Chapter Twelve

The veterinarian, Dr. Eugene Scanlon, walked into the lobby of the clinic and smiled at Joe and Melia. “Your dog is going to be okay,” he said with a thumbs-up gesture. “The surgery went very well. No bones were broken, nothing too critical was damaged, and I was able to put him back together just fine. The worst problem is that he lost a lot of blood. You got him here just in time. What’s his name?”

“I call him Herc, short for Hercules,” Joe said with an embarrassed grin. He was feeling a whole lot better now that he knew Herc would live. He loved that dog. “So can we take him home in a little while?”

Dr. Scanlon shook his head. “Since he lost so much blood, I’ll need to keep him here for a couple days until he gets stronger. He sure is a beautiful creature. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to shoot such a wonderful animal.”

“Yeah, he’s a great dog.”

“I assume the police know about him,” Dr. Scanlon said.

“Yes, and they’re trying to find out who did this to him,” Melia said. “Thanks for saving his life.”

The vet smiled. “You two saved his life by getting him to me so quickly. I just finished the job.”

“It might take me a while to pay you,” Joe said. “But I have a good job, and I’ll pay as soon as I can.”

Dr. Scanlon nodded. “I’ll give you a discount for being such a good dog owner and because you work for Ron Brady. I’ve treated his animals for a long time. He’s a great man. And payments will be fine, Joe. My secretary will get a bill to you. You can give her an address before you leave.”

“Thanks,” Joe said. “Can we see Herc before we leave?”

“Sure. He’s groggy, but come on back,” the doctor invited.

Herc lifted his head when Joe softly spoke his name. Joe stepped next to him and gently stroked his head. “I’m gonna keep you close after this, big fella.”

After a few minutes, Joe and Melia left in Ron’s truck with Melia driving.

“We are sure lucky, aren’t we?” Melia said.

“We are,” Joe agreed.

“I was praying for him,” she said softly, glancing at Joe.

“Thank you,” he said. “I sort of did, but I don’t really know much about God or praying and stuff like that.”

“I’ll help you learn,” she said. “Would that be okay?”

Joe looked at her profile as she watched the road ahead. A lump rose in his throat. He felt lucky to have such good friends as Melia and her grandpa.

She glanced at him and smiled. “Well?”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” he told her.

“Will you go to church with me and Grandpa on Sunday?” she asked.

“I don’t have any church clothes,” he said.

She pushed on the brakes, pulled off at an intersection, and did a U-turn. “What are you doing?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow as he glanced at her.

“Deseret Industries, the thrift store. We’ll find you something to wear on Sunday. And it will be my gift to you. The clothes won’t be new, but they’ll look good. I’ll make sure of that. And don’t argue, Joe. I’m very serious,” she said.

Joe watched her for a moment, and finally, he just smiled at her. “Okay.” He needed to make some changes in his life. His bad habits had gotten him into this mess, and it had now affected Melia. He would do his best to be a better person, not just for her and Ron but also for himself.

After leaving the Bayles’ home, Jim asked, “Where to now, Detective?”

“We’re going to visit Lucas Soto and his girlfriend,” Bo responded.

“Why? We know who killed Emil now,” Jim protested mildly.

“Maybe we do, or maybe we don’t,” Bo said.

“What do you mean? We have that note Belle wrote. She told us Bryan did it.”

“I’ve been giving that some thought. I’m afraid that isn’t good enough, Jim. What if she just thinks he did it? She’s dead, so we can’t question her about why she accused him.”

“Okay, but still, isn’t that pretty likely? I mean, surely she’d know if he did it.”

“I suppose, but we’re going to be thorough, something Merianos was not. We’ll start by talking to Lucas Soto,” Bo said. “We need to find out why Emil had items that belong to him and his girlfriend.”

“Okay, I see now,” Jim agreed as Bo’s phone began to ring.

It was Joe.

“How’s the dog?” Bo said when he picked up.

“He’s going to make it,” Joe said. “Thank goodness.”

“Oh, I’m so glad. Are you headed home with him now?” Bo asked.

“No, Dr. Scanlon says he needs to keep him for a couple days since he lost so much blood. We’re heading to Deseret Industries,” Joe said.

“What are you after?” Bo asked. “I thought Rosina and Karmen got you pretty well set up.”

“They didn’t get me something to wear to church,” he said. “I’m going with Melia and Ron on Sunday. I’ll talk to you later.” With that, the call ended.

The call had been synced to the vehicle, so Jim heard it all. He began to chuckle. “I bet you didn’t expect that, did you?”

“No, but I’m glad,” Bo said. “I invited him to go with Rosina and Karmen and me, but I think Melia has more pull than we do.” He grinned. “And that’s okay with me. She seems like a nice girl.”

Bo and Jim rode the rest of the way to the Soto apartment in silence. When they got there, Lucas was not at home, but his girlfriend, Nattie Shrader, was. She was a small young lady, attractive with long dark hair and dark eyes. She was pregnant and, in Bo’s estimation, fairly close to having her baby.

Bo introduced themselves to Nattie as deputy sheriffs. “Where is Lucas? We need to speak with him.”

“I don’t know where he is,” Nattie said with a sad face. “He’s been gone a lot. He says he’s looking for a job, but nobody looks for a job at night.”

“What time did he leave this morning?” Bo asked even as he considered what she’d just said about him being gone at night.

“He hasn’t been home for a couple of days. He’s mad at me. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said as her eyes filled with tears.

“May we come in for a moment?” Bo asked.

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I’m just so upset. I’m almost out of food, and I only have a few dollars,” she said as she stood back and let them enter.

Her house was more orderly than Bo would have expected. Even though Nattie was upset and worried, she looked very nice. Her hair was brushed to an ebony sheen, and her face was clean. Her teeth were white, and Bo suspected that if she smiled, it would be a pretty smile. But right now, she was not smiling.

She invited them to sit down, which they did, and then Bo asked her, “Has Lucas done this before—left for days at a time?”

She shook her head. “No, he has never done this to me. I worry that something has happened to him.”

“Nattie, tell us about what happened before Lucas left. You said he was mad at you. Had you had an argument of some kind?” Bo asked.

She hung her head for a moment, and then she rubbed at her eyes and looked back up. “Yes. There was a man who came here. I had never seen him before. He came twice. Lucas sent me to the bedroom, but I could hear what he and the guy were saying because I kept my door partly open and listened to them talk. The guy was angry, and he threatened Lucas.”

“What was the man’s name?”

“Lucas called him Emil,” Nattie revealed. Bo and Jim exchanged glances, but before Bo could go on, she spoke again. “Lucas lied to him. He told him he needed drugs for us, but I don’t use the stuff that he brings home. You know, drugs. Lucas uses a lot. That’s what we were fighting about. I told him he shouldn’t tell anyone that I use drugs, because I don’t.”

“Have you ever?” Jim asked.

Her eyes were downcast when she responded. “Yes, a couple times, but that was before I got pregnant. I don’t want to hurt my baby. Lucas laughs at me and says it will make our baby stronger. But that’s a lie. I told him that a lot of times.”

“You said this man Emil came twice. Was your argument after the first visit or the second?” Bo asked.

“The second. I saw him that time. The guy had a gun, and he threatened us if we didn’t give him something to make up for what he says Lucas owed him for drugs,” she explained.

“What did he take?” Bo asked.

“My jewelry, including my grandmother’s wedding ring. It was a valuable one. I hated that Lucas made me give it to that little man,” she said.

“I don’t blame you for being angry,” Bo said. “What else did he take?”

She thought for a minute and then proceeded to list every single item they had found in the pile that had the shotgun with Lucas’s name etched on it. Bo pulled out his phone and showed her the pictures he’d taken, and she identified each item.

“You got them back?” she asked in surprise.

“They were at Emil’s house,” Bo revealed. “We’ve got everything, but we can’t return it to you for a while since we may need it as evidence. But eventually we’ll return it all to you.”

“Emil will be really angry. He might do something to Lucas.” Suddenly her dark eyes shot wide open. “Oh,” she moaned. “Maybe Emil already did something to Lucas. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t come home.” She dropped her head into her hands and cried. “What am I going to do? My baby is due in a few weeks, and I won’t be able to take care of it. Why did Lucas have to go and get himself in trouble?”

Bo and Jim looked at one another as she sobbed. Bo could tell that Jim was feeling bad for Nattie, just like he was. Finally, Nattie wiped her eyes and looked up at Bo and Jim. “I’m sorry. I thought I loved Lucas, and I thought he loved me, but now I’m not sure. I’m so confused.”

“I’m sure he did,” Bo assured her, even though he had no idea if that was true or not. “Nattie, Emil can’t hurt Lucas or anyone else now. He’s dead.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Dead?” she asked. “How did he die?”

“He was shot, murdered,” Bo said.

“Oh,” she said with a groan. “That’s why Lucas hasn’t come home. He never will now. I’m so ashamed, and I’m going to have to ask my parents for help. I think they will, but they’re angry with me for moving in with Lucas. They told me Lucas would bring me nothing but sorrow. I should have listened to them.”

“Nattie, what do you mean when you said that’s why Lucas didn’t come home?” Bo asked.

She shook her head, smoothed a lock of her dark hair from her face, and said, “I think he killed Emil. He was angry. I’ve never seen him as mad as he was when he left. He was angry at me, but he was also mad at Emil. He shouted to Emil that he would kill him when Emil drove away with our things. Lucas is gone now, and he’ll never come back.”

Once again, Jim and Bo looked at each other.

“I guess it’s good we came here,” Jim said.

“It is,” Bo agreed and turned to Nattie. “What kind of vehicle does Lucas drive?”

“A Nissan pickup, one of the small ones. It’s black and in pretty good shape.”

“Does he have a cell phone?” Bo asked.

“Yes. He took it with him. We only have one, so I can’t even try to call him. I can’t even call my parents unless I go somewhere and borrow a phone,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll ever do.”

“Do you know the number of his phone?” Bo asked.

“Yes.” She recited it to him. Jim wrote the number down.

“Nattie, describe Lucas to us,” Bo said.

“He’s Hispanic, but I guess you probably knew that,” she said. “He’s probably about four or five inches taller than me—so about five six. Of course, he has black hair and dark eyes, like mine.”

“How long is his hair?” Bo asked.

“It’s to his shoulders,” she said.

“What was he wearing when he left?” Bo asked.

“A western shirt, denim jacket, blue jeans, and his brown cowboy boots. That’s what he usually wears. No, wait. He may have been wearing sneakers. I don’t remember the color of the shirt. He has several. The rest are in the closet.”

“Do you have any pictures of him?” Jim asked.

“In my purse, I do,” she said. “I’ll get it.” She left the room and came back a minute later with her purse. She pulled a wallet from it, and from the wallet, she extracted a small photo, which she handed to Jim. He looked at it for a moment, then handed it to Bo. “You can keep that. I don’t want anything to do with him ever again. I’m sure he’s a killer now. He deceived me, and I let him.”

“Thanks. We’ll keep it,” Bo said. Then he asked her for Lucas’s birthdate, which she told him. “Thanks for your help, Nattie. Really, you’ve been a big help.”

“I can’t stay here,” Nattie said, suddenly becoming emotional again. “I’m afraid of Lucas now, and I’m afraid of that other guy too.”

“What other guy?” Bo asked with a creased brow.

“Oh, I guess I didn’t mention him. I don’t know his name, but he came to the door between when Emil was here the first time and when he came back and stole my jewelry,” she said after she had controlled another round of sobs.

“Can you describe him to us?” Bo asked.

“I’ll try,” she said and then she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she said, “I think he’s probably nearly six feet tall and quite heavy. His hair is almost as black as mine, and he had it in a ponytail. His eyes were dark like mine too. Let me think for a minute.” Once again she closed her eyes. “I remember seeing a scar on his left cheek, and he had sort of a flat nose. He looked like he’d been hit a lot of times in the face. I remember thinking that at the time. Oh, and he had tattoos on his arms and neck. He was wearing a T-shirt without a jacket even though it was cold outside. That’s how I saw the tattoos.”

“Anything else?” Bo asked as he glanced meaningfully at his partner.

She slowly shook her head, causing her long dark hair to sway gently.

“Did you happen to see what the guy was driving?” Bo asked.

“Yeah, I did. When I answered the door, there was a pickup at the curb—a small Nissan like Lucas’s, but it was tan and a lot newer than Lucas’s.”

“Did you hear anything the two of them said?” Bo asked.

For the first time since they had come, Nattie smiled. It was a very thin smile but quite pretty. “Lucas sent me to the bedroom like he did that first time Emil came. But I didn’t close the door, and I listened to them. The other guy—I think his name started with an L, like Leon, or something like that—told Lucas that he could sell him some good stuff for cheaper than Emil. Lucas wanted some, but when he told the guy . . . wait. I just remembered his name. I’m good with names. It’s Leonardo. I don’t think he ever said a last name.”

“Good, Nattie. So did Lucas buy something from Leonardo?” Bo asked.

“No, he didn’t have any money, so he couldn’t, and the guy wouldn’t let him take it on credit,” Nattie responded.

“What else was said?” Bo asked.

“Well, I do remember that the guy, Leonardo, told Lucas that he could meet him somewhere when he had some money, and he’d sell him some heroin. I remember they exchanged phone numbers and . . .” Nattie paused. “Wait! I remember something else. He told Lucas that he would sell to him from then on, that his prices were cheaper than Emil’s and his stuff was better, a higher grade. But Leonardo said that didn’t really matter because Emil probably wouldn’t be selling drugs anymore.”

“Nattie, you have been most helpful,” Bo said after she told the officers that she couldn’t remember anything else. “Now if you’d like to call your parents, you could do so right now on my phone.”

She hesitated for a moment, but then she reached out and accepted the phone. All she had to do was punch in the numbers. She looked at the phone and back at Bo.

“Feel free to go in your bedroom where you will have some privacy.”

“Thank you, Detective,” she said. “I don’t deserve how good you’ve been to me.” She hurried down the hallway, entered another room, and shut the door.

“I guess you were right,” Jim said wryly. “We now have two suspects.”

“Three,” Bo corrected, and Jim looked at him with a question in his eyes. “We need to find this Leonardo guy. He threatened to kill Emil, according to what Nattie just told us.”

“In that case, I’d say four,” Jim said.

“Four?”

“Yeah. What about the guy who was pressing Emil to pay him, the bigger supplier who was the reason Emil was using threats to get what he needed?” Jim asked.

“Right. Okay, so it looks like we have our work cut out for us. I’d like to think that one of the two women who have been wronged will turn out to be right, but we can’t ignore the other suspects.”

For the next few minutes, the officers discussed what to do next. Finally, Nattie, her eyes red from more tears, rejoined them and handed Bo his phone.

“Thank you,” she said. “My dad is at work, but I talked to my mom. Even though she’s mad at me and says Dad will be too, she says they love me. They’ll bring Dad’s truck and come get me and my belongings as soon as he gets off work.”

“Do they live in Price or somewhere close by?” Bo asked.

“No, they live in Sandy, so it’s going to be a while before they can get here. And I’m scared. What if Lucas comes back before they get here?”

“You can’t stay here, Nattie. Let me see if I can find a place where you can stay until your folks get to Price,” Bo offered. “And you’ll need to let them know where you are so they can find you when they reach town.”

“You guys are so nice. I didn’t know cops could be so nice,” she said as Bo began to punch in a number on his phone.