A week after his confrontation with Charlie, Bart Wolfe was released from the hospital. Detective Clyde Martinez had been assigned to the case and wanted to talk to him before he left. Bart sat on the edge of the bed, attempting to pull on his boots but still too weak. An orderly came in to help.
“Hope you got a boot jack at home, Bart.”
The orderly smirked. “Otherwise you’re gonna have a heck of a time getting these damned boots off. You might want to switch to sneakers. Maybe a slip-on.”
“You mean them sissy shoes?” Bart laughed.
“No thanks! I’ll find me a pretty girl to help with ’em.”
The orderly leaned forward to help button his shirt. Bart pulled away.
“Thanks, but I can do this.”
“No problemo,” said the orderly. “Well, on to the next victim.”
Detective Martinez introduced himself and handed Bart his card.
“I need to ask you a few questions.”
Bart eyed Martinez sideways. Deprived of drugs and alcohol for over a week, he was edgy and anxious to get out of this place.
“What do you remember about the events leading up to your getting shot?” said Martinez.
“You mean what happened before I got shot?”
Bart was impatient to get this unexpected visit over.
“Yeah,” said Martinez.
“Went over to the Crawford Ranch to see Charlie. Looking for my girlfriend Linda. I hadn’t seen her since she left the bar with him over a month ago. You know, it seems like she just disappeared out of the blue. Anyway, I figured she had hooked up with Charlie and they were playing house, you know what I mean. And I wanted to find out so I could pack up her crap and get it out of my house,” he said, his voice cracking.
“Where was Charlie at that time? Was he at the ranch?”
“When I was driving up to the ranch I thought I saw him walking across the field with his .22 rifle over his shoulder, so I drove onto the ruins instead,” Bart said.
“What happened when you got to the ruins?” asked Martinez. Getting information from Bart was like pulling teeth.
“Charlie told me to get the hell out of there. Claimed he ain’t seen Linda. Things got a little heated and next thing you know I was in the hospital,” said Bart.
“Are you willing to file a complaint against Mr. Cooper at this time?” Martinez asked.
“Don’t see any point in it. You guys going to arrest him or just pussy-foot around like you usually do?” Bart asked. He didn’t want to get involved. Charlie was going to say Bart came at him with his knife, and they would both get locked up. It was his word against Charlie’s. He could handle this thing himself. Get even with Charlie for taking his girl. Son of a bitch had no right to go around stealing a guy’s woman. Heck, he was crazy about Linda. Where the hell was she, anyway?
“Well, I’m going to arrest Charlie in the morning,” Martinez said. “So you better get your story straight.”