CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I arrived late for work that morning already worn out and needing sleep. In the outer office I told Maylene to call out to the jail and find out if anybody had come to pick up Raynes when he’d been released on bond the day before. Then I entered my inner office to find Agent Hotchkiss sitting in the visitor’s chair in front of my desk drinking coffee. The previous evening I’d left a message about the murder on his voice mail. I filled my own mug and dropped wearily into my chair. “Another day, another dollar,” I said.

“Have you got anything on the Raynes killing?” he asked.

“Not a damn thing yet.”

“I talked to Arno yesterday,” he said.

“I don’t suppose you got anywhere with him, did you?”

“Of course not. Deals like we have to offer aren’t even on his radar screen. But you got his attention yesterday. He’s not used to having his ass kicked, and I don’t think he’ll want a second application any time soon.”

“That makes me feel good. Did you mention the Twiller killing?”

He nodded. “He claims he has an alibi for that, and a motel receipt from Lake Charles to back him up. And we know he didn’t do Raynes because he was in jail.”

“What’s his alibi?”

“He says he was in that motel with a woman and that she’ll confirm his story.”

“Do you have her name?”

“Sure,” he said and pulled a notebook from his inner coat pocket. “Here it is. Lavonne Avante.”

“Must be a stage name. She sounds like a showgirl turned hooker. How about the motel?”

“It’s a place called the South Winds Motor Hotel.”

“I better check this out,” I said.

“I’ll do it. I’ll make some phone calls and get back to you.”

“I also want to impose on you again for a little ballistics work. We’ll have the bullets from Raynes later this morning, and I’d appreciate you running them for us as soon as you can. I have a hunch you’ll find that they came from the same gun that killed Amanda Twiller.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me either. And that business of throwing Mrs. Twiller’s body on the parsonage lawn stinks to high heaven. If this was a straight-up killing, the perps would have tried to hide the body rather than dumping it in public that way. Either that or just walked off and left it where it fell. The Bureau’s behavioral specialists would say that somebody was trying to send a message.”

“I’ve been aware of that all along,” I said.

“But what message was it?”

“If I had to speculate, I’d say contempt for Twiller and everything he stands for. Contempt for this community, and contempt for humanity. But in the end, who really knows why these old criminals do half the stuff they do? Sometimes I wonder if they even know themselves.”

*   *   *

I called Otis Tremmel and told him to broach Zorn about his whereabouts the evening before. “And if he has an alibi, check it yourself,” I said. “Don’t trust what he says.”

I was about fifteen minutes into my computer work when Carla Wallace slipped into the room, closed the door, and tripped the lock.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you latched that door behind you,” I said. “Am I in trouble?”

She gave me a quick smile and shook her head and settled gracefully into one of the two chairs in front of my desk.

“Well, if you ain’t here to fuss at me, what is on your mind?”

“I could have phoned, but I decided to come talk to you in person when Maylene called out to the jail. I just heard about the Raynes boy when I came on this morning. I know who he left the jail with yesterday.”

“Who?”

“A lawyer from Center named Nobel Dennard. You know him, don’t you?”

That was interesting. “Yes, I do. But how do you happen to be acquainted with the man?”

“I grew up in Center, remember?”

“That’s right,” I said. “I must be getting senile. So Dennard picked the kid up, you say?”

She nodded. “I was getting off shift as they were leaving. The Precinct Three constable had brought in a drunk driver to book into the jail and—”

“Tom Cryler himself? Not one of his deputies?”

“No, it was Tom, and I happened to notice that he followed Dennard and Raynes down the road when they drove off. I called him on his cell phone a few minutes ago, and he said he stayed behind them all the way out to the old Antioch community.”

“Sounds like they were headed toward the river, doesn’t it? And that’s where the kid’s body was found.”

“I know.”

“Carla, did you know that Linda and I questioned Dennard day before yesterday on the Twiller killing?”

“God, no!”

I nodded. “I’ve been playing this one close to my vest.”

“What made you suspect him?”

“When Linda did the search of Mrs. Twiller’s bedroom she found a letter from Dennard that could have been interpreted as threatening. I say ‘could’ because the wording was ambiguous.”

“Don’t tell me,” she said. “Nobel had an affair with Amanda Twiller.”

“That’s right, he did. Apparently he was afraid she would expose him to his wife.”

She laughed. “His wife knows, Bo. She has to. Nobody could be that stupid. I mean, he was notorious years ago when I was in high school.”

“Aside from his philandering, what’s the man like?”

“Well, I know that he helped my family recover some damages against one of the big timber companies back when I was in high school and nobody else would take the case. Really fought hard for us, and he was up against some powerful people too.”

I nodded. “I see.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Under the circumstances I don’t have much choice. Hell, I’ve already been to see the guy and he wasn’t forthcoming, so I’m going to talk to Tom Waller, and then I’m going to ask the judge for a murder warrant on Dennard for the Raynes killing. The Twiller matter I’m going to leave hanging in the wind for the time being.”

She nodded and rose from her chair. “I want to see you clear the case, Bo. But I hope Nobel is innocent. I have to be honest with you about that.”

“I understand,” I said and came around the desk and gently brushed her hair for a moment with my hand and she melted into my arms. After a long, gentle kiss, we broke the clutch. “I wish we could be together more,” I said.

“We shouldn’t, though. Not as long as I’m working for you.”

“I’m just grateful that you don’t resent the time I spend with Sheila and Mindy.”

“It doesn’t bother me a bit, Bo. They’re your family, and Mindy needs a man in her life.”

“When the weather cools off you’re going to start going horseback riding with the three of us on Saturdays.”

“Bo, I don’t think we should—”

“Sheila knows, Carla.”

“Oh my God! How?”

“She’s smart, and she figured it out. Don’t worry. She thinks you’re good for me.”

“Still…”

“No still to it. And when this mess is over you and I are going to slip off down to Galveston for a few days. How about that?”

She tilted her head back and lowered her eyelids and gave me a look that was half amused, half affectionate. “Long moonlit walks along the beach, huh? You’re a cream puff, Bo Handel. A marshmallow. And one of these days I’m going to toast you.”

I kissed her on the tip of her nose and grinned at her. “You’re getting pretty close to toasting me right now, so maybe you ought to get on out of here before things get out of hand. You also need to write me up a statement about what you saw yesterday for the record. Track down Tommy Cryler and have him do the same.”

“Will do. Are you going to arrest Nobel yourself?”

“No, I’ll send a couple of deputies. I won’t talk to him today, either. I want to let him stew awhile first.”

“Good luck,” she said.

“By the way, I took two really nice prime New York strips out of the freezer this morning. Why don’t you drop by about seven this evening?”

“I’ll be there,” she said, her voice happy. “Do you want me to bring anything?”

“Just your libido.”

*   *   *

After she left, I put my feet up on my desk and ruminated for a few minutes. When Toby knocked on my door the morning Amanda Twiller had been found, the last person on my mind had been Nobel Dennard. Now it appeared he was in it up to his eyeballs. Whatever “it” was. I didn’t particularly like the man, but I didn’t dislike him enough to get any personal satisfaction out of his plight.

Then there was my own plight. Why had I, a year earlier, after twenty-eight years in office and at an age when I should have known better, let myself get involved with one of my own deputies? Why had it happened?

I suspect it happened because she was a damned fine-looking woman and I’m a lecherous old goat. Longings repressed during thirty-five years of unthinking fidelity to my wife. “Live with it, Bo Handel,” I muttered to myself and laughed.

Introspection is such a wonderful thing.