Damned If I Do Part 12

"I don't know. I don't know nothing. I didn't see him a lot lately, okay?"

"Okay." Lem looked at Emilio over the rim of his cup as he finished his coffee. "If you think of anything, give me a call."

Emilio nodded.

Fragua was eating pinon nuts like crazy, cracking and chewing, and brushing the spent sh.e.l.ls off his lap onto the floor of Lem's truck. Lem looked at him and then at the mess.

"You're going to clean that up, aren't you?" Lem asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Clean what up?"

"The sh.e.l.ls."

"This is natural waste, bio-stuff. No need to clean these up. They'll break down naturally and contribute to the ecosystem, which is your car." Fragua laughed and sucked at some food that had become caught between his teeth. He looked out the window and yawned. "I love the early morning."

"Does Mary like to get up early, too?"

"Can't stand it. She's a night person. Stays up all hours puttering around the house and watching television. She gets up just after me, though. I don't know how she does it. She must get four hours of sleep, five tops."

"I need eight," Lem said.

"Me, too." Fragua studied Lem for a moment. "You want to talk about yesterday?"

"Not really. I do have something to tell you. I talked to Emilio last night."

"Yeah?"

"I found out something about Jose Marotta's body."

"Don't tell me," Fragua said. "If you know, that's fine and let's keep it that way."

"You knew," Lem said.

Fragua looked out the pa.s.senger-side window.

"How'd you know?"

"I'm not sure. I guess the Marottas didn't convince me. Mr. Marotta was too upset and Mrs. Marotta wasn't upset enough. She didn't really faint. h.e.l.l, I don't know, but I knew they had him."

"Enough said on the matter."

Lem pulled off the highway and onto the dirt road that led to Garapata Mesa. His truck bounced wildly along the wagon-rutted lane even though he was driving slowly.

Afraid of the Dark.

An unusual morning rain had come through and left the ground just barely wet. Austin cantered around the arena and was pleased to not breathe in the familiar dust. He ran along the north rail and practiced rollbacks. His mule was getting the hang of it, but still he was a mule and wanted to think about everything before he did it. Austin considered the fact that he had to be smarter than his animal. Apparently, spending most of the hours of most of his days working his equine friends hadn't made him that smart. It had made him broke and divorced, but not smart. Sarah said as she left, "You go out on trails all right, but what you really love is riding around in circles." She said that and drove away in a Chevy with a weak battery to the house of another man.

"d.a.m.n if that ain't the horsiest-looking mule I ever saw," Dwight Twins said from the gate. He had one of his small, sneakered feet set up on the bottom rail.

Austin turned the mule and let him walk toward the man. "How long have you been there?"

"Couple minutes. Long enough to p.r.o.nounce that the fastest mule in the county. Does he go where you want him to?"

"On occasion." Austin leaned forward to rub the animal's big red neck. "I'm thinking of trying him at steer wrestling in the little rodeo."

"I thought he was scared of cows."

"It's true he doesn't like them that much, but he's not afraid of them anymore."

"Well, good luck." Dwight spat onto the ground, his way of indicating his own sarcasm.

"I was wondering if you'd come be my hazer."

"Can't. Gotta drive up to Pueblo and pick up a horse for Delores Rainey. Get Dougie to do it for you."

Austin laughed. "Dougie couldn't haze a steer straight if he ran a cable through his mouth and out his a.s.s."

"Anyway," Dwight said, "you should ride up to Colorado with me instead of killing yourself down here. You don't need no rodeo to prove that mule."

"Maybe you're right."

"Delores wants me to pick up her little brother in Trinidad on the way back."

"I didn't know she had a brother."

"Me neither. I guess he's a f.u.c.kup."

"There're a few of those around." Austin swung his right leg over the mule's neck and slid off the saddle.

"So, what do you say? Pa.s.s up a mouth full of dirt and a broken collar bone for a long boring drive and stale, predictable conversation?"

"When you put it that way." Austin loosened the girth and scratched the mule's belly. "Delores must be eighty. How old is this little brother?"

"I don't know. Seventy? I don't know. His name is Myron, but she calls him Yeahb.u.t.t."

Austin looked at Dwight.

"She told me he always has to have the last word, so he's always saying, 'Yeah, but.'"

"Cute. So, what's Yeahb.u.t.t doing in Trinidad?"

"Don't know. Delores gave me the address and an extra fifty. That's all I need."

"Okay, I'll go."

"Pick you up at five."

"Make it five-fifteen so I can get the animals fed."

Dwight Twins was famous for being late except for mornings when he was early. He showed up at 4:00 and Austin was just struggling into consciousness.

"Am I early?" Dwight asked.

"h.e.l.l yeah, you're early." Austin rubbed his eyes. "It's four o'clock, man. Jesus, what do you do? Drive around waking up roosters?"

"Sorry."

"Well, make some coffee while I get dressed."

"It's going to rain later on," Dwight said. "Weather Wally predicted it on the radio."

Austin closed the bathroom door and leaned on the sink, looked at his face in the mirror. "Weather Wally can't predict daybreak."

Austin got dressed, sipped from a mug of coffee, then put it down. "I'll go feed the animals and we can grab a bite on the road."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Well, it ain't."

"You're not pretty in the morning, are you?"

Austin climbed into the pa.s.senger seat of Dwight's truck and stopped him before he was out of the yard. "What did you do? Did you take all the stuffing out of this seat?"

"Basically. I put it on this side because the b.u.mps hurt my behind."

"I can't ride all the way to Pueblo on this buck-board bench." Austin looked out the window at the moon. "Back this thing up. Let's put the trailer on my truck and I'll drive."

"Okay, but I'm paying for the gas."

"You're d.a.m.n right you're paying for the gas."

They hitched the trailer to Austin's pickup and left at first light. Dwight laughed to himself. "You know why cowboys all have the same-sized b.a.l.l.s?"

"No, why?"

"So they can pull each other's trailers. That's an old one, but I love it."

"What did you say that made me say yes to going with you?" Austin asked.

Dwight shrugged.

On the interstate, Dwight said, "I don't know if it matters much to you, but I don't think Sarah should have left."

Austin sighed agreement.

"I was surprised when she picked up the way she did. I mean, just out of the blue like that. I suppose you were in a better place to see it coming. For another man."

"Yeah."

"Must have hurt like h.e.l.l. She's a d.a.m.n beautiful woman."

"Dwight," Austin said, "you want to shut the h.e.l.l up?"

"Sure thing."

Austin considered his soon-to-be-ex-wife. It had hurt like h.e.l.l. And it had probably been all his fault, but recognizing that so late wasn't going to help and sure didn't ease the pain. He looked over at Dwight and the older man smiled at him.

"You ever been dumped?" Austin asked.

"h.e.l.l, who hasn't?" Dwight said. He rolled his window down another inch.

"This is my first time."

'Scary, ain't it?"

Austin turned his attention back to the highway.

Four hours later they were ouside Pueblo picking up Delores's horse. He was a beautiful black and white paint with wild eyes and a piebald nose. He pranced around the corral and Austin noticed that he searched for balance here and there with his left hind leg. He and Dwight were standing there with the former owner.

"Did Delores get a vet check on this guy?" Austin asked.

Dwight didn't know.

The other man, named Hicks, said, "She came up and looked him over."

"He acts like he's got the wobbles. Look at how he moves in his back end." The horse was trotting away from them. "He's all loose like he's crazy in the caboose."

"Delores saw him move," Hicks said.

"All I know is I'm supposed to pick him up and deliver him," Dwight said.

"Why isn't he cut?" Austin asked.

"Somebody might want to breed him," Hicks said.

"Let it go, Austin," Dwight said.

Austin thought better of saying any more. It wasn't his deal. He'd seen horse traders like this man before and if Delores didn't care, he sure as h.e.l.l wasn't going to.

Hicks twisted up his face as if thinking. "Austin. You that guy whose wife left for that goat roper?"

"Let's get this horse loaded," Austin said.

"Well, you boys ought to get home before dark, easy," Hicks said as the gate of the trailer closed against the horse's rump.