Rough country

VIRGIL DID THAT.

"We're trying to get in touch about this, uh, contract he was working out with Wendy Ashbach," Virgil said.

"Haven't heard a thing-he usually calls around ten o'clock. It's past that, so, you know, he doesn't always call…"

She knew nothing-but Windrow hadn't called in.

Virgil's annoyance was shifting to alarm.

THE SHERIFF CALLED BACK. "We got the tag number from the rental place, and did a quick run-through in town, didn't find him. We're gonna spread out. What're you doing?"

"I'm going out to Ashbach's place. That's where he was before he disappeared-this whole damned thing has to do with the Ashbachs. I don't know which one, but it's one of them."

"Where you at?"

"Just going past the Arby's."

"Pull in there, at Arby's. If you're going out to Ashbach's. I'm going to send a couple guys along with you."

VIRGIL PULLED IN, left the motor running, and three or four minutes later, a sheriff 's car pulled in and he got out to talk.

The two cops were called Ben and Dan, both large, beefy guys with blue eyes and butt-crack chins, and Virgil said, "It's my personal opinion that one of the Ashbachs is involved in all this. I want to keep everything calm when we go in there, because this shooter knows how to use a weapon and he's crazy. Okay? Got your vests? When we get there, I want you to behave like it was a 'shots heard' situation. Don't get right next to each other so he could spray you. Let me go in, while you stay back. You got a rifle? Lay the rifle flat on the backseat and when you get out, open a back door and stand behind it, just in case."

WHEN HE FINISHED the briefing, and thought Ben and Dan understood the problem, he led the way through the dark to Slibe's. The farther in they got, the more the dark seemed to close down on them, like India ink spilling across the sky, and the more the trees seemed to hang down low over the road; and when they got on the gravel track, the narrower the road seemed to get, and the shorter the headlight beams, like the lead-in to a horror movie.

They went past the red mailbox that marked the last house before Slibe's, saw lights in a garage and what was probably the kitchen, and then they were at the end of the road. Slibe's house was dark, though an outdoor light cast a pink glow over the yard. Virgil could see a light in the kennel, up toward the peak of the roof, and a couple of lights in Wendy's double-wide. Two cars were parked outside the double-wide, and Slibe's truck was parked in front of his house.

Virgil tapped the brakes three or four times to tell the deputies that they'd arrived, then turned past the no trespassing sign, rolled by the sprawling garden, into the yard.

VIRGIL WENT TO THE DOUBLE-WIDE, lights trailing across the windows. He saw a curtain move as he got out of the truck, and a flash of Wendy's face, and then the door popped open and Wendy, with Berni behind her, asked, "Did you find him?"

"No." He was aware of the two deputies lounging behind their car. Good.

"Did he go back to Iowa?" Berni asked, over Wendy's shoulder.

"His plane's still at the airport," Virgil said. He looked around and then asked Wendy, "Where's your old man? And your brother?"

"Dad's down at the house, the Deuce, I don't know-but he was here earlier. He didn't have anything to do with this."

A door slammed on Slibe's house and Virgil turned that way and saw Slibe coming off the porch, and he glanced at the deputies-one of them nodded and said something to the other, in a low voice.

Wendy said, "Berni told us about you beating her up this afternoon."

Slibe came up and asked, "What the hell's going on?"

Virgil said, "Jud Windrow's gone missing."

"What's that got to do with us?"

The question was too sharp and too quick, Virgil thought, too defensive, and he could feel something uncoil in his brain.

"He was last seen here, talking with you people," Virgil said. "The night before McDill was shot, she spent with your daughter. Your daughter was going to sign with Jud once before, except her contact got strangled down in Iowa. That suggest anything to you?"

"Yeah, my daughter's getting fucked over by somebody," Slibe said.

"WHERE WERE YOU TONIGHT around seven o'clock-and where was your son?" Virgil asked.

"I was here. The meeting broke up, and Jud took off and the girls took off because they were playing. I fed the dogs and worked with a couple of them until it got dark."

"What about your son?"

Slibe glanced toward the kennel, then said, "He's gone walkabout. I saw him loading up his pack and told him I needed some help with the dogs. He said he didn't have time, and he got his rifle and headed out."

"On foot?"

"Yeah, of course on foot. They don't call it drive-about," Slibe said. "Anyway, Jud was okay when he left here, everybody saw him. How's the Deuce gonna follow him into town, on foot? Carrying a rifle?"

"Jud was going to the Duck Inn," Wendy chipped in.

Virgil looked at the three of them, running his tongue along his lower lip: goddamnit, they were lying. Had to be. Someplace along the line…

Berni said, "You know who did it? If Jud's gone? It's your girlfriend, Zoe."

Virgil said, "We've looked at Zoe and ruled her out."

"Why? Because of her ass?" Wendy asked. "Let me tell you, she doesn't do as much with it as you'd think."

"She's the one who told Jud to go to the Duck Inn, so she'd know where he was," Berni said, pressing.

"She runs all over the place up here, doing her taxes," Slibe said. "You see her car anywhere, you just think, she's doing her accounting."

"She might have heard I was with McDill," Wendy said. "She was all over the lodge the day after me and McDill got together and somebody might have seen us. She sure knew McDill well enough that she could have known that she went down to see the eagles every night."

Virgil thought about the bartender: the bartender had seen Wendy with McDill. Had somebody else?

Wendy looked at her father and Berni. "And that lady who got killed down in Iowa… that's when Zoe and I started hanging a little bit. That was… two years ago. It was." She turned back to Virgil: "Jesus Christ, Virgil: it was Zoe."

Virgil felt the corner he'd been pushed into: they were making a spontaneous case-maybe-but it sounded good, and he had no absolute rebuttal.

To Slibe, he said, "I want to see your son. I don't care where he's gone, you get him and tell him I want to talk to him. And if I don't hear from him by tomorrow, I'm gonna start a manhunt. We'll dig him out of the brush…"

Slibe snorted: "Fat chance."

"I'll find him," Virgil said, holding Slibe's eyes for a moment.

Slibe didn't flinch, stared back, his eyes like black marbles: "What? You're gonna frame him? The Deuce didn't do it. And why would he, anyway?"

No speakable answer to that, Virgil thought. Because he wanted to fuck his sister? Because he was afraid she'd go away and never come back?

Virgil said, "I want to see him. Tomorrow." He turned and headed back to his truck, nodded at the deputies, who got in their car. He climbed inside when Wendy screamed at him, "Zoe did it. Zoe did it, you asshole."

VIRGIL LED THE WAY out, drove until they were out of sight, then pulled over and the squad pulled over behind him. He walked back and asked, "Either one of you know, or could you find out, where Jan Washington lives?"

"Sure. She's out south of the river…"

Virgil got directions and looked at his watch. Midnight. Well, screw it, if Washington's husband was home, he could get out of bed. He asked the deputies, "What'd you think back there?"

They glanced at each other, then one said, "I got this bad feeling about them."

"So do I-they're all a little too tangled up," the other one said. "I kinda wonder about Wendy and her old man. I wonder if he knocked off a piece of that, like, maybe, years ago, or something."

"Huh," Virgil said.

"On the other hand," said the first guy, who Virgil thought was Dan, "maybe you better take a closer look at Zoe, too. That whole family's always been a little off center. You know their mom was a lesbian? You know, became one?"

"Yeah? So what?" But he didn't say it. He stood up, slapped the door, and said, "You guys take it easy. Find that damn Windrow. Man, I'm gonna be pissed if he's off at one of these resorts…"

"And that could be-there's only about a million of them," Dan said. "But we called in when we got out of there. No sign of him yet."

"The thing that messes me up is that we can't find the car," Virgil said. "I can't figure out why we can't find the car. I mean, even if they snatched him, we ought to be able to find that."

"Out in the bush somewhere," Ben offered.

"Find him," Virgil said, and he headed back to his car.

AND THE THOUGHT:

If somebody were going to snatch Windrow, with his car, and kill him and take the car out in the brush and ditch it… how would the killer get back to his car? It was possible that the killer was willing to walk eight or ten miles in the dark, and had left the car in an all-night parking lot somewhere. Or maybe had ditched it only a couple of miles out, so the walk back would be a half-hour or so. But how would he know that in advance? He had to know where Windrow would be eating, for one thing.

Unless there were two of them.

Like Slibe amp; Son.

And the Iowa cops thought the killer was male…

THE WASHINGTONS LIVED FIVE or six miles out of town, on another country road, but not nearly as isolated as the Ashbach place. There were lights all along the way, and Virgil got glimpses of houses and sheds and cars and mailboxes on posts.

He drove past the Washington place and had to double back, shining his flashlight on the rural mailboxes, before he found it. They lived in a plain white one-floor ranch-style house with a two-car garage and white vinyl siding, with a shed around the back and a flower garden along the driveway. The only light looked like it might be a night-light, but the automatic yard light came on when Virgil drove down the driveway.

The front porch was a simple concrete slab. Virgil rang the doorbell, and a moment later he heard footfalls, and then the porch light flicked on. Washington looked out through the picture window, and came over and unlocked the door and said, "Jan? Is Jan okay…?"

Virgil held up his hands and said, "I'm sorry to scare you, this isn't about Jan. I'm sure she's fine. But we've got a serious problem, and I wanted to ask you a couple of questions."

Washington, in blue pajamas, said, "Sure-c'mon in. What's going on?"

"We're looking for a guy…" Virgil said, and he quickly explained about Windrow. "I got a couple of questions. Have you or your wife had anything to do with Slibe Ashbach, or his son?"

"No. Can't say that we have. He's got that septic service, right? Our septic was done by El Anderson."

"Do you know them? Slibe and his son?"

"Slibe… the older one… I was on a tax adjustment board a couple of years ago, and he came in to ask for an adjustment, I believe. I can't remember what happened, but it wasn't a big deal. It seems like we might have referred it to the assessor for a reassess ment… I'd probably know him to see him. Maybe."

Then: "Okay… do you do your own taxes?"

"What?" Washington sat back.

"Do you do your own taxes? Or do you have somebody do them for you?"

"We have them done by a girl in town," Washington said.

Virgil's heart sank. "And that would be…?"

"Mabel Knox is her name."

"Mabel Knox?" A reprieve.

"Yeah, she works for Zoe Tull," Washington said. "Zoe's got a big tax business downtown."

THE WASHINGTONS KNEW ZOE; and Zoe knew the Washingtons.

Probably meaningless, Virgil thought. But still, the only connection he'd found.

And he should have found it earlier; she should have mentioned it earlier.

Would have, if he hadn't known in his heart that Zoe was innocent…