Chapter Thirteen

Bo’s first call was to Rosina, his cousin. She answered and he told her what he needed.

“I’d love to help,” she said, “but my roommate and I are in Provo, and my apartment is locked. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay. I’ll call Karmen,” he said.

“She’s with us,” Rosina said. “Are you saying this girl needs a safe place to stay until her parents can come get her?”

“That’s right. Maybe as a last resort I can let her stay at my place, but she would be alone,” Bo said.

“Why don’t you call Ron Brady? I’ll bet she could stay there until her parents get to Price,” Rosina suggested.

“Hey, that’s a good idea. I think I’ll do that. Thanks, Rosina. And tell Karmen hi for me.”

“I’ll do you one better,” she said, and a moment later, Karmen was talking on Rosina’s phone. Bo explained briefly what he was doing, and then the call was ended.

Bo punched in Ron Brady’s number, and after a moment, Ron came on the line. “I hate to ask favors of you, Ron, but I need one right now.”

“If I can do it, I will. Melia and Joe are back. Melia took Joe to DI to outfit him with some clothes to wear to church on Sunday. I’m pleased that he’s agreed to go. Melia thinks a lot of him, and I want to make sure he’s worthy of her in case something comes of their friendship down the road,” the farmer said. Bo explained what he needed, and Ron did not hesitate. “Of course she can come here. Does she know how to get here?”

“She has no car. My partner and I will bring her out right now. Thanks so much for your help.” He ended the call and turned to Nattie. “Okay. We’re taking you to someplace safe. When we get there, I’ll let you borrow my phone again, and you can call your mother and give her the address. It’s quite a ways out of town, but she should be able to find it.”

Lucas watched Nattie and the two cops exit the house together from a short distance away. He was not pleased. Nattie should have kept her mouth shut. He was afraid the cops might suspect him now of Emil’s murder. He didn’t do it, but there was little he could do about what they might think. It might be best if he were to find some other place to stay for a while, at least until he could see that either Joe or the real killer, a man whose identity he did not know, had been arrested for the crime. Oh well, he thought, he’d just go on in and get some of his things while the cops were taking Nattie to wherever they were taking her.

He drove his old truck to the back of the apartment and then went to work. It was almost dark, so he didn’t expect any of the neighbors to notice him. He took a bunch of his clothes and some of what little food they had. He didn’t touch Nattie’s stuff. He didn’t need it.

Joe and Melia were just leaving the farmhouse when Bo drove into the yard. Melia skipped happily to his SUV as he got out. “You’ve got to take a minute and see what we found for Joe to wear to church on Sunday,” Melia said proudly to Bo. “I can’t wait. He’ll look so good.”

Joe, for his part, was beaming. “I thought we’d find worn-out stuff that I would be embarrassed to wear,” he said. “Come in and see what Melia picked out.”

“Okay, but we don’t have a lot of time,” Bo said. “We have a lot going on right now. And by the way, let me introduce Nattie Shrader. She’s in some danger, and Ron said she could stay here until her parents come to pick her up sometime later tonight.”

“Hi, Joe. I know you. It’s good to see you again. You were nice that day in the store when you stood up to Lucas for me. Thank you,” Nattie said.

“You’re welcome,” Joe said. At that moment, Ron, who had just left the house, joined them. “This is my boss, Ron Brady, and his granddaughter, Melia.”

Bo was looking back and forth between Joe and Nattie. “So you guys know each other?”

“Sort of,” Joe said, acting quite uncomfortable. Nattie just nodded.

Ron broke in and said, “Come on in and get a bite to eat, you guys. We always have something in the fridge since Melia loves to cook and does a great job. You’re hungry, aren’t you, Nattie?” Ron asked. “We’ll be having dinner in a few minutes.”

“I hadn’t thought about it, but yes, now that you mention it, I am hungry. I’d love some dinner, but I don’t want to be a bother,” Nattie said with an attempt at a smile that didn’t quite come off.

They all trailed into the house, and Melia and Joe showed off the Sunday clothes they’d found at DI. “Hey, those are pretty nice,” Bo said. “That was really great of you, Melia.”

“Hey, Joe deserves it,” she said as she looked at Joe and brought a blush to his face.

“Bo, you and Jim probably need to eat. It will only take me a minute to get dinner on the table, and then you can go back to work with your stomachs full.” She grinned.

Bo glanced at Jim, who said, “I won’t argue with that, as long as it doesn’t take too long. We still have some things we need to do tonight.”

“Yeah, they have to find my boyfriend, Lucas. I mean my former boyfriend. He killed that guy Emil,” Nattie said with bitterness in her voice. “And now I’m afraid he will kill me if he finds me.”

Melia’s face drained of color. “That’s horrible. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll get through it. My parents warned me about Lucas,” Nattie said. “I didn’t listen, but they’re going to help me out even though I don’t deserve it. Can I help you in the kitchen?”

“Sure, that would be great,” Melia said and led the way.

As soon as the two young ladies were out of the room, Bo said, “It sounds like you know Lucas but not in a good way.”

“Yeah, he’s a jerk,” Joe said, then he changed the subject. “So you know who killed Emil?”

“Not for sure,” Bo said. “Nattie believes Lucas did it. She claims he had threatened Emil. But there are three others we can’t rule out.”

“Who else?” Joe asked.

“Can you keep this to yourselves for now?” Bo asked.

“Of course,” Ron said.

“I won’t say a word,” Joe promised.

“Okay, I guess you deserve to know what’s going on after all you’ve been through, Joe. Let’s sit down.”

After the men were all seated, Bo began. “While I was looking for the location where Herc was shot, Jim responded to an emergency call from a home we had been to earlier. After we left, it seems that the two owners, a man and his wife, had a nasty fight. The husband apparently hit his wife really hard in the face, and well, to make a long story short, he left, and she died a short while later.”

“She died from just one punch?” Joe asked with creased brows. “It’s a good thing one punch didn’t kill me in the jail.”

“This woman was a small, very thin person, and her husband is very large. It’s more than that though,” Bo said and explained how they assumed she later fell hard on her face. “We think she may have drowned in her own blood, but the medical examiner will tell us for sure.”

“Why is this guy a suspect?” Ron asked.

Bo told them about the bloody note. “Oh, so it was him, not Lucas?” Joe asked. “I wouldn’t put it beyond Lucas though.”

“We don’t know. Since the woman died, we obviously can’t question her. It’s going to be hard to figure it out, but both of those guys had threatened to kill Emil, and both could have carried out their threats.”

“You said there are others who might have done it. Who are they?” Ron asked.

Bo and Jim didn’t get a chance to say anything more before Nattie entered the room. The change in her was rather nice. She looked almost relaxed. “Melia says to tell you guys to come and eat.”

“A couple of drug pushers,” Bo said quietly in answer to the earlier question after Nattie had retreated. “That’s all we’d better say for now.”

Dinner was a friendly but subdued affair, which was only natural, considering what Nattie was going through. She and Melia seemed to have found some common ground during the meal preparation, for they chattered about nothing important. Bo watched and listened to the way Nattie was talking.

“Nattie,” he said finally, “you seem different.”

“I guess I feel safer,” she said with a weak smile. “It will be hard living at home with my parents, especially with the baby coming in a few weeks. But I think I made a mistake by going with Lucas. I just have to get through it if I can.”

“You can do it,” Bo said with feeling. “What about your baby? Is it Lucas’s, and will you be able to take care of it?”

“It is, as much as I hate to admit it,” Nattie said. “Lucas only let me see a doctor one time, but I learned then that my baby is a girl. He didn’t like that. He said it should have been a boy. He ranted about it, and several times when he was high on heroin, he would say that there was no way we would keep a baby girl. I didn’t want to fight with him, so I didn’t argue, but I would have never let him hurt her.”

“That’s awful, Nattie,” Melia said. “I know this is none of my business, but do you mind if I ask how old you are?”

“I’m eighteen. I was seventeen when I ran off with Lucas, much to my parents’ displeasure. But I thought he was a great guy. He was a real smooth talker, and at times, he was really sweet to me. He treated me okay most of the time. I guess I was a fool,” Nattie said. “How old are you, Melia?”

“Nineteen,” Melia said.

“You’re smarter than me, Melia. What I did has really messed up my life,” Nattie said. Her eyes darted back and forth between Joe and Melia for a minute while everyone at the table was silent. “You two like each other, don’t you?”

Both of them blushed. Joe wished he could just disappear. He felt really stupid right now. He didn’t know how to respond. “We’re . . . just . . . good friends,” Melia managed to stutter.

“Joe,” Nattie said with sudden seriousness, “don’t ever hurt her, and don’t treat her the way you saw Lucas treat me that day in the store. And both of you, stay away from drugs. Lucas always tried to get me to use with him. I had no idea he used drugs until I’d moved in with him. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I did try his drugs a couple times at first, but I didn’t like the way they made me feel. It scared me, to be honest. So I refused to touch them after that. I should have left him when I first learned about his drug use, but I had nowhere to go. My parents were really angry with me. And then I found out that I was pregnant with my little girl, and I simply didn’t think I could have the baby on my own. Now I’ll have to, but at least I think my parents will help me.”

Joe squirmed uncomfortably because of his own foolish use of pot and eventually turned his full attention to his dinner. After they were all finished, Joe stood up. “I better get some work done outside. Melia and I didn’t quite get finished today, so even though it’s dark out, I need to get it done.”

“We need to get it done,” Melia corrected him.

“I’m sorry about your dog, Joe. Melia told me about him. I hope he’ll be okay,” Nattie said before turning to Melia. “I’ll help clean up the kitchen, and then, would you and Joe care if I go outside and work with you? I need to stay busy so I won’t think so much about what a mess I’m in tonight. Being around you guys makes me feel good, the best I’ve felt since before I met Lucas.”

“Sure, that would be fine if you can in your, ah, condition.”

“I can work,” Nattie said firmly.

“In that case, you’ll need a warmer coat, but we have more in our coat closet. We also have extra gloves. You can borrow whatever you need,” Melia said.

The men went outside, and Joe walked to Bo’s SUV with them. “Can you tell me the names of the other people you suspect? I probably don’t know them, but if I do, maybe I could help a little.”

“What do you think, Jim?” Bo asked.

“Maybe it wouldn’t hurt,” Jim said.

They debated it for a moment. “It seems that we are in agreement, Jim,” Bo said finally. “Okay, so the man who killed his wife this morning and who she says killed Emil is a guy by the name of Bryan Bayle. You told us before that you know who he is.”

“Big guy,” Joe said, nodding his head.

“Yeah, more fat than muscle but strong enough to do what he did to his wife,” Bo said.

“Like I told you, I’ve seen him before. I saw Lucas too, but I tried to keep him from seeing me. I know you realize that I had met him in rather a bad circumstance. We had a run-in at the grocery store one day. He was being rotten to Nattie, and I stood up for her, even though I didn’t know her, and told him off. It made him mad. Anyway, who are the other two?”

“We only know the name of one other: Leonardo Augur,” Bo said.

Joe nodded. “Oh yeah. The guy I told you about wanting to sell to me.”

“According to Nattie, she heard Leonardo tell her boyfriend that he’d never be able to buy from Emil again because he wouldn’t be selling anything after that.”

“Like maybe he planned to kill him?” Joe asked perceptively.

“Yeah, like that,” Bo said. “We know nothing about the other guy except that he was who Emil was getting his stuff from. And according to Lucas and Bayle, he’d been threatening Emil if he didn’t pay up.”

“Emil told me about that too. Emil was scared. But he didn’t pull a gun or anything on me when I saw him just a couple of days before he was killed,” Joe said. “He did give me a hard time though. That’s why I was going to give him my shotgun.”

“I think he was getting desperate because he’d been threatened more by this mystery drug supplier,” Bo said. “I’ll bet that’s why he was at your house the evening he was killed. My guess is that you were about to get threatened as well.”

“I feel like such an idiot,” Joe said, hanging his head and looking at his boots. “I wish I’d never gone in that bar to celebrate turning twenty-one.”

“Hey, Joe, there is no use worrying yourself about it now. What’s done is done. You’re a good man, Joe, and don’t forget it,” Bo said.

Jo looked up. “Thanks, Bo. I’d better get to work. My dog getting shot really messed up my day, and Melia and I are way behind on our work.”

“I’ll be in touch,” Bo promised. “You just be careful. Whoever shot Herc has it in for you, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll be fine,” Joe said.

Bo hoped that was true but doubted it.

Joe headed for the barn as soon as Bo and Jim got in the SUV and flipped on the lights. The horse barn really needed to be cleaned. He and Melia had started when he heard Herc bark, but they hadn’t gotten much done. For the next half hour, he worked hard, wanting to get as much completed as he could before Melia and Nattie joined him. He’d made great progress when Melia, accompanied by Nattie in a warm but overly large coat and a knit cap and insulated gloves, joined him.

“Wow, Joe, you’ve gotten a lot done,” Melia said.

“How can I help?” Nattie asked. “I want to. I mean, like I said, I want to get busy. But I owe you anyway for what you did for me that day. By the way, I told Melia about it. She said that was the kind of thing you would do.”

Joe felt uncomfortable. “I don’t want you to cause a problem for your baby,” he said hesitantly. “This is hard work.”

“It will be fine,” Nattie said. “I can work if I’m careful. In fact, it would be good for me.”

“All right, then here’s what we’re doing.” Joe took a few minutes to explain in some detail. “You stick by Melia, and the two of you will keep me hurrying.” He grinned.

The three of them had worked for close to an hour when Joe’s cell phone rang. He looked at the screen, saw it was Bo, and answered, wondering if he and Jim had made some progress on the case that he wanted to tell him about.

“Have you caught one of the suspects already tonight?” Joe asked Bo.

“No, but I just got a call from Nattie’s parents. She doesn’t have a phone, so I let her call them on mine earlier to ask for their help. They need to speak to her again,” Bo reported. “Would you mind letting her call them on your phone? She has their number, of course.”

“Sure,” Joe said.

He walked back in the barn where Melia and Nattie were cleaning out the last stall and filling a wheelbarrow. They’d been doing that, and Joe had been wheeling the manure outside to an ever-growing pile that he was going to have to get onto the fields in a few weeks. Since they were using two wheelbarrows, the girls were keeping him hopping. He’d barely get one dumped and wheeled back to the barn when they’d have another one ready. It was hard working outside this late, and he was grateful that a full moon came up and made it easier for him to see.

“We’ve almost got it, Joe,” Melia said. “Nattie is amazing. She works so hard.” When she noticed the phone in Joe’s hand, she frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Bo just called me. I guess Nattie’s folks need to talk to her for a minute. And the only number they had was Bo’s,” Joe explained. “Here, Nattie, you can call them on mine.”

“Thanks,” Nattie said as a shadow crossed her face. “I wonder if they’re going to be late. Or maybe they want to come in the morning.”

“Maybe,” Joe said. “Melia and I will step outside so you can have some privacy.”

“It’s okay,” Nattie said. “I don’t care if you hear what I have to say.” She accepted the phone and punched in her mother’s cell phone number.