
“And why the sea is boiling hot,” said Thumps. “And whether pigs have wings.”
“And they say a public education is a waste.”
“Let’s say it’s Kincaide and Para Bellum,” said Thumps. “And let’s say it’s a team of four. You have any good ideas on how to identify them, and even better yet, find them?”
“They’d come in as golf enthusiasts,” said Cruz. “Here to watch the tournament. They wouldn’t hang together. But they’d be of a type.”
“Military. Four guys in good shape. Late twenties to mid-thirties.”
“We can eliminate the golfers,” said Cruz. “No way Kincaide could arrange that.”
“Good,” said Thumps. “That brings the number of possibles down to under a thousand.”
“And they won’t be here now,” said Cruz. “They’ll be where they’re holding Gage.”
“If Para Bellum is involved.”
“It feels as though we’re chasing our tails.”
“We are chasing our tails.” Thumps put his hat back on, headed for the door. “And I have other things to do.”
“You’re not going to help me?” Cruz followed Thumps out the door. “Losing Gage is not going to look good on my resumé.”
There was no wind to speak of, but Thumps could see a chinook arch forming on the western horizon. If the wind did make an appearance, the golfers would be in for an interesting tournament tomorrow.
Thumps squinted at the high prairie light. “I can understand why Para Bellum might have grabbed Gage. Kincaide thinks that she knows where the money is buried.”
“But she doesn’t.”
“Something’s wrong.” Thumps turned away from the sun.
“Something material to our discussion?”
“Gut feeling.”
“Ah,” said Cruz, “indigestion.”
“According to Gage, Dalca was worried that the Vault had been compromised, that if he tried to access the money, he would be arrested.”
“Which is why he wanted Gage to help him hit Para Bellum again,” said Cruz. “A kind of encore that would give him enough money to disappear.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Think what?”
“That the Vault was compromised. That’s where it all starts.” Thumps tilted his head to the side. “How about you get on your spy cellphone, make some calls to the dark side of the moon, and see what else you can find out about Sorin Dalca and the Black Ice operation.”
“You think we’re missing something.”
“We are missing something,” said Thumps. “We just don’t know what it is.”