Endangered

3

Eldon and Brenda Cates sat in hard-backed chairs across from Sheriff Reed’s desk in his office. Joe stood off to the side with his arms folded over his chest, leaning against the radiator. He’d agreed to observe only and to not ask questions. Dulcie Schalk, the county prosecutor, had taken a side chair next to Reed’s desk. She’d positioned herself in such a way as to keep a close eye on both Joe and the Cateses.

Eldon asked, “Has April said what happened to her?”

Sheriff Reed shook his head. “Not yet. She wasn’t conscious when we found her.”

“That’s what we figured,” Eldon said, and he and Brenda exchanged knowing glances. “Because if she could talk she’d a told you our boy Dallas didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Reed said.

“We can guess what you all might be thinking,” Eldon said. “But it ain’t like that. When your guys came out and told us what’d happened, we figured we ought to come in here right away and nip this in the bud.” When he said it, he cast a quick look toward Joe.

Eldon was tall and rawboned, with broad shoulders and a weather-beaten face. He had thin straw-colored hair and a heavy lantern jaw. His hands were large and red and crablike, and it appeared to Joe that Eldon didn’t know what to do with them when he was seated. First they were on his lap, then rested on his thighs, then hanging down on either side like twin slabs of meat in a cooler. He wore a heavy wool hunting shirt, worn jeans, and lace-up high-heeled outfitter boots for riding that were covered with years of bloodstains from dead deer, antelope, and elk.

“What is it you think we’re thinking?” Reed asked without a hint of aggressiveness.

Eldon glanced at Joe again, then at Dulcie. He said, “That Dallas might have had something to do with this.”

“Why would we think that?” Dulcie asked.

She was tightly coiled, as always. Dulcie Schalk was in her mid-thirties, with soft, dark hair, dark brown eyes, and a trim, athletic figure. She was dressed in a dark suit with a ruffled white blouse. She was single and considered one of the prime catches in Twelve Sleep County, although there were rumors about her sexual preference. Joe had once wondered as well, until she’d asked him some provocative questions about his friend Nate Romanowski. Dulcie was tough and thorough, and never went to court unless she was absolutely convinced she had the evidence to obtain a conviction. Her success rate was more than ninety-five percent, and she’d recently won her first reelection.

“Because that’s how you people think,” Eldon said in answer to Dulcie’s question. He leaned back and said, “You people sit up here and look down on the little people out in the county just trying to make a living.”

Reed reacted with scorn and shook his head. He said, “I’m the sheriff of the whole county, Eldon. I’m not just sheriff of Saddlestring.”

Dulcie said to Eldon, “I don’t believe at this point a single accusation has been made, so I hope we can put your prejudices and assumptions aside and start over. We’re just in an information-gathering phase. Now, from what I understand, you two volunteered to come in here. We want to hear what you have to say.”

“So we can rule things out,” Reed added.

Eldon nodded slightly. He had heavy-lidded eyes and virtually no expression. Brenda looked over at him approvingly but had yet to say a word.

Brenda Cates was heavy, with a round face and permed auburn hair. She wore a faded blue dress and heavy sensible shoes, and she clutched her overlarge purse on her lap with both hands. Her face was hangdog, jowly, matronly pleasant at first glance. She looked like the type of woman who baked lots of cookies and took in stray cats, Joe thought. She wore no makeup.

Joe couldn’t figure out why Reed had suggested she was the one to watch instead of Eldon.

Eldon looked over to Joe again and said directly to him, “I should’a said earlier we’re just both real damned sorry about what happened to your girl.”

“Thank you,” Joe said.

Eldon said, “Dallas feels damned bad, too. He’d have been here if he wasn’t so buggered up. He’s got busted ribs and a shitload of other injuries from the Houston Rodeo last week. He drew a bull that pounded the crap outta him. That bull got him down on the arena floor and threw him around like a cat playing with a mouse. Them bullfighters tried to get him out, but you know how a bull is when its mind is made up. We seen it on TV and it was a damned bad wreck.”

Brenda visibly shuddered and clutched her purse even tighter when she seemed to recall viewing the ride.

“So Dallas has been home awhile?” Reed asked.

“Yes, sir,” Eldon said.

“Was April here with him?”

“Nope.”

“Where was she?” Reed asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eldon said. “Dallas said she took off a while back, after they broke up. She left with some other buckle bunnies and he ain’t seen her since.”

Dulcie asked, “Buckle bunnies?”

“That’s what some folks call girls who hang around rodeo cowboys,” Reed told her. “Kind of like rodeo groupies, I guess. You can see ’em strutting around in tight clothes by the ready area during the rodeo. That’s where the cowboys get ready to ride.”

When he realized what he’d said, Reed turned to Joe and mouthed, “Sorry.”

“Buckle bunnies,” Dulcie repeated, shaking her head.

“When was the last time Dallas was with her?” Reed asked.

“Oh, it’s been a while.”

This was all news to Joe, but he kept his promise to Reed and Marybeth and didn’t speak. As far as he and his wife knew, April had been with Dallas since she’d left months ago. The idea of April traveling with a pack of girls from rodeo to rodeo—being known as a buckle bunny—made his stomach lurch.

“What is ‘a while’?” Reed asked Eldon.

The man looked back at him dully, then turned his head toward Brenda. Joe saw her nod quickly to him, as if prodding him on.

“A few weeks, I guess. A while. I don’t know,” Eldon said.

“He’ll be able to tell us?” Reed asked.

“I’m sure he will,” Eldon said.

“So how long has he been home with you after his injury?”

“’Bout a week,” Eldon said. Then something went even deader in his face. Brenda glared at him, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“A week?” Joe asked. “I thought I heard you say it was a couple of days.”

Eldon didn’t even move his head when Joe spoke.

“Joe,” Reed said, “we had a deal. I ask the questions.”

Joe looked to the sheriff with an exasperated Then ask them look. Dulcie carefully observed Eldon and Brenda Cates.

“Which is it, then?” Reed said. “A couple of days or a week? It’s important that we know.”

He didn’t go on, but Joe thought everyone in the room knew what he was saying. If Dallas had been home a week, that meant he’d been injured during the first few days of the Houston Rodeo and was at home recovering while April was . . . out there somewhere. But if he’d just returned home the day before, he could have had April with him. Until he didn’t.

Brenda put her hand on Eldon’s thigh. It shut him up. She took over. She said, “Do you know why some people call my husband ‘Snake’ when his real first name is Eldon?”

“No,” Reed said, “but I don’t know what that has to do with this.”

“They call him Snake because he has a strange gift for being bitten by rattlers,” she said. Brenda had a husky voice, but it was smooth and convincing, Joe thought. “How many times have you been bitten by rattlesnakes, Eldon?” she asked her husband.

After a long pause, Eldon said, “I don’t remember. Seven, maybe eight times.”

“Nine times,” Brenda corrected him, then looked from Joe to Reed to Dulcie with wide-open eyes to hammer home her point. “Six times since we’ve been married. We don’t know what it is, or why it is. Whether Eldon has some kind of smell that attracts poisonous snakes or what. But if three men are walking across a pasture and one of them gets bit—it’s Eldon. I don’t know how many times he’s been out hunting with clients or on a septic tank job when he calls me on the radio and says, ‘Brenda, I got bit again.’ So I drop whatever I’m doing and take him to the hospital for treatment. But the thing is, all that venom has affected his memory. He can’t remember days or dates anymore. So when he says Dallas has been home for a day or a week, well, you can’t really believe him.”

She turned to Eldon and said, “Sorry. I had to tell them.”

He didn’t react.

Brenda looked directly at Joe and said, “Dallas used to love that girl of yours. Eldon and I met her at the National Finals in Las Vegas last year and the two of them couldn’t have been happier. That’s the kind of boy he is: Dallas bought our plane tickets and put us up in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Eldon hadn’t been on a plane in years.

“You should have seen them together, Mr. Pickett. He doted on her. Just doted on her. They were like the Barbie and Ken of the rodeo set. Now, I don’t know what happened between them. Dallas doesn’t talk about things like that. I know she watched him like a hawk when other girls were around. He told me once she got real jealous for no reason, and he thought she was smothering him. Dallas has always been the social type, and I’m sure she didn’t appreciate that very much. I think that’s why he broke it off with her, that jealousy. I’m guessing she didn’t take it well at all. I’m just speculating, but I’m a pretty good observer of human nature. April is as fierce as she is good-looking, and I can’t see her just shrugging her shoulders and moving on.”

Joe shook his head, not understanding. Dulcie picked up his cue.

“Did April try to get back at him somehow?” she asked.

“Oh, he never told me anything like that,” Brenda said. “But I think the breakup affected him. It happened just before Houston, which is probably why his head wasn’t in the game and he got bucked off and hurt so bad.”

“So it was April’s fault?” Joe asked. He’d once again broken his agreement by speaking up, and Reed gave him a disapproving look.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Brenda said, looking aghast. “I just meant that he didn’t ride with the kind of total confidence and concentration he’s known for. You can watch the tape of it and see for yourself. I’m not blaming that poor girl for anything at all.”

“So he came home alone,” Reed broke in. “Did you two pick him up at the airport?”

“He drove,” Eldon said.

“He drove back from Houston with broken ribs?” Joe asked, incredulous.

He noted that Brenda again gripped Eldon’s thigh with her hand. This time, she appeared to be applying real pressure, but the man looked ahead stoically.

“Like a lot of boys around here, Dallas has a thing about his pickup,” Brenda said. “He’d never leave it, no matter what. He never likes to be without it. Even if he was dying, he’d drive. Imagine how tough that kid must be. He drove from Houston to Saddlestring all alone with broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. I don’t know how he did it.”

Joe raised his eyebrows and caught Dulcie’s eye. The dislocated shoulder was new information. She’d caught it also.

“Which arm is dislocated?” she asked Brenda.

“His left, thank goodness,” Brenda said. “That’s because he has to grip that bull with his right hand. So he’ll still be able to do that.”

Joe visualized the act he’d seen many times. Bull riders lowered themselves carefully into a steel chute filled with a two-thousand-pound animal. Often, the bull was so big there was barely enough clearance on either side of it for the cowboy to mount it. A flanking strap lined with lamb’s wool was cinched to the rear quarters of the bull with an easy-release snap. After the cowboy had jammed his gloved hand into the opening of his bull rope, which was cinched around the middle of the bull, the gate was opened. It was a common misconception that the flanking strap was attached to the bull’s genitals, when it wasn’t at all. As much as trying to get the rider off its back, the bull was just as concerned about ridding himself of the flanking strap, which was alternately pulled tight and released and served as an irritant. It took a tremendous amount of upper-body strength and balance for a rider to stay on the bull while it spun, twisted, and bucked.

That kind of upper-body strength, Joe knew, could produce a hell of a beating.

“So how long has he been home?” Reed asked them.

“Three days, two nights,” Brenda said with finality. “And from what I understand from your deputies, poor April was just found this morning. And since she definitely wasn’t with us, that means she got here with someone else.”

She pushed the bulk of her weight forward on the chair and leaned across the desk toward Reed.

She said to the sheriff, “I hope you find whoever did it and put that man in a cage. And if he resists arrest and gets himself shot in the process, I don’t think anyone would have a problem with that. Dallas feels the same way.”

“Then where is he?” Joe asked. “Why isn’t he here now?”

Brenda’s eyes flashed when she turned to Joe. There was real anger there, and it surprised him.

“Eldon is right,” she said. “You people look down on folks like us. I see it all the time. When Eldon and Bull take their pump truck out, the property owners act like it’s their fault they’re swimming in their own feces. I saw it when I talked to your wife in the library about supporting our effort to recognize the fact that this town produced a national champion bull rider named Dallas Cates. She just looked at me and nodded her head like she couldn’t wait for me to leave and go back to whatever rock I crawled out from under. And I could see you all setting a trap for that poor kid and putting him in your jail. That’s why Eldon and I came down here. We wanted to set the record straight before you jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

She narrowed her eyes and said, “Dallas was at home when April was beat up and dumped outside of town. She fell in with the wrong crowd. That wasn’t his fault. He’d be here right now if he was healthy enough to drive into town with us. I know you’re thinking that if he drove here all the way from Houston then he should be able to drive the twenty miles from our place, but it isn’t like that. Dallas is the toughest kid you’ll ever meet. He gritted his teeth and drove all the way from Houston in terrible pain, but he didn’t let it get to him until he was home and safe. It’s like he stored up all that pain and waited to let it hit him, and it has now. With all of his injuries and maybe months of recuperating ahead of him, Dallas fought the pain and drove all the way back here to a town that refuses to appreciate anything he’s accomplished.”

To Joe, it was a tour de force of smoke and misdirection. Reed was right. Brenda had coached Eldon on what to say, but Eldon had fouled it up so she had to step in and take over. Brenda was running the show and she no doubt ran the family. Now he knew what he was dealing with.

“Even in his condition, he wanted to come into town with us and see April,” Brenda said, tears forming in her eyes. “He wanted to make sure she was okay, but I told him to stay.”

“Why?” Dulcie asked her.

“Because I know how you people could stack the deck against him,” Brenda said, narrowing her eyes again. “He’s on pain meds and you could get him to say something and twist it back around on him later.”

“We’d never do that,” Reed said defensively.

“He would,” Brenda said, pointing at Joe. “I saw how he railroaded Bull right out of our outfitting business.”

Joe said, “I caught him and Cora Lee with a dead six-by-six elk in the back of his pickup three days before the season opener. How is that railroading?”

Brenda Cates ignored the question, and this time Reed didn’t glare at Joe for talking.

She said, “Do you want to know what I think happened to April? I know you probably don’t want to hear it because you all have your sights set on my Dallas, but I thought you might be interested anyway.”

“What’s that, Brenda?” Reed asked. Joe could tell by the set of the sheriff’s jaw that he was trying hard to remain civil.

Brenda looked around, as if inviting everyone else in the room into her conspiracy theory. She lowered her voice and said, “I think April took up with another man—maybe another cowboy. She has the looks, she could pick anyone she wants and they’d go with her. I think she did it to rub Dallas’s nose in it, hoping he’d want to get back together with her. But she picked the wrong man to make Dallas jealous. Maybe that cowboy figured out what she was up to and lost his temper.

“Either that,” Brenda continued, raising her hand and showing two fingers, “or she was hitchhiking her way back home and she got picked up by the wrong people. It could have been just as simple as that. Didn’t I hear that she didn’t have her purse or ID on her?”

Reed nodded.

“Maybe that’s because the people who beat her, robbed her as well. And they probably left her for dead out there.”

Reed and Dulcie looked skeptical.

Brenda pressed on. “I hope you don’t go at this thing with blinders on. You’ve got to consider other possibilities.”

“We’ll consider them all,” Reed said. “But it just seems more likely she was with someone she knew.”

“It wasn’t Dallas.”

“We get that,” Reed said.

“It could have been anyone,” Brenda said fervently. “It could be someone you’d never suspect. It could’a been those other buckle bunnies she was with. Or it could’a been someone local who picked her up on the highway and offered her a ride to town. I’ve seen some strange people driving around on the highways. Who knows what they’re looking for. Maybe a young, pretty girl wearing cowboy boots?”

Convinced she’d made her point, Brenda said, “There’s another reason why I didn’t want Dallas to come here with us.”

Reed arched his eyebrows and said, “Yes?”

“There’s nothing more vengeful than a woman scorned,” Brenda said. “If she regained consciousness, I wouldn’t put it past her to say Dallas was responsible. That way she could get back at him once and for all.”

At that moment, the room seemed to turn red to Joe. He bit his lower lip with his teeth and looked away so that he wouldn’t go after both Brenda and Eldon.

“You have interesting theories,” Reed said. “And don’t think we don’t appreciate you coming in on your own to talk with us.” His words sounded hollow.

Dulcie said, “I hope you don’t mind if I come out and talk with you again and ask some follow-up questions. Plus, I’d like to meet Dallas. I’ve heard a lot about him.”

Joe said, “Like this isn’t the first girl he’s been around who ended up beaten and dumped.”

Eldon’s face went white while Brenda rotated her bulk in the chair and stabbed a finger toward Joe.

“My Dallas had nothing to do with that Tibbs girl. Nothing!”

She turned back to Reed. “He has no right to say that to us.”

“You’re right,” Reed said, looking witheringly at Joe.

“This is what I mean,” Brenda said, gathering herself onto her feet. “We try to do the right thing and this is what happens.”

Eldon stood in a single motion, but never took his cold, dead eyes off Joe. Joe stared right back.

Dulcie moved quickly and stood between them.

“We’re sorry,” she said to Brenda. “I hope you can understand that Joe is upset right now. If something like that had happened to your daughter . . .”

Brenda nodded. She said, “If you need to talk to us, just make sure to call first. Out at our place, we’re always on the watch for poachers and trespassers. Eldon and Bull are known to shoot first and ask questions later.”

Eldon gestured toward Joe and said, “If you bring him with you, there’ll be trouble.”

“I won’t. And I’ll call first,” Dulcie said, looking down at her notebook. Joe could tell she was angry.

—

AFTER THE CATESES HAD LEFT, Sheriff Reed said to Joe, “That was real smooth.”

Joe shrugged and waited for more. Instead, Reed wheeled over to his window and parted the blinds. His office overlooked the parking lot.

Eldon and Brenda were in the cab of their huge SUV, Eldon behind the wheel. The vehicle was old enough that it still had the name SUBURBAN on it, and not the revamped YUKON XL that Chevrolet had taken when they rechristened the exact same vehicle with a less controversial brand. The man stared blankly ahead while Brenda reamed him out, jabbing him in the arm with the same finger she’d pointed at Joe.

“I’d give my right arm to hear what they’re saying,” Dulcie said.

After five minutes, the truck backed out of the lot and pulled away.

“They’re gone,” Reed said.

“There are so many holes in their story, I don’t know where to start,” Dulcie said. “Is it possible for a man with cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder to drive fifteen hundred miles across the country?”

“It was obvious Brenda wanted Eldon to tell the story,” Reed said. “She coached him and set him loose. But he’s too damned dumb to keep his days or his story straight. I don’t know whether to believe that rattlesnake story or not.”

“They’re lying,” Joe said.

Reed said to Joe, “I know how it looks. But we’ve got to build a box around Dallas. It shouldn’t take too long to establish if and when he was injured and when he got back. There’s obviously a video of his ride, and we should be able to find credit card receipts for fifteen hundred miles’ worth of gas. We’ll see if he’ll consent to a doctor going out there. Plus, we don’t have any of April’s lab results yet or the tech report on the samples taken from where we found her. We might even find Dallas’s DNA on her, which destroys their story.”

Dulcie snapped her notebook closed. She said, “What is it with their attitude toward us? The county is filled with rural people. We don’t look down on anyone.”

“That’s the way they are,” Reed said. “Brenda, especially. She’s got a chip on her shoulder and always has. Something about a land deal her father got screwed out of. I don’t know the details.”

“I don’t care about the details,” Joe said. “Dallas Cates is guilty as hell.”

“But you are not to get any further involved in the investigation,” Dulcie said, pointing her finger at him. “You already made them mad. If this looks like an angry father going after an innocent kid, it blows up the prosecution.”

Joe looked over at Reed. He didn’t need to say it again.

“We’ll nail the bastard,” Reed said. “And maybe we’ll charge Eldon and Brenda with obstruction and being accessories to the crime. And if April dies . . .”

Joe cringed.

Reed said, “Sorry. You know where I was going with that. This is why you need to step aside.”

—

AS JOE AND DULCIE left Reed’s office, she put her hand on his shoulder.

“How is Marybeth holding up?”

“Better than can be expected,” Joe said. “I’m waiting for her to call from Billings.”

“Give her my best.”

“I will.”

“We’ll get him, Joe.”

He looked at her and said, “You better.”

“I wasn’t kidding about you staying out of this,” she said. “If I need to go all the way to the governor, I will.”

He nodded, but he didn’t commit.

“And you shouldn’t get Nate Romanowski involved, either. In fact, I’d suggest you not tell him until we’ve got Dallas behind bars. The last thing we need around here is Nate’s brand of justice.”

“Haven’t you heard?” Joe said. “He’s gone straight.”

“Riiiight,” she said, drawing out the word.

—

WHILE JOE WAS CLAMPING on his hat to go outside to his pickup and Daisy, Dulcie put her hands on her hips.

“Do you think there’s anything to Brenda’s denials?” she asked.

“No.”

“She’s right about one thing, though. We need to look beyond Dallas. We need to consider this other mystery cowboy or even the hitchhiking theory. And we need to be open to any other kind of idea, whether we heard it from Brenda Cates or not.”

Joe didn’t respond.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said. “We need to verify Brenda’s story and track down where April has been for the past month—who she was with, what rodeos she attended, all of that. We need to verify when Dallas was injured—if he was—in Houston. And I need to talk with Dallas himself, without his mother in the room.”

Joe nodded.

“Of course, if April recovers, she can tell us who did it, even though Brenda tried pretty hard to discount that even before it happens,” she said.

“Which is why her son is guilty as hell,” Joe said.