Act of Deceit

Chapter 55

“H arlan, this is Will.” The voice coming through Donnally’s cell phone was just a whisper. “A Mexican guy just came into the cafe looking for you.”

His employees didn’t know he was in Mexico. He’d led them to believe that he was steelhead fishing on the Trinity.

Donnally set down his just-purchased video camera on the hotel room table. Janie and Corazon would use it to tape the kids’ statements about Sherwyn.

“What did he look like?”

“A pit bull. Heavyset. Dark skin. Strong accent.”

Gregorio Cruz’s brother, Jago.

“What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t have a chance to say anything. Deputy Asshole was sitting at the counter waiting for his father. He told the guy that you weren’t around. Then it was like a lightbulb went off in Pipkins’s head. First the news article about the Hispanic guy you shot in San Francisco and then a Mexican shows up. I had some ham about to burn on the grill and by the time I looked again they were sitting in a booth, talking. Real friendly.”

“Where are you now?”

“Still in the kitchen.”

Janie interrupted her unpacking of the camera and cast Donnally a questioning look.

He mouthed the words “Will” and “Jago Cruz.”

Her lips went tight.

“What should I tell him if he asks me again?” Will asked.

Donnally’s cell phone beeped with an incoming call. He looked at the screen. A Mount Shasta telephone number.

“Is Pipkins making a call?” Donnally asked.

“Let me take a peek,” Will said, followed a few moments later by “Yeah. He’s got his phone to his ear.”

Donnally let it go to voice mail.

“He just disconnected,” Will said, “and now they’re walking toward the door.”

“The Mexican is probably the brother of the guy I killed.” Donnally thought for a moment. “But Pipkins is so single-minded that he must think he showed up in Mount Shasta because of something to do with Mauricio.”

“Hold on,” Will said. “Let me get to the front window.”

Donnally heard the whoosh of the swinging kitchen doors, then footsteps.

“Be careful,” Donnally said. “If they see you on the telephone, they’ll guess that you’re talking to me.”

“They’re over looking at Mauricio’s house. Got their backs to me.” Will chuckled. “Deputy Asshole looks like a hog sniffing around a sty for a piece of corn. He seems to be trying to pry information out of the Mexican, but the guy is just standing there, real stiff.”

“You got Harlan on the line, Will?” It was the voice of his waitress, Marian, in the background.

“Let me talk to her,” Donnally said.

“You still up at the river chilling out?” Marian asked.

“Chill is right.” Donnally forced a laugh. “The steelhead are coming up frozen right out of the river.”

“What do you want us tell those guys about where you are?”

“The truth. I’ve got nothing to fear. But tell them that they won’t be able to reach me by cell phone because there isn’t service in some of the canyons I’ve been fishing.”

Marian laughed. “It could take them a week to find you.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”