E
d Eagle was just starting to make fresh pasta when the phone rang. “Sorry, I’d better get this,” he said to Barbara. He wiped his hands and picked up the receiver.
“Ed Eagle.”
“Ed, this is Wolf.”
Wolf sounded stressed. Eagle glanced at Barbara, who was examining a picture closely. “Hi, how are you?” he said, careful to keep his end of the conversation anonymous.
“Not good. You remember, I told you about my cellmate, the biker?”
“Sure, I remember.”
“I just saw him; he says somebody has put out a contract on me.”
Eagle inhaled sharply, and when he spoke, he was careful to keep his voice neutral. “And did you find what he had to say…credible?”
“I did. A woman turned up at a biker bar in Espanola
about ten this morning and tried to hire a guy to kill me for ten thousand dollars. He refused the offer but recommended somebody else, a Latino in Santa Fe, who said he’d do the job.”
“Was there a name for the person…placing the order?”
“No names, but he described her; she was a good-looking blond. Sound familiar?”
“It does.” Eagle heaved a sigh of relief.
“Not only that, but she had a flower tattooed on her breast.”
Oh, shit
, Eagle thought. Then, unaccountably, he remembered something, something from Barbara’s apartment.
“I see.”
“So, what do we do?”
“What are you doing right now?”
“I’m sitting in my study with the drapes drawn and a gun in my hand.”
“I think I had better send somebody over there.”
“No, I don’t want people slinking around here, protecting me. I’d rather do it myself.”
“Under the circumstances, do you think that’s wise?”
“I don’t care about wise anymore. To tell you the truth, I think I’d really like to shoot somebody.”
“Don’t start thinking that way,” Eagle said. “That’s dangerous.” He thought for a moment. “Do you mind if I come over there? We ought to discuss this.”
“All right.”
“I’ve got something to do first, then I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Fine.”
“When I get there, I’ll blow the car horn twice, just so you’ll know it’s me.”
“Fine.”
“And in the meantime, don’t do anything rash.”
“I’m not making any promises about that,” Wolf replied.
“Pour yourself a stiff drink, and try to relax. I’ll be there in less than an hour.” Eagle hung up.
“Problems?” Barbara asked.
“You wouldn’t believe,” Eagle replied. “Come over here and sit down, Babs.”
She crossed the room and sat on a barstool at the kitchen counter. “I think I like that—‘Babs.’”
He placed a hand on her cheek. “I want to tell you some things and ask you some questions,” he said.
“All right.”
“First of all, I think I’m in love with you.”
She smiled slowly. “Oh,” she said weakly. “Well, before you go any further, I think I’d better tell you that I feel the same way about you.”
“That’s nice to hear,” Eagle said. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I have to say some other things to you. If you start to get angry with me, just remember I love you.”
“All right,” she said. “But I don’t think I could get angry right now.”
“Good. First, a question: Where were you this morning?”
“At work. I spent the whole morning going over the computer printouts with Jim.”
“And Jim would back you up on that?”
“Of course. What are you getting at?”
“Trust me for a minute. Remember back when I didn’t trust you?”
“Mmmm, let’s see, that was this morning, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right. Well, during the time I didn’t trust you, I behaved badly.”
“That’s all right.”
“You don’t understand. I broke into your apartment and searched it.”
“What?”
“On New Year’s Eve. I left the party, drove back to your place, and turned it over real good.”
“Oh,” she said, nonplussed. “Did you find anything interesting?”
“Not really. Just a gun.”
“A girl has to protect herself.”
“It bothers me that you have a gun; I want you to give it to me.”
Barbara shrugged. “Okay, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“It would make me feel a lot better.”
“So the only interesting thing about me is my gun?”
Eagle placed a hand on her cheek and kissed her. “Not by a long shot. Oh, there was something else in the apartment.”
“What was it?”
“It was tucked into a book called
Beautiful Girlhood
.”
“Ah, a book to live by, that. It was my mother’s.”
“I thought it might be. There was a torn photograph inside.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Of two teenage girls.”
Barbara looked away. “Yes. It was taken on Miriam’s—Julia’s fourteenth birthday. I tore Julia out of the middle.”
“The other girl wasn’t Julia? But she looked so much like you.”
“It was my other sister, Leah.”
“Another sister?”
She nodded. “Yes, named after my mother; she’s a year younger than I am.”
“You never told me you had a younger sister.”
She shrugged. “It never came up. Is it important?”
Eagle was thinking hard now. “It may be. There’s something I have to know about Leah.”
“What’s that?”
“Did Leah have a tattoo on her breast?”
Barbara smiled. “Yes. We all did that together—Julia, Leah, and I. It was kind of a lark, right after Julia graduated from high school.”
“That’s very interesting.”
“Why?”
Eagle ignored the question. “Did Leah know Jimmy Grafton?”
“She met him a couple of times with me in New York. Jimmy wanted to get us both in bed together, an idea that I found repellent. What’s going on, Ed? Why is this important?”
“Where is Leah now?”
“The last time I saw her she was living in New York, but when I was released I called her, and the number had been disconnected.”
“I think Leah may be in Santa Fe.”
“
What?
That’s crazy. Why would she be in Santa Fe? Anyway, she’d call me if she were here.”
“She wouldn’t know, would she?”
“I guess not, now that you mention it. Nobody knew I was coming here, and I couldn’t find Leah to tell her.”
“What is Leah like?”
“A lot like Julia,” Barbara replied. “Julia was Leah’s god; she worshiped the ground Julia walked on, wanted to be just like her. Unfortunately.”
“Was Leah ever in any trouble?”
Barbara shook her head. “No, but she should have been. She was just lucky, never getting caught at things.”
“Is she…bright?”
“Too bright for her own good,” Barbara said. “
Cunning
might be a better word.” She looked at Eagle. “Why do you think Leah might be in Santa Fe?”
“It’s too complicated to go into right now. I have to leave, and I don’t know if I’ll be back tonight.”
“Where are you going?”
“To Wolf Willett’s, and I’ll probably sleep there.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I hope I don’t have competition from Wolf Willett.”
Eagle laughed, then kissed her. “Separate bedrooms, I promise. Why don’t you fix yourself some dinner and crawl into my bed? There’s always the chance I’ll get back early.”
She kissed him back. “You’re worth the wait, but this business about Leah is worrying me.”
“I wish I could explain now, but I have to go. Will you be all right?”
“Sure.”
He kissed her again. “See you later.”
“I’ll count on it.”
Eagle got a coat and started out of the house, then stopped. He walked back to his bedroom, opened a bedside drawer, and took out a .45 automatic pistol. He checked the clip, put the gun in his pocket, and left for Wolf’s house.
At last
, he thought as he drove from Tesuque toward Santa Fe,
this is beginning to make a weird kind of sense
.
W
olf sat in the dark, the pistol cradled between his knees, and thought. He was trying to recall his last conversation with Hal Berger, something in that phone call that had nagged at him, and he couldn’t remember what.
A sound filtered through the walls of the house, and Wolf froze. What he had heard was the crunch of a car’s tires on gravel. Now he heard a car door close. Was it Ed Eagle? No, Ed had said he would honk his horn.
Wolf leapt from his chair and ran through the darkened house toward the kitchen door, working the action of the pistol along the way. He huddled next to the door, pistol at the ready, safety off, and to his horror, he saw the doorknob turn. It was locked, thank God.
He jumped a foot as somebody began hammering on the door. “Wolf?” a voice called out.
“Who is it?” Wolf demanded.
“It’s Ed Eagle. Open the door.”
Wolf opened the door and stepped back.
“What’s going on? Why are all the lights out?” Eagle asked.
“You said you were going to honk your horn when you arrived,” Wolf said accusingly.
“I’m sorry, but when I saw the darkened house I didn’t know what was going on, so I tried not to make any noise.”
“You scared the shit out of me,” Wolf said. He was trembling.
“Could you ease the hammer down on that pistol and put the safety on? I’d feel a lot better.”
“Sorry,” Wolf replied, doing as he was asked. “Come on into the study, and I’ll give you a drink.” He led the way into the room, switched on a dim lamp, and poured Eagle a large Scotch, then a bourbon for himself. “Sit down,” he said, indicating the sofa. He took the wing chair next to it.
“Are you all right?” Eagle asked, sitting down and sipping his drink.
“Yes, I’m all right.”
“I’m sorry I took so long to get here, but I had to stop by Bob Martinez’s house.”
“What for?”
“To report the threat on your life, of course. We can’t just let that pass.”
“Oh.”
“I’m afraid it didn’t do a hell of a lot of good. Martinez greeted the news with some skepticism. He did offer to put a guard on your house, but you’d already said you didn’t want that.”
“Is he going to do anything?”
“What can he do? All we’ve got to go on is the Latino hit man. Martinez says there’s no such thing as a contract killer in Santa Fe.”
“He doesn’t believe me, then?”
“Probably not. I think he believes it’s some sort of ploy on our part.”
“It’s Julia’s sister, isn’t it? Barbara?”
“Yes and no.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“Yes, it’s Julia’s sister; no, it’s not Barbara. I called Jim Arno on the way over here; he was working with her at the restaurant from nine until one. She couldn’t have been in Espanola at ten.”
“Then what do you mean, it’s Julia’s sister?”
“Well—”
“
Wait a minute!
”
“What is it?”
“There’s another sister, isn’t there?”
“How did you know that?”
“Julia’s will. Hal Berger said she had made bequests to her
sisters—
in the plural. I’ve been trying to remember that all day.”
“Yes, there’s another sister, name of Leah. Barbara had lost track of her, but she has the tattoo—all three of them did—and she’s got to be the answer.”
“Maybe to a lot of things.”
“I think you’re right.”
“Did you tell Martinez about her?” Wolf asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because after the reception I got about the hired killer story, I didn’t think it would help to add a third sister to our story.”
“I see your point.”
“What do you want to do now?”
“About what?” Wolf asked.
“Well, there may be somebody stalking you. Are you just going to sit here with a loaded gun and wait for him?”
Wolf laughed. “I guess that was my plan.” His eyebrows went up. “But I’ve got another idea.” He picked up the phone and dialed information. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about this when I was with Spider earlier this evening.” He got the number for the Gun Club, then called and asked for Spider. After a wait, the biker came on the line.
“Yeah, this is Spider.”
“Spider, it’s Wolf.”
“Hey, man.”
“Listen, do you think you could find the biker who told you about the hit man?”
“Well, he could still be in Taos. I could try a couple bars up there.”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d do that, and if you get hold of him, find out who the guy was that he recommended; get as much information as you can about him.”
“Well,” Spider said, sounding doubtful.
“What’s the problem?”
“Well, we got a kind of honor thing here.”
“What are you talking about, Spider?”
“I mean, this dude took the lady’s money, you know?”
“What?”
“Well, she trusted him, and he might take that serious.”
“How about if I double the money? Then he’d have her thousand and two thousand more from me; would that help?”
“I dunno. Maybe.”
“Well, I’d appreciate it if you’d find the guy and learn as much as you can.”
“Okay, Wolf, I’ll do that for an old cellmate.”
“Call me back?”
“As soon as I find out something, one way or the other.”
Wolf thanked him and hung up. “Spider’s going to see what he can find out,” he said to Eagle.
“Unorthodox, but it couldn’t hurt,” Eagle replied, sipping his Scotch.
The two men sat and chatted desultorily for the better part of an hour. Then the phone rang.
“Wolf, it’s Spider.”
“Hi, Spider, what did you find out?”
“Well, the dude’ll take your offer, and he’s named me to collect his money.”
“Fine, I’ve got cash right now. You want me to bring it to you?”
“Not yet. He gave me a name and the place where the guy hangs out—a spic bar over on Agua Fria. I’ll check it out first.”
“Spider, maybe you’d better just give me the name now, and I’ll get the police on it.”
“Get serious, Wolf,” Spider said sternly. “I’m not handing nobody to the cops. You just sit tight, and I’ll look into this, maybe talk to the guy, and get back to you later.”