Bone Dry (Blanco County Mysteries) Read online

  Beth grunted.

  Near the mobile home sat a small low-slung building slapped together with tar paper and sheet metal. A couple of old tires had been thrown on the roof to keep it secure on windy days. Marlin and Colby entered the shack, where Cecil was sprawled on a torn plaid couch watching a football game on a small black-and-white TV.

  The men exchanged greetings and Cecil offered Marlin and Colby a beer from a large galvanized washtub that was currently functioning as an ice chest. They declined.

  After a few minutes of small talk, Marlin said, “I got your message on my machine, Cecil. What’s up?”

  Cecil turned down the TV, hiked up his suspenders, and said, “Y’all ain’t even gonna believe what happened to me yesterday.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Emmett Slaton was a robust seventy-five-year-old rancher who looked like he could still leap from a galloping horse and wrestle a steer to the ground. He was a stereotypical raucous Texan, always sitting at the loudest table at any cafe. Friendly enough, most of the time, but with a legendary stubborn streak and a tendency toward bigotry. Salvatore Mameli had experienced both traits firsthand during his initial phone call to Slaton two weeks ago. At first, the rancher had been polite, if not cordial.

  But when Sal had made his proposition, Slaton ladled out a string of obscenities, then summed it all up by saying he’d “rather kiss a sow on the mouth after feeding time than sell my operation to some two-bit Capone.”

  Apparently, Sal’s well-oiled hair and pinkie ring weren’t a big hit with the locals.

  But Sal had patience—and a remarkable ability to control his temper when needed. He simply thanked the man for his time and wished him a good night.

  A week later, Sal felt he was making progress. During the second phone call, the rancher had merely told Sal to “catch the next train to hell or Houston, it don’t matter which.” Sal, however, still didn’t lose his temper, mostly because he had never been to Houston. Also, he could tell that being a little blustery—“ornery” was the word they’d use around here—was merely part of the Texan’s act. The truth was, Sal was having a tough time reading some of these Texans. Sometimes he would think he was on the verge of a fistfight, only to have the man clap him on the back, say, “Hell, I was just bullshittin’ ya,” then laugh like it was the funniest thing since Grandpa dropped his dentures into the mashed potatoes. Sal took heart in the fact that Slaton had seemed to soften a little during the second phone call, as if he just enjoyed giving people a hard time.

  Finally, on the third phone call, the rancher had said, “Aw, what the hell—I’ll hear you out. Come see me at the ranch.”

  So Sal was practicing his spiel, thinking of the empty promises he was about to make, when he pulled into the entry way of Buckhorn Creek Ranch on Sunday morning. Slaton’s home, a limestone-and-granite monstrosity, sat half a mile off the road, ringed by towering hundred-year-old oak trees.

  As Sal parked his new Lincoln, a fearsome-looking Doberman pinscher raced off the front porch, placed both front paws on Sal’s door, and howled at Sal through the glass. Sal instinctively recoiled from the growling beast.

  “Heel, Patton!” Slaton yelled as he came out the front door. The dog immediately retreated to his master’s side and plopped his rear onto the ground.

  Sal, feeling somewhat safe now, climbed out of his car. “Mistuh Slaton?”

  “Call me Emmett. With an accent like that, you gotta be Sal Mameli,” Slaton said, extending his hand. “Damn glad to meet you.”

  Sal shook Slaton’s hand, keeping an eye on the Doberman.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Slaton said. “The growlin’ is just for show. If he really wanted to do ya any damage, you’d never even hear him comin’.”

  Sal wondered if that was supposed to make him feel better. “Patton, huh?”

  “Yessir. Named after a great American—and a distant relative of yours truly, I don’t mind tellin’ ya.”

  “Dat right?” Sal feigned interest. He had noticed that Texans tended to be long-winded—and he hoped he wasn’t in for a story.

  “Somethin’ like a third cousin on my daddy’s side,” Slaton said. “But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s head inside and hear what you’ve got to say.”

  The two men entered the house, with the dog following a little too closely in Sal’s footsteps. Slaton led Sal to a large den where a rust-colored cowskin rug covered the polished Saltillo tile underneath. It was furnished in a traditional ranch motif, with blocky wooden furniture, wood paneling, and several antique-looking firearms mounted on the walls. Slaton motioned to two chairs beside a large fireplace. “Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? I know it’s early, but the bar’s always open ’round here.”

  “Got any scotch?”

  “No sir, fine Kentucky bourbon’s the only liquor I keep in my home. And I got some cold beer.”

  “Beer’d be fine,” Sal replied, looking around the room. It was much too gaudy for his tastes, but the room—in its own backwoods way—spoke of money. And a man who understood the value of a dollar was certain to appreciate Sal’s generous “offer.”

  Slaton brought over a couple of drinks and sat in the chair next to Sal. The dog lay obediently beside Slaton’s chair.

  The men chatted for a minute—polite but meaningless conversation—and then Sal decided to lay it on the table. “Emmett, I know you’re a serious man, so I’ll be straight wit’ ya: I’m interested in buying your land-clearing operation. As you know, I’ve been in the business a few months myself, and it’s treated me well.”

  Slaton took a sip of bourbon but didn’t comment. So Sal continued: “I hope you don’t mind—I done a little research, found out how many machines you own, how many employees you got...”

  Sal removed a pen and a small notepad from his coat pocket and wrote a figure on a page. “... and dis is what I’m prepared to offer ya.” Sal held the notebook up for Slaton to see. “I’m ready to pay twenty-five percent now, and the rest one year from today.”

  Slaton remained quiet.

  Sal squirmed a little in his seat. He was used to holding the upper hand in negotiations like this. “Whaddaya say, Mistuh Slaton? Can we talk about it?”

  “What’s there to talk about, son?” He broke into a grin. “The outfit’s all yours.”

  “Seriously?” Sal hadn’t expected things to go quite this smoothly.

  “Hell, yeah,” Slaton said. “I know a good offer when I see it. I’ll get my attorney to draw up the contracts on Monday. Until then”—he raised his glass—“I’ll wish you luck on your new venture.”

  Sal raised his beer. “Te salute.”

  Slaton eyed Sal a little suspiciously, probably thrown by the foreign phrase, but he drank anyway. “So, how you enjoyin’ Texas so far?” the rancher asked.

  “Fuhget about it,” Sal said. He figured he’d make a little small talk, then exit gracefully. “What—we’re already into November and it’s eighty degrees outside? And the summertime? Place is a goddamn sauna.”

  “It’s not so bad,” Slaton said.

  “You kidding me? I don’t know how you live in dis hellhole.”

  Right then, Sal knew he’d made a mistake. Slaton stood slowly, and the only sound was the scrape of the chair on the tile floor. Sal felt awkward looking up into the old man’s weathered face.

  “Son, did you just call the great state of Texas a ‘hellhole’?” Slaton asked.

  Sal gave a feeble smile. “I was just talking, ya know? Figger of speech.”

  “Well, the deal’s off. You can take your figure of speech and your shiny East Coast suit and get the hell out of my house.”

  “C’mon, Mistuh Slaton, why ya breakin’ my balls? I was just—” Sal heard a growl. The Doberman had risen also, and was now at Sal’s right elbow, fixing him with an unsettling stare.

  “I think it’s time for you to leave, Mameli.”

  Sal couldn’t believe it. What would have been an offhand remark back ho
me was apparently cause for a duel here in Texas. “Aw, fuck it,” Sal said. “You’re making a mistake here, pal. A big one.”

  “You’re the one who made a mistake, son. Now clear out.”

  On his way toward the door, Sal pointed a meaty finger at Slaton. “You’re gonna regret dis.”

  Twelve miles away, two twenty-year-old men were smoking a fat joint and slamming Budweisers at Pedernales Reservoir. Terrence Jackson Gibbs—“T.J.” to his friends—was lying on top of a picnic table, indifferent to the puddle of old ketchup that was ruining the back of his hundred-dollar polo shirt. His friend, Vinnie Mameli, was sitting on the table’s bench seat, shooting a pellet rifle at any bird who made the mistake of lighting in a nearby tree. Vinnie was a tall, well-muscled kid, with dark eyes, close-cropped hair, and a purple birthmark on the left side of his neck. T.J. was smaller, and thick through the middle, like a frat boy who’d been drinking beer all summer.

  “I need a new car,” T.J. wheezed, propped on an elbow, trying to contain the pot smoke in his lungs. “My fuckin’ Porsche sucks.” He finally exhaled a large cloud of gray smoke. “It’s in the shop half the time, then I have to drive one of my dad’s trucks. Feel like a redneck.”

  “Goddamn, quit yer bitchin’ already,” Vinnie said. “Just get your old man to buy you something else.” He spotted a mourning dove thirty yards away in a Spanish oak. He pumped the rifle five times and let a pellet fly. The bird flapped, then flew away erratically, leaving a few feathers to drift gently to the ground. “You’re spoiled rotten anyway,” Vinnie said.

  T.J. sat up straight. “Look who’s talking, you asshole. You’re the one who’s always packing a wad of hundreds. And you don’t even fuckin’ work. At least I got a job.”

  “Assistant manager at Dairy Queen? You’re really climbin’ the corporate ladder, T.J.”

  “Hey, work builds character. At least that’s what my dad tells me. And anyway, I also got my own place to stay.”

  Vinnie snorted. “Aw, give me a break. You’re livin’ in the guest cabin on your parents’ ranch. That’s really cutting the ol’ apron strings, I tell ya.”

  T.J. thought it over. “Fuck it,” he finally said.

  “That’s what I say. Fuck it. Pass the joint.”

  T.J. handed it over, and Vinnie took a long hit. “Dude, why don’t we go over to the ranch and do a little four-wheelin’?”

  Since moving to Texas, Vinnie had discovered—and fallen in love with—this exciting and aimless activity. Guys in jacked-up four-wheel-drive trucks or all-terrain vehicles would take off cross-country, bouncing over culverts, splashing through creeks, trampling the foliage and any animal unfortunate enough to find itself in the vehicle’s path. T.J. owned a bright-red Toyota four-by-four with an oversized engine, headers, enormous tires, and a roll bar. Hell on wheels, but too tricked-out to be street-legal.

  “Nah, there’s a couple of guys over there clearing cedar and shit. My dad musta called ’em. He drove in from Austin yesterday. He’s been comin’ out more often lately, ever since the party. Like he’s checking up on me.”

  T.J. and Vinnie had thrown a huge celebration three months earlier, for T.J.’s birthday. T.J. had done it up in style, with a dozen kegs, a live band, and enough illicit substances to stock the local drugstore. Naturally, every county resident between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five had attended. It was a fairly typical T.J. Gibbs party, with topless women in the hot tub, minors vomiting behind bushes, and three fist fights. When Walter Gibbs showed up unexpectedly the next morning, what angered him most was the fact that the riding mower—a brand-new John Deere—had somehow ended up in the swimming pool.

  “Where is the trust?” Vinnie asked with a smile.

  “No shit,” T.J. replied, missing Vinnie’s sarcasm. “Plus, I gotta be at work at five.”

  “Better smoke up, then, my man.”

  As T.J. took another hit, Vinnie’s cell phone rang. He slipped it off his belt. “You got Vinnie, talk fast. Oh, hey, Pop.”

  After a thirty-second conversation, Vinnie hung up and turned to T.J. “My old man on his car phone. He’s pissed off about something. I gotta go.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Rodney Bauer wiped the sweat from his brow and vowed for the hundredth time to lose about twenty pounds. Forty would probably be a healthier goal, according to his doctor. The weight always had been a bit of a problem, but really became an issue when he was quail-hunting, hiking around in the Texas sun.

  His small ranch—like the rest of Blanco County and the Hill Country west of Austin—was poor quail habitat. Too rocky, not enough wide-open grassland, and too many fire ants, which could kill the quail’s hatchlings. But there were usually a few coveys scattered about on his acreage, and that’s what he was searching for on Sunday afternoon.

  Rodney’s dog, Honeybee, a one-year-old yellow Lab, had a decent nose, but Labs weren’t really meant for quail. Rodney enjoyed running the birds with her just the same.

  Honeybee was scampering through tall native grasses about twenty yards ahead of Rodney when she came to a stop. Rodney eased up beside the dog, and then raised his shotgun to his shoulder. “Git ’em,” he whispered. The dog bolted straight for a mound of cedar brush—and the air exploded with the sound of flapping wings. A dozen quail took to the air, and Rodney fired two quick booming shots. Honeybee scurried through the grass, picked up a quail gently in her jaws, and delivered it to Rodney.

  “Good girl!” Rodney said, stroking the dog’s neck. “Now, fetch! Get the other one!” Honeybee started in the direction of the other fallen quail, but suddenly veered to her left and took off at a run, wagging her tail.

  Rodney was shouting at Honeybee, calling her back, when he realized he had an unexpected visitor. A woman had emerged from the cedar thicket that bordered the open meadow where Rodney was hunting.

  For a moment, Rodney was stunned. The woman was gorgeous: tall, with flowing blonde hair. Trim but curvy. Like something right out of a beer commercial. She was dressed in snug blue shorts and a bikini top that was barely handling its contents. Rodney was suddenly grateful it was unseasonably warm today.

  The woman was kneeling down, rubbing Honeybee’s head, and that gave Rodney time to regain the powers of speech. “’Mornin’,” Rodney said, walking over. “I wasn’t expecting a visitor today.”

  The woman looked up and gave him a smile that made his palms sweat. She said in a soft voice, “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I was driving by and heard the shots. I’ve always wanted to learn how to hunt, so I just hopped the fence.” The smile again. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  Honeybee was still wagging her tail furiously—and Rodney would have been doing the same thing if he had one. “No ma’am, don’t mind at all. My name’s Rodney Bauer, and this is my ranch.” He stepped forward and offered his hand.

  The woman’s fingers were slender and smooth. “Inga Mueller.”

  “Oh, you’re German. Same here. Guten Tag.”

  “Well, German on my father’s side. My mother is Swedish.”

  Praise the Lord you take after your mama, Rodney thought. There was an awkward pause, and Rodney finally said, “So…you want to learn how to shoot birds?”

  “I’d love to,” the woman said in the same sexy voice. “I find guns very…exciting.” She stepped closer and lightly touched the barrel of Rodney’s twelve-gauge. “That’s a very nice gun you have there, Rodney.”

  Rodney visibly gulped. What was going on here? Had someone set this up as a joke? This couldn’t possibly be happening. Rodney stole a nervous glance in the direction of his house, imagining the heat of his wife’s glare from five hundred yards away. “Why, thank you,” Rodney croaked. “I’d be happy to show you a thing or two. I need to grab a little more ammo, so why don’t we walk over to my truck?” Actually, Rodney had plenty of shells in his hunting vest. He just wanted to continue this conversation over by his Chevy, tucked in the privacy of the trees.

  As they walked, Rodney n
oticed the hiking boots the woman was wearing, and the way they brought out the fine lines of her sculpted calf muscles. “You sure are lucky to own a ranch,” she said. “You do a lot of hunting out here?”

  “Oh, yeah, all the time. Shot a twelve-point buck yesterday,” Rodney lied. “Gonna mount him for sure.”

  The woman said, “Do you mount a lot of things, Rodney?”

  Rodney’s face flushed and he began to feel a little dizzy. He tried to answer, but only managed a few stutters. The woman looped her arm in his and walked beside him. She leaned and whispered in his ear: “Cat got your tongue?”

  Rodney could feel her warm breath on his neck, and desperately wished he could play this game as well as she did. He wanted to think of something clever to say, but was stumped. He managed to blurt, “Ever shot a gun before, Inga?”